Episode 87: What I Focused On My First Week Back (and Why It Made All the Difference)

I am bAAAAACCCKkkk!!!! New School. New kids. New Year. New Systems. New Names. SAME overwhelm times 1000000.  I want to share with you what I did (and didn't) do my first week back to school this year! Stay tuned to hear about a free workshop I'm offering to kick off the school year! 

Links and people mentioned in this episode:

• Establishing my Non-Negotiables for interviews
• First Day of School Activity (AMAZING)
• Hannah Sullivan 
• Norming your class with your students - Blog
• Resource for Norming your class
• Novel ways to norm your classes (if you've done the "hopes and dreams" before)
• Sponge video from COVID times
• Sponge Activity I did this year
• REGISTER for my FREE workshop: 5 Strategies for a Calm, Connected, and Classroom-Ready Start
• La Familia Loca PLC

On August 31st, I’m hosting a free live workshop called:
‘5 Strategies for a Calm, Connected, and Classroom-Ready Start (That Won’t Add to Your To-Do List)’ 🎉 

Whether you're already back and cruising along, or if you're about to start and the overwhelm is creeping in, I hope to see you there! Save your spot here!

Let's Connect!

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My Website
My TPT store
Join La Familia Loca PLC

Transcript

Join me!

Hi there. It's me, and before you listen to this amazing episode of teaching la vida loca, I wanted to ask you, are you ready for school? Are you already in school? Are you already back? Or are you like, in that state of like, oh my god, it's the impending, looming overwhelms that's coming. Whether you've already begun and you're like full in it, you're in the overwhelm, or that overwhelm is on its way and its creeping in. I have got you. I've got you. On August 31 I'm hosting a free, live workshop called five strategies for a calm, connected, and classroom ready start that won't add to your to do list, and I'm going to share simple and powerful shifts that you can make right away to bring more peace, calm, joy and groundedness to your classroom and more connection, whether again, you're just starting or you're a couple weeks in. I'm also going to be sharing a resource toolkit full of printables and templates that you can use right away with your students, and I would absolutely love to have you. You can save your spot at Tiny url.com/the number five, cccloca, all lowercase, or you can just click the link in the show notes. Enjoy this next episode. Thanks for listening.

Welcome back to teaching la vida loca, the podcast you come to for short and sweet and sometimes spicy episodes full of enthusiasm, magic and tips and tricks for your classroom. I'm Annabelle, your maestra loca, and I'm here to bring you inspiration, unapologetic authenticity, and ideas to spark more joy in your teaching journey. I'm turning up the excitement and elated to have you right here with me. I'm not just your host, I'm your cheerleader, and I'm thrilled you're tuning in. So, let's do this. Let's tackle teaching la vida loca together.

First Episode Back!

Hi there. Welcome to Episode 87 of teaching la vida loca. This is my first episode, post starting the school year. If you're listening right now, you're either just starting your own school year or you're about to and either way, you're probably feeling that insane sense of overwhelm. I feel like there are literally never ending to do lists and checklists and that voice that's in my head, that it might be a little voice, but dang it's sure loud, telling me I'm not ready, I'll never be ready, all those things. And so, whether you are in the middle of it now or getting ready to experience that, I just want to share about what I did my first week, what it looked like, because I started at a brand-new school this year, brand new kids, brand new school, brand new systems, brand new classroom, brand new faculty, brand new all of it. So, I'm happy you're here. Thanks for joining me, and thanks for teaching la vida loca with me. Let's dive in. Okay, so I want to start by like, setting the scene. I have been in the public it's not public schools, because New Orleans doesn't have public schools the charter system for the last seven years. Obviously, last year, I took the year off, if you didn't know that you're probably brand new to listening and brand new to me, but I did take the last year off teaching out of the classroom. I focused just on my side business of coaching and mentoring teachers, because I had a little baby girl, and I wanted to prioritize being at home with her, and it was the hardest year of my life, so I loved every second with her, obviously, but Postpartum Depression hit me hard. I didn't know that anxiety could be part of that, and I just missed the structure that a school day gives me, along with all the other things, the student joy, etc., etc. So, I am back in the classroom this year, and my intention was going straight back into the public charter system and straight back to the school where I was, but they are going through a lot of changes this year, including moving two of their middle school grades into the elementary building, and there was potential. I was going to be on a cart and still have nine classes. And anyways, long story short, I did not go back, even though I'm I love the leadership, and I love that school, and Memphis is still actually going there, because we just love the educators there, and we love what the school stands for. But it was time that I found a new place for myself that met my needs and my non negotiables. I encourage you to listen to episode 85 if you are interested in hearing about how I went about figuring out what my non negotiables were, and that my interview process, I share more in Episode 85 but so I'm starting at this brand-new school. I'm back in the independent school system. If you if you're not familiar with independent schools, it's basic. It's like a private school. It is not religious or Catholic, but some other people that you may know that also teach at independent schools are like Abelardo and Maris Hawkins. And so, it's this new world where I did used to teach at independent school for three years when I first moved to New Orleans, and it was a very different experience for me, and wildly different from the experience I'm having now. And in fact, my experience originally with an independent school colored my perception of independent schools so much that I refused to even apply for the position that I am in now. I refused to even consider it because I was so fearful of having the same sort of experience that I did with the parents and the systems that I had experienced, you know, 9, 10, years ago.

