Saturday, January 2, 2021

Currently Reading

New Year, New Book List!



I'm usually reading 2-3 books at any given time.

One is often kid lit for several reasons. Mainly, it's easy and doesn't require much thinking in the way of comprehension. This is important since I tend to take the book to bed and read until I can't keep my eyes open anymore. But also because the students will always pick up the book I've just put down, especially after a quick book talk. And I prefer to read the books my kids are reading before they make it into the classroom just to make sure they are appropriate and so I can have some talking points when I meet to confer with my readers.

My currently for kid lit:

Another is always personal development. 

I've found that, when I'm not working on myself, nothing else works. At the moment, I'm having a hard time with knowing how I'm supposed to spend my life. (Maybe a midlife crisis??)  I'm wrestling with what I'm doing with myself right now. Because this is an area with which I'm struggling, it's an area where I need to inhale all the self-help I can find.

My currently for personal development:

I don't always have a third book going, but when I do, it's something I feel will help me with my career. As an Instructional Coach, I pull a lot from my work as a Wellness Coach to build relationships with my teachers and to know how to best support them in their own professional growth journeys, but Instructional Coaches don't receive much in the way of professional development opportunities. For this reason, I often find myself leaning on authors. Right now, I'm spending a lot of time with Elena Aguilar between her books, her podcast, and her website.

My currently in the realm of professional development:

Tell me in the comments what you're currently reading. I'll probably look it up and buy it. 🙃



Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Ginger Pumpkin Spice Superfoods Energy Balls


If you get your hands on our Pumpkin Spice superfoods this year, you have to try this recipe - I love keeping energy balls on hand for a quick + tasty snack. Oh, and this recipe is equally amazing with our Vanilla superfoods shake!

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✨ Ginger Pumpkin Spice Superfoods Energy Balls ✨


Ingredients


Instructions

  1. Place oats in the food processor and pulse for 20 seconds. Add nut butter, pumpkin, and honey. Pulse until blended.

  2. Add nuts, Shakeology, and ground ginger and pulse until blended.

  3. Remove the blade from the food processor. Fold in the crystallized ginger and mix well.  

  4. Shape the mixture into 18 energy balls, approximately 1 tbsp each.

  5. Serve immediately or you can store them in a container in the fridge for up to 5 days!


If you follow my container system: ½ Yellow, 1½ tsp.

If you follow 2B Mindset: enjoy this as an occasional snack or treat - be sure to track!


Want more information on my premium nutrition plans? Shoot me an email and say NUTRITION, and I am happy to help!

Monday, July 20, 2020

My Story

Hi!

I'm Carrie.
Maximus is the boy dog. Isis (not pictured) is the girl dog.

I've been a classroom teacher for 14 years. I have taught PreK and 1st through 5th grades, and now I also teach English as a Second Language online. Over the last few years, I've come to believe I've lost my fire for teaching. I was still giving it my all, but I found less motivation to work late at night or go to my classroom on weekends. Maybe it's all the stuff funneling down from the Dept. of Education. Maybe it's the lack of appreciation. Maybe it's the idea that the job seems to get more and more challenging every year despite the compounding experience. Or maybe it's just the fact that I've been at this for a decade and a half... I don't know. But I lost my fire. So I left the classroom in 2020.

An aside:

A few years ago, I decided to make myself a priority and really take charge of my self care. I was involved in a car accident that put me in doctor's appointments 4 times a week. That didn't leave much time for unpaid overtime. Around that same time, I saw a quote being passed around the Internet:


That was a huge gut punch... mostly because it's true! As teachers, we need to be taking care of ourselves! We can't pour from an empty cup, although we try all the time

When I decided to take charge of my health, I decided to go all-in. I wanted to be a part of this amazing community of like-minded people who can help me share my passion for wellness and self care with the world! Or at least with my fellow teachers...  So I became a Health & Wellness Coach!

Meet... My Team!

And now, when we left off, I was leaving the classroom...

A new position within the district opened up, and one of my teammates (who also happens to work at my school) told my principal I would be perfect for it. It helps that I had experience because I already held the position in my previous school district for 3 years, but my friend told the principal that I was already coaching a lot of people in wellness, so I would be a good fit for... the Instructional Coach position for my school! So I interviewed, and now that's what I do.

