Flair Pens and Lattes

I've been thinking a lot lately about what all I wanted to post on my new blog, and as I wear my T-shirt from Get Your Teach On and start working on ALL the classroom things/first weeks of school lesson plans from my dining room table, I knew I had to do a post on the education highlight of my summer, the Get Your Teach On National Conference in Dallas. I returned to Austin from the Get Your Teach On conference, and have never been so inspired to work on all the classroom things. My head is spinning with ideas for  classroom transformations, math games, beginning the Glow Games, while continuing to build relationships with and celebrate my students. I'm excited to get back into my classroom in a couple of weeks. Being that this is the first year in my short teaching career that I'm not changing grades, I've been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting on how to improve my lessons for my new group. The first day of the conference was June 30th. I woke up, worked out, ...

Two year ago, I started this blog with the intention of sharing my technology knowledge. About a month and a half later, I was hired to teach 5th grade math, science and social studies and around November 2017, I let my blog go by the wayside.  You may ask why the change in the blog name? Well, right when I started my blog, I also joined the Teacher Instagram community and a year later moved schools, districts and grade levels (even cities) and began teaching 4th grade math and science. As I've reflected on who I am as a teacher, what I value and how I've grown as a teacher, I've realized I wanted a more reflective name. I am a huge fan of using flair pens and am an avid coffee drinker, so the name Flair Pens and Lattes was born this past spring (originally done to be the name of a TpT store, but I do not have the design knowledge to sell products on Teachers Pay Teachers yet). After attending the National Get Your Teach On Conference in Dallas and connecting with amazing...

NOTE: This post is not about technology, but one is coming soon. Thinking about the most wonderful time of the year has caused me to reflect a lot on 2017 in the past three days I've been off and not working. In 2017, I have experienced heartbreak, seen my best friend from college and brother get married, mourned the loss of my sweet grandmother whom I was so fortunate to see just a few days before she passed, and most importantly, been given the opportunity of a lifetime on August 15th when I started at St. Anthony Catholic School.   I can remember watching Legally Blonde  exactly eight months ago on a Sunday night after a week of crying, venting and just feeling hurt, confused and betrayed. The song "So Much Better" perfectly describes how I felt until a few days ago. It felt a lot like when I left my job in Boerne. I wondered how could something that made me so happy cause me so much pain? A little over eight months later, I can honestly say I am not that same girl. ...

It's been about a month since I've blogged. August and September is always busy, plus I'm learning three new sets of standards and I'm the only 5th grade math/science/social studies teacher so I've been planning a lot alone. Things have started to become less hectic as I've gotten in the groove of planning, prepping and grading again, so I thought I'd give you an update. But first, a little story. All weekend, I did not want to go to school for the first time since I was in Boerne. Not only was I at school until 7:30 pm Friday night (a decision that I highly regret and will not make again), but I also had two parent conferences after school (one planned, one unplanned). One parent highly intimidated me and the other one was about a child in my class who struggles. Not only does this student struggle, but he or she wants to achieve as highly as my GT students, but hesitates to ask questions because of embarrassment. My teacher heart broke when my students w...

Earlier this summer, when I was writing curriculum at Trinity I was asked my opinion about private and public schools. I have experience teaching at both of the schools I went to before Trinity, one public and one private so I didn't know how to answer exactly. I felt judged for being an advocate of private school for some students. It was the best decision for me. Let's rewind. After I left Boerne at the beginning of the 2015-2016 and took some time off from teaching, I had a breakdown. It was about mid-September when that happened and I realized I needed to be around people. That led me to join the Impact group at Oak Hills. About a month and a half later, after interviewing for a second grade position and getting rejected, I decided to join the Children's Ministry team at my church. Almost two years later, I love working with our littlest members and I've learned to work with pre-schoolers. They are so much fun! Working at Oak Hills brought me back to my faith and ...

I absolutely love writing. I always have. I can remember a project I did in fourth grade and how excited I was even before the school year started. I knew the project was coming even in third grade. For this project, we got to write our own stories and then publish the story in a little hardcopy book. (This was back in 2000 before iPad book creator apps) At the time, I was a competitive ice skater so I remember my story being about a young girl who was traveling to an ice skating competition. Fast forward to senior year of high school when I took a playwrighting class at my high school. I was one of four students in class. I remember spending hours writing and re-writing scenes in that play. I actually found a copy of my play earlier this summer when I was over at my parents' house. Sometime in high school, I also decided that I wanted to write screenplays. I don't think that lasted very long. While writing has not always been easy (I'm looking at you, English III and Play ...