Can I be real a second? For just a millisecond? Let down my guard and tell the people how I feel a second?

Hi readers and happy November! If you haven't caught on by now from some of my recent quotes, I am a huge fan of the hit broadway musical Hamilton. I am completely obsessed with it. I can rap the song Guns and Ships. I have learned more from this musical about US History than I probably did in all 4 years of high school combined. I have a massive crush on Lin-Mauel Miranda and think he is a genius. I am constantly listening to the soundtrack and watch the lyric videos on Youtube to help me learn the lyrics. Music has always been an outlet for me during tough times.

I wanna be in the room where it happens! 

True story.

For me personally, I find November to be one the most difficult months as a teacher. You are feeling incredibly drained and throwing every bit of energy you can to come up with engaging lessons to keep your highly energetic students engaged. One thing I have tried and works really well with my teacup humans in grade one is playing Would You Rather. The Measured Mom is a great free resource with plenty of printables. Her website is www.themeasuredmom.com and she has great ideas for your classroom. I use these Would You Rather cards below at the end of the lesson if my kids are getting antsy and need a break to do something silly for a bit before diving into the next lesson. I have my kids stand in the middle of the rug and then they go to the door for one of the choices or go to the window for the other choice. Then after all the students have moved from the middle of the rug I ask some students to share why they picked their choice. It is a fun game for them and gets them moving around, which they definitely need!

These are some sample cards from themeasuredmom.com. She has 100 of these Would You Rather cards to choose from and the teacup humans definitely approve! 

I am a big fan of brain breaks. There are great websites for this. GoNoodle is an awesome resource for teachers. Just a fair warning though if you do Pop-See-Ko, it will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day! You can also find brain break cards on Teachers Pay Teachers. Just giving them a 30 second-2 minute break can do wonders and help them stay on track. Because there have definitely been times when I am halfway through a lesson, and I can tell that they are not paying attention so I stop the lesson, do a brain break like having them get up and do some exercises like jumping jacks and dancing around to get the wiggles out, and then we get back to work. It is important to keep in mind that you are working with kids and they are not meant to sit in their seats for long periods of time! I also like to use Brain Pop (or Brain Pop Junior for the younger grades) as a way to introduce a new topic we are talking about. Trust me, Tim and Moby will become regular visitors in your classroom. Just like Jack Hartman is a regular in mine for math!

My hands are high my feet are low and this is how we Pop See Ko!

I find them to be a great way to introduce a Science or Social Studies lesson! 

Teachers I also wanted to stress the importance of self care. This is something I am working on big time. You need to make sure that you are taking good care of yourself, otherwise you are useless when you are standing up there in front of your teacup humans, or your not so teacup humans if you teach middle school or high school. You need to make sure you are getting an adequate amount of sleep at night. You need to make sure you are finding a good work life balance and not just working on things for your classroom right when you get home. Take a break and watch something on Netflix, do some form of exercise, blare some music at your house, something to give you a break away from all the work that you have waiting for you. Teachers have a never ending to do list, and it is part of the job to prioritize what needs to be done right away, and what can wait a few days. My advice? Keep calm and carry on. As long as you are moving forward and moving one foot in front of the other, you are trying and making an effort. And that just shows how strong and awesome you are as both a person and a teacher.

23 days until Gilmore Girls returns! 

Expecto patronum! Use your patronus to keep those negative thoughts away. You will get through this. Stay positive, friends.