Good morning friends!  I’m excited to team up with I Heart Grade 3 for her Weekly Summer Link Up.

This week’s topic is My Teaching Quirk (which made me giggle).  I love that anyone would think teachers have only one!  

1)  Coffee
You can find me every morning with a cup of Starbucks in my hand.  If I was a Barbie, I would be “Starbucks Barbie” with a hand designed just for holding Venti cups.  I am sooooo not a morning person.  Curiously, I am up between 4:30-5:00 am every morning, but it takes me an enormous amount of time to “wake up.”  It also takes an enormous amount of coffee to wake me up!  The stronger the better and Starbucks is my caffeine of choice.

2) Greeting my Students at the Door
Warning!  Do not send your kids into my classroom.  Ever.  Please let me greet them at the door.  I LOVE greeting my students before music! I love seeing their smiling faces and welcoming them to my room.  I love getting to set the tone for the 40 minutes I get to spend with them.  There’s something so personal about looking into the eyes of each of my kids and greeting them.  I don’t like them filing through the door while I am attending to something else.  This is one of things I make my student teachers do too.  It’s just good manners.

3) Fluorescent Lights
Fluorescent lights are the bane of my existence.  I passionately detest them but with good reason.  I’ve suffered from migraines for almost 30 years.  Bright light (even sunlight) can be a trigger for me.  So my lights are never fully on.  In fact, I only use a third of the lights in my room with a few lamps too.  I know some kids dislike it at first, but it becomes one of the ways I encourage a “state change” in the music room.  Sometimes my students come in so excited that the low lights help to calm their bodies and minds.  And it helps with students being able to see our Interactive White Board too.

I hope you enjoyed reading about all of my quirks!  What is your number one teacher quirk?