Moving West & Friendly Stress

It's the last week of school!  Not only the last week of school, but my last week at this school.  Not just my last week at this school, but my last week at this school in Kansas... because I decided to move.  To Seattle.  Just for fun.  For an adventure.  Because maybe I'm crazy.

I decided to move to the west coast, so this is my last week at the school where I started my career and have had eight fabulous years of teaching.

I'm in the midst of the end of the year craziness.  Grades are due.  Cleaning the classroom.  Cleaning out desks and sending materials home.  Kids are rowdy and I'm finding something productive for them to do in the meantime. Not to mention the end of the year excitement in the air.  And I'm packing a classroom to move it across the country.

I don't often feel stressed.  Not to be confused with not being stressed.  I am sometimes stressed but don't feel it; usually then I get sick.  I am currently focusing on channeling my energy to make the end of the year as great as possible while still trying to get my personal life together to make this big move on my own.  But even I have to admit, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with it all right now.

But in all my end of the year procrastination and personal brain breaks, I found this TED Talk about how stress can be healthy for each of us.  Teachers know stress.  They know it really well.  It comes in many different forms and can just appear at any point of the day....with a student, a colleague, or parents.  But really, it is healthy.  That's what I keep telling myself.

If you're getting close to the end of the school year (or if your last week is this week, like me), then good luck.  If you have a few more weeks to go, keep doing a great job!  Don't forget to take time for you!  Hit the gym, take a walk, or put on some tunes.  

            

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Teacher Appreciation Day (a brief game plan)

Ok, we get one day to stretch those teacher muscles and go get the deals.  I hope you've been saving your pennies.

Lots of places offer teacher discounts.  I take full advantage.  I'm not above pulling out my whistle to prove that I'm a teacher when I forget my badge.  It's been done.

So... Happy Teacher Appreciation Day!  We get to wear jeans today.  It's a pretty big deal.

Here we go.  Here's how you can arrange your day... (I mean, if you want.)

Teacher Appreciation Day Game Plan:

Wake up, teacher friend!  Hustle out the door with your lunch and 3 bags of papers.  If you live in Arizona, stop by McDonald's and get a free breakfast with a coffee.  Don't live there?  Me either.

Maybe when you get to school, someone will have made you nice card.  IDK.  I probably won't get any because we don't really do much to celebrate this day, being as we're a school and all, but I get to wear jeans so it's a win.

Teach all day!  You don't have time to go get discounts on clothes!  You have work to do!

On your break, maybe sign up to take advantage of Learning A-Z's 14 day free trial because it is awesome and they are offering an additional 7 days free (14 days total, if I'm understanding and adding correctly, don't quote me on this).  Which means you have a plethora of material to go through in the next two weeks (you have nothing else going on, right?).  It's fantastic.  Even if you already have a subscription to one part of Learning A-Z, check out the others.  I love Science A-Z and use a ton of their materials in my classroom.

Then, hop over to TeachersPayTeachers and start filling up your cart.  Add those wishlist items, find anything new for the end of the school year...maybe stock up on summer projects to work on...because TpT is having a SALE (my store is 20% off, along with tons of others!).  Don't forget the promo code for your full savings.

If you have 4 extra minutes, maybe watch this sweet video and reflect on yourself on your first day as a teacher and then feel really good about how far you've come.  Love this.

You're probably late picking your student's up from wherever they were now.  Go back to teaching.

After school, hustle a friend out the door with you and go grab a BOGO meal at Chipotle.  Or just get two meals for yourself...that works, too.

Then, drive through Chick fil A and just ask for whatever they are giving teachers for free today (I think it varies by location).  Maybe don't eat both Chipotle and Chick fil A for dinner and save one for lunch tomorrow.  Burrito bowls refrigerate well...or so I hear.

Convince your friend to give you a free $5 gift card to Educents, and you can repay the favor, so it's a free $5 for everyone!

Of course, if shopping for supplies/clothes with a discount is more your style, there's a whole slew of those as well.  Enjoy!

I hope you feel appreciated today!  

            

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BeFunky: Photo Editing

This is not a fancy post about photoshop or any other software I would have to pay a fortune for...because I don't know the first thing about those.  This is photo editing for amateurs who like free things.

I do love photography.  It helps that everyone in today's world can appear pretty decent because of digital photography and things like Instagram that allow us to filter and manipulate our photos however we would like, not to mention all the pins on Pinterest regarding photography hints and tips.  I can fake it with the best of them.

For photo editing, I can use the simple filtering and editing on my camera or through iPhoto, but when I want to put together a collage, add fonts, or do any other editing, I've been using BeFunky.

My favorite feature of BeFunky is that I don't need to sign in to use it.  This is thebomb.com because that means my pictures aren't linked to my email account.  Typically that's not a huge deal for me, but when it comes to pictures of students, I try really hard not to personally put them anywhere on the internet.  One year I used one of those slideshow sites to make a slideshow of my classroom (no students), and then when I looked up my email address on one of those creepy stalker websites, it had those pictures on it!  I don't want my students' pictures to be out there when people search for me or anyone else.  This site doesn't require sign in, so you don't have to be as concerned.

Plus it's free, easy, and mostly just fun.  There are collage options for social media sites, as well as individual picture editing, or just playing around with images.  Go play!

Here's what I worked on today...
As I put together my slideshow for the end of the year, I was trying to decide on a cover for our DVD.  I had the perfect picture:

I made it for our auction this year and I have been trying to figure out a way to use it in something for the class all year.  However, I'm a colored ink snob.  I like things in color.  I'll use it if I need to.  But it costs me an arm and a leg over the course of a year, so I avoid it when possible.  I was pretty sure printing 20 of these suckers was going to dry up the ink supply rather quickly.  

I went to BeFunky and I ended up with this, which I'm really digging, because my sleeves are different colors so they do their own color filtering.  It took me forever to settle on one good one since there were so many options available.  

I did add font at the bottom for the final picture.  Now they are printed and ready for me to slice up and put in sleeves.  Productive little Sunday!

What photo editing site, program, or app do you like to use?  Why?

            

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MAY DAY

HEY!  It's MAY!  YAY!

If I wasn't feeling so cruddy today, I would have been a perky little teacher wandering the halls.  Unfortunately, today was a total teacher struggle between do-I-have-enough-energy-to-make-sub-plans and maybe-I'll-just-tough-it-out-because-that's-easier.

Toughing it out won, but it was a struggle.  I'm chugging orange juice and it's early to bed for this teacher!

The first of the month only means one thing: Farley's Currently!  Here's what's up:

It's Thursday evening, which means I've obviously put off all my grading to the last minute so I'm doing a massive grading session on the living room floor.  Thank goodness for music television.  Trying to get grades together because the end of the year is near.  

If you're in to fashion (sorry, gents), then The Teacher Diva has the hook-up.  Check her out!  

**There won't be a Finally Friday tomorrow because I just don't have my act together with being sick and all...also I haven't read anything good this week...have you??

            

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