Learn with Mel Hern

Tell me you are a teacher that is chilling, feet propped up, sun beating down on you as you sip on a cocktail. School is not etched in your mind at all. Is that even possible?  Can we relax without either thinking about school or thinking about what is the next best thing we can do while we have some down time? If you are anything like me, it must be hard to get your brain to slow down after months of constant go, go, go. I find the first week or so of summer to be mentally challenging. My routine is gone. The many quick decisions I make on the daily have come to a sudden halt and here I am alone left to my own devices. Time to myself, now that my kids are gown, leaves room for so much thought that sometimes my brain wants to pop!  Please tell me I am not alone when it comes to the revolving chamber of ideas that runs through my brain, usually at 2 am, each one firing simultaneously as I decide which brand new thought to grab on to and run with, in hopes that this will be the ...

To bring back to life from apparent death or unconsciousness is to resuscitate. It is hard work, sometimes gut wrenching work. The act of resuscitating a human who has lost consciousness may be what seems to you as an eternity; arms shaking, deliberate movements to find life, and a hope-filled energy that moves you to not quit until you have heard a breath or found a pulse.  The unconscious body being resuscitated is symbolic of our education system as it hangs on for dear life, not quite lifeless yet but nearing the threshold. Years and years of oppression, segregation, manipulation, drawing of lines to separate Black from White, rich from poor is taking its toll. From political destruction of our system to outright mandated teaching methods that simply do not work, our students are finding it hard to stay conscious folks, that is unless they are wealthy and live in the right school districts. Our system that is supposed to educate its youth is tattered, hanging on for dear ...

  Are you a teacher wanting to make money by selling your products online? Do you have great ideas and/or lessons you have created that you want to share? Well, let me tell you that you absolutely can make money by selling your resources online. Did I say it was easy? Did I say you would make a lot of money in a short time? No. In fact, as I am in the midst of month two of selling my personally created interactive lessons, I can show you exactly how much online money I have earned. Below you will find my first-month earnings from Boom Learning and my current earning which is current as of today, 06/10/21. I still have 20 days to earn some dinero! 🙌  As you can see, I earned $51.67 in my first month and I am currently at $35.49 for month two. Not bad for a beginner. Are you wondering about Teachers Pay Teachers ? Yeah... I made $7.55 my first month and so far this month, I am at $0! 😒  I have some work to do on TPT! I have had sales on different items that I have c...

Hey teachers! Does this look like any of you at any point this year? Looking half exhausted and half zombielike?  😳  No, I did not turn to alcohol every day, if you are wondering by the bottle sitting next to me. I'm more of a coffee girl, even when I want to relax. Is that completely off the wall? I drink coffee to relax?  What can I say? I'm an odd duck.  Anyhow, let me refocus on my topic of being a truly tired teacher this year. In  all the years that I have been teaching, this is the first year that I have literally come home and looked pretty similar to a walking zombie. No joking my peeps.  I think my husband can testify to my craziness. Hey, at least he is still alive. He survived my zombie year and lives to tell the tale of the truly tired, often zombie like, teacher wife. LOL! On a serious note, I took naps this year! Never have I been a napper and let me tell you, I had many naps. I even napped so hard one day and woke up at 7:40 pm thinking I w...

  This teacher is ready for summer break! How about you?  Do not act like I am the only one ready to get wild and hang from a chandelier. 😂  I think we can all agree it has been a year for the books, well, maybe a digital book. :)  I know many of us had to become online educators at the drop of a hat! Wow, are we amazing. We were definitely dealt our fair share of craziness this past school year but somehow we soldiered on and are ending it like the champs we are. It never ceases to amaze me how resilient, how flexible, supportive, intelligent, and strong that we all are as educators. Whatever is thrown at us, we always manage to pivot until we find success. Yes!👏 That being said, it is almost that time... to stop the caregiving that is innately found in us teachers and start finding the care for ourselves. The time is now to do whatever it is we want to do, no holding back.  As I get older, I start to see my time on earth quickly passing and I keep thin...

  If you have been a little stressed about your students, don't fret. I think I might have the answer for you. I say hop on board the boomlearning express! This tool is amazing and will not only benefit the students but will help you, as a teacher too with automatic grading and a library full of interactive pre-made lessons from PreK-12th grade! Are you an educator who has dealt with the struggles of virtual learning?  If so, you might be thinking that these past several months have not been the best for learning. In fact, you might have seen the drop already as students were forced to take assessments this school year. You might also be wondering how your students can continue growing their brains, and recoup all that they have missed, over the upcoming summer months. After all, many of us in the educational world know this time as the "summer slide" where students regress during their lengthy time off of school.  Although the validity of such regression is definitely qu...

  You're talented, they said. You are awesome and you are a leader, they said. You are a hard worker and need to create your own material, they said. It will be easy and you can make so much money, they said! Does this sound familiar? Well, let me tell you, I went all in on this well intentioned and motivating advice. Two months later, I have made $28.17 on my Boom Learning   journey and a whopping $6.75 on my Teacher Pay Teachers store .  The well intentioned motivators above, who constantly cheer me on, mainly my family, certainly had no clue the hard work I was going to face. And, quite frankly, neither did I. I thought, "OMG! if other teachers love boom cards as much as I do, there must be a place for me." Well, let me tell you, there definitely is a place, but some of what I am learning is that: You have to really work hard on honing in on one area of your work and get great at it because there is stiff competition. As you grow your following, you can move on to ...