New Year's Eve with Kids Part 2

We had so much fun last year with the kids on New Year's Eve that we decided to do it again! Our daughter is in 2nd grade and is learning to tell time, so I decided to use analog clocks this year for the bags. 

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Last year we started the first bag at 4 pm because coming up with 8 ideas for bags is plenty!

4 pm - New Year's Printables

There are so many options out there but this year I picked ones from Oh Rubbish Blog.

5 pm - New Year's Hats

Use the numbers for the year and a strip of paper (or two) to create a headband style hat for the kids to wear.

6 pm - Reflection Questions

I found these cute questions from Artsy Fartsy Mama and decided to print them out and put them in a bag.

7 pm - Game Time!

We have SO many board games in our house including some new ones we got for Christmas, so we let the kids each pick 1-2 games that we could play as a family.

8 pm - Popcorn and Hot Chocolate 

This is always a favorite, so even though it was on last year's list we decided to do it again this year!

9 pm - 2022 in review

We also did this last year, but it is fun to see how their answers have changed in a year

10 pm - New Year's Poppers

I found some cheap ones at Walmart this year, but also found this DIY version using toilet paper rolls from Honey and Lime.

11 pm - Sparkling Juice Toast

This year we picked up a bottle of sparkling juice and some plastic flutes from The Dollar Tree for the kids to do a toast at midnight.

See New Year's Eve 2021 post here.

From my family to yours, we wish you a year of full of happiness!

via GIPHY

Subject to Change

I always love to reflect on the previous year. Some years are great and others not so much. This year brought about a lot of changes.

We made some huge life decisions like moving our family down to North Carolina. It was something we have been talking about doing, but different things came up health-wise that kept us in Maryland an extra year.

I found a job in Wake County after being at my previous school for 9 years. Change can be scary and leaving a place where I had met so many coworkers that became friends was hard. A place where I had made a name for myself. A place where families and students knew who I was and wanted to be in my class. A place where I was comfortable.

We then had the joy of looking for a new house in a housing market that was crazy. People were putting in contracts for way more than asking price, offering ridiculous cash offers, etc. We came down during spring break to look at houses and didn't see anything that sparked our interest. Literally the day after we left NC a house came on the market that we loved. We decided to put in an offer without seeing it (crazy right?!) and somehow our contract got picked! Buying a house can be stressful, but everything worked out.

Next up moving. The moving industry is corrupt and I hope I never have to do it again. Add on to the fact that it was the end of the school year. I had covid, then the rest of my family had covid. The moving company held our stuff for almost 14 days, so my poor husband was in our new house with one bed and an air mattress, a few toys, and grocery delivery through instacart!

While April through June was stressful, we spent the summer traveling. We visited family and friends, saw new states, new baseball stadiums, and had a blast!

September brought the new school year! My amazing daughter started her third school in three years. She handles every change that comes her way like a champ. She is doing amazing. My son started kindergarten and while I was not sure how he would do with school as he spent all summer saying "I not going", he absolutely loves it and asks every morning if it is a school day.

I started at my new school love it. It is a place where I am treated with respect and as a professional. However it is challenging being the new person again. Students don't know me. Staff members don't know me. I want to be the leader that I was in my previous school, but also learning to take a step back and just learn this year.

The theme for this year was change. One of my favorite music artist is Kelsea Ballerini. She came out with an album and song called Subject to Change and it just felt like the theme song for my year. I used to hate change. I was a planner who thought things out from short term to long term. If things didn't go as planned I would struggle. Having cancer changed that. I stopped looking into the future so much. I learned to enjoy the day to day life. Whatever happens, happens. So enjoy these lyrics from Kelsea's song. I am certainly taking them into 2023 with me!

If I'm honest
Growing up, it kind of hurts like hell
It's chaotic, ironic
But it's how I learn to find myself, yeah
Thank God, I don't know about tomorrow
Thank God, I take it day by day
Oh, I don't think about the chapters
It's all about turning the page

A Year of Cooking with Kids

My aunt asked me to put together a year of cooking adventures that she could do with her granddaughters as a gift for Christmas. I had so much fun putting this together that I am going to do it with my own kids too and figured why not share it with everyone else as well!

Each month features a different recipe that you can make with your kids. I tried to keep them relatively simple recipes, but you can easily switch out any recipe. There are PLENTY of ideas out there on Pinterest.

Here are the recipes that I chose:

January - Mini English Muffin Snowmen

I originally got the idea from Snappy Gourmet, but I liked the idea of using English muffins instead of dough, so I combined this idea with Well Plated's recipe for English muffin pizzas. Easily swap out the olives with peppers or pepperoni to fit your child's tastes.

February - Air Fryer Heart Pies

I used Pampered Chef's recipe for the air fryer hand pies, then used Well Plated's idea of making them into hearts for Valentine's Day. These are so easy to customize with whatever filling your child likes!

March - Leprechaun Cookies

These delicious looking green cookies come from Never Ending Journey. Also, just add green food coloring to any of your favorite recipes to have some leprechaun fun!

