Mid-Winter Break

For those of you who don't live in Seattle, we have this lovely little thing called Mid-Winter Break.  It's a glorious week in the middle of February that we have off, giving students and teachers alike the chance to relax and recharge their batteries.  This was the first break in my short 3.5 years of teaching that I did no school work! I didn't even check my email until Sunday night.  It took a little prep work before break to make it possible, so I had lessons for the week after break planned, and all copies and such for the first two days done, but it was SO worth it! As amazing as it was, my brain had really hard time adjusting to school again last Monday.  My sleep schedule was off and I spelled Washington wrong on the board, which is beyond scary... Not only have I lived here my entire life, but I went to the University of Washington and have a plethora of UW stuff around my room... I'm hoping this week is things are clicking a little more :)

So how did I spend my week you might ask? Tropical vacation lounging on the beach, Vegas perhaps? Nope! I did absolutely nothing!  Ok that's a lie... I did a few things, but it didn't travel anywhere, I didn't make any set plans, I just took each day as it came... Which, for those of you that know me well know, that is not something I ever do!  So I did yoga, got lunch with my friend Em, went night skiing with my dad and my brother, sewed a bunch of cute workout tank tops (which you can find on my Etsy site here), and raided the dollar section of Target for things I absolutely NEEDED for my classroom.  And by needed I mean I loved them and convinced myself they can be used in my classroom, in what capacity exactly, I'm not sure haha 

I got all of this amazing stuff for only $20! Like total for all that loot! I was so excited, as you can probably tell... That's bargain shopping my mom would be proud of :)

Stay tuned for more classroom happenings and this weeks outfits :)

Until next time, 

Karissa

Pinterest, Etsy & Classroom Decor

If you are anything like me, you have a terrible addiction to Pinterest.  And of course by terrible, I mean terribly wonderful! I LOVE Pinterest, can't get enough of it.  From clothes, to make-up, to recipes to crafts, and of course what I will need to include in the future luxury home I will design and build, which as a public school teacher is right around the corner... regardless its AMAZING.  This summer while looking at stuff for said future house, I came across a few classroom set up posts.  While I was still blissfully enjoying my summer in early August, in most of the teachers in the country were preparing their classrooms.  You see, in Washington, we don't start school until after Labor Day, most years anyway (we started before Labor Day once I can remember). After realizing 85 million teachers posted classroom pics on Pinterest (not sure why I didn't think of this before) I had the awesome advantage of seeing all 85 million classroom before I even thought about setting up mine.  And thus I got to steal borrow, with the utmost flattery, ideas from classrooms all over the country! It was the great! 

You can see my classroom decor post here in case you missed it.  I already knew my theme and colors, yes I teach middle school and still have a classroom theme, vintage school house, I was able to tailor things I had seen to what I wanted, and take advantage of JoAnn Fabric and Michaels coupons to do so cheaply! After a few requests from some fellow educators, and a few non-educator friends for my classroom clipboards I decided to make a few and throw them up on Etsy.  Which has inspired a classroom decor Etsy shop. It is newly opened, as of 10 minutes ago actually, and thus only has a few items up, but feel free to take a gander here and buy a fun clipboard or glittery letter wall hanging :)

Just one of my classroom clipboards, that I LOVE... so vintage and polka-dotty and fun!

Until next time,

Karissa

The Week of Valentine's Day

This is always a fabulous week in the middle school world, and by fabulous I mean terrible... The kiddos take Valentine's day WAY to serious.  I had three different kids ask me if I thought their significant other would like flowers or chocolate better... I wanted to say, if you really cared about them you would surprise them with these things or whatever it is they like at random times throughout the year, not just on the day when society says you should.... Then I remembered that I teach middle school, where my manicure lasts longer than relationships and they don't really know the person they want to buy said cliche items for anyway... Not wanting to be responsible for ruining someone's life, aka suggesting the wrong Valentine's gift, I told them to ask the friends of said valentine, and not to bring those things to school, don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

But alas, they will anyway and on Friday I will hear all about they can't believe how so-and-so brought her#1 candy because he was Facebook messaging her#2 last night and can you believe that... Or the poor girl who's valentine dropped the ball and forgot... or the relationship that will inevitably end... Let's face it, Valentine's day is a mess in middle school and high school. We have our annual Valentine's Day Dance on the actual holiday this year, which will just add to the excitement.  We do our dances during the school day so the kiddos have the last two periods of the day off and teachers supervise. If you haven't been to middle school dance since your own, I suggest you chaperone one sometime, they are something else! 

