The Little Young Lady Who Was Afraid of Everything

I'm a scaredy cat.  Always have been, always will be.

When I was little, Santa came to visit me at my grandparent's house and it was such a terrifying event for me that I would ask, "Ho Ho coming?", anytime I walked past their front door for a long time after that fateful Christmas day.

As a teenager, when all of my friends were getting their driver's licenses, I was bumming rides because I was absolutely petrified of being behind the wheel.  I know, right?  Way weird.  I didn't get my license until I was 18.  Maybe even 19.  I don't remember exactly when.  All I remember is that it took threats of being forced to use city transportation from my parents before I broke down and learned how to drive the route from home to school to work.  I've gotten better about driving, but I still don't drive unfamiliar roads and I definitely don't turn across traffic or drive on the busiest street in town.  I know...the crazy--it runs deep.

My friend Jennifer over at Rowdy in First Grade keeps after me to see the movie Fear because she thinks I need some more exposure to Mark Wahlberg...  Well, I'm afraid to see that movie because it's called Fear.  HELLO?!  I'm afraid.  Why would I want to watch something called Fear?!  That doesn't make any sense!

Today I was packing up my classroom and I came across this book:

  

I should probably start calling myself The Little Young Lady Who Was Afraid of Everything.  My Nana gave it to me when I was in kindergarten. Now, the majority of my classroom library consists of books given to me by my Nana.  She was a kindergarten teacher.  And like any good kindergarten teacher, she gives books for gifts.  And they all have inscriptions.  This is what's inside:

And as I sat there with that book, those words, and the boxes, I realized...

I am brave.

Brave enough to take a risk.

Brave enough to change.

Brave enough to do something for myself.

Brave enough to start a new chapter.

Brave enough to leave teaching.  Which is something I never thought I would do.  I've been a teacher since I was four years old, with stuffed animal students and lessons that were a repeat of whatever my preschool teacher had done that day.

But sometimes things change.  I resigned from my teaching job a couple of weeks ago to take a new position as a behavior therapist.  I'm going to spend my days working one on one with special needs children.  And I couldn't be happier about the change.  I wasn't actively searching for something else.  It just fell in my lap.  In such a way that I couldn't say no.

There is such a bittersweetness to these last few days of school.  I am so excited to start something new.  But I am so sad to leave my babies and the girls who have truly become my family over the past three years.  And I'm probably going to suffer from withdrawals during back to school shopping time.  But like I said, I am excited and it truly was laid out in such a way that saying no would have led to regrets.  And I'm way too young to have any of those.

Ms. Preppy definitely won't be dealing in primary anymore.  But I'm sure I will have plenty of kid stories to share and maybe even some resources that I use with my therapy kiddos.  And I have some other blogging/writing plans in the works right now!  But I couldn't keep you guys in the dark any longer about this big change!  I hope it kind of explains some of my absence around here.  Wrapping up the school year and trying to pack everything up is just wearing me out!  Will you guys come over for a packing party?  I need some help.  Because you see, I'm also afraid of throwing things away...

In case you haven't heard...

There's a ginormous sale going on over at TpT!  Everything in my store is 20% off!  Use the promo code to get an additional 10% off!

I was excited to find the time to update some of the items in my TpT store to include 3D shapes!

Bee, Bee: A Book About Flat Shapes

Bee, Bee: A Book About 3D Shapes

Dragonfly, Dragonfly: Number Words

Butterfly, Butterfly: Time to the Hour

Bunny, Bunny: A Book About Flat Shapes

Bunny, Bunny: A Book About 3D Shapes

Bunny, Bunny: Number Words

Bunny, Bunny: Time to the Hour

Spring Numbers: Counting to 10

Spring Numbers: Teen Numbers

Happy shopping!  I know my cart is FULL...and I keep finding more!

A Thousand Little Things

It's been a long time, friends.  A. Long. Time.

But here I am!  Aren't you glad?!

Whew.

We are in state testing mode.  And last 9 days of school mode.  And my air isn't working again mode.  Basically, survival mode.  And I could probably write you a book filled with snark and complaints and insanity.

But--

This popped up in my Facebook feed the other day and I listened to it.  And it is upbeat.  And happy.  And good.  And who couldn't use a little something upbeat, happy, and good?  It also reminded me that there are a thousand little things that make my heart smile every single day.  Even when my classroom is 83 degrees and the kids are bouncing off the walls because OMG, did someone say SUMMER?!

Listen.

Now.  I would so love to list the thousand little things that make my heart smile.  But we'd all be here forever if I did that.  So how about I just pick ten?

The first sip of a Sonic cherry coke at happy hour after a long day.  I close my eyes for it and let out a little Aaah afterward.

Watching my students blush after they realize they just slipped up and called me mommy.

Putting on my eyeliner just right.  {That is one thing I just cannot do consistently.}

Hearing my teammates fill the hall with laughter...and the anticipation that builds as I make my way to the door to figure out what has happened now.

Finding actual mail in my mailbox instead of junk or bills.

Realizing the outfit I chose to wear doesn't need to be ironed.

A Saturday with no plans.

Light bulb moments--for myself, my students, or just anyone.

Finding little pockets of time to clean out my DVR and catch up on my favorite shows.

A good hair day.

What about you?  What are some of the little, everyday things that make you happy?  Maybe if we all share, we can get to a thousand!

Making Sense of Teen Numbers: Freebie!

Once upon a time I posted these lovely little number representation cards with numbers one through ten.

Well, I had a few people email me asking if I would make some for teen numbers.  So...here they are!  Numbers eleven through twenty.  Click to download.

