Letter to my Students

Dear Students,

Most of you don't know me yet, but I will be your special education teacher this year.  I'm sure you've already heard some things about special education.  I'm sure classmates have made hurtful comments about special education, or about you leaving class to get extra help.   I know words hurt.  I know it's not as easy as "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me."  So, I will tell you that I can't always be there to tell those kids that those words are inappropriate, unkind, and completely unacceptable.  Instead, I will tell you this.  You are beautiful.  You are resilient.  You may not understand certain things in school as well as your peers, but you have talents and gifts in other areas that surpass any of your limitations.  You may be very artistic, or articulate, or athletic, or maybe you're really funny, or kind, or thoughtful, or a listener, or compassionate.  Maybe your musical, or theatrical, or a dancer, or a leader.  I could go on and on.  Remember your strengths.  Remember your gifts.  Remember that all of us (including your peers) have limitations. We can choose to let those limitations define us and hold us back, or we can choose to understand our limitations, and figure out what we need to do to overcome them.  I urge you to choose the latter.  You are not defined by your disability or your limitations.  You are defined by your character and by who God says you are and how He knit you together.

People will tell you you can't do certain things, or that you'll just have to accept that you're not going to ever be where your peers are.  Don't believe them.  They are wrong.  You can do ANYTHING if you work hard and trust in yourself.  Let's prove them wrong together.

I want you to know how much I care about you.  Even though I haven't met you yet, I am already thinking about you.  I am already thinking about how I  want you to feel when you walk into my classroom.  I am already thinking about what your family is like and how I can support you, and them.  I am already thinking about how to make every minute of my time with you intentional.  I am already thinking about what makes you smile, what you love to do, and how to incorporate those things into my class in a way that makes you feel known, understood, and valued.

I want you to know that every lesson is carefully thought through and prepared.  I want you to know that every time I plan a lesson, I think about every child in that class.  "What do they need?  How can I make them feel supported?"  I want you to know that I wake up at 3 in the morning thinking about the lesson that didn't go so well yesterday, or about that one student I am just having a hard time reaching.  

I want you to know that I am a person.  I have a real life.  And I have real feelings.  And even though they always tell us as teachers not to take things personally, I still do, and probably will for as long as I teach.  Not because I'm too sensitive or haven't developed thick teacher skin, but because I really care about you, and hate when I feel like I have failed you.  I want you to know that I discipline you not to make you feel bad, but because I care too much and love you too much to let you settle for anything less than what you are capable of.  And I want you to know that even when you are upset with me or don't want to have anything to do with me, I will keep pursuing you.  It will probably annoy you sometimes, but I will keep loving you.

I want you to know that I care about you succeeding academically, yes, that you'll make great gains in reading and math... but I care more about what kind of person you are and will become.  More than being academically successful, I want you to be someone who loves people well, who works hard, humbles yourself constantly to become better, to be compassionate, to contribute to your community and world in a way that is glorifying and beautiful to Jesus.

I want you know that even if you do not believe in God, that I will pray for you.  That I will always ask God to protect you, and that you would know of his heart for you.

I want you to know that after this year, after you move on, I will still think about you all of the time.  I will still think about what you are doing, where you are, and if I did as much as I could have to help and support you as a teacher.  I will wonder if I taught you the things you needed to know and if you are applying them in your life.  Most of all, I will wonder if you felt cared for and loved and known in my classroom.

All of these things, I want you to know.

Love,

Ms. Erin

2 Years In

Wow, my last post was from my first month of teaching 2 years ago.  I guess you could say I've been a little busy!  And here I am again, attempting to write another blog post!  There is no way I could possibly summarize my last 2 years in a single blog post, so I'll just try to write some key points:

