A few of my favorite things...

Since it's Friday, I thought I would share my outfit and talk about a few of my favorite things--layering and wedges...and tech-free back-up lesson plans. 

Today was one of those fun days when the teaching forces smiled on me. I had a lesson planned and the slideshow created on Drive, and then, as I was getting ready, I thought, "Wait! No! I want to do this other thing!" And as I was drying my hair, I planned out something completely different that I thought would do a better job of getting my students thinking about the complex relationships in the book. The good news is that this new lesson plan only required butcher paper, markers and a quick sketch on the board. When I got to school and realized that, because of the delayed opening we would only have about 45 minutes per class and, because of the power outage that had happened that morning we didn't have internet, I was really glad I had reworked my lesson. As a teacher, it seems that at least once a year, a force beyond your control completely screws up your brilliant lesson. Sometimes it's the internet, sometimes it's the copiers, sometimes it's a fire drill. But just know it's going to happen, and that's okay. But also, know that it's okay to go low tech--group work with butcher paper isn't a bad lesson. Giving kids index cards and having them write down things they want to talk about from the book isn't a bad idea. Having kids take time to find a meaningful passage from the reading and having them share/discuss isn't an unproductive day. If anything has been made clear to me through 10+years of teaching, it's that it really helps to have a few structures that you can fall back on even if everything you were planning falls apart...or if you just feel like your students need a day to put their interests in the center of the lesson. 

And, as luck would have it, my "Hey! Wait a minute!" lesson went really well, gave me a quick assessment on how well my students are analyzing the characters in the book, and gave me some important insight into what I want to discuss in depth next class period. It doesn't always work out that well, but today it did. So  I'm taking the little victory.

Along with my love of a good butcher paper in groups lesson, I also wore two of my favorite style choices today: wedges and layers. 

I love, maybe more than I should, a collared shirt under a sweater. I HATE putting on those layers, but once they're on and the shuffling of collars and cuffs and shirt tails is all done, I like how cozy it is, and I like the way it looks. I will say that I'm careful about what I pair those layers with. I typically do skinny jeans and a girly shoe just because I'm still trying to overcome the ghosts of bad fashion past in that I wore WAY TOO many sweatshirts with turtlenecks and baggy jeans when I was a kid, so any time I wear a bulky sweater with a shirt underneath I'm super aware of wanting the rest of my outfit to be as far from my terrible childhood fashion sense as possible.  

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Today's outfit is brought to you by my attempt to buy a black and white flannel shirt and then realizing instantly that the shirt was navy, and realizing after looking at the shirt in multiple lights and comparing it to multiple other things, that the shirt is also a light cream. This meant I grabbed the first navy sweater I found in my closet that didn't have white in it. And that's how an outfit comes together in my world. This sweater was one that I bought maybe 3 or 4 years ago to go with a specific skirt, and now I have no idea which skirt that is. How sad, I guess. And it actually looks kinda awful on my body type when I wear it by itself, so the collard shirt gives it a less frumpy look. ​

Either way, here are a few options for sweaters and shirts you might want to layer. Here's the link to the flannel--it comes in lots 'o colors. And here and here are the links to the sweaters. ​

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So, my other favorite thing is to pair the layers with fitted jeans and wedges. Maybe I have weird feet, but, for me, wedges offer me the best chance of having happy feet all day while wearing shoes that make me feel a bit more dressed up. Somehow, in my mind, if I'm wearing heels of any form, I feel more dressed up. These wedges are a few years old, and I feel like a real grown-up every time I wear them, so I wear them pretty often. I couldn't find an exact match, so I'm linking to approximately a million options in the hopes that if you are looking for some comfy winter shoes, you might find a great pair here. 
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In order of appearance, here is a pair from Lucky. 
Then here's an option from TOMS.
Then there's this pair from Franco Sarto.
And here's one from Ralph Lauren. 
And here's one from Crown Vintage.
And here's a last option from Carlos. 

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The jeans are from Lucky, and I'm still deciding how I feel about them. I really like the color and the detail and the way they look, but I'm realizing that I'm not sure Lucky makes jeans for people with my proportions. It seems that their target audience might have thinner legs and a bit less in the backside. But I'm hoping I'm wrong, because I really like their stuff. Either way, I like this pair I got SUPER on sale. I still like the ones from Gap best of all, but I wanted the jeans to be more fitted to balance out the bulk of the layers on top. So there you have it. 



Okay--I'm off to bed in the hopes of getting up early and being a responsible gym member. ​