 Hello, my friends. Welcome back to another vlog. So this morning is Wednesday, August 4th, and it's about 740. I just got in my classroom door and I'm a little bit stressed out, and I'm gonna tell you guys why while I try to multitask because I have so many things to do. So This is official week 3 of being back to school, and I'm not adjusting very well for a number of reasons. The biggest reason is I now have cash at school with me, and where I love that I love the fact that he's here and I can see him all day and I can bring him and pick him up. The hours of the daycare or the preschool, however, preschool, not the daycare. The hours of the daycare, the hours of the preschool are making things very difficult because I can't drop him off until 730, and I have to pick him up at 4 o'clock. Those are my contract times. So technically my contracted hours are 730 to 350, which I usually stay till 4 anyway because that's just 350 is kind of a silly number, or a silly time. So I'm used to like leaving at 4 o'clock. Well, in the last couple of weeks, I've really struggled to get anything done. I'm having trouble with grading and I'm falling behind with grading. I haven't done a ton of stuff that requires a grade, like most of the things that we've done so far have been like notebook pages, and we're getting ready to do like I didn't exit ticket yesterday. But I've just really been struggling with time management, and I do have ADHD, so I already struggle with that. And I don't like take any meds for that or anything like that. I just kind of try to self-manage and I've really been struggling. When I bring cash to school with me in the mornings before 730, it's really hard for me to get anything done. He is running around this classroom. He is wanting to watch TV and movies, which is fine, but it's constant like wanting to watch something different or like changing what he wants to watch. Long story short, when he's here with me in the mornings, it's really difficult for me to get anything done in my day. Really hard to get things set up for the day, plan, basically do anything. So what I've been doing is getting up really early at 5 o'clock in the morning, getting myself ready, and then going and sitting down and doing some work at home, which I never do because I want my home to be my sanctuary and I don't want to have to do certain things there. But at the end of the day, if I can't get those things done here, then I have to get them done at home because at least at home he has all his toys, and he's more comfortable there. So that's been a real struggle. I am the Glee Club coach this year, so I have two club days a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3 o'clock to 4 o'clock. So between those two hours a week, that's two more hours a week that I can't get any work done. Do I want to give up Glee Club? No, I'm loving it. I'm having so much fun. The kids are absolutely loving it, so that is not an option for me. So I'm just struggling to find the time to do certain things. And I think I'll be okay. I just have to figure it out. I really don't want to pull cash from the preschool here because he really does like it and it does really fit our schedule. My husband works from 12, or sorry, two to midnight every day, Monday through Thursday. So it does work out that I take cash to school. However, we might start thinking about having my husband bring him to school so that I can have my mornings back. But that would just require my husband to get a little bit less sleep every night, especially if he has like a super late night. He would just have to get up at like 7, get cash ready, and out the door into school by 8 o'clock. Which he is more than willing to do so that I can have a little bit of stress lifted off of me. And then I would have mornings to myself again to work and then afternoons done. Last year, that's how I did it. I always left work at 4. I went to the gym. I got everything that I needed to do done. I just think I need my mornings back. So we're gonna see how that goes. At least a couple days a week, he might bring him to school for me so that I can just get up super early and get things done. But I am struggling. I'm struggling to plan things that I normally would plan because they take longer to prep and I'm going with shorter routes, which I don't want to do. So with that being said, everything else is going really well. Kids are loving school. I'm loving school. And the days are going super fast. The way our schedule is set up, our days move by so quickly. So today's Wednesday. It is a half day. So our academic blocks are a lot shorter. There are about an hour, but technically after and before transitions, there are about 45 minutes. Okay, so in addition to all of the other things that I need to do, I have a bunch of stuff that I need to put away. So this was the results of our marshmallow challenge. If it looks like the vinegar is probably gonna win, as you guys can see. But I have all of this stuff that I need to put away still. I have all of this stuff that I need to put away. This is just supplies that my kids have brought in. These are things that I use for experiments and labs like paper towels just to clean up spills and stuff like that and then paper plates and things. So I do need to go through these and put them away in these bins because that's where it goes and then possibly some over here. But overall things have been going really well. We've been staying pretty organized. We worked on the spheres of the earth yesterday and Monday and one of the fourth-grade standards is students will be able to describe ways that the spheres are connected or the ways that they interact. So this is more of an introductory lesson on the four spheres themselves and then throughout the rest of the school year we'll be doing earth science and so they'll be able to learn about ways that the spheres interact. So this is kind of like I introduced it at the beginning and then throughout the year we talk about each sphere as it's brought up. And then towards the end of the year they should be able to explain how they interact. So this is my little exit ticket just to see if they can give any examples as of right now of how the spheres are connected and it could be as simple as the biospheres connected to the geosphere when I go for a walk in the forest like a human being interacting with dirt. So it's very introductory. This is a fifth-grade next-gen science standard. So they're kind of it's kind of more of a fifth-grade end of fourth-grade kind of feel but I like to introduce it in the beginning because then they can think about it all year long. Hey you guys, so it is now Thursday, August 5th, and I'm here a little bit early and I'm also here without cash. Little guy's got an ear infection, so he's going to the doctor this morning with Scott and then Scott