The Time Has Come!!!

I gave birth to baby Max on Saturday, April 5, 2014 at 4:24 PM.  He weighed in at 5 pounds, 8 ounces and was 18.5 inches long with a head diameter of 13.25 inches.  He was a bit on the small side, but is healthy and has been putting on weight since!

So all my long term sub planning went really well and even though I delivered a week early, I was pretty well prepared.  My sub and I spent the week working together before that Saturday and when I knew I was going into labor, I felt GOOD (about the class being left to someone else)!

Spring Break - A MUST for Every Pregnant Teacher

Yup, right about three weeks before a due date & after a LONG stretch from winter break until spring, a week off is definitely nice.  Not that I didn't work, of course!  I had some last minute logistics in the baby department as well as long-term planning to take care of.  It was nice to have the time to do all that not after being on my feet all day.

Anyway, here's who's been keeping me busy & from posting so much...stinkin' karate kid!

I'm about 38 weeks now.  This belly is HUGE! He wants OUT! But, hopefully he'll be like his dad and be a little late; or wait at LEAST one more week so I can transition back from break with my long-term sub.  Here we are figuring out our FIRST diaper change and infant car seat belt adjustments:

              

So other than some last minute house clean up and baby purchases, I really wanted to go over my long-term sub plans to ensure I was ready for anything!  My original post about how I got started long-term planning can be found here.

Finalizing Long-Term Substitute Planning

Planning for a Long-Term Sub

This is my first time planning for a long-term substitute.  I like to plan ahead, so I've been thinking about it a TON!  I'm due mid-April, which is perfect timing (if I do say so myself), which means I've had the whole year to think about it.  No, I am not a freak and did not plan for this since September.  However, thinking about what I'd like to do helps so I can complete bits and pieces along the way and now I'm ready to get down and dirty rather than "think" about what to do.

Even if you have a requested sub in your classroom for all the meetings you have to attend, it takes time to get to know someone's style and preferences while adding your own touch as well.  I was a long term sub for kindergarten and know how certain things are important to keep the same for when the teacher returns (even if I'm not returning), and things that I can change based on me and my style.

Here are some questions I asked myself and answers I came up with:

Q: How will I communicate what I do on a daily, weekly, and/or monthly basis that's NOT part of a what I would normally put on sub plans (such as book orders or how I communicate with families)? 
I already have a sub binder with school schedules, seating charts, emergency plans, basic classroom procedures, etc.  My major concern?  I did NOT want to completely overwhelm my sub with a classroom "manual" because to be honest, 1) I wouldn't read through a GIANT pack of papers and 2) I also know that as long as there is a general outline, a sub will still need to get into a groove and teach his/her own way.  

A: General Procedures & Routines Table of Contents
So I did come up with this.  It looks like a lot, but there's only a small little blurb about each thing, organized alphabetically with tabs, & it includes some specific events already planned for when I'm out.

Ok, so there are a lot of things on here, but I figure she can reference it as needed.
Remember, each item only has a small blurb about it, not some essay-long explanation.
 See below for a sample of what I wrote for the P and W sections:

Baby Name Revealed using Coordinate Graph Hidden Messages!

The best part about reading others' blogs are the cool finds, especially when they relate to your specific grade level and standards.  Fifth grade Common Core math requires students to master coordinate graphing within the first quadrant.  I always move to all four quadrants with students who are ready, though.  So anyway, I was reading posts from Teaching in Room 6 and am totally PSYCHED with what I found!!!

Baby Registries, Questions, & Discoveries, Oh My!!!

Registries
So my doctor recommended that if we were going to spend time reading books while pregnant that we should read what to do directly after pregnancy, when you're mostly on your own.  Here's the book she recommended.  I haven't finished it yet, but recently read the section about what to buy for baby.

Gender Reveal Craziness

So today was the big day.  I am 20 weeks along and went to my doctor's appointment for the gender reveal.

It's been a crazy week leading up to Thanksgiving so far.  We had some awesome friends fly in to go snow camping (yes, the hubby strapped a backpack - light one - to his pregnant wife's back to sleep in freezing cold temperatures) with the pups.  Yes, I was a willing participant.  Having snow camped with him before, I brought the right amount of layers this time!  The plan was to cook a whole turkey in the wilderness in a bottomless keg (literally bottomless since the boys cut the bottom of the keg shell out to act as an outdoor oven) and have a three course fondue meal in addition.  The dinner was FANTASTIC and we all couldn't believe the turkey turned out amazing!  The next morning, however, we had a fuel canister explode and my husband's right hand, thumb mainly, was lacerated pretty badly by the metal pot.  So... I drove him back to town to get to the hospital while our friends packed out the camping gear.

Turkey being prepped, cooked in the wilderness, and ready to be eaten.

Anyway, we've been in and out of the hospital for two days now with his hand surgery.  Our poor friends who came to visit us had to hang out on their own the next couple of days as I took care of groggy hubby coming out of anesthesia.   Our friends are great people though, who helped by getting groceries and cooking so we could still all hang out together in the evenings cooking, eating, and talking.   They also took our dogs out on a hike and a run.  Can they stay when I have the baby?

