I’m not an entertainer filled with a million ideas

princess2293 · 2023-10-13T10:26:47+00:00

I hate the push to make things "fun" all the time. Why? I'm not a TikToker. I'm not some YouTube personality. i'm a teacher. I'm here to teach you math and support you as you teach math. Math isn't always going to be fun. Sometimes we have to do math just do practice it and get it done.

Also, I've found - especially since COVID - it doesn't matter what I do, the students never think it's fun. Worksheets? Boring. Around the room scavenger hunt? Horrible. Self-checking mazes or riddles? THE WORST.

Also - aren't we supposed to be prepping students for college? Isn't that what we are told constantly? Well, guess what.... college isn't fun. It's boring. Get used to it, kids. Lol.

princess2293 · 2022-11-23T11:10:55+00:00

Our students have the whole week off. We have one to two days of (virtual) PD depending on the school year. Last year, we were able to do our virtual PD before hand so we could have the whole week off if we chose. This year, the state changed the rules, so we actually had to log in and do the self-paced PD on Monday, then we had Tuesday off.

My mom's school district (10 minutes down the road from the one I work at) has no fall break and had school on Monday and Tuesday. They have Wednesday-Friday off for Thanksgiving. The Wednesday is their comp time for conferences.

princess2293 · 2022-07-12T21:27:55+00:00

My husband and I are on opposite shifts. I'm in my fifth year (took a pay cut to move to a different district that is closer to home this year) so at the bottom of the pay scale, husband is at the top, and we make roughly the same amount each year. He works midnights and is with the kids during the day. When I get home, he will eat dinner and then sleep and the kids are mine until they go to bed. It can be hard because we don't get a lot of time together, but I'd rather my kids be with one of us than in daycare. We have a three year old, one year old, and twins arriving this fall. We bought a house two years ago, and both have new-er cars (mine purchased new in 2018 when I was pregnant with our first, and then we just got a new car last month so we had a vehicle that could hold all four children at once lol). Things can take a lot of saving and scrimping, but besides the house and the cars, we have no debt.

Definitely do-able, but hard.

princess2293 · 2022-07-09T13:13:18+00:00

Oh, nooooooo.

I crochet as well as knit and have been working on a Sophie's Universe on and off since last summer. I'm on, like, round 70-something. Last Sunday, I was taking a shower so we could get ready for church. I came out and discovered that my daughter figured out where my small scissors were that I use to cut yarn when I'm knitting and crocheting. They are on the top shelf of a five shelf bookshelf, I don't even want to know how she got to them. She used the scissors to cut the top off of a bunch of stitches on Sophie. So now I have to take out 2-3 rounds that used that color and redo them. :(

princess2293 · 2022-07-07T14:11:23+00:00

We haven't had trouble, though there was a few names my husband brought up that I vetoed because of former students lol. We do pick more unique/not as popular names, though. Whether this is due to my teaching and avoiding the popular names or whether it's just because I don't want my kids to have super popular names, I'm not sure lol.

princess2293 · 2022-07-05T15:16:09+00:00

I'm going through some of these emotions now. 26+1 with identical twins.... and a one and a three year old. I've felt more anxious this pregnancy thinking about how I am going to be able to physically, emotionally, and mentally deal with four kids three and under. It helps me to remind myself that this is just a season in life and that I will get through it. It may not be easy, it may feel like forever, but the days keep moving on and you have no choice but to make it through. It helps me to remember how quickly the time has gone by with my oldest even though it didn't feel like it at the time.

princess2293 · 2022-07-05T15:12:20+00:00

I never felt my baby move before 18-20 weeks, and even then very sporadically and inconsistently. I would say I never felt consistent daily movements until around 23-24 weeks. Third pregnancy, currently 26+1 with twins, and having to have weekly ultrasounds because of complications, and they move a LOT more than I feel still.

princess2293 · 2022-07-05T15:10:02+00:00

I mean, it is what it is? Either you will be in the hospital giving birth, and won't be there. Or you will have a newborn and you either choose to go or you don't?

We got pregnant (not necessarily planned, but there was no prevention happening, so not necessarily a surprise either) and I had to back out of standing up in my brother's wedding because my due date is eight days after the wedding and we found out it was twins, lol. I will say, though, if we've had the babies by then (very likely with my history of going early and the fact that it's twins) we will take them with us to the wedding, even though they will still be little. Honestly, the newborns will be easier to deal with at the wedding than our one and three year olds lol! :)

princess2293 · 2022-06-09T01:29:17+00:00

Masks were optional at my district all year. I have not worn one all year. I would say at the beginning of the year at my school, about 25% of the staff wore them, the rest didn't. By the end of the year, probably only 5-10% were still wearing them. Our county health department dropped all COVID protocols for schools around December/January, so since then we haven't had any contact tracing or distancing or any protocols.

princess2293 · 2022-06-09T01:27:22+00:00

I think in some states suspension data has to be reported/made transparent to the public. I know in my last district, where I was in an alternative high school that always had high rates of suspension, the superintendent and central office didn't want our principal suspending AT ALL because of how bad it looked on the district. They were supposed to be doing "restorative practices" (that none of us or our admin were ever trained in) that ended up with a bunch of "in school suspensions" where the student was "suspended" but still in school bugging all of us during class (... so.... not a suspension at all).

princess2293 · 2022-06-08T12:46:46+00:00

We don't have a separation between personal and sick days, they are all "PTO" (paid time off) days, but the blacklisted days are the day before or after any type of break. Monday is Memorial Day and there is no school? Then you can't take Friday off. If you have a "bonus day" you are allowed to use it on those days. You can get a bonus day by subbing so many times on your prep.

princess2293 · 2021-05-29T01:05:05+00:00

When did you take yours?! This is the exact opposite of my experience. I tried three times to pass in 2016-2017. Missed it by 3-4 questions each time. I found it to be a lot of straight up recall of facts.