• The first year of teaching is hard.  Really hard.  I worked harder than I ever did in my life.  I probably cried more than I ever did.  I never imagined it would be as hard it was.  I also never imagined I would get to find a job that was so rewarding and I was so passionate about.  I am honored to be a teacher and am grateful every day for the choice I made to become a teacher and for the opportunities I get to hear stories of resilient kids and to speak love and truth into their hearts.
• My first year I taught a little bit of everything (quite literally)... 2nd graders, 4th graders, 8th graders, and all grades in between.  I taught general education reading classes, along with handling a heavy case load (2 SPED teachers for a K-8 school with 650 students... you can do the math), teaching math, reading, social skills, and more.  Baptism by fire.  Sometimes I look back and am amazed I actually made it through that first year.  I think it is only by the grace and mercy of God that I made it.
• Year 2 felt like night and day compared to year 1.  I focused primarily on middle school, with a few upper elementary groups.  We had an additional SPED teacher, smaller case loads, my relationships with students were stronger, and I had a much better grasp on our jobs.  My students were making significant growth, teaching was becoming easier (although easier is subjective), and I was really enjoying what I was doing.  
• At the same time, I felt like my school was not the greatest fit for me.  As I evolved over the past 2 years, my teaching philosophy continued to adjust and shift, I was still battling for special education to have a voice in my school, and was really not getting the support or resources I needed for my students.  I also felt that I wanted to focus more on upper elementary- after 2 years with middle school, I began to think middle school may not be for me long-term, but I always loved teaching my upper elementary students. It was with a heavy heart that I decided to not return for year 3 at that school, and so I began to pursue SPED positions at other schools in Denver.  
• As I pursued other job opportunities, sending out resumes, attending interviews, etc., I ran into my former Instructional Coach, who took a job last year at an expeditionary learning school in Denver.  She told me they were looking for a new SPED teacher and honestly, I feel like I hit a jackpot.  This school follows a unique model, and its core beliefs and values align so incredible well with mine.  I am joining a very strong SPED team, with veteran teachers who are positive, passionate, and hard-working.  I get to focus on teaching 4th and 5th grade students with Mild/Moderate needs.  As each day gets closer to the school year to begin, I continue to get more excited and feel more and more lucky for this opportunity God has so graciously provided me.  
• Oh, and I got married.  Yes, in the last 2 years, I met and married an amazing man, and am entering the incredible season of marriage.  I am so lucky and blessed and learning each day how to be the wife God has called me to be. 
• Obviously it's summer right now, and I'm not always the best at keeping up with these blogs, but I will try to post more, to reflect more, and to include some helpful resources for SPED teachers... resources I wish I would have had a few years ago.  Wish me luck!!

Sweet Moments in the Midst of Chaos

  Well, Monday is October 1st.  That means I've made it through over a month of teaching. Whew!  The last month has had me through an emotional rollercoaster-- moments of joy, frustration, inspiration, and hope.  Each day I walk into my school with no clue what is going to happen.  I can come in with a very  thought out plan, and the next minute it's been turned completely upside down.  My mentor teacher mentioned to me the other day that a big part of being a Special Educator is using the "f word"-- flexibility!  That seems like an understatement!  I am in a school with some hard kids from hard backgrounds-- a lot of my kiddos have been through way more stuff than I could even fathom, and I completely admire their bravery and strength and perseverance.  Even though I have days where I wonder what the heck is going on, I have so many joyful moments with kids and I feel so privileged and honored when I have the opportunity to speak words of love and affirmation into kids.
  This week, I felt like God provided so many awesome opportunities for me to love on them.  Because the special education office is right next to the room where the kids with referrals come (i.e. kids that are really misbehaving in class), sometimes I end up being the adult supervisor with the kiddos.  Earlier this week, a little 1st grade girl came into the room, screaming and crying her eyes out.  I told her to take a few deep breaths.  Still screaming and crying.  I told her to sit down for a minute.  Still screaming and crying.  What else should I do?  Okay, here it goes, I'm going to try to sing to her... I sure hope no one walks in right now to hear my horrible voice.  I start singing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."  Crying stops immediately.  I was like, what the heck just happened?  It was amazing.  And then, this sweet little smile came onto her face, and we started to calm down, and I asked her to explain to me why she was sent to the office and what we were going to do differently next time.  Such a sweet moment with this young girl.
  I have another student in my morning reading class that has a disorder that causes him to yell out frequently.  It is really distracting to my class sometimes, but God has really allowed me to pull out the strengths this child has and recognize the beautiful things that make up this little class clown.  This student has such a gift for making other people laugh, even though sometimes as a teacher, it makes me crazy because I don't need any kids egging him on to keep doing it!  But bringing laughter to people is such a wonderful gift!!  He also has such a gift for advocating for his needs.  I ask him frequently what kinds of things we need to do to help him with the yelling out.  I make charts for him, goal sheets, give him breaks during class, time him, etc.  On Friday he came up to me and said, "oh yeah, Miss, I forgot to tell you about a chart that would really help me."  He sat down with me and helped me draw out the chart and showed me how it would work for him.  Then he said, "If you could remember to do that on Monday, that would really help me."  What a great skill that this child has already developed to advocate for his special needs!!  That's my hope for every student that has special needs-- that they would understand what they need in the classroom to be successful, and have the courage to ask for it.
  And last, but not least, I had a student that came to me after class crying on Friday.  She told me that other girls told her no one wants to be her partner because she's not smart and no one likes her.  It makes me so mad when kids bully their peers.  I remember being that little girl.  I remember being the victim of the bullying and how much it hurt.  I had such a privilege to sit with this young, sweet girl and give her a big hug and tell her I know how hard that must be and that the things those girls were telling her were lies.  She was smart, she was a kind and sweet young woman, and that is the truth.
  Even though I have days where I wonder what the heck I am doing and why I am teaching, if I just have 3 moments like this each week with kids, that is enough to affirm exactly why I am there-- to love kids-- to give them hope-- to believe in them.  I am honored to be in that school.  I have such a privilege to work with these kids, and it is such a privilege when they invite me into their lives.  I am so grateful, and know that these moments will carry me through.

