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Tips & Tricks :: 8 Easy Ways to Make Mondays Better

Making Mondays BetterLet’s face it. Mondays are probably most people’s least favorite day of the week. I’ve never really LOVED Mondays even before I had a “real job,” but after working in schools, I can safely say that Mondays can feel like the.absolute.worst. I mean, you’re jolted awake before you’re ready to face the world by some type of alarm, the students are grumpy, you’re rushing around to the copier to try to get all your lessons set for the week…only to find 4 people ahead of you wiping out every tree on earth copying 450-page packets for their own 30 students.  Sigh. It’s just really the worst. So this week, I set out on a mission to try to make my Monday less bad. I wasn’t expecting a 10/10 day – I was even willing to accept 6/10. As I went through the day, I tried to think of all the things I could do to make it slightly better. Sure. I didn’t end the day skipping down the halls singing the Sound of Music or anything, but I definitely noticed my own attitude was much better!

Make Mondays Better1. Make your bed

I’m going to be honest. If I had all the money in the world, I would pay someone to do this for me. It’s one of my favorite parts of staying in a hotel, but I really dislike doing it myself! However, a few months ago, I read this advice for living from a Navy Seal and it changed my perspective on this hated chore. So, last Monday I made myself take the 3 minutes it actually takes and did it. Naval Adm. William McRaven explains:

“If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed…And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made—that you made—and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.”

2. Say a genuine hello to the first person you seeMake Mondays Better

Whether it’s a gas station attendant, school custodian, or that teacher next door who complains incessantly about anything any everything, say hi! Even if you’re not sure you have anything in common with them, I guarantee they don’t like Monday mornings either, so that’s something! Ask about their weekend, give a smile, let them know it’s nice to see them. I guarantee greeting someone with a smile will make you feel better.

3. Do as much as you can Sunday

My mom’s really going to love this one! Before going to bed on Sunday, I make sure my clothes are laid out, my breakfast/lunch is ready to go, and I’m showered. Now, I know many people aren’t a fan of the night shower, so an early morning Monday shower may be a necessity. However, everyone can save themselves the agony of standing bleary-eyed in their closet laying out exactly 4,523 outfit combinations and wondering why the heck you didn’t go buy that new pair of pants you had planned to get over the weekend. So instead, you think to yourself, “I’ll have to swing by the store on the way home and get those. I literally have nothing to wear.” Congratulations, you’ve already added an item to your to-do list. Moral of the story, just lay the darn outfit out the night before! By doing as much as I can Sunday night instead of Monday morning, I save myself a good hour in the morning and have perfected the “wake up, feed baby, make bed, dress/makeup/teeth, and get out of the house routine” to 40 minutes. I’ll take the extra hour of sleep!

4. Leave yourself a note

I first started doing this before long breaks from school because I knew I’d be in a grumpy mood after coming back from 2 weeks of Winter Break or a week of Spring Break. I’ve since extended it to Mondays too! Before leaving work on Friday, I leave myself a post-it note. Somedays it’s an inspirational quote or mini pep-talk. Other times it’s a list of 5 things I’m thankful for in my life. A few days, all I’ve been able to manage is a quickly-drawn smiley face before I rush home. But, regardless of how grumpy I am when I get to my room, something positive always greets me on Monday morning. Maybe you could get a few co-workers to go in with you and leave positive notes in each other’s mailboxes!

5. Take it one day at a timeFriday

One of the things that makes me feel grumpy about Mondays is realizing there are 5 WHOLE DAYS separating me from the weekend. Then I start thinking about the group I still haven’t planned for on Tuesday, that stressful meeting I have on Wednesday, the paperwork that’s due Thursday and my head is spinning a mile a minute before I even get to my desk. Instead, this week I made the intentional effort to take things one day at a time. Monday things first. When I get past the immediate needs, then I can look to the future, but only then.

