Workout Wednesday - Resistance Bands

Not all working out happens at the gym!

I'll admit it. I've really slacked off when it comes to workout out! In Mexico I was always WALKING somewhere, but now, I seem to be driving everywhere. That, and the stress of starting a new school year were not good for my body.

So, this year I have my school year resolution! I have to do SOMETHING active every day. In can be ANYTHING. Shopping, walking an extra lap around the school,  pedaling a bit, doing crunches... anything, but I have to do it with the intent of being active. No thinking, "Well I played with my niece earlier so that counts." This has to be something I am really thinking about. If I purposefully jump in the pool to be active with my niece, it counts.

I haven't been the best at it, but part of what has helped me is I am starting to do a lot in my classroom.

My students went one-to-one this year which means that they have their own laptops in class. This means I am getting a bit creative. We're doing a lot of videos (animated and live). This is great, but it means I have to spend a lot of time sitting down and watching them.

Ugh, more sitting time right? Kinda. First off I don't need to be sitting to watch videos. I can stand and watch them while actually moving! Reference ID: pmdd6e83b6da55d90f5740e0dd3f3e5a13

Click this image to go straight to Amazon

See I recently got these resistance bands from Egnergy fitness for free to try out and let them know what I thought. They are pretty cool! Super easy for me to pack in my purse (or even pocket) and take wherever I am going. While I have done a bit with the home-school and back, now these pretty much stay in "my" class drawer (the one with my coffee, Chapstick etc.). When I am about to start grading videos, I just pop out my resistance bands and watch while doing something.

What do you do with resistance loops? Tons! I found some YouTube videos I like, and there are some tips on random websites as well.

An easy way to use the bands is "lateral walking" Slip one side around one ankle and the other side around the other loose but secure. Now move your right leg to the right tightening the band, then move your left leg close to your right leg (basically walk sideways). The resistance makes the walking take a bit more effort! However, the action is easy enough it doesn't require a lot of my focus. There are also workouts that focus on my weak upper arm strength, (a big one for me). I've only been using these about a month, but in a few cases I've found that I need to start selecting higher resistance bands (as the lower ones just don't push me hard enough). I am IMPROVING!

Now if you already have resistance bands, or can snag some from a friend, I am sure they're awesome and will work great. I've never used any other brand, so my statements are only valid for these.

Here's what I like:

• They come with a great warranty (no being afraid it'll snap and I am done)
• They have five different strengths (I an adjust resistance as needed)
• They are ridiculously easy to transport
• The different colors make it easy for me to grab one and not have to look and read carefully
• They let me do lots of different activities (it isn't just arms or just legs)
• They are thick so they don't cut off circulation or pinch when I am working out

Normally priced at $50, these resistance bands are only $16.75 now, and (here's the good part), I am hosting a giveaway! That's right, you can get these for free! All you have to do for a chance to win is comment below with how you fit your workouts in. It's OK if you haven't been fitting your workouts in this year, just share what has helped you in the past, or your plans to change your habits. Anything that may help another teacher improve.

There are other opportunities to increase your chances to win: answer a quick survey about when you workout, follow me on Twitter, or like Egnergy Fitness on Facebook.

My planner matches my class (or does my class match my planner?)

I am joining Robyn of Kreative in Kindergarten and Meghan of Keeping up with Mrs. Harris for Plan With Me Sundays (yes I know today is Tuesday, but I've had a busy week). I wasn't sure I wanted to participate since my planner use really doesn't start until the school year, but I figured I have "technically" started and this weeks' post is about supplies. Those I can talk about.

I tend to have an AWESOME planner the first week of school...and then it all just gets lost. This school year I am making an effort to do better!

I tend to plan in four different places, my phone, my e-mail (Outlook), my desk calendar, and my school planner. Outlook I am more or less stuck with because my bosses use it and I need to mark when I am busy there so people know when to schedule appointments. My desk calendar is key for big items, but not day to day. My phone is awesome, but sometimes having things in writing is just best.

Normally, my school planner isn't much to look at, but this year I moved into a new classroom and am really trying to make it homey. I got some awesome black and white wrapping paper from the dollar store and have used it for accents around my room. It covers part of my podium, is the background of my wallpaper, and acts as the border for the class bulletin boards. I used this to add some color to my free "weekly lesson plan" notebook the school gives every year.

I can't show the inside of the planner because I don't know my schedule for another few weeks. Until then all I can really do is play with the cover and wait.

So, my yet-to-be-completed cheap-o school planner.

I am a big fan of school spirit, so dollar bin gold tape and blue rewards stars rim the edges. I also LOVE stickers (who doesn't?). I grab mine from all over the place. Sometimes I grab them from Michael's, The Dollar Tree, Target and of course a small store called The Grossmont Nutrition Center that always has random stuff. I haven't doodled it yet, so it is rather plain. I like to leave my covers relatively unfinished so when I bring them into meetings I have something to doodle. I am a strong believer in the power of doodling.

I do HAVE favorite pens for planning, but will admit that since this comes with me home and to school, I usually use whatever is on hand.