Don't get me wrong, there are parts of Valentine's Day I LOVE, like candy, and old school Disney Princess valentines, that I might or might not still give to friends every year, and making my famous sugar cookies :) So I will be participating in those aspects of the holiday... And of course wear awesomely flamboyant heart themed Target dollar store jewelery! Check out my V-Day cookie bundles from two years ago (I was sick last year).

Hand drawn pinup card, lips and hearts sugar cookies, homemade "tagalongs"

Don't worry, the cards didn't go to the bundles for fellow teachers! Looking forward to making these again this year :) I hope you all have a love filled and drama free Valentine's Day!

Until next time, 

Karissa

A Spirited Wednesday

For those of you that aren't Seattlites or transplants to Emerald City, you may not know that today was the Seahawks Super Bowl parade through downtown Seattle.  Much to the disappointment of many teachers, administrators and students, school was not canceled.... and because everyone in their right mind who could go obviously went, I couldn't get a sub :( As you can imagine I was a little sad and bummed out.  You can also imagine what a classroom on a day like today would look like.  Fortunately for many of my students, a lot of parents took them out of school to go to the parade, which I think is awesome and wholeheartedly support.  So I had on average 10 kids a class, which certainly cut down on the potential shenanigans that were a real possibility if all 30+ students per class had shown up.

How can you not love the LOB?!  Anyway.... back to the whole classroom thing...

So what do you do on a day like this? Obviously I don't want kids to miss out on learning, and since 2/3 of my students were absent, introducing new material seemed like a bad idea.... So we did some goal setting/ reflecting and talked about the impact of the Seattle winning the Super Bowl on the state of Washington. I mean I do teach Washington state history after all.... It was awesome and I think my kids learned more about the economic, social and business impacts a major event like the Super Bowl has on a city and state... Can I do small group seminar class all the time?! It was fricken AWESOME! Obviously it's not possible or sustainable when I teach 150 kids a day to do as often as I would like, but I WILL find a way to make it happen some way or another! 

And now on to creating the perfect seating chart, I'm trying out Love, Teach's method, and so far I really like it, makes me really stop and think about each kid and specific child groupings, see her post on how she does it here! By the way, if you don't already read her blog, you should, it is hysterically and brutally honest which I love and makes me feel sane that I'm not the only one :)

Until next time,

Karissa

P.S. The fabulous reflection/goal worksheet I used with my kids was page 5 from this awesome & creative online journal, from Grace is Overrated found here!

World Champs & Coffee

As most of you know, I live in Seattle. I was born and raised here and I can't think of a better place; I absolutely LOVE my city.  And guess what?! My city, my Seahawks just won the Super Bowl!!! To say I'm excited is the understatement of the century, my city is literally off the hook right now and I love it. Woo hoo, Go Hawks! Now with that out of the way, let me tell you about the down side to this amazing alignment of the stars, this phenomenal victory.... The kiddos are going to be absolutely NUTS tomorrow, like beyond crazy!  It makes me wish there were enough of the books we are using for this unit for all three classes.

In my 7th grade class we use The History of Us books for certain units, like our current unit on The North (industrialism).  Unfortunately we only have two class sets and there are three 7th grade social studies classes during 2nd period, which means one of our classes does guided notes on Monday and the reading on Tuesday, which I actually love. The kiddos get a little background knowledge before the in-depth reading... The flaw in this for tomorrow is guided notes are generally less structured. Sure they are taking guided notes, but during which we have whole class discussions; I allow students to verbalized their thought process as they are making connections from their notes to prior knowledge.  It's a great way for them to process information but I can visualize how it will go tomorrow. 

Me: alright ladies and gentlemen, as you have all written down, we are talking about industrialism in the North today, who remembers what industrialism means without looking in your notebook? Kiddo*, you want to try?

Kiddo: Oh, nah, but did you see Percy Harvin run that field last night?!

Me: That does not tell me if you know what indus... (Cut off by another kiddo)

Kiddo 2: Man them hawks were on fire, Ms Willhite did you watch, I was like dayyyymmmm, they were doing the thing last night, I mean...(cut off by another kiddo)

Kiddo 3: Russell Wilson will be my husband

Me: Clap once if you can hear me *clap*, clap twice if you can hear me *clap, clap*, we have history we need to get through, IF and only if we get through our notes today will be talk about the Super Bowl for the last few minutes of class, but we need to do our work and stay on task.

And they will huff and puff and getting through the lesson will be a struggle but it will happen. But it will be the same fight in all 6 class periods.  I think by lunch I'll be needing a nap, those struggles are exhausting in one class period, after six they might as well cast me on The Walking Dead.  Because of this, I will be drinking coffee tomorrow... I don't ever drink coffee, like EVER. 

