Back to School Self-Care: 10 Things Teachers Can Do To Get Ready

We might be in denial, but... it's August. Most school districts in my area start in less than two weeks. There are many blog posts and articles discussing teachers getting their classrooms ready, preparing curriculum and name cards, Pinterest-perfecting things, etc. But, teachers have personal lives too, despite what our students may think. Here are 10 things I find helpful in getting my personal life ready for back-to-school:

1. Meal Prep:
After a staff meeting, planning curriculum, grading papers, making phone calls to parents, etc. it's nice to come home and be able to have a meal ready to go. I even like to bring a mini-slow cooker to school and have home cooked meals for lunch. There are lots of ideas for freezer meals online and even ideas to work with some friends and exchange meals to add to the variety!


2.  Sick Care Package

Acclimating to an environment full of germs and hundreds of kids always takes a toll on my immune system, no matter how much hand sanitizer I have. When I'm stuffed-up with a headache and sore throat, I don't often feel like running to the store on the way home. It's good to have some things on-hand and ready for those inevitable days.


Things I like to have on hand:

- Homemade chicken soup in the freezer (or cans in the pantry)
- Cold medicine (both day and night-time variety)
- Zinc supplements to help stop the cold in its path
- Airborne or vitamin C tablets
- Bottles of juice
- Nasal spray / Vick's vapor-rub  
- Extra tissue boxes
- Tea
- Cough drops
- Pain reliever

3. Postage Stamps

It's nice that you can buy postage stamps at stores like Kroger and Wal-Mart, but I always seem to forget, and sometimes they charge extra. While you're still home during Post-Office operating hours, stack up on postage stamps so you won't be out when you need them!


4. Spring  Summer Cleaning

Before all of your energy goes towards school, take the time to deep-clean the house. Organize closets and drawers, and make it shine. It makes me feel more relaxed to have a clean house, and it will never look this good again until the next holiday.

5. Stock-Up

It's not a bad idea to stock up on items that you use every day. Hair care/toiletries are things that you don't want to run out of and have to make a trip out for during a busy week. Having some extras on hand will buy some time until the next planned grocery-shopping trip and take away from unnecessary stress.

6. Make a Plan for Self-Care Now

You can't stick to a plan if you don't have one. My co-worker has a great plan to commit to a time of day that she will leave school and go home each day. She is looking ahead and scheduling into her phone the yoga and Zumba classes she wants to do after school. Whatever this looks like for you - carve out some time to eliminate burn-out.

7. Enjoy Time with Friends

It's not every day that we can meet up for a cup of coffee at 2:00 p.m. Soak in the moment before it's gone!




8. Make Doctor's Appointments 

I hate spending my weekends at doctor's offices during the school year. Take advantage of the summer break to get routine visits in!

9. Stock Up on Cards

I like to have blank note cards, thank-you cards, and birthday cards stocked up in my school desk and at home. There have often been times where I want to send a co-worker a note of encouragement or give a birthday card to a student and had to use an index card instead. It can be a good idea to put reminders in your phone for friends and family birthdays you want to get in the mail. Michael's usually has good card sets in their cheap bins before check-out.

10. Revel in the Moment

Stay up past your bed-time, sleep in, lounge around and binge-watch a show. Make waffles for breakfast. Do an art project. Drink Starbucks while strolling lazily through Target.



Any other ideas you have from experience? What is the best use of the last days of summer for other teachers?

Days 5 and 6

Day 5:
Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs and ground turkey
A banana

Lunch:
Spaghetti squash, homemade meatballs, sauteed onions, broccoli, and eggplant, tomato sauce

Dinner:
Texas Roadhouse 6 oz. steak, house salad with no cheese, croutons or dressing, sweet potato

Terrible headache between 5-8

Day 6: (Tuesday)

Breakfast:
Scrambled eggs and ground turkey

Lunch:
A banana
A sweet potato
A salad with chicken, avacado, red onion, tomato and balsamic vinegar and EOO

Feeling exhausted

Days 2-4

Day Four: 

Woke up with an awful headache this morning. This is supposed to be expected. 

Not much of an appetite so far today.

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, plain. An apple. A small cup of orange juice.

Lunch: Tilapia with coconut oil, lemon juice and Mrs. Dash's garlic and herb blend. Not feeling hungry, so nothing else.

Bought whole 30 approved cashew butter at Kroger, and I don't like it very much, so I made my own almond butter with some cinnamin and it's much better! It took 20-25 minutes to make, but it's worth it to have something rich to have with a banana or apple for desserts. I could probably add cocoa powder and it would be pretty good too.

Day Three:

Breakfast: I was tired of eggs for breakfast, so I made a fruit smoothe with a banana, frozen strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries (all unsweetened) and coconut milk and cinnamin.

Morning snack: Eggs (sigh) with onions, spinach, and tomato

Lunch: Chicken (from the crockpot) with spicy brown mustard and a dil pickle,and  a sweet potato with cinnamin

Snack: An apple

Dinner: Went out with friends to a specialty pizza place. I had a salad with spinach, mushrooms, egg, chicken, toasted pepitas, grape tomatoes, and bacon. (I had them hold the edamama (legume) and the dressing). I had oil and vinegar instead. The bacon probably wasn't whole 30 approved, but I'd say for eating that at one of my favorite pizza places, I didn't pretty well.

Day two:
Breakfast : scrambled eggs, spinach and onion

A banana

Lunch: steak, a salad with apple, avocado, red onion

Dessert: Lara bar

Snack: apple

Dinner: chicken in crockpot, spaghetti squash, sauteed onion and eggplant, sugar free tomato sauce.