will be bringing him to school. He's COVID-free and all of that. We had him tested and he's good to go. So I am just trying to get myself organized since I have this time. I have about an hour until I have to pick up students. And so I'm gonna try to get as caught up as possible since I don't have a little tag along here. I ended up getting a document camera from my office lady because this thingy that I've been using, the document thing, I think I've showed you guys, it like unfolds and then you like flip your computer upside down and then it points down. Well, the system that comes with it, it's really annoying. So Mandy and I both asked for document cameras just because they're easier to like zoom in and out. You get a bigger area and we just like it better. So so what I'm working on right now is planning for next week. I am starting my first social studies unit and it will be geography. The standard in fourth grade geography isn't really like mapping skills themselves, but using mapping skills to do certain things. Like identify different physical and political features on a map for the North and South Americas. And so what I'm gonna do Monday is give my students a pretest just to see what they know about maps and that's gonna be in the form of a kahoot. So instead of it being like an actual test, they'll take an actual kahoot. It'll be a student-paced kahoot though, so it won't be like a game for the whole class because I actually do want to see specifically who doesn't know like where the title goes or what the key is or what the legend is. So I'll be giving them a pretest on Monday, and then we're going to begin by just, I printed out a map of North and South America and we're just gonna go through the regions of each continent and just color code everything. So like mountain ranges, great plains, specific areas, geographical areas that are significant to the continent. So we'll talk about absolute location, a relative location, direction, and then we'll actually do the regions of the U.S. Because my first actual historical unit will be native cultures, native North American cultures, and then that will be during second quarter. So first quarter is all about mapping skills, using maps, creating maps. That way they can actually read maps when we get to our history units. So anyway, that's what I'm going to plan for. I have everything ready for the rest of this week. Tomorrow's Friday. I'm going to be giving them a little assessment on school city, which is our district's assessment to measure growth. And we can also make our own assessments through it. So I'm actually gonna make one, or I did make one and I'm gonna give it to them. It's only like seven questions, but it covers questions about the four spheres, which is what I've been teaching. As I mentioned yesterday, it's kind of like one of those standards that I can like introduce in the beginning, but then I can't really assess the full standard until the end of the year after they've learned everything. So anyway, that's what I'm going to work on this morning. So let's jump right in. Cheers. This video has been kind of like all over the place, but to be completely honest with you, that is how I'm feeling right now. So if I haven't shared this before, I do have ADHD and so whenever a transition comes and things are different or like things are added to my plate or like I haven't figured things out yet, I start to kind of fall apart. And so that is kind of what has happened these last two weeks of school. Bringing Cash to school with me, like I said before, I absolutely love having him here. It's amazing that I can bring him to school, pick him up. Like it just makes everything better and I just love seeing him all day every day whenever I want. However, it does hinder me from doing the work at work that I used to do and I'm having to revert to working from home because I'm not able to do that work at work, if that makes sense. So it's kind of been an adjustment period and I'm trying really hard to just kind of feel it out, figure it out. This week we had Glee Club auditions. If I didn't share this with you guys before, I am our Glee Club coach this year. It's actually the first year that our school has a Glee Club. We don't have a music class for like singers. We have band and orchestra, but we don't have a music class. And so I decided to pilot a Glee Club because in middle school and in high school, I was on show choir. I did choir and absolutely loved it and there just isn't a place for kids who love to sing here yet. So I have founded a Glee Club and I just finished my auditions this week. So I had every day this week after school no prep time. So I think that that might be contributing to my stress. But hopefully next week I can like map out time to work and I can feel a little bit less stress. It's kind of like I'm usually planned like a week in advance and I'm kind of like going like day by day at this point. Just because of the amount of time that I'm having to work. So I have everything ready for Monday, but past that I have no idea. And even today is kind of just like a all-over-the-place kind of day because kids are getting back into the groove of school, kids are learning my expectations for work habits, when things need to be turned in, how quickly they need to be working, noise level, things like that. So today is going to be kind of like a catch-up and assess day. I'm going to assess the first standard that I taught and then the kids are going to catch up on a couple of things and then I have a wonder project for them to do. Just a quick little like introduction to like what a wonder week would be. I'm doing Wonder Friday. So the kids get to ask a question and then go and research the answer, fill in a Google form. It's really quick and easy, but it does introduce them to the concept of asking a question and then going and finding the answer to it. So that'll be fun. It is 7.25 right now. So I'm going to run downstairs and grab my Glee Club acceptance letters so that I can fill those out and have those ready for the kids this afternoon. And then my planner's kind of empty. Like I said, I have a plan for Monday, but past that I have no idea what I'm doing. I know what standard I'm trying to teach first because I'm doing social studies next week, but I don't know what we're going to do with it yet. So yeah, if I don't see you guys again until after school, you'll know how my day went. Luckily, my dear, dear friend Mandy brought me a big old coffee and breakfast and I brought her lunch. So it has been really nice having my best friend here to kind of like vent to and talk to you and her daughter's also here. So she's kind of going through the same thing and it is nice to know that I'm not alone. So anyway, if I don't see you guys until the end of the day, you know why. And let's get this day started.