Over the last few years, my story has continued to evolve. I am definitely not the same person I was. Time has passed, things have happened, and I have continued to learn more about mindset, fitness, and nutrition. 

Each part of my story, no matter how difficult it is to tell, has shaped me into the person I am today. Everything from toxic relationships, rape, stories of self-doubt, and beyond... But also new friends, a fabulous community, and plenty of opportunities to continue to grow and develop as a person and as a leader.

My story isn't over. Not by a long shot. I have so many more lessons to learn, and I hope to fail many more times so I can learn them. I have a lot of growth left to make and several more chapters left in this tale. 


Currently Reading

July

If you've known me for a while, you know I read... a lot. And not just books about teaching, although those are on the list, too. 😉

During the school year, I rotate through topics because I really can only read one book at a time. But during the summer? During the summer, I usually have more time, so I can read a few at once.

Here's what I'm reading now:

       
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What are you currently reading?? 

Tell me in the comments, or message me on Instagram or Facebook!

Happy reading!

Monday, June 8, 2020

I'm Not Black, but...

I teach black kids. (part 1)

I always do this. I always start the year off with every intention of updating my blog, and I'm good for a short stint... but then I get busy, and the blog falls way off the list of priorities.

I'm not even going to be mad or apologize for that. A lot has happened in the last five months, but I'll get into all that soon. Right now, I want to talk to teachers. But I also want to talk to non-teachers who know teachers or who have kids in teachers' classes or who drive by a school ever or who have ever had a teacher before in your life... yeah. That's you. If you landed here, I want to talk to you.

Teachers, we have a big job to do! We have been given the task of showing tiny humans how to be humans while in a school setting. That's a huge responsibility!

I remember my first year teaching fourteen years ago. I taught Pre-K that year. After the excitement of the first day of school wore off (so, you know, like October), I remember one day walking into my classroom at the end of the school day after all the kids got picked up. I just stood there looking around the room at the day's projects and books and games and toys... I just stood there in awe, and I asked myself out loud, "Holy crap. Who thought it was a good idea to put me in charge of all these children?"

And now, I still have the same thought often. I'm not saying I'm not capable. I'm fully capable of running my classroom. But there are so many things that go into managing a classroom full of these small people that no one ever tells you before you get started. And if you're not a teacher, you really have no idea.

But today, that's not what I'm here to talk about. I want to start thinking about what we can do in our classrooms every day to help support our students as they learn to navigate this world we live in. Together. The world that they will one day be responsible for taking care of, and I sure hope they do a hell of a lot better than we've done in the past. But they can't do better if we don't teach them better. And we can't teach them better if we don't learn to do better ourselves.

I think you know where I'm going with this. While I've known about the Black Lives Matter movement since it began and about some of the struggles my friends have had throughout their lives simply because they look different from me, I guess I've never really taken time to dig deep into learning much about it. As we concluded in a conversation I was having with a friend, if it doesn't really affect us, we really don't have the capacity to worry about it.

But with this movement bigger than I've ever seen it before, I found myself fully immersed in it. (I have feelings about that, but I'm not sure I'm ready to share them yet.) I have been reading. A lot. I borrowed a book from the library, but I'll be honest... It's due tomorrow, and I haven't even finished Chapter 1. The stuff I've been reading is what my friends have been sharing via social media and then the research I've done to either back up or debunk the posts I've seen. I've been listening to my friends, and I mean really listening, when they try to help by answering my questions. And I've been listening to complete strangers via social media, too.

And all of it has led me to one single conclusion. Because I know I'm not a rioter and I am not brave enough to be arrested, and because I don't pay close enough attention to the news to know if and when protests are happening around me anyway, but I still want to be supportive of the movement because I know our laws' words say we're all equal but our government's actions do not... Because of all of that, I have really been trying to figure out where I can make the biggest impact.

