Pienso que comiendo ceviche durante mi visita de casa mejoro mi español.

Hola Profesora,

No estoy seguro si Ud. me recuerda, pero yo estaba en dos de sus clases de español en Pepperdine. Me gradué en 2009, y comenzó a enseñar a kinder en San José. Yo quería escribir una nota, porque he estado enseñando a los estudiantes los últimos dos años que en su mayoría hablan español en casa. Este año, regresé a Los Ángeles, y estoy enseñando en una escuela en la que tengo que hacer visitas de casa. Estoy tan feliz que me llevó a sus clases en la Pepperdine, porque he ido a las visitas de casa sin una otra maestra para traducir. Mis estudiantes y sus familias son muy importantes para mí, y yo estoy practicando mi español todos los días para que pueda comunicarse mejor con ellos.  Sólo quería decir lo mucho que mi español me ha ayudado a ayudar a mis estudiantes. Yo sé que mi español no es perfecto, pero estoy trabajando duro para aprender! :) Si he hecho algún error, por favor, perdóname!

Muchas gracias, y que tenga un buen día!

I Used To Be a Gymnast...Shouldn't Balance Come Easily to Me?

Good news! Tomorrow I get to sleep in until 6:30.

I know, it sounds like a joke...but really, I am stoked! I have been getting up at 5 a.m. on the weekdays the past two weeks, so 6:30 really is sleeping in for me.

Incidentally, waking up at 5 a.m. and only having 15 minutes for lunch (which is spent putting homework in folders instead of eating) may or may not have contributed to my current cold. A cold is nothing new for me, however. Family and friends may recall the 8 billion times I have had laryngitis, pharyngitis, and/or bronchitis the past two years.

I fondly remember this past February break when I woke up to take Kristin to the airport and drove to her house, shaking because of my fever. While waiting for her, one of her housemates backed into my car (I still have yet to get the scratches fixed), and a couple hours later I found out it wasn't just bronchitis this time, nope, this time I had pneumonia.

I had to get a shot of antibiotics in my butt. I was not happy. My fear of needles became all the worse as a result of my 102 degree fever at the time. I tried to negotiate with the doctor...surely he could squirt the injection into my mouth, like a squirt gun, right? Nope. Shot in the butt. Thanks. I also got a lecture about resting. As in doing absolutely nothing for the next week. The doctor at Urgent Care gave me two options: rest at home, or, if I chose not to rest, come back in a couple days to rest in a hospital bed.

I rested. It was really tough, but I rested. I also gave my dog a haircut, but that's another story.

A couple weeks later I followed up with my doctor to make sure I had kicked the pneumonia and that my lungs were clear...and fortunately they were. I also made it a point to ask my doctor what was wrong with me. Really. Why do I always get sick, and how can I not get sick?

Apparently, the best thing I can do for my immune system is sleep more (and stress less if possible). This is pretty difficult, but I've been working on it. This weekend, I slept. A lot. I didn't work. That's not normal for me, but my cold is somewhat fading. I have a tough time with balance. My required work hours at 7:15 to 4:30 during the school year, but it's not as though I don't take my work home with me. I'm trying harder not to take my work with me...or at the very least to take less work home. It's a tough choice, though, because while I can't get in trouble for not taking my work home with me, if I'm not performing well enough at school, I can get in "trouble" for that.

However, for now, I'm praying that the impact of having balance in my life...of not working all day and all weekend long will be three-fold (yes, much like why Chandler was in a box):
1. I will be happier and healthier! I will sleep more and take time for myself and my friends.
2. I will be more productive at work (if I'm trying not to take things home, I need to get stuff done when I'm there).
3. I will be a better teacher...because I am happier and healthier. :)

I think I've failed at work-life balance in the past. I know I've failed at it. However, this year, new school, new location, new house...maybe I can do it? :)

Tired but happy

I've been working really long days...and I've been trying to catch up on sleep this week and this past weekend.

Despite allllllll the work, I am SO happy. The staff here is amazing. I miss my students and families from last year, don't get me wrong, but I can't explain the difference in environment for me. I feel supported by everyone, valued by everyone, and at the same time, what I think is most important to me...I know that my students come first. The staff here is phenomenal, because we put our students first. We work together to make sure ALL our students are meeting the goals we have for them, and so while we each work very hard in our own classes, we are collectively striving for team-wide and school-wide growth, not just individual classroom growth. It's just a whole other world here. I'm growing as a teacher, a learner, and a leader.

...which means I need to get to bed since that's a whole lot of growing, and I need to be rested for it all!