Feeling Joy

So having said that, I have started this new school, and already I have felt how amazing this year is going to be for me. In fact, I have felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for feeling the joy that I feel with that joy comes extreme overwhelm. I am I'm talking like to the maximum overwhelm because, you know, starting at a brand-new school means you are learning a million people's names. You are learning a million new systems and processes for how this school likes things done, what they need, when, what they don't need, what they expect, what they don't expect. And I, I've been like, obviously, you're starting with kids in a week. So my entire week of professional development was also me staring at my classroom walls knowing that I only have an hour and a half total break broken into like 20 minute chunks to get my entire classroom ready, an hour and a half like what it was actually more like three hours, but an hour and a half of confident, solid time to get things done, which obviously by the time you stand there for 10 minutes and stare at the walls. I was talking to Timothy about this. You stare at the walls trying to figure out what it is that you're gonna do. Then boom, it's time to go to the next meeting, right? So, like a feeling it like it's an insurmountable number of tasks to accomplish before kids come on top of learning, all the things that come with starting at a new school, right? Um, so, a million struggles, but I knew what I needed to do was make simple choices to determine what it is that I need. Sorry, that was my text message coming through, just resetting. I'm not gonna edit that out.

What I Do

What do I need to do to get myself grounded, levelheaded and ready for kids? And so, I determined that the feelings I wanted to feel more than anything, was calm, connected, and joyful before my students showed up. So, what were some of the things that I did before students arriving to get there? The first thing was I brain dumped. I brain dumped all the things that I wanted to do when kids came. And I also brain dumped all the things I wanted to do for my classroom or for myself before they came to feel classroom ready. After that for connectedness, I determined that I was going to take time to be very intentional in meetings and outside of meetings and at lunch to start to feel connected to the faculty and staff around me, because I was learning a lot of new people. Now this is something that I do even when it's not a new year and I'm just reconnecting with my faculty and staff in a building that I'm returning to, right? So, for me, I really wanted to get to know Miss Pam, the custodian who comes to my classroom. I wanted to get to know the facilities team and my goodness, we are all best friends already. We are all besties. I wanted to get to know the front desk person, the person who is admitted, the assistant to my principal, the middle school, lady who you know, I wanted to know the people who run the school. You know what I mean, the most important people that I need to make those connections with. Because, lo and behold, first week of school, I already have those relationships. Because I spent the time connecting with them to get the support that I needed, I was able to reach out instantly anytime I had questions this past week with the front desk person and say, oh my gosh, I have no idea where these kids need to go. I have no idea how this part of the schedule works. You know, where I need to be. And she was so ready and willing to help me because I had already tried to connect with her on a personal level and get to know her and show her that I appreciate the work that she does, and I know that she's integral to the school functioning day to day. Right when I had all this furniture to move from my classroom, I knew that I could just pass, I put in a work order request, but in passing to these facilities guys that I had already built this relationship with, I was able to say, Mr. Kenny, are you gonna come to my room? Are you gonna help me out? Sure enough, he shows up. He's like, when's your lunch? When's your lunch? I'll be there. Like, prioritizing relationships is everything for getting what you need accomplished. But the reason that those relationships work is because I showed them like I am here for a relationship. I want to connect with you. I care about you as a person. You are integral to this school functioning.