April - Oreo Egg Truffles

I made these a few years ago and oh my goodness they are delicious! These Oreo truffles from Play Party Plan can be made into any shape!

May - Muffins for Mom

Swap out whatever your favorite muffin recipe is for this month! I used a banana muffin recipe from Live Well Bake Often.

June - Donuts for Dad

Again, swap out with your favorite donuts recipe. I used a recipe from A Grande Life that uses a can of biscuits!!

July - Firecracker Hot Dogs

These are so adorable for the 4th of July! The idea came from Handmade in the Heartland.

August - Jello Beach Dessert

This fun beachy themed dessert almost looks too good to eat. The recipe comes from Mommy's Fabulous Finds.

September - Apple Nachos

Who doesn't love a good apple recipe in the fall? This idea came from Momma Fit Lyndsey.

October - Jack o' Lantern Quesadillas

Here is another adorable take on an easy quesadilla recipe. The recipe comes from One Little Project.

November - S'mores Pies

One of my favorite things about fall, s'mores around the campfire! Here is a fun twist on a s'mores recipe from My Heavenly Recipes.

December - Reindeer Snack Mix

This salty and sweet snack mix won't last long in my house! This version comes from Melissa's Southern Style Kitchen.

The designs for each month were made on Canva. Click on the image below to get the Google Slides version of the recipes. The links to the original recipes are included in the speaker notes at the bottom of each slide.

Remember, the most important part of this is to have fun!

Higher ed degrees... worth it?

When I first decided I wanted to get a teaching license back in 2008, I already had a bachelor's degree in a non-education field, so it made sense for me to get my master's degree while pursuing my teaching license. I was in the state of Virginia at the time and they were also pushing people who wanted to get their teaching license to get their master's degree because it allowed them to be considered "highly qualified". To be honest, I don't feel like the master's degree made me any more qualified than those who get their teacher degrees at the bachelor's level. In Virginia and Maryland (where I taught after Virginia) both compensated teachers for receiving higher degrees. However, now that I am in North Carolina, I am learning that they do not compensate for a degree higher than bachelor's, unless you received it before a certain date. (Luckily mine was earned before this date!)

So this made me think... why do we continue to push teachers to spend money out of their own pockets to pursue a higher degree. Do "master" level courses really make you any more knowledgeable than "regular" courses that can be taken to continue learning? I have taken many different courses throughout my career and honestly, some of the better ones have been the quick, more specific, professional development courses taken through a local online college for MUCH less than a masters-level course.

I saw numerous colleagues in Maryland continue to pursue higher degrees so that they could move up to a different pay scale and make more money, but is it truly worth it? The time, effort, and money that go into completing a degree is A LOT. You know what would help, if states/counties would compensate teachers like the professionals that we are. Teachers should not have to work multiple jobs, have roommates, or rely on a significant other's income in order to survive day-to-day living.

Let's go back to this idea of "highly qualified". Why do we feel a master's degree makes one highly qualified? Are you trying to tell me, that me, a brand new teacher that just so happens to have a master's degree, is more qualified at teaching than someone who has been there 3-5 or more years?? I feel like there are WAY more other ways that we could determine if a teacher is highly qualified than pushing them into debt to get a degree that may or may not enhance their teaching.

Now, some may disagree with this, but I do feel like National Board Certification is a great way to achieve the highly qualified status. I know that some states compensate for this certification as well and it cost WAY less than getting an additional degree. It allows you to showcase the great things you are doing in the classroom along with the knowledge of education (shown on a test in component 1).

I'm starting to ramble, so let's wrap this up. Teachers, before you go for that higher degree, please make sure that it is going to truly help you in your education career!

Standards Based Grading for the win!

I am officially a month into teaching in North Carolina and experiencing standards-based grading and I am 100% sold that this is the best method of grading especially at the elementary level.

For those unfamiliar with standards-based grading, students receive a 1-4 for each standard taught during a quarter based off of their proficiency with each standard instead of a quarterly grade being determined by averaging a group of assignments on a 0-100 scale. Students might receive a 3 on two math standards and a 2 on another standard. This more focused approach shows the exact area of weakness, whereas a student could receive assignments of: 100, 75, 90, 50 and earn a C. Two of the assignments were an A so is it truly showing their academic ability when they had one assignment that they struggled on?

With standards-based grading the focus is on the learning and not the grade. Students understand that their goal is to show mastery of the standard by the end of the year, so if they don't understand something at first they still have time to show that mastery by the end of the school year.

It also means that if they don't understand something right away, instead of getting a 50% or lower on an assessment and then struggling to dig themselves out of that hole for the rest of the quarter, they can prove that they have mastered a standard and receive a 3 on it.

I find that I am not grading every little thing that we do together. At my previous county I was required to put in 2 grades per week for each content area. This is exhausting and completely puts the focus on the grade and not the content being learned.

So much of learning is doing things together. Why should I be required to grade something that we did as a class? I've taught my students to not worry about if something is graded, but instead just focus on learning how to complete the task at hand so that when something is truly graded they will be comfortable doing it.