Anyway, so this next ultrasound is the third day in a row we will be at the hospital.  At least hubby is not the one in the patient seat this time!  I am pretty excited and had a dream three days ago that this specific appointment revealed baby was a girl.  Also, while in the emergency room, my husband's doc said my hubby was bound to have a girl since he does all these crazy adventures (climbing, skiing, running, hiking, back country touring, etc.).  Another also... we felt baby kick for the first time in the ER room.  What special memories we had there!  It wasn't much of a kick, just 3 quick jabs to my hand.  I had to push on my stomach about half an inch in and hold before I could feel it.  The feelings have been on and off, but not regular yet.

So anyway, I've avoided the point of this post.  Is it a boy or a girl???

Drum roll please...

We're having a boy!

I guess now we can actually be more serious about picking out names.  It's starting to all feel a bit more real, especially since our little one is also kicking.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

I'm thankful baby is healthy, friends who are amazingly helpful and understanding, family who love and support us, a job that I love, and a hubby who's accident could have been much worse, but wasn't.  Smile more everyone.

I Miss My Grading Routine... Darn Pregnancy!

So as I'm sitting here grading the past week's math, reading, and geography tests, I decided that pregnancy has put a damper on making grading more "fun," if that's possible.  Yes, grading is tedious and I do as much as I can once it's turned in.  However, there are always those weeks where the pile gets larger and then I really don't want to look at it... until I have to.

I LOVED taking that giant pile of work and going to a non-busy restaurant by myself (I don't want to be in the way AND I need to get out of my house) with an order of mac and cheese (sometimes I order a salmon caesar salad or side pizza instead) and a glass of wine, or two. Don't judge.  I sit for a few hours to knock all this out and 2 glasses of wine does not sway my grading in any way.  It just makes it feel less like a chore.

A pre-pregnancy grading picture.  Doesn't it look like you should join me?

Oh, and the manila folder with the post its are for me to jot down how kids are doing on each concept in math.  It helps me be more specific when I write report card comments.  I wouldn't necessarily need it for my own class, but that year, 5th and 6th graders leveled their kids, so I had kids from 4 different classes in math.  Those post its saved me and kept me sane. 

What a Week! Cheers to November!

So this past week was conference week.  MAN, AM I TIRED!!!  We got today off, so you better believe I slept in.  But when you have to teach all week (full days) and then conference until 8pm multiple days in a row, it can drain you.  (I would also throw in my current state of pregnancy doesn't help, but I've really been feeling fine.)  It's different when I think of things to work on and end up working until 8pm because I choose to; but there's something about back to back meetings and 12 hour days that can just get to you.  On my first day, I only had a 20 minute lunch break in between two conferences and had to chow down fast.

So anyway, my student led conferences went really well.  I posted how I ran them here.  92% of my appointments showed, which is great!  I would say my most successful conference was also my most difficult parent.  Have you ever had one of those parents that is more difficult to work with than the kid?  Who am I kidding.  Do I have to ask?  Yeah, the one that doesn't support you from the get go, believes everything the lying kid says (who, by the way, is smart enough to know this and manipulates the adults in his life to pit them against each other), and claims to want the kid to be accountable, but they give in every time.  That's the conference I asked my principal to sit in on with me not because I couldn't handle her myself, but because I wanted the conference time to be focused and have his support.  Anyway, the kid's lies were all out there, miscommunication/more lies he told them at home surfaced, and samples of his lack of effort were unveiled. among other things.  Parent even apologized to me for pitting herself against me and believing every word her kid said before asking me, etc.  I also turned around the anger she felt towards her kid by showing her what he is capable of and giving her suggestions on how we/kid could move forward.  We discussed two goals the kid can focus on this quarter, and what we (home & school) can each specifically do to ensure we help him this next quarter.  I also sent a follow-up email detailing this information so it's clear.  Phew!!! How long will this support last throughout the year?  Who knows, but I'll take it as it comes.  :)

We also finished our first read aloud for the year, The Witches, by Roald Dahl.  I love this book!  I make the Grand High Witch voice when she speaks, which makes the students laugh, and I always stop at the worst times (which is when something is about to happen).  It was a perfect ending time for the book because we were able to watch the movie before Halloween to compare and contrast the book and movie.  Anyway, this year, I decided to do something different with my read aloud time.  Listening AND comprehending is a skill and I don't necessarily like them drawing or working on other things, tuning in only when they want to.  So I created these listening response questions that students answer after each read aloud (or whenever I have time for them to respond).  Here are some student samples below:

Telling the Kiddos You're Expecting

Well, my pants are starting to get a bit snug and I'm 15 weeks pregnant now.  I figured it was a good time to tell the students and families, especially since people (school staff) were starting to find out.  We're a pretty small school and I wanted my students to hear it from me.  If I had told my staff first, the parents would have known and then my students would be the last to hear.  So I decided last night to tell them and put something quick together this morning.  We talked about inference on Monday and I thought I would tie that into telling them 1) so as not to waste precious teaching time and 2) because they would not see it coming.