So, those that worked for connections, and then the calm from creating a list of what I needed to do, I just prioritized. What are the things that absolutely must get done before kids arrive? My classroom, I did come in on the weekend. I never do that. You know me, I don't believe in working on your weekend or at nights. But you know what? I went into the classroom for three or four hours on Saturday, about eight hours on Sunday and one night, Monday night for two and a half hours. And my classroom was so beautiful and ready to receive children on orientation day on Tuesday, like beautiful, amazing. And I felt so calm and confident in that, because even though not all my word wall posters were hung, every box was unpacked, it smelled nice. I had lamps up. I had my decorations up. I was unpacked, and that was important to me, right?

With Kids

Now for the week with kids. I wanted that same sense. I wanted calm, connected classroom ready. So that meant, again, brain dumping. What are all those things that I want to do with kids and prioritizing those? What strategies do I want to do this very first week to give kids a sense of calm connectedness in my classroom and give kids a sense of what it is going to be to be in my classroom this year. Now I know that they're doing this in all their classes. I know that if their teachers are good teachers, they are doing things to get to know the teacher and doing things to get to know the student. I know that teachers are going over their classroom expectations, routines, procedures, all those things. And I know and I shared this in La Familia loca PLC this past month. I know that it is essential I keep in mind that kids are learning this in every class they go to, so me bombarding them with all my expectations and routines day one and Okay, moving forward. Hope you got it. Day two is asinine. It's literally crazy, because these kids are moving to however many different classes, nine classes throughout their week. So that means they're learning nine different teachers, expectations around bathroom procedures, getting materials, whether they bring materials, what materials they leave in class, how they ask to get water, if they're allowed to eat in the classroom, when they're allowed to use a calming corner, if there's a calming corner, what does the material use policy? Do they have to bring a pencil? No, they must pay 25 cents to get a pencil. Like they're learning that about a million teachers right now. So, for me, it was one, how can I stand out? How can I create a sense of like cool? I know you're learning about all of this in all these different spaces. I want you to feel relaxed and calm coming in here and know that I understand you're learning about that about in all these different spaces, and I want you to get to know me so I can get to know you.

I did do a simple GET TO KNOW ME activity that was really, fun. I can link an activity that I've done before. I wanted to do this one. It was a very popular podcast episode. It's called, like, first day of school activity, or awesome first day of school activity. Instead, this year, because I didn't have time to prep that one, I put up nine different pictures of me. I learned this from Hannah Sullivan. You can put up as many pictures as you want, and then I asked the kids to ask me seven questions about the photos, seven questions about what they see. And that's how they learned about me. I just had a coaching session with Lauren today, Lauren Watkins and she leveled this idea up and did a blooket after they asked questions. So, the blooket was all about her, and so they had to be very intentional about their questions to get all the information that they may need for the blooket, which, of course, how fun is that playing a blooket right away. So cool. So, I focused on introducing themselves, me to them first, because they're not going to share anything about them without me first, introducing myself, right? I also provided them with my call response right away. I set very high expectations from the very beginning, and we practiced it a lot, and we practiced it before I introduced a brain break, so that I knew that they knew the expectation of as soon as the call response is over, your voice level is zero, and you're turning and looking at me, you're not going to sit back down. You're turning and looking at me. And I set that very high expectation, because from the very beginning, I want them to know that they will not be talking over me like we will honor and respect every single voice in this classroom, and when somebody else is speaking, we're on voice level zero. I don't want it quiet. When teachers say, get quiet, please. No, you don't want it quiet. Quiet means they can still be whispering. Be intentional with your language choice. If you want it silent, wait for silence. Wait until everybody is on voice level zero. Practice this. I did this with eighth grade, and once we did a brain break. So, we did it a few times to practice sitting, and then I introduced a brain break, and then the second time of the brain break, they were still like whispering and having side conversations. And I said, oh, we're not meeting that expectation, so let's sit down and then get up and try it again, because I need us to all be understanding from day one, what my expectation is around this.

