Permission to...

Be totally ok with not drinking sometimes.
I used to feel like I was depriving myself or I really "needed" it.  I'm actually good without it.  Give me a sparkling water with lemon and a side of no hangover please.  Cheers.


Judge you if you don't buy lemonade from a kid's Lemonade Stand
There's nothing cuter in the world that little ones sitting out there with their lemonade learning their first lessons about earning money.  So, fork out that cash and pay extra!

I wish I knew this kid because he's freaking adorable

Not wear my boot all the time at home.
Eeek!  Is that bad?  What's gonna happen if I don't wear it?  Will it mess up the surgery?  My ankle doesn't hurt at all.



HATE shopping for fancy clothes
I mean, I love the way they look.  I love getting ready (sometimes) but I hate shopping for fancy clothes.



Be SO over these signs.
We get it people.  Keep calm and... It's gone on WAY TOO LONG.  Didn't you actually post one of these posters in one of your old posts?  Maybe.  But it was ok when I was doing it.  Everything is ok when I'm doing it.
Not start my day until 1:30 pm...almost every day.
It's summer.  What am I going to do when I have to wake up, get ready, and get to work all in the span of 1.5 hours?


Binge watch TV
Yes I have gone through 3 seasons of Dexter in about 1 week.  HOW. LAZY. CAN. I. BE?

Really like my house.
I'm such a homebody.  I really love being in my cozy house though.  It's small and set up just right.


Be SO excited that my principal put me in charge of interviewing/hiring 
some new music candidates while she's out of town.
I'm overly excited about doing this job.  I was to do a great job and hire the right person because she told me she trusts me.  Eeek, excited and scaredballs.

Bah! Ha! Ha! with this image.  I really crack myself up.

Really believe that EVERY person in the world should have 
HAD to work in the service industry at some point.  
I can't handle people who are the slightest bit rude to anyone-waiters, front desk, anyone.  Who do they think they are?!?!  I'm ok with being assertive and, very politely, asking for what you want but any sore of condescending tone, I wanna slap them.

What's your "go to"?  Do you have one?  No, Katie, we don't have drama with our food all the time like you do.  Well, sometimes I start to crack out on sweets...and tortillas...and tortilla chips...and the delicious Ziti my sister made...and a million popsicles.

Every time my friends or I starting gaining weight we have our own "go to" things.

One of my friends is Nutri System.  Gaining a few lbs, she orders up another thing of it.
Another one is Weight Watchers.  Gaining a few lbs, she starts logging her points all the time.
Mine?  Whole 30.

The first time I did it was to check out this whole Paleo thing.  I had such great effects that for the next year I was on and off, with lots of on.

Anyway, back on the wagon and keeping a little log for the first time.

Day 1:
Feeling great.  Excited to be doing another Whole30!

Chicken Salad w/ salsa and avocado

Day 2: 

Sometimes I'm super hard on myself.  I get upset with myself for not being this or that all the time.  I get down on myself because I must have done something wrong along the way because I'm not married yet.  Or because I fall on and off the wagon with food.  Or because I haven't worked out in months.  Or because I don't send things in the mail enough.

I do NOT love the saying, "It's the thought that counts."
It's not.
Just the thought sucks.  Nobody knows or cares that you "thought" to send a card, give a compliment, do something nice.  People care about action.


So, I would like to officially change the saying to, "It's the thought followed by action that counts."  Ya think it'll catch on?

I have some friends who are super action oriented.

Michelle sent me Dexter Season 1 the other day = Great
I, on the other hand, am an a-hole and I would probably just think of sending Dexter Season 1 = Sucky

My friend always sends me a birthday card = Great
I think about sending people birthday cards = Sucky


Lacey put all of the Dexter Seasons (I'm definitely obsessively addicted to this serial killer) in the mail today = Great
I would think of sending someone all of my seasons of Friends.  No?  You don't want it? = Sucky

Kelli saw that I was bored and wrote out a whole list of things I could do and shared it with me on Skype = Great
I keep thinking about sending her wedding present = Sucky x 2 years (because that's how long I think they've been married)


So, no, folks it's not the thought that counts.