It's my classroom. My school. The students I interact with every day. I've taken on this responsibility of educating these tiny minds. I teach them how to handle their strong feelings and how to make a friend. I teach them how to read and how to add. I teach them hot to solve a problem in our classroom, and then I make them take those strategies to the playground, too. I do all of these things already, but I can do more. I can be more intentional. I can make sure I continue to purchase books for my classroom library that have diverse characters and show true historical events. I can make sure I continue to provide my students with basic art supplies to allow them to represent themselves and their cultures properly. I can reflect often to ensure I am giving students praise and corrections consistently and fairly across the board. But mostly, I can share what I have learned and what I find with my colleagues.

So I'll start small. Something so basic everyone can do it. Teachers, especially primary teachers, you need these in your life:


           

My kids have called them "skin-color markers" or "people pencils" or other variations that tell me they know exactly what I'm offering them... A chance to actually draw themselves when I ask them to draw a picture of themselves doing something specific.

To be honest, you may not even feel like the kids appreciate what you're doing for them. But trust me. They do. The frustration on their faces that I used to see when they couldn't find the "right" color for them. I remember one boy getting so upset because he didn't want to color himself "apricot," and all the girls would just color their bodies pink or purple.

When I saw these in passing at Walmart about six years ago, I bought a couple of boxes. The kids LIT UP, do you hear me? They were ecstatic to be able to represent themselves more completely! This was quite possibly the best purchase I ever made for my classroom, and I'm sorry I didn't find the colors earlier in my career.

Now, don't you worry, non-teachers. I didn't forget about you.

You want to know why this matters to you, right?

Let me give you a little math lesson. My first year teaching, I was setting up my classroom, and I had to purchase everything I'd need to get started. From markers to erasers to dry erase markers to... well, you name it and I bought it. Between getting hired in August all the way to December, I saved every receipt, made sure I knew what was classroom and what was not, and I brought it all to the tax preparer. All $2,560 worth of receipts. Yes, I hadn't even earned more than maybe $10,000 in those first five months of school, and I spent 1/4 of it on kids that weren't even mine! And the best part? I didn't know teachers were only allowed to claim a $250 deduction, no matter how much more than that was spent! I don't save receipts anymore. I just go ahead and claim the $250 max and call it good. 🙄

That's where you non-teachers can help! Does your kid have a teacher? Do you not have a kid but your best friend is a teacher? Do you not have a best friend but you live near a school? You can gift the class any or all of these things! (And please, if you're going to gift, go for the class set because COVID has us all with mandates for no shared supplies. Each one of those kids is going to need their own set of everything.) The teachers are going to buy it if no one else does. We know that. But we also know teachers' salaries are shit. Imagine the smile you'll put on that teacher's face when you hand her a class set of brand new colored pencils! or markers. or crayons. We aren't that picky when you're gifting us stuff. 😉 (Of course, this really only means she will spend that $30 on something else the class needs, but now you've gifted her the freedom to do that! How great does that feel?)

I know this is only one small thing we can do in our classroom to support our students and help them embrace their own cultures, but a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.  Let's get stepping!


Saturday, February 1, 2020

January was a Tough Year

... but we made it!

Confession... Transitioning from the classroom to the Instructional Coach role was a little more overwhelming than I was prepared for.

At first, it was lonely because I was too busy trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing.


I spent a lot of time sifting through paperwork that was left behind by the previous Coaches. Then I spent more time going through things that were sent to me by other Coaches in the district in an effort to catch me up. To be honest, none of it was helpful because this isn't really a job you can "catch up" on without just wanting to hide under the covers and not come out of bed. It's more a job you have to pick up where you jump in and just do the thing.

This led me to some serious reflection about this career choice.

I started telling myself that I'm not really cut out for this job. I mean, sure... I did this in my last district. But that was different. Back then, the idea of Coaching was just getting off the ground, so I was still a classroom teacher in addition to a Literacy Coach. This time, Coaching is all I have.

Making the transition was a challenge in itself because my classroom has always been my safe place. No matter what bad stuff happened in my life, I always had the consistency of my classroom and my students to keep me grounded. My stuff didn't matter when I was facing a classroom full of 6-, 7-, or 8-year-olds with their own "stuff." That led me down this whole rabbit hole of "Who am I to think I'm a good enough teacher to do this?" and "Who is going to trust me enough to come to me for help?" It was seriously one dig on myself after another, each one focusing on how I am just not enough.