I am Strict

Now, I heard some chatter that I was strict, and I was feeling kind of bad about that, because I'm like, oh, I don't want to that to be my like, what kids know me as right away. But I also was pulled aside during recess on Friday by 2 8th graders, and they said, hey, we were just talking about our favorite classes, and you're our favorite class so far. And I said, oh my gosh, thank you so much. I've been having, like, all these doubts in my mind and comparing myself to other people, because I heard that a couple kids were calling me really strict, and they said, No, that's what we like about you, because you're so fun, and we're already doing so many fun things, but like, the kids can't walk all over you because you like, have really high expectations of us. So, it's like, you can tell that we're gonna have a good year because you're gonna make it fun for us, but you also like, hold us to high expectations. And I was like, oh, I am freaking love that. So, I was so happy. I tried not to, like, overdo it and show them just how happy they made me. But it was kind of hard not to.

So, so just keeping it simple. My first week really, simple. We also started our norming. If you're not familiar with norming, how to norm your class with your students, I have a resource. I'll link it in the chat or not the chat, the show notes for you. If you've done it before and you're like, oh, I need novel ways. I also have a blog on how to norm your class with your class in a novel way. So, I'll link that for you too, if you if you've done it in years past and you're looking for something new, I cannot stress the importance of getting your students voices involved in this process. I did do that, and then we listened to something by Senor Wooley, and did like a word cloud activity, but I've done very little target language. I haven't done nothing, but I've done very little.

The Sponge Activity

The last thing I did was a sponge activity. And I'll post a link to a reel in the show notes, so you can see I filmed this activity. So, you can get an idea of how I did it. I also have a YouTube video of me doing it years and years and years ago during covid. But I brought sponges to class, and I asked for the strongest kid in class to please raise their hand, and several kids did. I arm wrestled them. I let them win, and then I grabbed one of them. I didn't grab them. Sorry. I asked one of them to come up to the front of the classroom and try and wring out a sponge for me, and they could tell it was damp, so I said, as hard as you can wring out the water, and they couldn't do it. And they were very frustrated. They were like, but there's not enough water in it. And I was like, oh, exactly. That's how language acquisition works. Until you've had enough input, you won't be able to output. You need to be flooded with tons and tons of contextualized, robust input to start to output. Input in my classroom is me speaking Spanish to you and us reading Spanish together, or you are reading Spanish individually. That is the water. That is the input that you need to output. And so, I explained it to them. We did the sponge activity, and then I showed them how, if I dunk both sponges in and get them totally saturated, and I taught them that word saturated, when I hold the sponges up, they're both dripping very differently. And I said, you can't compare yourself to the other sponges in this class. You're all soaking in the input, but you're all going to output in different ways. Some of you will be strong writers. Some of you will speak week one. You'll be using Spanish. Others of you are going to need six, seven months before you feel confident in like just saying a couple words in front of your classmates, and that's okay. What's important is that you are showing me that you understand me. That is the number one job you have in this classroom. Is showing me that you understand me, because my job is to make it comprehensible for you. If I ask you a question, you don't answer me, I'm going to first assume that it's because you don't understand me, and whose fault it is it if you don't understand me, they all said, ours, my fault. And I said, no, it's my fault. Because if you're doing your job to watch me with your eyes and listen with your ears, then it's my job to make sure that I'm going slow enough and keeping it comprehensible enough with pausing and pointing or gesturing to make sure that you can understand me. Sound good? And they said, si maestra, so I went slow. I used strategies that I knew were not going to be a ton of work for me. I knew that I could anchor myself to doing the things that I know work and doing the things that I know are going to set me up for success when I do start speaking 100% in the target language, 90 to 98% right? And I entered the year calmly and in a way that felt connected to my students and my classroom. But I didn't do it all. Right? I didn't do it all I did the things that mattered most.