Lots of love,
a


Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Theodore Roosevelt 

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.
Dalai Lama 

I can't imagine anything more worthwhile than doing what I most love. And they pay me for it.
Edgar Winter 

Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.
Norman Vincent Peale 

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.
Booker T. Washington 

Nothing will work unless you do.
Maya Angelou 

Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them.
Ann Landers 

Ya gots to work with what you gots to work with.
Stevie Wonder 

The First Day...

Fact: The first day was even more intense than I previously blogged it would be.

Let me walk you through what it looked like...

All throughout the night: Wake up and think that it's time for me to get up to go to work. Go back to sleep at 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4 a.m., and 4:30 a.m., until...

5:00 a.m. Wake up exhausted but excited--all the prep from the previous weeks is going to be put into play today! Try to make myself look nice even though I showered last night so I could sleep in a little today. (N.B.* The day almost started off exactly as planned, apart from waking up earlier, which really isn't a terrible thing.)

5:25 a.m. Walk to my car...sit down...put the keys in my car...

NOTHING HAPPENS.

Oh wait, I'm being overly dramatic. Something did happen. My car made this nice clicking sound. Yup, the sound a car that won't start makes.

5:30 a.m. Call my dad, if only because I know he is one of few people awake at this hour since it's 8:30 in Florida, and I just need someone to tell so I don't burst into tears (or burst into a string of swear words...which if you know me, swearing is a rarity, but in stressful situations (ex. when my car's tires basically broke last year, and then my bike's pedal fell off too). 

Mental note: Next year, take my car in for service BEFORE school starts. Just to be on the safe side.

5:35 a.m. Call a wonderful teacher from my school, and she and her husband pick me up to head to school.

6:15 a.m. Arrive at school with lots of stuff in my hands, unsure if I really grabbed everything I needed from my car. Hope that I really did get what I need. Prep my classroom, prep my classroom, stress.

7:00 a.m. Team Pow Wow--Getting ready for all our lovely kinders, the class of 2028, to arrive. Fortunately I do get to take two deep breaths at this point.

7:20 a.m. Have the teacher who taught in my room last year show me where BOTH light switches are. No joke. I couldn't find the second switch and was prepared to start class with half the room kind of in the dark (there was a little sun streaming through our windows at this point).

7:25 a.m. Students will be starting to arrive...I'm even MORE anxious!!!!!! Don't send them to me just yet! I'm not ready! Head down to help at breakfast, and I do love greeting all the wonderful students as they arrive. They are smiling and happy, which makes me feel less nervous about the potential for apocalyptic crying.

7:40 a.m. Realize I was supposed to be in my classroom five minutes ago. Head up hoping no families have arrived just yet so I can take a deep breath all by myself.

7:50 a.m. Summer School Begins!!!! At this point I am talking, moving, and sweating (no joke. My face is probably super red, and I am unaware of how much my body hurts, because I just keep moving.). I am smiling until my cheeks hurt and making everything super exciting, because it is! 

In my initial post I wrote: I am forgetting all my stress and just having fun with my students, teaching them our routines and procedures, singing songs, and enjoying learning!

...Well, that's what I want tomorrow to look like. Today I felt stressed...and then I reminded myself it's silly to be stressed. I still have hair. I don't have cancer. WIN. 

I try to use the whole cancer @ 19 thing as an advantage in my ability to have perspective. At the end of the day, I don't have a picc-line in my arm, I have all my hair on my head (even if it is a little darker, yes I'm still the teensiest bitter about my "dark" hair), and no one has offered me a wheelchair, because I seem so tired.

11:40 a.m. Drink half a diet coke. Sufficient lunch indeed.

1:45 p.m. Students are dismissed. I am still smiling. Greeting parents. Answering questions. Saying "I'll see you tomorrow!" to my wonderful students.

2:15 p.m. Exhaustion hits. Eat a peach, some fruit snacks, and finish my diet coke. Yum.

2:30 p.m. All staff meeting

3:30 p.m. I definitely laid down on the beanbag chair in our library and cried a little. Or a lot. I talked with some friends and family...and felt a little better about life.

5:00 p.m. Start to pack up to leave school. Realize, oh wait, yup, I forgot to pee all day. I told you it would happen.

6:30 p.m. Stop at Lakeshore, the teacher store with which I am way too familiar right now. Purchase two books, Hands Are Not for Hitting and Words Are Not for Hurting, and the best part of course is that they're in English and Spanish.

7:00 p.m. Stop, jumpstart my car (woohoo!), drive over to my friend's place where I'll be spending the night.