The easiest way to organize standards-based grading is by having students create a portfolio of their learning throughout the year. In my classroom students have a binder with dividers for each content area where they keep their assessments and any other completed work that shows their mastery.

I've also created these signs for my classroom so that the students understand the meaning behind each level. It is a visual reminder that allows them to also rate themselves on each topic. They can read the descriptions and decide where they think they fall on a certain topic

I wish there was a way to continue this idea of standards-based grading throughout the rest of the grades 8-12 (unless it is already out there and I just haven't seen it yet). I remember being in middle and high school and there being so much pressure to get good grades that somethings I wasn't always focused on what I was actually learning.

Thanks for going on my standards-based grading rant with me! I hope that we can continue to shift from a focus on grades to a focus on learning.

Rebranding Myself

I've decided to start over. To reorganize my online presence. So I'm "rebranding myself" just sounds right. I don't have a brand that I am trying to sell, but I do enjoy blogging and creating things for school, my kids, and just life in general so why not put them altogether?

I have been all over the place in the past. I focused on education content for awhile, then changed to focusing on cooking and recipes, then kids came into the picture and I created content for them. Then I had some life changing stuff I went through the past 2 years. It gets messy when things are in 10 different places, so why not combine them all into one!

So here we are! Welcome!

My name is Amber Potter. I have been teaching since 2010. I have taught in Virginia, Maryland, and now North Carolina. I was married in 2013 and have two wonderful kids. I enjoy cooking, coffee, playing golf, and being creative.

As the tagline says, this blog will be a little bit education, a little bit parenting, and a little about life. Welcome aboard, I hope you enjoy the ride! 

Chapter 37 loading...

I have just begun my 37th trip around the sun and this one was a little more special than others.

Year 36 saw a lot. I finished chemo, started and finished radiation, dealt with my husband being sick and in and out of the hospital multiple times, the entire family getting COVID, and that is just the health side of things.

We also decided this was the year to make the leap. We have been wanting to move south to be closer to family for a few years now. I worried that after all of our health scares last year that we wouldn't be able to do it because of work, health insurance, etc.

But we did it. I started looking for jobs in March and landed a teaching position at what I have heard is an amazing school near Raleigh. We started looking for houses in April and again we landed our dream house within a few weeks.

Then began the emotional part of saying goodbye. The first time we moved from Virginia to Maryland was more exciting than sad because we had just bought our first house, we had friends in Maryland already, and there were no kids involved. This time our move involved two kids having to say goodbye to their friends that they had made over the past few years. It also included me saying goodbye to my school that I had been at for the past 9 years. You don't realize the relationships that have been built with not only your coworkers, but families that attend the school. I have had so many siblings that I have taught over the years and some of them still had younger siblings that were looking forward to possibly having me in 5th grade.

As we get settled into our new house, new state, and new normal I am reminded why we made this move. Our kids have already stayed at their grandpa's house a few times giving my husband and I a kid-free date night or to go play golf. We also hosted a birthday cookout with family yesterday with my aunt and grandma. We are going to see my husband's aunt this week and I get to see my mom for dinner. This right here is my reason why. I absolutely love being close to family.

In 17 days I get to meet my new school family and I am so excited to start this next chapter in my educational journey!

For now though, going back to enjoying my summer break. 😎

My Journey

This Friday I will get my port removed. I have had the order from my doctor to get it removed since October, but for some reason it just wasn't a priority at the time. I don't know how to explain it, but I felt some weird, emotional attachment to this thing in my body. I don't know if it is the fear of if I take it out, it will come back or if it is just another step in this journey that I am learning to process.

This January I got a new order from the doctor so that I could get the port removed. I tried calling 2 weeks later and could not get in touch with someone. I left a message and never got a call back. Took it as a sign to wait. At the end of February I tried calling again, this time I spoke with someone who was able to schedule my procedure. It is this Friday. Exactly a year from the date I got my port put in. This I decided was another sign. This is when I should get it removed.

As I reflect back on this year, I wanted to put all of my posts and stories in one place. Oddly enough in just the past 2 months I have shared my story with others who were getting ready to go through the same thing I did and it felt so good to share.

Google Slides Can Do That!

When my principal shared with us back in December best practices that we should be doing in the classroom, I felt the collective sigh from the staff members who felt like this is just one more thing we needed to do. Many of the best practices were things that we already know how to do, but we needed a way to do them in a more digital-friendly way to accommodate our new norm of using technology to teach.

I also wanted to showcase how technology can help you work smarter, not harder (one of my favorite sayings!) by having things saved in one place or preparing your objectives, lessons, etc. ahead of time.

Enter Google Slides!

Check out the presentation below to see how I use Google Slides to...

• create objectives
• monitor students
• create manipulatives (both printable and digital)
• create writing assignments
• organize small group instruction
• easily manage rotations/centers
• create a word wall
• organize HOT questions for the entire school
• have active discussions
• create or organize anchor charts

Google Slides Can Do That!