I focused on connection over curriculum. I focused on creating a calm and grounded understanding of what our classroom would be, how our classroom is going to function, and I focused on simple and intentional, purposeful setup of my actual classroom space, because that is far more powerful than the perfect setup. I have never been a Pinterest teacher. I have never been like the teacher that people follow on Instagram because my room is so cute, people follow me for strategies, and that is I know that what is more important right now is not that my room is exactly as I want it to be in December, because things change also. My word walls are going to change by December. What I need is a very simple and purposeful setup that is functional and intentionally ready for my students to be able to feel connected, be able to feel like they can use some of the language in my classroom far more than that perfect setup, right? And I was also able to focus on my joy because my joy equals my student’s joy. If I am enjoying what I am doing, my students are far more likely to enjoy what they're going to do in my classroom. My students could feel how much I love my job from day one, right? And I want them to feel that I am not the teacher that doesn't smile until October. I am a teacher who smiles from day one, who shows them that I'm excited about building a relationship with them and introducing them to language and culture that I am so passionate about, and I am doing so with very high expectations, but my students can feel my joy. I am playing the brain breaks with them. I am smiling. I am using their names. I am praising them when they do say hola. I'm getting so excited at the door when they say hola or when they say buenos dias, right, overjoyed at them having any language at all.

Celebrate Language!

Background, in fact, I had one of my one of my students is a native Chinese speaker, and in the middle of him answering a question, when they were answering yes or no, he said, DUI. And I was like, Oh my gosh. And then he said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. And I said, he said that that's kind of like how you say yes in Chinese, there's not really a yes. And I was like, I know I'm so excited that you're just responding because that means you have another language. How cool that you're in here acquiring your third language. And he said it’s my fourth, because I know quite a bit of French. And I said, how amazing is that? So, I'm celebrating language. I'm celebrating them. They're feeling my joy from day one, and therefore, for feeling a sense of what this class is going to be. I want this class to feel doable. I want these weeks, first weeks, to feel doable for me too, not a whole bunch of extra, because I'm prioritizing connection over curriculum.

Let Me Help You

So, if you are feeling overwhelmed right now, I want you to hear this. You do not have to do it all. In fact, doing less more intentionally is exactly how you're going to build in the calm, connected classroom that you want to have this year. I really want to go deeper on this with you. On August 31 I'm hosting a free workshop. It's called five strategies for a calm, connected and classroom ready start that won't add to your to do list. And you're going to get five simple strategies and a resource toolkit with templates, printables, etc., with ideas and strategies that you can implement immediately in your classroom that will bring that sense of calm connectedness that you are eager to feel at the beginning of the year. It will ensure you're prioritizing the right thing and you're not doing everything, that you're doing the things that matter most, and leaving the rest. You can save your spot if you go to tiny,url.com/5cccloca. And the C's are all lowercase, and so is the loca. So, the number five CCC loca, I will also link it in the show notes for you. I will also be having giveaway prizes. Everybody who attends live receives all the resources. And then there will be some giveaway prizes that will be drawn for at the end, and those include a Spanish class with me. I'm doing two Spanish classes coming up this fall, a spot in one of those, or alternatively, a fly on the wall language lab ticket. I'll be giving away one of those as well. But if a Spanish teacher wins the Spanish class, and they can choose to be a fly on the wall if they'd rather or give the class to somebody they love that wants to acquire Spanish. But the fly on the wall is the ability to attend my Spanish classes online as an observer with your camera off. And then after class is over, we debrief for 30 minutes. You get to ask me any questions you have. We can talk about the strategies I use so that you can use them in your classroom. And then I'll also be giving away a clip chat mini unit valued at $40, and we have that in French, Spanish or English. So those are some of the giveaway prizes I'm giving away at the end of the workshop. But I'm excited and eager to do this with you. I'm really excited to give you the sense of calm and connectedness that I have felt at the start of the year, but I've had to be very intentional about feeling I've had to be very intentional about using the strategies and tools that I'm going to share with you on Sunday the 31st to get that sense of calm, because the sense of overwhelm is, wow, it's powerful, huh? It's always powerful at the start of the school year. But, my goodness, starting at a new school with all new people and all new students and all new all the things, it's a lot. So, I hope to see you there. Tinyurl.com/5cccloca to register and save your spot.

See You Next Time!

Thank you for listening. I am so grateful for you. I hope you have an amazing back to school season. I look forward to connecting with you all year. This year, I have some episodes already ready for you that recap some of the amazing things that we've learned in La Familia loca PLC at our Summer Conference. I'm so excited to share with you, and yeah, lots of amazing things going on at this beginning of the school year season. So, I Look forward to connecting with you soon, and thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening in and supporting me as I support you. Until next time, I'll be teaching la vida loca, and I'm sure you will be too before long, because they're coming like it or not ready or not. back to you soon, bye, bye.