Sometimes I just need to mind my own business!

Okay, I admit it, I am one of those teachers who loves to hang out in the front office and get all of the latest dirt on what is going on in our school and who is involved in the latest drama.  Last year the drama was GOOD-at first.  Then the situations started to affect the way our team functioned to the point of sabotage and alienation.  Sometimes I wonder if teachers ever truly leave the drama of school behind.  I was so ready for summer and to just step away from the drama.  However I found more!  I am a Libra, and I like balance and fairness.  I don't necessarily want to see people who work hard get special rewards as much as I want to see consequences for those who don't do what they are supposed to and then make life harder for everyone else.  If you are a teacher you know what I am talking about and I bet you have a person in your mind right now!  I am also one of those people who wants to solve other peoples' problems for them.  I have a good friend and co-worker who has unfairly been given the run around by some higher ups at our school and it has been really wearing me down.  You see, I LOVE my job and I LOVE my school.  I literally have my dream job: imagine Jimmy Buffett in the movie HOOT but in khakis and a cardigan!  So it hurts me when anything negative is associated with my school or my co-workers.  On top of that we cannot get a straight answer on what our schedule will even look like next year, people are quiting and people are coming back, we need more teachers and the county says no, so needless to say my need to solve the problems of my little world have been going into overdrive lately and it is affecting me at home.  Whomever said teachers get the whole summer off must never have actually known a teacher!  I cannot go on like this because the reality is I CANNOT FIX EVERTHING and honestly none of it really affects what I will be doing in my classroom with my students next year so I need to fucus on what I can fix, insert serentiy prayer here!  I was reading a post by Middle School Minions, she is great by the way, that really hit me.  It was this quote from Thesselonians 4:11

So that has been my focus this week.  To mind my own business and work with my hands, and boy have I!  I attended Kagan training and really like all the thinks you could do with the students have individual white boards.  I could not afford to buy theirs so I decided to design my own, with a little ocean theme!  Check them out.

The blue side is blank and the green side has a light grid pattern on it so that the kids can use them to do graphs or anything that needs corners or straight lines.  I printed each one on its own piece of cardstock and then put the two pieces together to laminate them.  Having two pieces of card stock made them have more stability.  You could also put them into a plastic sheet protector if you wanted to.  They are available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store, enjoy!  I have also been working on my team tubs, again Kagan inspired but they will also serve as the location for all of the interactive notebook supplies as well.  They are coming along but I still need a few items.

I wil keep you updated as I get more things in them.  I am also designing an ocean themed planner to use next year that I will be making available for Teacher Pay Teachers.  I hope to be finished with that next week.  However I am going to be living a quiet life this weekend on the beach with Mr. Ocean and Little Ocean.  Have a great weekend!

-Mrs. Ocean