Crazy Weeks!

Whew.  I've officially made it through the first two weeks of school.  I've always heard friends that are teachers tell me how exhausted they are at the end of their day, but I don't think I fully understood the type of exhaustion they were experiencing until I stepped into it myself-- it's a heart, mind, and soul job.      Daily I'm challenged in unique and different ways and I love it.  I would have to say though, so far my favorite part is the moments I get to have with kids.  When I get to walk down a hallway and hear about how their day has been, and when they dare to share a little piece of their life with me, those are the moments that I treasure the most.  Next week, I'll get to begin my services for kids with special needs, and I am beyond thrilled to start working with kiddos each day to build relationships and to help them access the tools that they need to access the general education curriculum.  I feel honored that God has asked me to step into this role and into this place, and even though some days even in the first few weeks have been beyond challenging, I know why I'm here and feel privileged to be able to speak truth and love into kids.  I can't say that every day is easy.  Sometimes kids like to test and challenge me in ways that I never expected, but I am thankful for new days, for fresh starts, and to learn and grow from the mistakes I make.

So, that's where I'm at.  Now that I'll actually begin my direct contact with kids on Tuesday, I'm sure I'm going to have a lot more stories!  The last few weeks have been testing, scheduling, working with gen ed teachers, trying to meet some of my students, and occasional teaching.  Now it's the real deal and I'm ready to roll! (Well, as ready as I can be...)


2 Weeks of Pre-Made Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner Made in a Day!
And now for the fun part, where I get to share with you crafty ideas, food fun, etc... with the last few weeks being hectic, I knew that I wasn't going to have a ton of time to cook some healthy and delicious food.  I also didn't want to resort to eating frozen meals every day because of all the extra preservatives, sodium, and I just never feel quite full after eating them.  So instead, I managed to find a few recipes that allowed me to make healthy breakfasts, lunches, and dinner that I could make with fresh ingredients, freeze, and then take out of the freezer whenever I was ready to go.  That's right, I made almost two weeks worth of meals (breakfast to dinner) in about a day of preparation that are healthy and delicious, and you can too!  So, here's how...

(My freezer...)

Dinner                   Lunch                Breakfast 

Breakfast

Most days for breakfast, I have some cereal or oatmeal, but sometimes there are just those days where I sleep a little later, move a little slower, and need something I can just run out the door with to eat.  I found this website that has pre-made, healthy egg mcmuffins-- you can use whole wheat english muffins, eggs (or egg whites), turkey sausage, and reduced-fat cheese for a pretty good breakfast sandwich that you can grab out of your freezer, heat in the microwave, and go!  