 I started drinking coffee in grad school when I was taking a double course load, student teaching full time (my student teaching involved me being handed a text book and the master teacher saying good luck and heading to the staff lounge, so really I was teaching full time, with some lesson planning help), and working part time.  Looking back I'm not sure how I did it, but I realize that coffee was probably a big part of it. Until I started getting headaches from it, like terrible, head on table, don't talk to me headaches. Doc recommended I stop drinking coffee, so I did, and guess what, no more headaches! Since then I have a mocha every now and then when I really need a boost, but it's rare; I'm talking like once ever 2-3 months rare. 

Anyways, like I was saying I think tomorrow I will drink coffee, or at least put some coffee in a thermos to have at lunch.  Well wish me luck, I will need all the gods and karma and on my side tomorrow, and coffee to get my kiddos the information they need, work on their non-fiction text skills and to keep my sanity :) 

Until next time,

Karissa

*don't worry, don't actually call on my kids by calling them kiddo

A New Year and an End to Blog Hibernation

Yes, the blog has been reborn!  It was never my intention to stop blogging, to say the last few months have been a little hectic would be the understatement of the century, but everyone in the teaching profession knows how the holidays make life a little more challenging... everyone is counting down the days until Winter Break, then after two weeks off students are in what I call a holiday hangover mode.  Most of them have spent the last two weeks staying up late, sleeping in, using the bathroom whenever they want, eating when they feel like it and not doing any school work.  You would think two weeks was an entire summer or even year off the way they look at you when ask them to get out their notebooks... if looks could kill there wouldn't be any teachers after holiday break.  To compound the craziness that is the holidays, I got sick... yes, I know what you're thinking "you and everyone else on the planet" but this year was a disaster of epic proportions on that front! 

Every year I tend to get sick either right before or right after Halloween, either strep or a sinus infection... its like clockwork... I either get the sinus pressure or the sore throat, go to the doctor, get antibiotics, spend a day or two feeling crappy but still teach and then life goes on as normal and I don't even get a sniffle the rest of the school year.  It was right after Halloween this year when a fellow teacher asked "This is your third full year right? Have you had the year from sickness hell yet?" To which I replied, "yep, third year, and no, I just get sick once a year and then I'm good to go", she chuckled and went on to explain how EVERYONE has the year from sickness hell either year 3 or 4 and that she wished me luck... not 24 hours later I started feeling the familiar sinus pressure and stuffy nose, so I immediately made a doctor's appointment.  My usual doctor was not available, but I wasn't worried about it, I mean I just have a sinus infection, pretty standard.  Well, one would think anyway... the conversation with the doc went like this:

Doc: so what brings you in? (I hate this question, I already told the nurse and the reception people when I made the appointment and I know its on the screen you just looked at and read so why are you asking?)
Me: I think I have a sinus infection, stuff/runny nose alternating, a LOT of sinus pressure, headache, overall feeling a little under the weather and slight sore throat.
Doc: Well that certainly sounds like it could be a sinus infection, how long have you had the symptoms?
Me: About a week, week and a half (and this is where I'm a terrible person, I just lied to the doc, but if you say since today or yesterday they say "go home, rest, lots of fluids and come back after a week", but I know my body and what a sinus infection feels like, so please just give me the damn antibiotics so I can get back to trying to create a seating chart for my class that makes me practice yoga to stay sane)
Doc: Well, I'm hesitant to give you any antibiotics if its only been a week, we don't want people to become antibiotic resistant (either he knew I was lying or he thinks I take antibiotics for fun on Friday nights, once a year won't kill me)
Me: I understand, but I'm a teacher and I really need to get back in my classroom, and since it's been over a week now, I would feel more comfortable getting something to treat it, so I can feel better.
Doc: Well, I think you should take another week off of work, get some rest, drink some tea, and if you still have these symptoms after another week come back
Me: *looking at him in disbelief* Um ok... (I didn't know what to say, which doesn't happen often... looking back this was my omen that sickness hell was headed my way)

He wished me luck, told me to get some sleep and left... I spent the rest of November and all of December with colds on and off, rotating cough, sore throat, stuff/runny nose, etc. catching up on school stuff when I was feeling better. Then I got the flu right after holiday break, out for a WEEK, yes an entire week... After being out one day you can count on needing two or three to get order back, with your kiddos and your classroom... after a week it was Armageddon.

I have spent the last two weeks trying to undo the disaster that occurred, it looked like a hoarder and a hurricane had a love child that wreaked havoc on my classroom... oh and did I mention the semester ended this past Thursday... so there you have it, the last three months, and reasoning behind my blog being in hibernation. 

