 Good morning everyone. Happy Monday. Today is Monday March 4th? No. I don't even know the date. Guys, I never know the date. This just shows you that I don't care about specific dates. I just care about like lengths of time. What is today's date? Do I have my phone? Oh crap. Please tell me. Please tell me I didn't forget my phone. We're gonna find out right now. Yep. I forgot it. Luckily I only live five minutes from school. Not even. Two minutes. You're probably wondering why I'm wearing this elephant costume. I will explain when I get to school. Got my phone. Let's roll. Alright you guys. So I made it to school. I have my phone and I am in full spirit week mode. Last week we had a spirit week too but the days were kind of lame if you ask me. This week's spirit week is junior student council student week. Last year I was the student council, the junior student council advisor and let me tell you those kids got like the bad end of the stick. They literally got nothing to do. It was awful. It was sad and so this year I'm glad that the junior student council is actually getting to do something including planning a spirit week. So today is dressed like your favorite storybook character day and so Cash and I are gonna be elephant and piggy. He has the piggy costume. He's just obviously not here to show you. But anyway I just got to school and I do have a bus duty this morning and I have nothing ready for the day but luckily I am jumping over to teaching about the Aztecs today and all of my grades are pretty much finalized. All of my grades are pretty much finalized and entered. There are a couple that I have to fiddle with and something that I wanted to share with you guys and I'm not trying to like dismiss school or my district or anything like that but we have this grading policy that requires us to bump up all zeros to at least a 30% and it just it really bothers me because I think that if a child doesn't do the work doesn't turn it in or literally gets a zero they should be able to hold that zero and it should hold them accountable. But there are students in this in this school that get to just be passed right along because of the grading policy and I just don't agree with it. Unfortunately it's not really my choice. I do have to round every zero up to a 30% and then I also have some kids that are sped kids who deliberately don't do the work even though they're more than capable and I have to give them a 60% which I don't think is fair to the other sped kids who are much lower that do the work and put in the effort and they might not score as high as that and I I just feel like it's not fair. I have I have a couple of sped students that are more behavioral and they don't turn in anything and yet they get a 60 but when my other sped kids turn everything in they put forth effort they may get lower than a 60 but they do everything they participate and it's just really sucky so I do have to go through my grade book today and just round up all my zeros before posting them today at one o'clock. Everything that the kids are going to be doing this week will go on the first week's grades for next quarter so I try not to be like that oh there's only a week left to school and the grading period's over so we just we don't have to do anything no everything that they do this week will apply to the first the last quarter's report card so anyway that's that I need to drink my coffee and I need to put up my slides for the day which is really simple I just have to I just have to make my agenda which I think I'm gonna do first because I actually have to have that ready for when kids walk in and then I can work on grades throughout the day because like I said they're not due until one o'clock. Also I just put on some glue on nails last night these are from Kiss. I get them just at target I really like glue on nails when I'm kind of like in the mood to be fancy but I don't want to go to the salon and spend like $40 on a manicure. I can make a pedicure last me like a whole month but a manicure is just expensive and I don't really want to spend that money right now so does anyone else have a major chip problem? I think so. Alright you guys so it is now my prep period and I'm sitting down to have my first meal of the day so I'm eating some of these quinoa and black bean tortilla chips as my carb this morning and then I'm gonna have some cheese and cucumbers for my veggie and my protein and then I'm gonna snack on some strawberries. I also have some pickles in there that I like to snack on throughout the day if I'm like super hungry. Good morning friends happy Tuesday. What's our spirit day today? Don't stick your tongue out that's rude. Say it's tacky tourist day. Okay so I'm wearing a jacket because it's a little cold but I'm wearing a floral t-shirt some adventure green khaki stuff. What'd you have? What is it? A candy and a fanny pack so that's what we're wearing. Oh I've got a hat back here. So this morning is an already crazy day I have bus duty in about 15 minutes and I had to get all of the glee club shirts out of from my tables yesterday we made glee club shirts because our district and the people that are in charge of chartering clubs really have taken their time approving all of my stuff for my glee club and I wasn't able to order the kids shirts in time for the school year so luckily I think the next school year I will have everything approved and I'll be able to collect funds and order t-shirts like ahead of time like at the beginning beginning of the year instead of having to make them. So I found this really cool video I was actually watching it last night while I was playing The Sims and it's really cool it like talks about how the Aztecs came to be and there's like this big story behind let's do it's called engineering an empire called engineering an empire and it's about the Aztecs and it's really interesting because just come sit back here by your lunchbox okay honey okay so the video