Whole30 Week 1 - Thoughts

I'm on day 8 now and I'm feeling pretty good.

Week 1 Takeaways:

• Almond butter is DELICIOUS. Why hadn't I tried it before?? Trader Joe's has a good price.
• Sweet potato toast has potential but I haven't figured out the best way to do it yet. It's too hard (yuck) or gets stuck in the super hot toaster (ouch).
• Going out to eat is hard. I decided I don't care if there are hidden no-no's in my entree. I don't want to question every single detail of a menu item only to find out that I can't eat anything at all. 
• I feel skinnier.
• I don't crave anything in particular but I do miss having easier options. Although my husband toasted a bagel the other day and it smelled SO GOOD.
• I feel like I'm eating too much meat and miss tofu and chickpeas as good protein options.
• I haven't done any big meal planning for this week but I still have compliant proteins, veggies, and other things on hand. I'm going out to eat tonight with a friend but there's a paleo option on the menu, and tomorrow we're going to try broiling a flank steak.

Starting my first Whole30. This is my plan for the first six days.

Reasons I'm doing a Whole30:

1. We've been eating somewhat unhealthily and drinking a fair amount of alcohol. Not a lot at once, just a drink or two most nights. 
2. We just finished moving from one state to another (about a 7 hour drive), which means lots of road trip eating. Burgers, fries, chips, candy, etc. Our moms and my grandmother are also planning on moving and have spent some time staying with us off and on, so we've been accommodating other peoples' tastes and booze preferences.
3. I'd like to feel less bloated.
4. I'd like to lose a couple pounds.
5. I'd like brighter skin.
6. I'm curious if I have any food intolerance.
7. I want a challenge.
8. I've been wanting to do it for a couple months, but thought I should wait until we were done moving and not living with my mother-in-law anymore. The time is here!

Reasons this might be a terrible idea:

1. My husband isn't going to do it with me, so there will still be sugar and alcohol and junk food in the house. (Luckily he doesn't go too crazy with it).
2. I just started a Ph.D. in Special Education and so if it makes me hangry and cranky, I'll have to be really good at hiding it from my classmates and professors.

I will try to document my Whole30 here in case I want to do it again. But this might go by the wayside once I really dive into the PhD program. We shall see!

I figure I can have simple routines for breakfasts and lunches as long as I have interesting dinners to look forward to. Here's my plan for the first few days:

Breakfasts: veggies, sausage, and eggs. I'm sure I'll get sick of this, but I'll try to switch out the types of veggies and swap sweet potatoes for the eggs or the sausage. I also bought a couple different kinds of sausages (Aidell's Chicken Apple, and two Trader Joe's chicken sausages with no sugar or additives).

Lunches: leftovers or a salad with pre cooked meat (such as canned tuna, smoked salmon from Trader Joe's, or the sirloin from TJ's)

Snacks: Apples, bananas, or celery with almond butter, carrots, almonds, raisins, etc

Dinners:

• Day 1/Tuesday: Barefoot Contessa Herb Roasted Fish with Roasted Cauliflower Steaks  (but I'll use ghee instead of butter, and walnuts because that's what I have on hand). Maybe a salad or one other veggie.
• Day 2/Wednesday:  Grilled Mahi Mahi and Asparagus with Oranges and Sesame Seeds (but I'll use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce)
• Day 3/Thursday: Yellow coconut curry (chicken instead of tofu, Costco chicken stock instead of veggie stock, spices instead of chili garlic sauce) with riced cauliflower.
• Day 4/Friday: Turkey "taco" salad. I'm thinking I'll saute ground turkey with these taco seasonings and put it on top of romaine lettuce with salsa, guacamole, onions, radishes--anything that sounds good.  Hubby can always add tortillas if he's so inclined.
• Day 5/Saturday:  Fiesta Red Snapper with potatoes and maybe another veggie or salad.
• Day 6/Sunday: a big veggie soup with any leftover veggies and some canned tomatoes and green beans, Costco chicken stock, dill, bay leaf, maybe leftover protein depending on what we have available

I just spent a ton of time and money at Trader Joe's, Walmart, and Raley's. I would've gone to Costco too but they're closed for Labor Day. Unfortunately I couldn't find the frozen Mahi Mahi so I'm planning on buying the fish for Tuesday and Weds on Tuesday. Saturday's fish, I'll probably defrost some cod we have in the freezer. I made some ghee using this recipe and bought the Primal Kitchen Mayo and some Tessemae's salad dressings (super expensive, but I like having condiments on hand.) I put a basket in the pantry just for Whole30 compliant things like tabasco, coconut aminos, etc. Hopefully these things will set me up for success!

Have you done a Whole30? How did it go? What were your go-to recipes and snacks?

Resource Room Reorganization (Or, How I Got My Evaluator to Use an Emoticon in an Email to Me)

There are three special education/resource teachers at my high school. Our offices are attached to the Resource Room, and we take turns teaching a section of a study skills/study hall type class. We also co-teach a couple classes each.

The Resource Room doesn't have a ton of resources--no pens or pencils, a couple random copies of textbooks, 8 sloooooooow computers (for 25 students), no printer, no binder paper, etc.  The teachers at this school don't maintain websites, and though the Educational Assistants push-in to gen ed classes, there's no way to share information and homework assignments.

Even though there are a lot of things we don't have, we do have a very collaborative little group. One guy requested a big whiteboard for our room--done. We're now putting assignments on it (when we find out about them).

We also designated a drawer for each section of study hall. When teachers drop off tests or assignments, we have a place to organize them now. Also, students have their own study hall folders with graphic organizers, rubrics, and other things we thought they might find useful. It's helped establish a routine. They're responding to the structure, even though they still groan about mini lessons.