Lunch
For lunch, I found some recipes for pre-made wraps.  I found some Bean, Spinach, and Quinoa Burritos on the Real Simple website that I really like.  They are healthy, delicious, and you can just take them out of the freezer and reheat in the microwave.  (Directions for reheating are on both of these recipe websites).  I also made some barbeque chicken wraps.  I made the barbeque chicken with just three ingredients in a crockpot-- throw chicken, a bottle of barbeque sauce, and pineapples into a crockpot for about 6-7 hours on low (Recipe found here).  Once the chicken is cooked, I mixed it with some rice, and then just threw it onto a tortilla and made a few wraps out of it.  I then froze them and reheated them in the microwave for about 2 minutes.  Sometimes I even like eating them cold!  There are tons of other pre-made wraps you can make by just throwing some things together.  I think my next attempt will be a mexican style wrap, with black beans, onions, peppers, chili powder, rice, avocado, ground turkey breast, etc... once I try it out I'll be happy to share!

Dinner
So, last, but certainly not the least-- dinner!  Over the last year, I have really fallen in love with my crockpot.  I've found so many easy and healthy recipes to make and there is nothing better than coming home after work to your crockpot meal that is ready to eat and has the kitchen smelling like you've been cooking yummy things all day!  I found this link on Pinterest that has 28 dump chicken recipes .  Here is what I love about it: the recipes are super easy, very healthy, and most of the ingredients you probably already have!  The website gives instructions on how to make them freezer meals and how to reheat out of the freezer.  I found about 6 or 7 recipes that I really liked, and made them all freezer meals.  Now, whenever I want an easy dinner, I just need to take the freezer meal out of the freezer the night before, put it into the fridge to thaw, and the next morning, just toss it into the crockpot so that it's ready for dinner that night!  Easy enough, right??


So, I hope these recipes make your crazy weeks a little easy, and give you comfort that you're eating good and healthy meals even in the midst of craziness!!

Time for the Olympics (and some tasty and easy appetizers)!

Yes, it's that time again for the Olympics.  I've watched more tv in the last few days than I have in years between the opening ceremonies (which I consider a learning opportunity, since I discovered there are many more countries than I realized!), gymnastics, swimming, etc.  On Friday night, one of my friends had an Opening Ceremonies party.  It was so cute-- she had Olympic themed decorations, and everyone needed to come as a country, with food that matched their country.  Since I realized I needed to come as a country just a few short hours before the party, I had to whip something together real fast!  Considering my background, I decided to go as Italy.  I found some red, green, and white to wear to represent the flag colors, and then was able to find a few things in my fridge to make easy and delicious pizza bites!  Not only did they go with my theme, but they're quick, easy, cheap, delicious, and great to bring as an appetizer for any party!  

Here's what you need:

-Mini-muffin tin pan

-Cooking spray

-Pizza crust dough (I used the Pillsbury classic crust)

-Pizza sauce

-Mozzarella & Cheddar cheese 

-Any toppings you want to add (I just made cheese pizza bites, both because I didn't have any great toppings around my apartment, and because I knew I was going to a place with a few vegetarians!)

1) First, spray the pan with cooking spray.  Then, take out the dough, and fill each muffin cup about half way with pizza dough.  Press your thumb into the center of each cup so that it creates a little space for you to put sauce/cheese into:

2) Then, add your sauce!  I took about a spoonful of the sauce and added it to the center of each mini-pizza:

3) Now, add your cheese!  I put a heaping teaspoon of mozzarella and cheddar cheese onto each mini-pizza.  (Also add any other toppings you want at this time.  You could put a pepperoni onto the top of each one of them, throw on some finely chopped veggies, etc!)

4) That's it!  Now all you need to do is stick them in the oven, and bake them for the amount of time that you see on the packaged directions for the pizza dough.  Once you see it's brown around the edges and starting to bubble, you should be good to go!

Now you have some easy tasty appetizers to bring to a party!  Here's a picture of me and two of my best girlfriends at our Opening Ceremonies Party!  I added a little extra pizazz by throwing some construction paper on top of my red pan to make my Italian flag to go with the pizza bites!  Enjoy :)

Summer Free Time: A new blog and fabric flower tutorial!

Here I go again... my 12th attempt at starting a blog (maybe not 12th, but might as well be!).  Now that it's summer, I have a little bit of free time... come fall, we'll see if this continues... I'll make my best attempt!

