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What’s With Packets?..
I’ve been on both sides of the dilemma. I remember struggling to keep up with planning what would be considered an excellent lesson (according to my understanding then), drained after a long day of talking (over the students sometimes), anxious about what to teach next, having that tugging pain in my stomach, and realizing that today’s planning will drag into midnight. My first year of teaching I remember coming home, my throat aching and my head buzzing as if I was chased by a bee colony. Sure, there were days when I had no choice but survive at my table, trying to catch some needed emotional distress and hoping no…
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Transition to Middle School from High School Survival Guide for a New ESL Push-In Model Teacher.
I’ve recently changed jobs, and my biggest fear was to be as overwhelmed and lost as a felt during my first year of teaching. Besides, I transitioned from being a classroom ESL teacher and having 25-28 students to an ESL push-in model teacher, and that was very new to me. Apart from traveling to different classes to service language learners, the biggest challenge is to figure out what to do with 3-15 English learners of different levels scatteredin different areas, like Social Studies, Math, Science, Writing. Because the kids are in different grades and are at a variety of language levels, I ended up with 7 different content areas and…
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My Passive Income Obsession.
I’ve been obsessed with the idea for a passive income for quite a while. This stemmed from the realization that my current job may not be my dream job, it might not hold for a long time, or my priorities may shift. If you want to know about the passive income idea, you can start with Pat Flynn’s site www.smartpassiveincome.com because he is the master in this science. Apart from Flynn, many other online entrepreneurs have cracked the mystery of passive income. The ones that I came across are: Michelle from Making Sense Of Cents, John Lee Dumas from EOF, Tim Ferriss. After a ton of thinking and tinkering, I…
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5 Teacher’s Resources Worth of Your Time: Professional and Personal areas.
With the overwhelming amount of resources available online, its quite hard to track your time looking for what you really need when it comes to your professional development and personal needs. You might end up frustrated with the choices that you have, the quality of resources or even the lack of continuity that you need. In this post, I’m sharing 5 go-to resources that will help your professional development and restore your emotional sanity. 1. Cult Of Pedagogy by Jennifer Gonzalez. I value this resource for its dedication to quality and research. Jennifer talks about relevant topics in education and provides“what-you-can-do-tomorrow” ideas from the perspective of a classroom teacher. It’s…
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What Do You Do When You Are On The Brink of Quitting Your Teaching Job?
Hey! I’ve been there, so I know how it feels. It was almost two years ago when I was sitting in my cars crying, talking on the phone with one of my colleagues. “I don’t think I want to come back! It’s just too much!” I meant every single word, and back then it was entirely clear to me I was facing a problem I had to deal with. Teaching can overtake everything if you allow it to happen. It can drain you and set you on the way to growing anxiety and stress. But this is the truth: you will have to take steps to either make your teaching…
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Transformational Books.
In this post, I describe the books that were transformational to my life and my personality. Thanks to these books, I am a different person, mother, teacher. They are not for teachers and by teachers. In fact, the majority of my reading is not about my profession. I keep work separate from my spiritual get-away. However, these books made me a much happier teacher and a person. Why? It’s all about waking up one day and putting things in perspective. It’s about you breaking the circle of being sick and tired of having no things to look forward to. It’s about liberation, laughing at yourself, leaving the couch and stepping…
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Is Teaching Sustainable For Your Lifestyle?
I have been a teacher for two years, and I have been ferociously fighting the urge to take school work home. For some odd reason, while still being a teacher, I found it extremely weird to bring work home. You see, I love freedom. I love that at home I can indulge in doing the things that are not related to my job. I have recently understood the importance of doing nothing while giving yourself time to relax, process ideas, be in the moment for you, your family. And that was quite a shift from the mentality I had two years ago. Although I rarely took school work…
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Being Reactive Is a Dead End.
I’ve been reactive in what I did and how I felt most of my life. Being reactive means feeling trapped by the situations and thinking you have no control of the outcome. It also means taking on the role of a victim of circumstances and practicing self-pity. It’s hard not to be reactive. I get it. What could I do if they packed my classroom with 30 children that I need to differentiate for? How could I teach when in the 21st century everything I had was the blackboard and chalk in my classroom? How could I not complain if had neither resources no support of the administration when…
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How Much Money Do You Want To Make As a Teacher?
My husband is a day trader. He buys and sells stocks. He sometimes holds them overnight or for a couple of days, and then he sells them profiting from the difference in the price of shares. So it makes him a swing trader, too. Sitting next to him on a weekday, I channel into a cryptic conversation he has in chat rooms with other traders. Some things sound familiar because my ear is used to the trading jargon. But what I found more interesting is that straight money talk is never a taboo there. Traders discuss decent and significant amounts of money they once made or are still making a…
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Explore Your Creative Genius As A Teacher.
Teachers are believed to take pleasure in shopping at the dollar store for supplies, creating cute worksheets on the computer, crafting for classrooms, being nerdy, reading tons of books and living in libraries, grading papers on a Saturday evening while watching an educational documentary, or other crazy things. And while many teachers do this and enjoy it, there are many educators who want to have nothing to do with school once the final period bell rings and they go home. Whatever side you are on, you should not feel guilty about that but feel comfortable about doing what gives you joy. Having said that, I do believe being sucked…
