I'm tired

If you read last week, you'll know that I had a pretty good week. This week, however, was a busy and exhausting week. There was a lot of energy in our classroom this week (was it the snowstorm on Monday night that did it?), so classroom management was definitely on high alert. This isn't to say that the students were mean to each other or anything like that (they have continued to be fairly respectful to one another), but there was definitely some disrespect when it came to classroom expectations and routines. So, we did a lot of mindful breathing activities and tried to use up some excess energy with GoNoodle videos, along with some consistent reminders and practicing of expectations.

I had a problem-solving meeting to discuss a students who has had some pretty serious behavior issues as of late, and it was nice to brainstorm possible solutions with this group. One great resource that I got from the meeting was http://www.pbisworld.com/  It's a nice website that identifies specific behaviors that you are trying to help students work through. Looking at the website, it was nice to identify the strategies I already use, but it was also a good reminder of ones I haven't tried.

Tonight we had spring parent-teacher conferences (this was a big week for meetings). I had very productive conferences, reviewing the things that have been going well and identifying things that we still need to work on, and helping the students to set goals for these last 3 months (holy cow!) of school. The last day of school is going to be here before I know it...

Well, as I said, I'm tired. I'll catch up with you next week...

Mindfulness thought for the week: Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions. --Dalai Lama

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