Dessert : banana dipped in cocoa powder

Whole30

I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis in April of 2015. Since then I have done some research that shows that about 90% of people with this autoimmune disorder are also dairy and gluten intolerant, and that these things can cause flare-ups to the autoimmune disorder. Enter visit to nutritionist who recommended Whole 30.

Article: The Gluten-Thyroid Connection

Day One:

Breakfast: 

  Three scrambled eggs (with a splash on Almond-milk that is Aldi brand)

  An onion and pepper mix 

   Mrs. Dash no-salt garlic and herb seasoning

   A banana

Lunch:

  Boneless/skinless chicken breast (I just cooked this in the oven and then cut it up)

  A stir-fry of onion, green pepper, yellow zucchini, carrots, and spinach cooked in coconut oil and with Mrs. Dash no-salt garlic and herb seasoning.

Snack: Two larabars. ( I know this isn't the greatest thing to do, but I was really hungry and running late with grocery shopping after school and all)

Dinner:

    Steak in a Chipotle-style salad. 

     

   - avacado

  -  red onion

       - iceburg lettuce

        - spinach

        - green pepper

        - tomato

        - lime juice and garlic powder on top

Dessert: A banana and a cup of unsweetened applesauce with cinnamin on top

Day one COMPLETE! (end date = Dec 13 if I follow my nutritionist's advice and do 60 days)

 (*I did eat a teaspoon of horseradish sauce on a bite of steak. I will try to not slip up like that....)

First Job! Or: The Shenanigans Surrounding Sarah

I finally got a teaching job, and of course, it's been anything but normal. I'd been living in Ohio since late January, nannying and applying for teaching jobs. In mid-August I was ready to give up and move back home to Jersey. I was in a not-so-good nannying job and getting no bites from the schools I applied at. I had just moved into a new apartment when I decided to move back home. My parents were already coming out to Ohio and they were going to help me pack up and move out again. Rented out my new apartment, and didn't bother to even unpack my things in the first place. Of course, a day later I began getting bombarded with calls and e-mails from schools in Ohio. They weren't kidding about public schools hiring late!

I interviewed with a school in the city two days before my parents left to come out here. The interview was for an inner-city public school, where I really wanted to work. Interview on Monday, schools starts Thursday. They waited until Tuesday night to call and say that I was hired. Now that I'd rented out my apartment. I had one day to get my classroom ready, come up with lesson plans, and get all my paperwork done in at the headquarters downtown. Oh - and find a place to live. 

While I taught my second day of tenth grade English, my parents found and rented an apartment for me (I didn't have time or the choice to see it first) and we spent all day Saturday and Sunday moving me in (forget planning week two of teaching!). And that is how my incredibly insane fall started. O.o

Fall Break and more

I only have 16 days left in Austria. Time has flown. This is my last week of teaching in most of my classes! I have had incredible experiences and made wonderful friends here. God has definitely shown me that his plan for me is not always one that I can see.

Our pastor spoke on Isaiah 42 today, and I thought the main verse seemed very fitting for my time here and my future: "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them." Isaiah 42:16. If you think of it - pray for me as I make some decisions about my future and where God would have me go next.

Fall Break



We had fall break two weeks ago. My brother, Shawn, flew to Vienna and traveled with me for a jam-packed four days! We spent half a day in Vienna on Thursday and took a night train from Vienna to Venice on Thursday night. We spent all day Friday in Venice, which was beautiful! I didn't expect it to be sooo nice. The buildings and the canals... I loved it! Friday night we hopped back on a night train and went to a little town on a lake called Hallstatt in western Austria. Hallstatt was quaint and breathtaking. We were surrounded by snow-covered mountains and even hiked up one! We spent most of Saturday there, and then took a couple-hour train ride to Salzburg. By the time we got to Salzburg, I was about ready to pass out I was so exhausted (sleeping on night-trains was more difficult than I had anticipated). We slept in a hostel in Salzburg Saturday night. On Sunday we took a Sound-of-Music bus tour through Salzburg and the lake district outside of Salzburg, then walked around the city on our own. After that, it was back to Vienna late Sunday night. Shawn had a flight out the next morning, and I had to go back to school. : )

Spiritual Emphasis Week

 This past week was spiritual emphasis week at the school. The students had chapel every day and heard some amazing testimonies from some of their teachers and classmates. One of my students came to accept Christ as their savior this week!! It is so amazing to work in a place that places Christ first and cares for the salvation and spiritual health of their students. We have a wide mix of backgrounds, cultures, and religions at our school and its so cool to get to love them all and hopefully model Christ for them!

Luke 15:7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance

Fall Break

A view from Monday morning

The snow on my walk to work

Well, ICSV is now on our Fall Break until November 5th. On Monday and Tuesday we had professional development with a team from Biola Univeristy, and a hilarious staff talent-show on Monday night. We also recieved the first snowfall of the season on Monday. I woke up to about an inch of snow and freezing weather, but it was beautiful! 

        Today I did some lesson planning so that I'm ready to jump back into school on Monday. I also baked muffins to eat as I travel with my brother, who is currently en route to Austria! We are going to visit Vienna, Venice, Salzburg, and Hallstatt. I also went shopping with a friend today and heard Christmas music playing in the stores - Happy Halloween! Actually, Halloween is not a big deal in Austria. I saw two people dressed up, but for the most part there is no trick-or-treating and the people do not make much of the holiday.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins!  

God has been continuing to bless me here. I have had wonderful experiences with friends from the school and have been welcomed so much by the staff. I went to brunch at my pastor's house with a group of young people on Sunday, and I really feel that I am exactly where God wants me. I have really enjoyed attending Grace Church here and have found it to be a good fit. Having a good home church is so important in feeling "at home" in a place. Pastor Mason and his wife are very caring and welcoming people.