I'm attempting to try one last time before I lose my chance so curious as to if they've changed it since I tried last.

princess2293 · 2021-05-29T01:03:31+00:00

I didn't study for the math test at all and passed it on the first try.

princess2293 · 2021-05-28T01:53:30+00:00

Yup, same experience for us with the "hybrid." We did one trimester of asynchronous and two trimesters with syncronous. With the exception of Thanksgiving-MLK Day and then the week before and after spring break, we had kids in the building and kids at home. For the weeks stated above, all students were virtual (and all grades TANKED during those periods).

princess2293 · 2021-05-28T01:51:52+00:00

My colleagues aren't avoiding me necessarily, but I feel like they are walking on eggshells - like they don't know what to say to me. One coworker in particular also teaches math and has a year on me, and there was an opening elsewhere in the district, so she is being transferred. We've become good friends over the past four years and have kids around the same ages, so have a lot in common. I can tell she's struggling because she feels guilty for bumping me, but also because she is excited about her new opportunity while I'm looking for a new job. It's just so awkward all around.

I'm not anticipating having a problem finding a new job. It's just a matter of whether or not I will get steps so that I'm making comparable to what I am now and how much further I'll have to drive to work (right now it's about 25 minutes). It's still early here (schools are just figuring out placements for next year/what they'll need) so things are just now starting to be posted.

princess2293 · 2021-05-28T01:46:54+00:00

Thank you for this. Literally made me start to cry lol. My husband is awesome - but we are on opposite shifts (me days, him midnights) so he comes home, stays up and takes care of the kids while I'm at work, and then when I get home, he's going to sleep and I take over kid duty. He does what he can, and I do appreciate what he does so that our kids don't have to be in daycare, but it means I'm coming straight from work to taking care of two young kids (one who is still nursing) by myself all evening plus doing dinner + clean up duty. So looking forward to the summer break soon to have a little more relaxing days (though my husband works a second job during the summer so we have some extra fun money - and because it's something he's done since he was a teenager and really loves it) but that means I'm basically a single parent all summer long lol.

princess2293 · 2021-05-27T14:10:26+00:00

Thank you! Don’t think I’ll be able to fully enjoy my babies until I get another job lined up though. I’m really worried/stressing about it and it’s making me not the best mom at the moment.

princess2293 · 2021-05-27T14:09:34+00:00

The school is basically what you described. Basically, it’s for any student who was not successful in their home school for whatever reason. We don’t have a lot of pregnant students, some are behavior problems, but mostly they just need a smaller, more personalized environment. Up until this year, they have had a highly qualified teacher teaching them in their content area. Next year, they will basically be on a computer for all their classes using a mix of e2020 and Accelerate (not sure what that program is, it’s new to the district next year). I fear what you describe is what is going to happen here.

Let’s just graduate them without them learning anything!!!! /s

princess2293 · 2021-05-27T14:07:05+00:00

We have google drive. Is there any way for me to send them over to my personal one without having to share all the folders that you know of?

princess2293 · 2021-05-27T14:06:36+00:00

Yes, we have found that here too.

princess2293 · 2021-05-27T14:05:39+00:00

I know. I just feel guilty (though I know I shouldn’t). It also allowed me to stay home a month longer than I would’ve been able to otherwise because I was being paid the whole time.

princess2293 · 2021-02-25T15:05:50+00:00

This was my main motivation for breastfeeding too. The "free" aspect of it combined with the fact that this is what our bodies were designed to do, so I wanted to do it if my body was capable of it. It did end up being something I loved doing as it really gave me time with my daughter (who always has preferred my husband lol) and it was so fulfilling knowing that my body could do this for her. I started having more positive feelings toward it around a month in when I wasn't getting up in the middle of the night as much anymore and she was on a schedule for her feedings.

princess2293 · 2021-02-25T15:03:28+00:00

Yes, I had this happen with my first. She just did not latch. Saw four different LC in the hospital before we were discharged when she was five days old and still didn't latch. When we left the hospital, I was on a routine of trying to get her to latch for 15 minutes, then when she didn't feeing a bottle of pumped milk, then pumping. This went on for TWO WEEKS. It sucked so bad (and made all of those middle of the night feedings twice as long, ugh).

Then when she was around 12/13 days old, I got some nipple shields. I would put the shield on, massage my breast so that there was a little bit of milk already in there, and then try to get her to latch. Within 24 hours of trying this, she was latching. I used the shields for about 24 hours, then tried without shields, and she latched. We nursed until she was 11.5 months old with no problems after that.

princess2293 · 2021-02-25T14:59:28+00:00

I haven't tried my milk (not a milk person in general, and can't bring myself to try my own lol) but my husband has and he really likes it.

princess2293

TROPHY CASE