So, here goes.  I'm becoming a teacher.  Yes, that seems crazy to say.  I never thought I would hear myself say that.  I went to school for business, graduated college, stayed in the business world for three years, but found my world being turned upside down as I started to work with middle school and high school students in my city.  I found a new passion was placed on my heart and I had a deep desire to serve the kids here in Denver.  I wanted to find a way to build relationships with kids, to see them more often throughout the week, and to instill in them the belief that each kid is truly beautiful in a unique way, and each one has a different story that has shaped them to be who they are.  I want to help them cover the lies they've believed about themselves with words of truth, love, and hope.  And so, here I am.  Next month, I'll begin teaching at a school in Denver-- I'll be working closely with middle school students in Special Ed and doing some intervention work with multiple grades.  I am thrilled that God has opened the doors to put me here, and know that I have a lot to learn, but willingly accept the challenge with confirmation that this is exactly where I need to be right now.

I hope that in this blog, I can share the victories, challenges, and blessings that come through my teaching experience, and also through my daily life in this city.  Through this blog, I hope to share my experiences and ideas in teaching, fun DIY projects to do easily and cheaply (yes, a crafty side has come out of me that I didn't know I had), fun cooking recipes that I receive or come up with, and more than anything, I love to see where God is moving in and through my daily life and it is a privilege to be able to share what I'm learning about Him each day.

Fabric Flower Tutorial:

So today, I'll start with something fun... with it being summer, I have just a little downtime before school starts.  Yes, it's been crazy with multiple trainings, but I do happen to have a few days in between where I get to relax.  Since I love crafting more than organizing or cleaning (ha), I'm spending some free time doing some fun and cheap projects.  One of my favorite projects that is cheap, easy, and practical are fabric flowers.  You can pin them in your hair with a bobby pin, pin them on a scarf or purse for decoration, etc.!

And you only need a few materials:
-one piece of paper
-an old t-shirt
-glue (I've used both glue guns and Tacky Glue, but glue guns work a little better and keep it more secure)
-safety pin

So here is the first step

1)Draw a flower about the size that you want the fabric flower to be-- I usually make it about 2 to 3 inches long and wide:

2) Then, pin it to your t-shirt and trace and cut the flower out.  You'll want to cut 8 of these out.  Usually, if I have a pin on it, I'll over lap the fabric so that I can cut multiple flowers at a time.  This saves a little time and energy:

3) Then, I cut a small piece out of the left-over t-shirt fabric that's about an inch long and 1/2 inch wide.  I've seen some people use felt, which seems to work well for this, but I didn't have any in my apartment, so I just used the t-shirt fabric and it worked fine (This will be the base of your flower):

4) Now that I have the basics done, I'll take each flower, and fold it half way over (hot dog-style):

5) Then, I fold it one more time half way (hamburger-style).  I usually put a small dot of glue in between these layers so that they stay folded:

 6) Next, I take 4 of my fully folded flowers, and I place them over the base of my flower that i cut out earlier.  I glue each one onto the base.  I usually put a big dot of glue in the middle as well to make it extra secure:

 7) Then, I took my next 4 flowers that were fully folded, and layered them on top of the first layer.  I layered them so that they were on top in the opposite direction.  In other words, I placed each one over one of the cracks in between each flower from the first layer.  Does that make sense?  I'm struggling to find the right words to explain it, so post a comment if it's confusing!

 8) To give the flowers a little more volume, I took the edges of each of the top 4 flowers and glued them together like this:

9) Now, I want to put something in the center of the flower to finish it off.  You could just glue a bead or rhinestone or something cute on the center, but I didn't have any around, so I cut a small piece of t-shirt fabric, a little over an inch long.  Then, I rolled it tightly, glueing it along the way:

10) Then, I put a dot of glue at the center of the flower, and placed my glued center into the middle:

11) To make it a little more secure, I stuck a little glue on the outside of my center and glued it to the edges of my flower.  This creates a little more volume as well:

12) Once the glue is dried, flip it over, and glue a pin onto the flower so that you can pin it!  At the time, i just had a simple pin like the one below, but you can find some in the jewelry section at craft stores that have a flat surface on one side (see second picture of white flower for example), which makes them easier to glue and stay.  You could also glue a hair pin onto it instead if that's your preference.  Again, I'm just using things I have around my place! :)

And there you have it, now you have a beautiful fabric flower you can wear for any occasion!  You can make all sorts of colors, depending on what t-shirt fabric you have.  Here's another one I made in white:

I have a few more fun ways you can make fabric flowers... my next flower tutorial will be this style-- enjoy!!