6. Save something special

This week, I made a playlist of the music I’ve been playing in the car recently on my 45-minute commute. Instead of listening to it Tuesday-Friday, I saved it for Monday only. Then, the remaining days I did other things (listened to the radio, called a friend on bluetooth, listened to an audiobook, etc.) Sunday night, I started thinking about how excited I was to have my music back again on Monday instead of how much I was dreading driving to work in the dark! You could also try to do this with other things too like going out for lunch, eating a favorite food for breakfast, recording your favorite TV shows to watch Monday night. You get the idea. Make Mondays a splurge day!

7. Slow Cooker mealsSlow Cooker Honey Garlic Chicken

There are literally 100,000,000 recipes out there for slow cooker meals. After adjusting back to a chaotic week after a relaxing weekend, the last thing you’ll want to do after work when you get home is cook. Instead, grab a freezer bag you’ve pre-filled will all the ingredients during a more ambitious day and dump it into the crockpot before heading out on the day. Delicious aromas will greet you when you return home…..mmmmmmm. Dishes are also a breeze!

Family8. Perspective

So, I don’t want to be morbid, but the average human being only gets around 3,500 Mondays in their life. And while that may sound like a lot at first, by the time you’re 20, 1040 of them are already gone. So, assuming most of us are 30-50 years old, we have probably around 2000 of them left. I don’t want to be sitting at the end with my life facing the fact that I complained about my day 1/7th of the time. I’d much rather know I spent my days getting out there, finding SOMETHING to be joyful about, and making the most out of that time. Whether I feel like it right now or not, someday I’ll wish that I could come back to this day. I I don’t know whether it will be to revisit a friend I’ve lost touch with, or see a loved one who passed, or just to remember what it was like to feel “that young.” Someday I’ll want nothing more than to wake up to THIS DAY. I want to make it count!

How do YOU make your Mondays days worth getting up for?

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Tips & Tricks :: 9 Ways to Prep for and Survive *That* Stressful Meeting

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I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that you’ve either already had, or will be having at some point this year, a meeting that you are NOT looking forward to. Whether it’s an IEP meeting, 504 Plan meeting, or even a parent-teacher conference, every now and then, we all have meetings we know ahead of time are going to be contentious or just plain unpleasant.

1. List out some positives

Sure, you’ve probably heard the “sandwich” technique of sandwiching negative information about a child to their parent in between 2 positive things. However, I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve been in where the team completely loses sight of this and jumps right into the “well, your kid refuses to work…he bites others…I’m pretty sure he peed on another student in the bathroom Thursday…” Whether it’s frustration, feeling tight for time, or just being plain exhausted from dealing with difficult issues, we tend to get a little bit too much to the point. As a result, this often puts the parents on the defensive right off the bat. It pits you against them, and that never leads to anything productive. So, as cheesy as it is, find something positive to start with. Believe me, I know sometimes it seems really difficult (which is why I put this first – it may take you some time), but find SOMETHING.

business-19156_12802. Get your facts together

Ok, I’m going to warn you – you won’t like this one. Data….data…data…our schools are filled with it now. Benchmarking, progress monitoring, evaluating standards, discipline data, etc. etc. etc. Yeah, I know, I hate doing it too! However, if you’re going to go through the trouble of collecting the data, you may as well use it to help you! Before going into a meeting you think may be difficult, make sure you have data to back up your facts. This way, interventions can be implemented to address problem areas and you can present information objectively, rather than just anecdotally. It’s harder for people to attack data – they can attack your observations, biases, or thoughts, however!

3. Know what you’ve done

Along with bringing your data, make sure you keep track of what strategies, interventions, or supports you’ve already tried. Know what’s worked and what hasn’t worked. It provides a good starting point for problem-solving.

4. Plan for company

Figure out who is going to be at the meeting first. If it’s an IEP meeting, you might have a pretty large group. If you’re having a parent-teacher conference, it might just be you and the parent. In either case, make sure the location you’re using is as comfortable and private as possible. If you think you’ll need backup, have a building administrator or other staff member who works with the student join you for the meeting. Also, try to see if the parent will be bringing anyone else so that you can plan for space (and mentally if need be!).