is called engineering an empire the Aztecs season one episode three and it's from the history channel so if you guys are interested it's like 40 minutes long obviously I'm not gonna make the kids watch the entire thing but there are a couple of really cool parts that I want them to see and so we'll be watching that in class today if we have time I like to use a lot of videos when I do history because especially if I use like the history channel because the videos are always so much more engaging the kids get to see like visuals they get to see like a lot of like portrayed actors doing things that they probably wouldn't have seen before so I really like using videos when teaching history I just think that it's you know hey you guys happy Wednesday so it is after school and I'm doing something a little bit crazy I'm getting ready to move my whole teacher self to the front of my room I'm trying this out because I'm gonna be moving into Mandy's classroom next year and I really want to have myself at the front of the room so that I don't have to keep carrying my computer to and from from the back to the front and I'd also like to utilize the back of the room more as like a space for like student work and stuff so I can spread my tables out a little bit more and so I'm gonna just move my desk and the thing behind my desk up front today since I have a little bit of time I do have a training in about 25 minutes and so I'm gonna try and move everything just this way because right now it's here and I want to move it here because I want to test it out and see if I like it so that next year when I'm in Mandy's room I can just put it there to begin with and call it a day okay guys so I did move a bunch of stuff around and I'm gonna show you tomorrow because I want to get out of here cash and I have to go to Walmart and get hot chocolate cuz we're gonna have hot chocolate tomorrow so we're gonna go do that and then I will show you guys tomorrow what I've done to my classroom it's a hot mess and I hate it I love the front of my classroom but I'm hating the back and I will explain why tomorrow all right you guys it is my official lunch break and I wanted to finally show you the room oh by the way it's Thursday and I wanted to show you guys all the work that I've done in here so just keep in mind before I show you that I do I am moving classrooms at the end of the school year and so the setup that I have right now is really just to get us through the remainder of the school year we have been asked by our administrators to take down all and every sign that has words on it any words at all or cover it up and since I'm moving classrooms anyway I decided to just take everything down rather than just cover it because I'm gonna have to take it down in three months yeah about three months basically two and a half months I'm gonna have to take it down so I did decide to take a lot of stuff down and I do have some more stuff to take down but I'm just gonna show you where I've put everything for right now and none of this is except for maybe the front of the room is going to be the same next year like everything will be set up and look really nice next year and be organized but for right now I just kind of have like the whole perimeter of the room kind of like crammed with everything so that at the last week of school the eighth graders can help me move my room by literally just moving a table with stuff on it and it's already pre-stacked and packed and ready to go so I'm gonna show you guys the front of the room first because it is something that I'm thinking about keeping next year and I'll tell you why so I have the front of my room set up like this now I don't know if I'm gonna have this exact same setup next year I do really like the desk and the table combined for many reasons first reason is no I do not teach from my desk so when I'm actually teaching a lesson I do move around the room a lot I have my mouse with me so like my little remote control mouse there I take that around with me or I will like grab my laptop and fold it and use it as a tablet and so for the majority of what I'm teaching I'm not at my desk however there are times where I have to stand behind a desk I used to stand behind that desk right there because I have to do demonstrations or model things or have things set up for kids to see and so that's what I love about having this table connected to my desk now I might raise it up next year so it's a little bit taller but it's also my small group table so when I'm not doing a demonstration I can pull small groups right here I can also pull up kids who are having a hard time paying attention I can have a group working up here and I've got all of my small group stuff for when I pull math groups for my math teacher it's all right here behind me so when it's time I can move whatever is on this table to that one and that table to this one and so I really like that and then I just pretty much moved everything that was in and around my desk just over here so I have all of my stuff back there and then my table here and I've got my screens here which I really like because now if I am gonna have my computer plugged in I can have like dojo on this screen my email on that screen or like something I'm looking at maybe it's music maybe it's you know a piece of the lesson or answer key or something we've always got something kind of pulled up and then it's connected to the TV so I have three screens at all times so if I do need to come up here for any reason during a lesson I can and it's it's all right here I don't have to move my computer anymore so I really like that and then I put these guys here on the side of the desk these are just things I reach for like IEP's weekly schedules things like that and then I kind of decorated the front with like all the pictures that would go behind me and like the date and stuff so that's all right there and I really like that I don't really use the board for any