Lastly, we added some milk crates to the back of the room with sections for each academic teacher. When Educational Assistants take notes or get copies of assignments, they can drop them here. It's a work in progress, but it's better than nothing!

I sent out an all staff email with these pictures, and the response has been very positive. We already have more teachers sharing materials and Educational Assistants copying their notes. Best part was, my evaluator replied to my email with a "great job" and a smiley face... this from a very articulate, serious man. Woo hoo!

What kinds of things changes have you put in your resource/ special education classroom? How do you keep all the curriculum organized?

Ms. B.

3 High Tech Things That Have Made My Life (a little) Easier

Here are three things that I love and use all the time in my high school resource classroom:

1. Scanning Apps:

There are a bunch on the App store. I like Turbo Scan--it costs a couple dollars and can be downloaded to a smart phone or tablet.  It's not perfect, but it's reasonably clear and it scans the document as a PDF. I then email it to myself and print it from my email. Those extra steps can be a little annoying, but then I have the PDF on my computer and can print it out whenever we need another copy.

It's great for these reasons:

• For the kid who loses everything
• For the kid who's often absent and needs a copy of a neighbor's worksheet but I can't leave the room to make a copy
• To scan the notes page and signature pages of the paper IEP to the online IEP system
• To scan a copy of any important document that might get lost on my desk (I can be a bit of a slob. My coworker recently said to me, "I'm so glad you're a little Miss Piggy in here. It means you're getting comfortable. Was this what your room was like as a kid?")
• To save work samples for progress monitoring
• To scan notes and email them to students

2. Video explanations (Khan Academy, YouTube, etc)

As a high school Resource Teacher, I need to be able to support students at a variety of levels on a variety of topics. One day last week, I helped one student on a Newton's Law worksheet, helped another write a Geometry proof, and helped a third write a college essay. I love helping kids with whatever they need on the fly, but sometimes (okay, often) they ask me something that stumps me.  Khan Academy and YouTube are great for video explanations of things. Sometimes I'll use them to teach myself something so I can support a kid. Sometimes I'll have the student look for informational videos on my tablet. Khan Academy saved me years ago when I was subbing for a Pre Calculus teacher for a month and hadn't taken Pre Calc since high school.


3. Google Drive

Such a great way to share documents with teaching partners or students. Sometimes, students will share essays with me on Google Drive. I can give them direct feedback by adding comments to their document. This saves paper and makes things run much more smoothly.  For co-teaching, we can share documents and plan without using a common prep period. When my co-teacher assigns an essay, I scan it (yay Turbo Scan!), add it to my Drive, and upload it to our class website. When kids or parents ask me what's due in English, I can say, "check the website."

Let's get crafty!

It's Thanksgiving Break around here and at New School, we have the whole week off. Craziness! Happiness! Crazappiness! There are things I could (should?) be doing this week in my bonus time, such as cleaning or organizing the house, but screw that. I'm on VACATION. I feel like I've been burning the candle at both ends, with moving to a new state, starting a new job and head coaching a fall sports team for the first time, learning this District's IEP guidelines and a new-to-me online IEP system, getting evaluated, co-teaching for the first time, and trying to support 39 students and their families. Whew! Time to refuel Ms. B's creative well.

I was inspired by this blog post from Love, Teach, as well as motivational quotes and posters I saw on Pinterest.

I bought kids' watercolors, a watercolor pad, crayons, and paintbrushes at WalMart. I got the stencils at Michael's. I impulse-purchased the Smartfood Popcorn and purple Skittles because vacation should mean yummy snacks.

For the poster above, I wrote the first part of the quote in pencil and then painted over it. For the word, "FUN," I used the floral stencil. I was having fun being creative, so according to Einstein I wasn't just playing with crafts while watching television for hours--I was being intelligent. 

I flipping love this quote and I think it's so true. Roald Dahl knew what he was talking about.

This is the only one I'm not sure about. I'd bought washable crayons, and when I used the white crayon and painted over it, the words didn't show up well enough. This attempt was with non-washable crayons, and it worked out better. But I think it looks a little juvenile. I might try again with white stick-on letters, and I might plan my painting a little more. But I love the mantra, "Work hard. Be nice." I think it covers the most important things!

Pretty colors and stencils make me happy.

What kinds of crafty things have you done for your classroom?

First post!

Hi there!

I'm Ms. B. I'm a special education teacher at a medium-sized high school in a smallish town in America. At my school, I'm called a Resource Teacher, which means part of the day I'm teaching a study skills/study hall class, and part of the day I'm co-teaching English and Algebra. I have mostly 9th graders on my caseload, with a sprinkling of 10th and 11th graders. I'm definitely the new gal in town and sometimes I love it, but sometimes I feel like I'll always be an outsider.

It's my first year at this high school. My family and I moved to this area from an expensive, overpopulated city. I was a Resource Teacher in an affluent suburb of the big city. At the Old School, we had every resource we could have needed. More pencils? No problem. An iPad for a group of freshmen? Sure. A caseload under 28? Of course--anything more than 28 would mean a chat with our union rep.

At the New School, I've got a caseload of 39, which is really good compared to the elementary Resource Teachers, who've got numbers in the low 50s.  Our Resource Room has few pencils, not much paper, no stapler, a broken pencil sharpener. We don't even have a printer in the classroom. I always knew that we were lucky at the Old School, but I had no idea to what extent.

This blog will be a mix of many different things: part new girl/fish out of water story; part musings from special education land.