5. Start with “boring” stuff first

If I’m in a meeting and I can tell the parent or other team members are entering it tense, I always try to bore them first. It may sound terrible, but it’s a really really effective way to get everyone’s feet wet in a non-threatening way. After starting the meeting with positives about the student, this often this takes the form of discussing lots of non-surprising assessment results (probably don’t just right into that Autism evaluation you just gave or IQ of 40 you just determined). I tend to favor things that support the hypotheses the team may have had previously (attention assessment confirmed attention concerns). Numbers often bore people, so they’re a great non-threatening way to begin or intervene if emotions are tense. If you don’t have assessments to go over, reviewing grades, attendance, or other information the team members mostly already know can be a good review to bring everyone up to speed without freaking anyone out. A few times I’ve just gone over a student’s social history interview REALLY thoroughly if the team needed a little time out. Most people aren’t going to experience strong emotions hearing that the student met developmental milestones on time, sees Dr. Smith as her pediatrician, didn’t have any serious illnesses as a young child, and enjoys riding dirt bikes with her brothers. It’s also a good way for me to double check with the parent (“Is this information still correct?”) and give them a voice for a bit.

6. Be prepared to break and reconvene

IEP meetings can be emotional. Lines can be drawn in the sand, people can take comments personally, tempers can flare. Plan ahead of time for what to do if things do get out of hand. That way, if you need to take a break and come back (5 minutes or 5 weeks later), you’ll know what your game plan is.

Stressful IEP Meeting7. Take notes

Whether it’s you or another staff member, make sure someone keeps notes – particularly about the parent’s concerns. Keep them straight to the facts, and be objective. Avoid opinions when possible, documenting only exactly what happened as it happened. An administrator of mine always said, “If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen.” After documenting the parent’s concerns, also write how the team is working to address them. If issues arise after the meeting, you’ll want to make sure everything’s been documented.

8. Stay relaxed and calm

This one is not easy. During stressful situations, our fight or flight response takes over and completely blurs our ability to think and problem-solve. Hopefully it won’t get to that point, but check out my other tips for Dealing with Angry Parents just in case. The best thing you can do is harness your zen-like teacher skills. See #6 🙂

9. Have an “out”

Some of the best “worst” meetings I’ve been a part of become palatable because there’s something else to go to right afterwards. Maybe teachers have to leave at 3:30 by contract – or you have another meeting scheduled an hour after this meeting started – or the school day ends and the parents will have to pick up kids from daycare. Whatever it is, it often helps to establish an ending time. That way, if things do derail a bit, you won’t have to be “trapped” forever. Sometimes just knowing that business needs to be taken care of by a certain time will keep everyone on-track and in a problem-solving mode. But even if it doesn’t, you can at least be reassured that the rest of your day won’t be taken up in a difficult meeting.

Ultimately, you can’t plan for every difficult meeting. Every now and then they sneak up on you like a bad case of acid reflux. However, with a bit of planning, you can make sure you’re in the best possible situation for potentially stressful meetings to problem-solve and work to do what’s best for your students! After all, that is the point, right?!

If you have other suggestions or tips for surviving difficult meetings, share them in the comments below!

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Sale :: Super Cyber Savings Sale

TpT Cyber Savings Sale

If you missed out on the Black Friday Bundle Sale, there’s still time to get in on some of the savings fun. Although the bundles won’t be 30% off anymore, you can still get 28% off EVERYTHING in my store, including all my Winter Holiday items. Starting tomorrow, just enter the promo code “TPTCYBER” at checkout to get and extra 10% off already discounted items (10% off items already 20% off = 28% off…just trust me)!

But don’t wait too long. This sale will only be going on 12:01 AM Monday through 11:59 PM on Tuesday. So, head on over and grab lots of goodies to get you through the rest of the year. Won’t it be great to not have to plan until next year!?