other purpose other than writing the learning target and like drawing a quick drawing I do use this side of the wall which you can see there's like some vocab and stuff but really I don't use the white board too too often so it's really not needed but yeah so that's the front of the room and then over here I just kind of like pushed everything up against walls so that I had more space in the middle I do plan on doing a totally different layout next year like I said I think I'm going to leave this there for now though because it's out of the way so I just have all of my kids science notebooks here and then just more storage this didn't change at all I just took my classroom library over here underneath my science is magic but real and then it's just gonna continue going like I said the perimeter is kind of just everything's against the wall so that it's out of the way and ready to be moved so I just have like my little benches this is all my stem bins for when I do like indoor recess or stem center day I actually ordered a second one of these racks for next year I plan on putting all of my like science lab supplies on it I have a bunch of these black large book bins that I have stem supplies in or I guess lab supplies like paper plates plastic cups string so I got another one of these to put all of that stuff on and that way it'll clear up a lot of counter space and then I moved my flexi spot rising table back here I figured this could be a good spot for a group to work I can move the bench and it can rise and fall so either I can put a kid back here you know if they need a break or I can also have my student aid use this table for all the stuff they're working on so I can have things laid out and ready for her when she comes in she'll know exactly what to do and she can work right there and then right here have my little mini kitchen so my fridge trash can water bottles ice machine you guys can see everything that's there today we're making Mayan hot chocolate that's what that is and then the computer cart obviously and then over here I started taking everything down because like I said I do have to remove everything that has words off of the walls and so I decided to just kind of pack some things up like all my little like decorations are in a box I've got all of my posters I just folded up a box like this and I put them in there and I think I'm gonna keep this box for posters and then I can store it you know behind this desk and then under here I have a lot of storage I keep a lot of stuff under there in fact that box will probably go under there for the time being and then I need to dust my rug out this is all the paper I would have used to cover up my walls so now I don't have to use that I just have to keep taking down a few things that I'm done and then that hasn't changed and then I had moved my rats over here by the door this isn't where they're gonna go in my next classroom I just I'm trying to utilize the space to just get us through the end of the year I'm gonna have my student aid put everything that's in these table tubs back in my supply box because the kids are having a hard time with distraction with these supply bins out so next year I plan on doing something a little bit different I'm thinking I might find some Tupperware bins kind of like those ones over there and have everything in them with a lid and then label them by table so that when it's time I can say okay go get your table your table tub and then you know a student can go back and get it and then put it back by the time they leave so and then I do have an island desk right here I do have a couple of students that need to be sitting alone and so this is better than it was back here with my small group table this is actually better because they can see better there's not as much distraction so I can actually put any kid here if they need to isolate for a minute and I might actually have these people that sit here I might have them sit up front so that way they're always near me but they're still alone and that way I can really monitor what they're doing at all times and then like I said everything's kind of just everywhere right now I still have my lab cart it's actually set up for a lab the first day back from spring break and then these are all of the supplies that I have for like labs so like I mentioned before I would like to organize these and then put those on that new metal cart and store it all that way so I'm going through all of my closet and my cabinets and kind of getting rid of some things giving some math manipulatives away because I really don't use them I might keep like one box of them in case I do a small group and then kind of ditch the rest so anyway that is the change I have to take this all down and this all down I will have my student aid pull all of that down but yeah this is kind of and then the tables are really nice I like them connected like this where they're like in rows of two I think that that's like the most space effective way to organize them it does create more talking but I feel like at this point like they're going to talk no matter what no matter where I have them so I might as well make the space easier and then there's plenty of room in between the aisles it's really nice so so yeah so that is the changes that I have done to my classroom I'm going to go though and eat some lunch and then I'll catch up with you guys a little bit later hey you guys so it is Friday and it is right after three o'clock I'm getting ready to go home for spring break um we went on a field trip today to the Arizona Science Center and it was super fun it went off without a hitch we didn't have any behavior issues we didn't have any like no one got hurt no one got lost nothing like it all went perfectly fine so just wanted to check in with you guys and end the vlog here I am exhausted and I'm going to go home and enjoy my very hard earned spring break so I will see you guys in the next one bye