So this past week I decided that I really need to feel like I was in control, on top of grades and just over all fierce (in reality I was just trying to get grading done, to then get semester grades done, and create meaningful lessons)... but regardless that's my motto for 2014, Be Fierce! It came from this post which I have adopted as my mantra for the new year:

I decided a fierce outfit was the perfect way to get this started!

 Black Blazer (Kenna-T-Nordstrom Rack) T-Shirt (Etsy) Cream Lace Tank (Wilfred-Aritzia) Black Skinny Jean w/ Coated Tuxedo Stripe (Joe's Jeans-Nordstrom Rack) Lipstick (Russian Red-MAC)

Can you tell I love The Rack?! Well really I love Nordstrom, but I'm a public school teacher with students loans to pay, but that doesn't mean I can't look fabulous, therefore The Rack is like my shopping Heaven! The jeans are my new favorite thing, I wore them 3 days in the last 2 weeks!

I swear I smile usually, I'm just not photogenic but I'm working on it!

I apologize for the novel, I really don't actually know how to say things in a concise fashion.  Stay tuned for actual teacher stuff and fabulous outfits :)

Until next time,

Karissa

A Week of Fall Fashion

As promised, a weeks worth of fall fashion... Just a few days later than planned.  I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately.  I had a few days where I wasn't feeling great, all of these colds going around at school one of them got me, it wasn't a bad cold, more annoying, which of course led to me not tidying up my classroom as I should have.  After a few days of this my classroom was starting to feel like Professor Jones office in the Indiana Jones movies, which isn't such a great thing.  On Friday I had some extra energy (and was at my breaking point with the mess) so I made a to-do list and got started!   Still a long way to go for complete happiness and organization but I'm feeling less overwhelmed and I was able to accomplish a LOT over this work filled weekend! Thus the blog was shifted to the back burner, sorry! I really had to do something before the Seattle Times headline read "Teacher crushed by stacks of books, ungraded papers and unit tests in Seattle classroom" lol  

Monday: 

Black Silk Blouse (t. Babaton-Aritzia) Black Pants (Michael Kors-Nordstrom Rack)

I LOVE this outfit! The blouse is a staple of my wardrobe.  I splurged on it back when I was working two jobs and it was worth every penny of its $90 price tag! I want to buy a sleeveless one in black too or one with a fun pattern! The pants a new addition to the closet.  I need more teaching pieces for my wardrobe but I wanted pieces with interest.  These straight leg black pants with gold zipper details were just the ticket! Even better, I bought them at the Rack on red tag clearance :) 

Tuesday: 

Black long sleeve (BP-Nordstrom) Dress (Ella Moss-Barney's New York)

This outfit probably looks familiar... It's basically the same outfit I wore last week, but without the denim vest and a different BP black longsleeve, yes I have more than one, this one is a little bit longer and super soft! 

Wednesday:

Bordeaux Sweater (t.babaton-Aritzia) Pants (Mossimo-Target) Boots (Steve Madden)

As you all know if you've read previous posts, I LOVE these boots! They are amazingly comfortable and have just the right amount of sass via the gold spikes :) 

Thursday: 

Black Maxi Skirt (Nordstrom Rack- I cut out the tag, it itched so I don't know the brand) Striped Tank ( J Crew-sale rack) Lace Sweatshirt (Free People-Mom for Christmas via Macys)

I'm not sure why I hadn't thought to put these pieces together before, I've had them all for over a year and I love them all individually but then I had a stroke of genius Wednesday night when I was picking out an outfit, I decided I wanted to do the cute and comfy thing for Thursday, it was going to be a day with less an the optimal amount of sleep, so comfy was a necessity! Also, a few of my students asked me what I looked like without makeup, which I thought was interesting since I don't wear a ton of makeup anyways but I decided to oblige their curiosity and go makeup free on Thursday... Ok maybe I applied a thin, single coat of mascara, but that's it! 

Friday: 

Purple and Gold Sweats (Husky Atheltic Department Surplus), T-Shirt (UW bookstore), Black Zip-up Hoodie (America Appearl via Mak's Closet), Black Vest (The North Face via Mak's Closet) 

Oh how I love Fridays! Not only do we get to wear college gear, but it was W Day in Seattle, which is the Friday before the UW Huskies homecoming football game, and thus gives everyone in Seattle the excuse to wear even more husky gear than normal! 

So there you have it! I promise to put some academics in the blog this week not just clothes :)

Unit next time,

Karissa