Then things changed. After a couple of district meetings, I finally figured out what I was supposed to be doing. Then things got lonely because teachers were teaching and all I could do was wait for them to need me for something. I mean, I have the students in my third grade class and the person who transitioned into my former job... but that was just like transitioning in a student teaching situation. It wasn't actually what my Instructional Coaching job is supposed to be.


In the second week, I did finally get invited into a first grade classroom to support that teacher, which was both hard and fun. It's hard to walk into a classroom full of students you haven't actually met yet. But as a former first grade teacher, it was fun to get back in there with the tiny people. 💖

I've done a lot of research and reading into this job. I started with Instructional Coaching by Jim Knight. I dug deep into the resources provided by my district. I started reaching out to other coaches with specific questions, so they were able to help me a little more than before. It's hard to ask for help in the beginning because you just don't know what you don't know. But it seems that this is getting easier week by week.

Right now, my biggest struggle is that I'm not getting nearly as many steps as I was as a classroom teacher! 😅

But while we're on this topic, let's circle back around to my original plan to tell you all about my 2020 goals.  When I started this school year, I put my class's MAP Growth Assessment scores on my vision board because I intended to get all of my students to reach their projected growth in reading proficiency. Well, that goal is definitely a little different now since I no longer have a class of my own.

Now, I'm focusing more on an edited photo of Anita Archer where I superimposed my head onto her body. (Yes. That happened.)

My new career goal is to become as good a mentor as she is. Maybe I'll write a book. 😂 That isn't my goal, though. My goal is to simply be a person who teachers can rely on to support their professional growth, research teaching methods that they want to practice, and model scientifically proven instructional strategies.

One day, I'll be a stay-at-home dog mom. Until then, I'm going to be a kick-ass Instructional Coach!








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Saturday, January 4, 2020

The First Week...

is the hardest!

So, last weekend, I talked about all the goals I'm going to set and how amazing 2020 is going to be! (You can check that out [here] if you missed it.)

I showed you my vision board.

I shared some of my big goals.

And since then, I've modified some of the goals and actually considered some action steps to reach those goals.

My Vision Board (although I've updated it slightly in the last week)

I've been asked a few times about my vision board.
  • How did I set it up?
  • Is the stuff on it only related to my 2020 vision and goals?
  • How do I decide what should go on the vision board?
  • Several other questions...
To start, I had to really figure out my values. (First, give Hal Elrod's podcast a listen. Identifying your values is a crucial first step to figuring out your vision.)

My top 3 values are my health, my financial freedom, and the influence I have on others' lives.  Once I had those, I broke them down further to help me establish a vision for my life and a vision for 2020.

I'll start with health. Actually, it's getting late. I may only talk about my health goals tonight. 😂 The images on my vision board related to my health all pertain to these goals.

I have been working out every day for quite some time. I have no intention of setting a goal to workout. It's not a challenge, so it's not a goal. However, I do need to improve my physical health. I also intend to improve my mental, emotional, and spiritual healths while I'm at it. 

Some specific goals I've set for these areas include:

Physical Health
  • 👊🏼 Stick to my nutrition plan, eating foods that fuel my body properly.
  • 👊🏼 Eat and train to prep for the 2020 Beachbody Classic physique competition in July.
  • 👊🏼 Win the Most Improved Time award at the 2020 Gold Nugget Triathlon in May.
Mental Health 
  • 💥 Read 12 personal development books in 2020, and apply the principles to my life.
Spiritual Growth 
  • 👏🏻 Read at least 2 faith-based books.
  • 👏🏻 Attend 52 church services.
Emotional Health 
  • 💖 Practice daily habits that encourage self-love (positive affirmations, journaling, reading books like You Woke Up Worthy, etc.)
  • 💖 Encourage other women to practice self-love and self-care habits. (The best way to learn something is to model it for others!)
I realize looking at this list that it's kind of a lot for just one area of my life. The truth is, though, several of these goals have end dates long before December, so they will be removed once the time has passed. 

My health is important to me. It is in fact my highest value because without health, you can't enjoy any other parts of your life. My mental and physical health has been a priority for me for some time now. Adding spiritual growth and emotional health is new for me now, and I'm ready to embrace this part of my journey!

Do you have some health goals? Tell me about them!






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