I am a HUGE fan of highlighters, not only for focusing on important ideas, but also for color coding. I teach five different classes and work after school. All of these are on rotating schedules, so I like knowing that I can match one color to a specific class or activity. 

For big things like headers, (or marking days off) I am a huge fan of chalk markers. They don't seem to bleed through as much as other markers, don't have that marker-y smell, and seem to be rather pigmented.

These Beary Genius ones also come with reversible tips so I can have some freedom with the size of lines.

These work great on any surface, but they really pop on chalkboard labels. You can find chalkboard labels all over the place, but I LOVE these from Chalkola. The neon colors really pop and they have tons of fun shapes I can play with that make my planner more fun to use thus, I actually use them!

I also tend to use  a lot of sticky notes. These are however for less permanent things. For example, if I know a student is very sick, I may put a post-it in my planner for a week from when I find out that reminds me to send a letter, or call home if they still haven't showed up. Once I've done that I throw the sticky out, so it doesn't mess with anything else. Stickies are basically my code for, "This is something you need to handle ASAP and it will take you less than five minutes."

That's pretty much it. Hopefully as the year progresses I'll have a chance to share what the inside looks like and you'll be able to laugh as you see the development of  the cover of my planner as it goes through numerous meetings.

Keeping the class clean

I am in the midst of looking for a gym, and am suprises how often the topic of cleanliness comes up! It is really important to some people to have a clean place to workout. Similarly, I think classrooms should be kept tidy. Nothing wrong with chaos while the lesson in happening, but it shouldn't have pointless trash left about after class.

Since I have my students every other day for an hour and a half, it is kind of hard to establish a routine. I'm not sure if what I've seen other teachers do would work for me, but I hope I can get some comments on different ways that teachers motivate students to keep class clean.

I can remember a lot of my teachers doing different things

I remember one of my teachers who actually had a rule that in order to leave the class we had to give her a small handful of trash. However, I also remember storing pencil shavings for just this purpose!

Last fall I had to forbid a class from taking their water bottles out of their bags. They had repeatedly left them behind after class and reminders didn't work. They improved a bit in Spring, but I still find myself repeatedly reminding people to pick up their trash. I wouldn't mind it, except sometimes I am circulating and teaching and I don't get a chance to remind them.

I recently decided to set up a little basketball hoop over the trashcan which I found worked well, except some students spend more time creating trash to throw away rather than work on their groupwork (these are the same students who proclaim they don't have enough time to finish activities in class.

How do YOU keep YOUR class clean?Positive reinforcement? Monster shaped trash can? "Clean" row leaves first?

Class Decor Binder

As I cleaned my classroom this summer and packed things up to be moved, I realized I had accumulated lots of letters, static clings, gel clings etc. In an effort to keep things organized I put everything together in a binder.

I figured I'd post this now in case anyone else was in the midst of packing up their classroom.

Basically I love the binder because I can separate decor by date (seasonal or unit related), and keep it neatly stowed when not in use or when I need to move classes. Before I used a box method, but it toko up a lot of space!

Now this isn't perfect, I still have some larger items (wreaths, signs) that are stored elsewhere, but it is awesome for all my basic stuff.

If you read this blog at all, you know that I am NOT skilled in the crafty area. But I am pretty proud of how well this works and thought I'd do a quick blog in case it helps others as well.

All you need to do this is a binder, page protectors, masking or blue tape, and all of the decoration you'd like to store. I've seen some people use Ziploc baggies as well, but I didn't have any of those, so I worked with what I had.

I didn't have dividers, so I hole punches manila folders. Each folder was labeled. I separated items by months, and those that were not month specific I labeled separately.   Letters and colored paper were labeled as such.

Static clings were easy. Slide them into the paper protector. I put a small piece on the opening to keep any pieces from sliding out.

Gel clings were "clung" to their original plastic and slipped into the page. Those unable to fit were cut into smaller pieces.

I am sure you can figure out the rest.

Tips:
The tape is helpful to be sure nothing goes missing, but you don't need to use any if you prefer to avoid it.

I put all similar colored paper in the same page protector and then organize them by color.

How do you keep your class decor organized when it isn't decorating your classroom walls?

Classroom on a Budget

 I promised some pictures of my classroom a while back. Here is a quick blog post that is a compilation of a few pictures from my classroom.

To start, I picked up some motivational stickers that make the view out of my window a little nicer.

You can't see in this picture, but when I stay at school until sunset (which happens far too often) and the sky is clear, I have a stunning view of the sunset over the ocean.


 As for bulletins, I have one long bulletin board divided into two sections.

One of them isn't shown here. It is lined with newspapers and every time we read a story we write a headline and post it up.

The other one you see here has one of my favorite quotes, "A book is a gift that you open again and again." with some of the books I let them read during SSR.

In addition to World and American Literature, I teach a Study Skills class. One of the activities that we do is students create posters with acronymns that will help them be good students.

For example, LISTEN reminds students to: Learn, Investigate, Stay Silent, Take Notes, re Exercise your brain and Not to talk. These are currently displayed in my class, but soon I'll send them to other teachers to share their work throughout the school.

That's a small look at my classroom! What's your look like?