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Choosing Kind

Once a month, my school holds an all-school morning assembly. During one particular assembly at the end of May, a group of students who had been working on a traditional folk dance with the Spanish teacher got to perform. They had been practicing for months. They even wore the traditional clothing for the dance. As they got up to introduce themselves, a small group of students in the audience began pointing and laughing. I wasn't in the room to witness the dance or the students making fun of those on stage. When I came into the room to pick up my students, I heard several accounts of what had happened. Because they were my students. My heart broke. I was furious and sad and disappointed all at once. I imagined the embarrassment of the boy who had been brave enough to go on stage and dance, who didn't even want to participate in the first place but was doing it for his mom! I wondered if the girl with special needs was aware that she was also being made fun of. I was mad
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Self Care

It has been quite a while since I posted. A few days after my first blog post I experienced my first anxiety attack. I spent the next four months focusing on my mental health. I learned a lot about my triggers and how I could avoid them. I also learned how important self care is. Since then I have not had another attack. However, a few days ago I started to experience some of the symptoms that led up to the first one. Since I knew more about what was happening this time I was able to be proactive by using some of the following strategies to reduce stress: Writing down my tasks Focusing on breathing Listening to music and focusing on the words Working out Reading Appreciating nature Singing Baking Disconnecting from technology Connecting with people in a small group I plan to everything mentioned above in separate posts, but I wanted to give you a little introduction and explanation before sharing those! With love, Alyssa

Here We Go...?

** I am in no way claiming to be a great (or even good) writer and am feeling pretty vulnerable in posting this so please be nice. : ) ** I cried in my car today. If you are a teacher, you know this is not anything out of the ordinary. Sometimes we cry because we are sad after hearing about the home life of one of our students. Sometimes we cry because a parent was rude. Sometimes we cry because a student was just. so. defiant. And sometimes we cry because we are simply too stressed and overwhelmed with the 845,987 things we are expected to do by the 20+ students in the classroom at any given time, the parents, administration, and most overwhelmingly, ourselves. Today the tears came suddenly. I didn't have a list on my desk of the tasks I needed to get done or get a bad review from my principal. My brain just caught up to the fact that there is just so much to get done and the tears started flowing. As I tried to hold them back at a stoplight I looked down and noticed I'd