The Dark, Evil Vortex of Late September, October, and November

DEVOLSON

Every year, we post about DEVOLSON, the Dark Evil Vortex Of Late September, October, and November. It’s that time of year when things begin to look bleak. It is a loooong haul between now and Thanksgiving break, the days are getting shorter, the weather’s getting cooler (and wetter, apparently), we have marathon days of parent / teacher conferences, and our stress levels are starting to ramp up. During DEVOLSON, you might see yourself described in one of the DEVOLSON Bingo squares below:

Photo credit: We are Teachers

Jill: Like blogger Love,Teach, I’m a big fan of bottling up my emotions during DEVOLSON until I reach a breaking point and have a meltdown. This happened last week when I found myself crying on the couch at Tom Hanks yelling for Wilson to come back to him (he was his best friend!) and then comforted myself by eating half a tray of chocolate chip cookies. I realized that I might possibly maybe potentially need a healthier outlet for my stress, so I’m working on carving out more time in the morning to walk on my treadmill instead. I also often find myself unable to sleep at night during DEVOLSON as I make list after list in my head of things I need to get done the next day. But why? There’s nothing I can do about the stack of papers on my desk at 2 in the morning, and my lack of sleep makes it a lot harder to cross things off of that list the next day. Instead of stewing about my to-do-list, I’m going to try making a different list in my head when I’m trying to sleep -- a list of things I’m grateful for and bright spots that happened to me during the day. For example, I have super fun coworkers that keep me energized, an amazingly supportive family, and I get to see world-class teaching in action every day as part of my job.

Lindsey: DEVOLSON…. It’s bizarre because my husband started calling me a name that was very similar to this. I began my Sunday night routine of stay up until 3 a.m. binge eating chips and playing Mario Odyssey until the wee hours to cope with the fact that I needed two or three more of me.  It was brutal -- heck, ask Bradley as he got to endure most of this. So what did I do? I started balancing the really important things in life and ensuring I was hanging with people who would be builders and not breakers. I asked myself if what I was stressing about would actually make a difference in student learning.  I started finding help through flipped lessons and stations to in fact make two of me. I also did a lot of reflecting. I used to be an accountant, and I was so bored. I don’t want “bored.” So, I became a little more grateful and instead of seeing the “work,” I tried to look for the good. I asked for help. Guys, ask for help!  My husband is already pretty great, but I asked more of him, of my co-teachers, and of my students.  They got to do more of the heavy lifting instead of me. Anyway, eventually my dog died and I got meds (see large picture above desk). No but really, I did get help to help me balance out what was important, which was family and finding that passion in an everyday job that has its ups and downs.

Break your DEVOLSON by finding healthy coping mechanisms like exercise or new hobbies. Look for bright spots. Find your builders, remember your passion in this very challenging yet rewarding job that you will never be bored in, and be grateful!  I know your students are -- even the ones who didn’t show it immediately.

Remember that during this time of DEVOLSON:

Give-away time! Earn yourself a chance to be entered into a drawing for a new purple G2 pen and something else by commenting below about your mechanisms for coping with DEVOLSON.  Also bring your bingo card up if you complete it for a delicious snack, because clearly you need it

THIS COOL THING We FOUND: DECK.TOYS

Deck.Toys is a versatile tool you can use for blended or flipped learning, independent practice at a station in your classroom while you work with others, gamifying a lesson, or even as a different method for hosting a Breakout Edu. Deck.Toys essentially lets you create a map or game board for students to travel through, and you can post different learning activities along the way. It has eighteen different games that students can play with study sets you create, including matching, sequencing, sorting, Wheel of Fortune, pictionary, jeopardy, and more. You can also upload slideshows, YouTube videos, and embed other web content into the different activities on your board.

Deck.Toys is now added to the website under technology.  We are starting to build the other subjects more, so check back for resources.  See it in action in the video below:

TEACHER FEATURE: Leshia Anderson

Leshia has been a teacher for many years, most of which have been spent in Boone. Former students are very grateful for what they learn from Leshia, because she does such an amazing job of balancing games, language instruction, and speaking in her classroom.  She involves all of her students in her day-to-day lesson planning and is never afraid to continue to learn.  She has recently been pushing herself and her students in using more formative assessment data to make decisions on student learning.  She has been using Quizizz along with researching other forms of formative assessment to use in her classroom.