Three Day Weekends

Weekends. Those two days never seem long enough. You get one day to yourself and then another where you are grading papers and lesson planning for the next week. Because let's face it, you tried to get ahead during the week but it never goes as planned. 

 As a teacher I live for the weekends. It's my time to rejuvenate, hang out with my pup and just relax. This weekend especially, getting Monday off, makes it just a little sweeter. I could say it's a four day weekend away from the kids. Today we had a professional development day.

 You know, some of the times, I dread P.D. days. They don't offer sessions that are meaningful or beneficial to my teaching. Well, today was different. I left feeling like I gained some things I could bring back to my classroom.

 First, we watched a movie called Paper Tigers and it was very eye opening. It talked about trauma and how to be trauma sensitive. With the kids I serve everyday, I have to realize that most of them have trauma of some sort. We had a chance to respond to the movie with our school and there are somethings that irritated me about what people said. Sometimes you have to be passive aggressive in your responses if you want to see any changes. And, that's all I'll say about it. 

 My two sessions after lunch were just as productive and meaningful. I learned more about using the Gradual Release model. This was great because the way the lesson was taught was using the RACE method and it was interesting to see how someone else taught it. I love when I'm able to bring things back to my class and actually use it. The other session I was in was The Grid Method, which I saw firsthand at OCTELA. It was great seeing it again, especially after it being one of my last sessions during OCTELA. I learned more this time around than last.

 Overall, it was actually a decent day. Hopefully this weekend I can hit the reset button along with my students and we can all come back on Tuesday ready to roll. We have a few weeks left of the quarter and then testing the week after. We're getting into the nitty gritty of third quarter and testing season.  

Love from the girl who is going to be more optimistic starting with this weekend.