The Awkward Octopus Productions

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Edison, NJ
The Awkward Octopus Productions

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Founder of: Making Science a Verb | Supporting educators creating hands on, investigative science ex Looking for my voice over information? Check it out!

http://reginaborriello.icanvoice.com/

10/14/2026

We had some choose your own adventure professional development time this afternoon, which is GREAT, because I have SO MUCH GRADING TO DO!!!

Meanwhile, look at how clean and shiny my prep room desk is!!! Wasn't I soooo productive???

How long do you think it will stay this way??

09/29/2026

By this point in September, you probably have a much clearer picture of what wants your attention this year.

The emails. The requests. The unfinished tasks. The classroom issue. The thing somebody else forgot that has somehow wandered onto your plate wearing a tiny name tag. 😂

Some of it genuinely needs your attention. Some of it can wait.

And some of it does not deserve nearly as much mental space as it’s trying to occupy.

Finding a sustainable rhythm isn’t only about deciding what you’ll do. It’s also about deciding what you will stop carrying after the school day ends.

🐙 Save this for the next time something tries to take more of your peace than it deserves.

09/24/2026

You can love teaching and still know that something about the way you’re approaching it isn’t sustainable.

Both things can be true.

You can care deeply about your students and need stronger boundaries. You can love your classroom and still wonder whether something needs to shift.

You can be grateful for the career you’ve built and still feel that persistent little something isn’t working the way I need it to.

You don’t have to turn that feeling into a five-year plan tonight. Start by getting curious.

What isn’t working right now? What do you want more of? What are you spending energy on that you don’t want to carry anymore? What would make teaching feel more sustainable for you?

You may not have answers to all of those yet. Sometimes having a place to say them out loud is where the next step starts.

That’s what my Open Door Session is for: a free 45-minute conversation where we can talk through what’s feeling stuck, explore what you might need, and see what support could be useful.

🐙 If you’ve been sitting with that “something needs to change” feeling, my door is open.

Book your Open Door Session through the link in my bio.

09/23/2026

A hard week can make a teacher start doing some truly impressive forecasting.

“This class is going to be like this ALL YEAR.”

“This routine will NEVER work.”

“I have made a terrible mistake.” 😂

But one difficult week is information, not a prophecy.

Maybe something needs adjusting. Maybe a conversation needs to happen. Maybe you need support. Or maybe everyone is tired and Thursday was simply...Thursday.

You’re allowed to respond to a hard week without letting it write the story of the entire year.

Take what you learned from it. Make the adjustment you can make. Then give next week the chance to be different.

🐙 Share this with a teacher whose week has been A WEEK.

09/22/2026

Okay, technically the school year has already started.

Which actually makes this a pretty good time to revisit the things we thought we needed before it did. 😂

A perfect plan? You’ve probably changed something already.

A Pinterest-perfect classroom? Your students have now demonstrated exactly how long anything stays Pinterest-perfect.

Last year’s energy? This year has its own students, circumstances, and version of you.

The first few weeks give us information we simply couldn’t have before school began. Use it.

Keep what works. Adjust what doesn’t. Leave behind what you don’t need anymore.

🐙 Save this for the next time you start thinking you should have everything figured out by now.

09/17/2026

There is something deeply humbling about making a beautiful plan and then meeting reality. 😂

Teaching provides approximately four thousand opportunities to experience this.

A routine doesn’t work the way you expected. A lesson needs another day. Students respond completely differently than the group you had last year. Something you were certain would work simply...doesn’t.

The temptation can be to scrap everything and start over. But revision isn’t failure.

Sometimes the smartest thing we can do is figure out which part of the plan still works, which part needs changing, and what we know now that we didn’t know when we made it.

I wrote more about exactly that on Substack in my blog post: So Much for That Plan: The Art of Revising Without Starting Over.

🐙 Read the full post on Substack. Link in bio.

09/16/2026

The first few weeks can make it feel like you should have everything figured out already.

You should know the pace. The routines should be automatic. Your planning system should be humming along. Surely by now you should know exactly how this year works.

Except every year brings different students, schedules, responsibilities, personalities, and challenges.

Finding your rhythm takes time.

Pay attention to what’s working. Adjust what isn’t. Let routines actually become routines before deciding they’ve failed.

We give students time to find their footing in a new year. Teachers deserve some of that patience, too.

🐙 Send this to the teacher who needs permission to still be figuring it out.

09/15/2026

By this point in September, the fantasy of having unlimited planning time has officially left the building. 😂

So if you’re looking for something that gives students structure without requiring you to reinvent the wheel for every unit, this is exactly why I created my Science Interactive Notebook.

It includes a teacher guide plus scaffolded and independent instructions, with space for students to work through driving questions, phenomena, changes in their thinking, and honest self-checks along the way.

The goal isn’t just to give students somewhere to put information. It’s to help them see how their thinking develops as they learn.

And yes, having something already built for you is also rather nice.

🐙 You can find the Science Interactive Notebook in my TPT store through the link in bio.

09/10/2026

A little peek behind the science teacher, the coaching, the resources, and the awkward octopus. 🐙

One thing I’m trying to hold onto as the school year gets moving is the fact that teaching is a huge part of my life, but it isn’t the whole thing.

There’s the classroom and the science and the lesson planning, yes. But there are also the interests, people, places, projects, and very ordinary moments that make me me.

Finding the rhythm of a school year isn’t only about getting the classroom routine down. It’s also figuring out how the rest of your life still gets to exist alongside it.

Teachers, tell me something about YOU that has absolutely nothing to do with school.

09/09/2026

We spend a lot of time at the beginning of the school year noticing what isn’t working.

The routine that needs adjusting. The lesson that took twice as long as planned. The class period that is already keeping us humble. 😂

But what about the things that are going better than expected?

Maybe a new routine actually stuck. Maybe a class you were nervous about has surprised you. Maybe the new policy you spent August worrying about is...not completely terrible. Maybe something small is making your day easier.

Before you start fixing everything, take inventory of what’s already working. Sometimes finding your rhythm starts with noticing that parts of it are already there.

🐙 What’s working better than you expected so far? Tell me one thing in the comments.

Address

Edison, NJ
08837

Telephone

+17324829915

Website

https://linktr.ee/theawkwardocto

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