7:30 p.m. Realize I'm kind of hungry. Fruit snacks + peach=not tiding me over. Also realize I have some text messages and phone calls to respond to from parents, but as I've been dealing with my car's sad state I have missed them. I return some phone calls. I leave a message for a parent in terribly broken Spanish, and I hope she understands me. I'm trying, I really am.

8:00 p.m. Call California Chicken Cafe, my comfort food in LA. One California Chicken salad with no carrots, please. Yum yum yum.

Somehow during the day, I also spoke with several friends, answered some emails, and now I'm ready to go to bed, hoping by no means to repeat today tomorrow but also hoping that I can keep the good things going and build on the things that weren't so great.

I realize this all seems very dramatic, and in some ways, it is. I definitely did not fail as a teacher today--and I think my tears after school are just a reflection of my investment in my families and their students from day 1 onward. I don't cry about many things, but man I cry about teaching. I am just so emotionally invested in my job, and I think it's probably one of my greatest strengths (but can also be a weakness for me) as a teacher.

So there you have, the life of a teacher. Kind of. Time for bed. I'm beat.

♥a

*Anytime I use N.B. I think back to Loyola. I'm pretty sure N.B. was used more often in my syllabi and notes from teachers in high school than anywhere else I've ever seen.

The First Day of School

Remember the feeling of the first day of school? When you're super nervous but you walk into your classroom and are amazed at what you see? ...and your teacher is smiling and showing you where to put your things?

Well, what you may not have realized is that the first day of school, all teachers are exhausted...and most likely using caffeine in the form of coffee, soda, or tea to survive. We also rarely eat...or pee (oh yes, I'm being brutally honest and open here).

Let me walk you through what my first day of school this year (and essentially what the first days of school the past two years have looked like as well):
5:15 a.m. Wake up exhausted but excited--all the prep from the previous weeks is going to be put into play today! Try to make myself look nice even though I showered last night so I could sleep in a little today.
5:40 a.m. Leave for school, making sure I detour to Coffee Bean
6:15 a.m. Arrive at school with several cans of diet coke in a tote bag and an Ice Blended in hand. Prep my classroom, take deep breaths, and review my lesson plans once again. Check to make sure everything really is in place and ready to go. Review my lesson plans. Review my lesson plans. Oh, and review my lesson plans to make sure I'm ready.
7:00 a.m. Team Pow Wow--Getting ready for all our lovely kinders, the class of 2028, to arrive.
7:20 a.m. Slight panic attack accompanied by HYPER EXCITEMENT. My amazing students and their families will be here before I know it, and now I just can't wait to see their smiling facse and give them high fives and hugs!
7:25 a.m. Students will be starting to arrive...I'm even MORE excited!!!!!! Send them to me!!!
7:35 a.m. Students are let in for breakfast! WOOHOO!!!!!
7:50 a.m. Summer School Begins!!!! At this point I am talking, moving, and sweating (no joke. My face is probably super red, and I am unaware of how much my body hurts, because I just keep moving.). I am smiling until my cheeks hurt and making everything super exciting, because it is! I am forgetting all my stress and just having fun with my students, teaching them our routines and procedures, singing songs, and enjoying learning!
1:45 p.m. Students are dismissed. I am still smiling. Greeting parents. Answering questions. Saying "I'll see you tomorrow!" to my wonderful students.
2:15 p.m. Exhaustion hits. I may lie down on the carpet in my classroom and not move for several minutes.
2:30 p.m. All staff meeting
3:00 p.m. Set up and get ready to do all this again tomorrow...

I likely will not eat or pee the first day until 3 p.m. when I realize I've forgotten to do both. I'm not even kidding about this. I hope at least one teacher reads this and can comment that this is in fact true. Seeing as I've been eating horribly the past couple weeks as I've been preparing, it seems only fitting that I not eat for the first couple days of school. I will inevitably eat something terribly bad for me that first night when my hunger finally kicks in. In San Jose, there was this wonderful Chinese restaurant just down the road, and I would order some yummy greasy chicken fried rice. Most likely, I will gorge on a burrito this year since I've already been introduced to an amazing restaurant within walking distance from my school. One perk of being in LA is walking to places. In San Jose, there was phenomenal Mexican food...but I always had to drive a little.

So there you have it, life as a teacher the first day of school. It's wonderful. I love it. I wouldn't trade my job for the world...but I also am so glad I only have to have one first day a year. :)

It's nearly 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, which means it's my bedtime. We had our Back to School picnic today, and I met so many of my amazing students. I also had a home visit that lasted two hours, and I am stoked about my students and their families. My body is achy though from all the set-up and prep, and I need to make sure I'm sleeping enough to be the best teacher I can be, so it's time for some zzzz's for me.

Goodnight lovelies,
♥a