What's for dinner? Thursday Throwback

Recently Amazon had all of its affiliates redo the links on our webpages.  I read and review at least one book a week.  This was a huge task.

This forced me to go through many posts this summer and update them in other ways.  I know back to school means planning ahead for dinner.  I hope this Thursday Throwback will help you out a little.

I was talking with some other teacher friends about struggling to make meals during the school year.  When I told them about my favorite kitchen appliance, the crock pot, they agreed but weren't sure what to cook.  When I shared my favorite series of cookbooks, they each pulled out notebooks and wrote them down.  I thought I would share them with all of you:

Fix-It and Forget-It is designed for the busy cook.  The recipes are contributed by a number of cooks.  I make sure I use the recipes that cook 8-10 hours without an addition half-way through.  Sometimes I use the recipes as inspiration for my own creations.

This one is my favorite in the series:

I don't like long complicated recipes.  Often several of the items are already in my pantry.  I can write the one or two remaining items on the shopping list for the week.

There are also some editions for special diets:

There is something about walking in the front door from work and knowing dinner is ready.

What is your meal-planning strategy?  I would love to hear about it.

Seeking Balance Part 4: Stop Comparing

Last week I stayed late to finish putting together my student portfolios.  I was working efficiently and cheerfully until I met a colleague in the hall who was conferencing with her all parents the second week of school.

Immediately I began questioning how I was spending my time.  Should I schedule early conferences with all my parents too?

The week before another teacher stopped by my room where I was -- again -- working late creating lessons customized to the students and their interests in my room.  She was suddenly questioning whether she should do the same. Enough.

I know this goes on in every school building.  We all want to do our jobs well.  I have to stop comparing myself with other fabulous teachers.  I can't do it all.  Neither can you.

No one is putting this pressure on me...at least at my school.  We have much freedom to run our classrooms our way as long as we are meeting the assessment deadlines and teaching to the standards.  I need to change the self-talk.  I am good enough.

Is anybody with me on this?

Seeking Balance Part 3 -- Meal Planning

I was talking with some other teacher friends about struggling to make meals during the school year.  When I told them about my favorite kitchen appliance, the crock pot, they agreed but weren't sure what to cook.  When I shared my favorite series of cookbooks, they each pulled out notebooks and wrote them down.  I thought I would share them with all of you:

Fix-It and Forget-It is designed for the busy cook.  The recipes are contributed by a number of cooks.  I make sure I use the recipes that cook 8-10 hours without an addition half-way through.  Sometimes I use the recipes as inspiration for my own creations.

This one is my favorite in the series:

I don't like long complicated recipes.  Often several of the items are already in my pantry.  I can write the one or two remaining items on the shopping list for the week.

There are also some editions for special diets:

There is something about walking in the front door from work and knowing dinner is ready.

What is your meal-planning strategy?  I would love to hear about it.

Seeking Balance Part 2

Two weeks ago, I wrote how I want to seek better balance in my life.  I often feel my life is dominated by my profession.  Teaching is my career, not my identity.

The first thing I want to do is figure out what kind of teacher I am. There are so many voices telling who I need to be and what I need to do as a teacher.  I can't do everything.  I can't compare myself with everyone else. I need to decide what is most important and do that.

Seeking Balance

I have a confession to make.

Every year I hit a cycle in teaching where I start reading my career change books.  I have quite a growing collection of them.

A few weeks ago I started the cycle again.  I started off with Dan Miller's 48 Days.  I have read the section about The Wheel of Life before but this time it really hit me of how I lack balance in my life.
(For this and other worksheets that go with the book, visit http://www.48days.com/worksheets/.)

This is where I am now:

This is where I would like to be:

I think I would enjoy teaching more, if it didn't take over so much of my life.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.  I just hope it doesn't take until summer to do it.

Which graphic describes you?