A little less thinking and more action I say to myself...and anyone else who has my same problem.

Rule #1-Love Them 
People used to ask me "what I taught."  Sometimes I said Math.  Sometimes I said Reading.  Sometimes I said Science.  I like teaching Math...and Reading...and Science.  I like teaching subject matter but I L-O-V-E teaching kids.  I actually don't give a !@#$ what subject I teach.  I can figure out whatever I need to know about the material I need to teach but what I REALLY need to figure out, first and foremost, is how to the actual students I teach.



One year, one of my mentees (a first year teacher) said, "Kids always listen to you.  How do you get them to always listen to you?"  I replied, in jest with, "Because I'm the meanest teacher in the school.  They have no choice."  This is actually true.  I was, more than possibly, the strictest teacher at my school. However, if that were it, they wouldn't have listened.

They listened because they knew that I would lie down in traffic for them.  I told them how much I loved them every single day and then I expected them to do more that they ever thought they could.  And, in turn, they did whatever I wanted them to do.


Do you have any idea what happened between the time your students leave your classroom doors to the time they arrive back there again?  I hope you do.  You NEED to know.
Do you know that the last thing some of your kids ate were the carrots sticks you gave them for snack?
Do you know there was a drive by in 1 of the apartment complexes?
Do you know that many of your kids sleep on the floor instead of a bed?

Do you REALLY think your student's give two !@#$'s about the Civil War you're trying to teach?  Or how to divide fractions?

I can't stand it when teachers say, "THESE kids just don't care."
No, they don't care.  They don't care about you.  They don't care about the material you're teaching.  They don't care.

You know what they do care about?
They care about dinner.
They care about how they are going to get their sister home in 1 piece.
They care about the people who care about them.

THAT is their reality.

"But, I don't have time to figure out things like that about my kids."
"I have too much to teach."
"I don't have time."  
"My principal won't let me do that."

Shame on you!  Shame on you for not finding a way...and let me tell you a little secret I know about principals, and I know a lot of principals--they will let you do almost anything you want IF you show them results.  Results = test scores.

Well, how do I do both?  I'll tell you later.

Take a look back at Maslow's Triangle.


You want your kids to achieve?  Love them enough to help them sort through their !@#$ first.  They PHYSICALLY CAN NOT learn when their basic needs of food, shelter and safety are not being met.

You need to get to know your kids, and what makes them tick, SO WELL that you can see in their eyes the SECOND they disengage.


There are a thousand things I was not, as a teacher.  I was not patient.  I was not always as creative as I should have been.  I was super strict.  There are so many memories I have that I think, "Damn, should have done that differently" but 1 thing I KNOW I got right... I LOVED ME SOME KIDS and I really wanted to know them.

I love to hear their conversations.
I wanna know what they think about, talk about, wonder about, want to be when they grow up.
I wanna know about their lives outside of school.
I want to know them.

You have no idea the impact your words, looks, and hugs have.  Someday some random kid, one you may not even remember, will e-mail you and tell you what a difference you made in their lives.

The best teachers I've ever seen in my life didn't always teach the best lessons but they loved the !@#$ out of their kids.  Do you remember every lesson you learned in 6th grade? Absolutely not.  Do you remember whether your teacher liked you?


I met and observed one of the best teachers I have ever seen in my life last year.  Her lessons were pretty good.  She made them fun and engaging.  They weren't perfect.  There were always things she could have done better.  She didn't have a magic wand but she was IN LOVE with all 32 of her students...and they knew it.  And, in turn, they would have jumped onto the ceiling if she told them she wanted them to do it.

Her test scores?  The BEST in the district.  I kid you not.  Why?  Because there is a DIRECT correlation between getting to know kids, loving them and high test scores.


Learn about them.  Listen to them. Love them first.

My best bud, Michelle, just posted this for the first time and since she steals everything from my blog I thought it was about time to do them same.

So, in the form of flattery and the fact that I steal everything, I give you something new (and when I say "new" I mean something every blog poster ever uses)