My kids love it when I pass out all of the cards and then make everyone go find the other representations of their number.  That is such a big focus of our math series, so it's great practice for them!  Hope you can find some use for them!

Let me introduce you to my alter ego...

...Ms. Snarky.  She's going to come out to play today because well, Ms. Preppy is feeling a little bit snarkalicious today.  Please be nice to her.

Mrs. Mimi of It's Not All Flowers and Sausages was my introduction to the teaching blog world way back when I was in college {I say that like it was soo long ago} and when her book came out, I was first in line at my local Barnsey {that's Mrs. Mimi speak for Barnes and Noble, if you didn't know} and read it cover to cover.  And laughed the whole time.  I re-read it not so long ago because now that I'm in the classroom, it's even more funny.  There's one thing in her book that I end up discussing with my team at least twice a week.  I'm not sure of the exact quote, but she's talking about parent teacher conferences and how some parents seem to have a million things to do, none of which include actively parenting their child.  I love that.  Actively parenting.  It is not enough to simply feed and clothe your child.  You must actively parent them.  And unfortunately, there are entirely too many parents who aren't familiar with the practice of actively parenting their child.

There are many things involved in this active parenting phenomenon, but one biggie is teaching your child to accept responsibility.  Please explain to me why parents think that all they have to do is call me and explain that there is no way in the world their sweet little one did whatever it is I saw them do with my own two eyes and I'll just cave and apologize profusely and take away or make up for whatever consequence I've given...  Why?  I mean, that just doesn't work.  I saw your child cut another child's hair with their scissors.  I saw that.  It happened.  There's no getting out of it.  Why do you think it's a good move to allow your child to escape accepting responsibility?  How is that setting them up for success in adulthood?

I mean, if I decided to drive in reverse down the highway at 90 miles per hour with all of my doors open and my head poking out of the sun roof, I'm going to get pulled over.  And I'm probably going to get arrested.  Because I'm breaking the law.  And I can't use my one phone call to call my mommy and explain to her how horrible the police are to pull ME over because I wasn't doing anything wrong.  It was a pretty day and I wanted to try something new, is having fun illegal now?  Yes, my mom thinks I'm the cutest, sweetest, smartest person in the world.  But she can't come up to the police department and explain that it was just a little misunderstanding and that I would never do such a thing and could they please not send me to jail or give me a ticket.  That's not going to work in the real world!  But I'm afraid this is what's going to happen to some of my little friends if their parents don't step up and make them accept responsibility for their actions.  It's pretty scary.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I have some amazing parents who work with me and we support each other and it's just beautiful.  But then I have some who just have too much going on to be bothered with the responsibilities of actively parenting their child.  I'm sure we all have at least one or two of those!

So I'm thinking that at back to school night, we don't need to explain our rules for the CHILDREN...we need to explain our rules for the PARENTS.  I'm thinking a looks like, sounds like chart for active parenting.  What do you think?  What does active parenting look like and sound like to you?

Tax Break Sale! 15% off!

Oh boy, oh boy!  I love a good sale, don't you?!  In honor of April 15th, several of us are throwing a 15% off sale in our TpT stores.  I know I'll be shopping like crazy today!

Speaking of taxes...I just finished mine last night.  I have no idea why I wait until the last minute.  It drives me crazy that I do.  It's a lot like how I know my clothes should go in the hamper, but instead I put them on the floor and don't pick them up again until I do laundry.  It would make my life easier if I would just put them in the hamper.  But for whatever reason, I just don't.  I could have gotten my refund back in like, February.  But instead I waited until the last minute.  Again, I have no idea why!  Especially since there's money involved.  Makes zero sense.  I'm going to blame it on the fact that I run around like a chicken with its head cut off most days and by the time I sit down and things slow down for a second, I'm falling asleep.  I know...excuses, excuses.

And speaking of excuses...my lack of blogging as of late is totally because the new Blogger has completely thrown me.  I can only get it to open in Safari.  And I never use Safari on my computer.  It's just different and I don't really like different.  And things are different in Blogger and I start a post and then have to just close my laptop because it stresses me out!  I feel like I need some kind of therapy to get me through this.  Hopefully I'll manage to pull through...

Spring break's lease hath all too short a date...

My alarm started screaming at me at 5:30 this morning.  It was just plain rude.  I felt a little bit like Veruca Salt {the band, not the brat} and wanted to sing back, "leave me lying here, cuz I don't wanna go..."  but I just hit snooze until 6 and hit the ground running.  It's so hard for me to get back into a routine.  I think it's because it takes me so long to get out of the routine.  I didn't start sleeping in until Thursday.  Stupid internal alarm clock.  Spring break always gives me just a little taste of summer and leaves me wanting more!

I had big plans for my break with great to do lists.  Want to guess how much of it got done?

If you guessed "very little to none", you were right!

I managed to work out every day, shop, pick up some around the house, do laundry, and go to school long enough to get things ready for today.  {So much for trying to plan for the rest of the year...}  I needed another week to get through the rest of the things on my list.  I think maybe the hours in my spring break days were somehow shorter than the hours in my work days?  Kind of like how Saturday and Sunday are significantly shorter than Monday and Tuesday...

Luckily the kids were just as tired as I was today.  They'll warm back up here pretty soon and be back to their usual shenanigans.  Then hopefully I'll have some kid funnies to share with you.  But right now...I need a nap.  I'm sure that most of you who were on spring break with me last week are feeling the same!  I hope that you guys got more accomplished than I did!