What's zup?

ooh, what a fun ask!! I’ve been teaching for about 10 years now. I do teach kids that are a bit older (middle school), but I imagine the stuff in this post goes for most people that work with kids of all ages!!

There’s this quote that informs SO much of my practice—

It’s so very important to be conscious of the classroom environment and tone you’re setting. Maybe this comes more naturally to early childhood educators because they usually spend the whole day with the same group of kiddos, but I teach ELA to ~120 kids over the course of a day and it can be very easy to get so caught up in WHAT you’re teaching that you lose sight of the bigger—and more important!—picture. I think when teachers are just starting out there’s a tendency to look outside of themselves for who/what to blame when there are problems but…we really have SO much power in simple things like our tone, our energy, our attitude. These things don’t SEEMS monumental but once you realize the power they have, it makes a HUGE difference.

Modeling is also so super important to do, especially for littles! Sure, I model academic skills as I teach them, but modeling social-emotional skills is also SUPER effective. For example, my first go-to if I hear an unkind exchange that doesn’t really need to be escalated to discipline (especially if a kid has demonstrated some SEL needs in the past) is to rephrase parts of the conversation in a more appropriate way. I don’t make a big deal out of it—sometimes it can even seem like I’m kidding around. My aim is two fold: show a better way to interact (kinder) AND demonstrating to other kids listening that, hey, we don’t say unkind things here but we also get easy chances to correct our behavior. I used to tend as a younger teacher to not correct kids publicly at ALL for fear of embarrassing them, but it is possible to correct without embarrassment if you have good relationships and avoid power struggle.

Last thing I’ll explain fully, because I think most else I have to say is probably more academic/content-area specific to ELA: It really is all about relationships. I get on SWIMMINGLY with kids who have discipline records because I go out of my way to make sure those kids know I’m on their side. If I’m correcting their behavior—in the subtle and I PROMISE kind way I do—the first time I see them upset about it or sometimes even if they’re NOT upset about it, I have a quiet conversation AFTER the fact (stop by their lunch table or casually in the hall…once everyone is cool-headed and de-escalated) explaining WHY—and usually that WHY is that I want to stop this now before it gets to a point where it has a negative impact on the student or others. I’m on their side. That’s the point of the conversation. (I teach with some realllllly grumpy teachers so there are lots of these conversations where I’m helping them manage other teachers expectations too… 🙃 but that’s a rant for another time.)

A few more little blurbs:

All behavior is communication.

Let upset kids de-escalate before talking through a situation—power struggles don’t help anyone.

Kids can’t learn (or can’t learn as effectively) if they are dysregulated (which can include physical and emotional things—hunger, sleep, fear, stress)

Kids need to be pushed just outside their comfort zone (zone of proximal development) to learn and grow. Push too far, and that’ll be cognitive overload and frustration.

The younger the kid, the more help with executive functioning skills they’ll need, so learning activities will be broken down into smaller chunks. Note, this is about breaking down the steps to get there, not about making the end goal easier. Students with different learning needs often have tasks broken down differently but are still held to grade-level skill mastery…they just had more scaffolds and support to get there! (Sometimes this is not true, of course. Modified courses do exist as well.)

Executive functioning must be taught like any other skillset. (My 6th graders have to be taught how to use a planner, for example.)

Has a fic ever absolutely devastated you to the point you can’t form a coherent thought? That’s okay! That’s where picture comments come in! Here’s how!

#Witchtober Day 3! See below for the speedpaint for this 🎃

Stay spooky!

Week 26 2026

Community Events and Announcements

Rayllum Retreat Discord Server by @rayllum-weekly

Rayllum Month 2026 by @m4rs-ex3

Rayllum Mini Month by @rayllum-mini-month

Rayllum AU-Gust by @rayllum-weekly

Graphics, edits, etc

Rayllum edit by @typebeanie

Rayllum Ellipsus theme by @blutopaz15

Rayllum month icons by @m4rs-ex3

Fanart

Bodyguard AU Rayla by @zuppizup

Rayllum wedding meme fanart by @fanbeanie

Rayla by @temerity14

Rayllum fanart by @kaiselinn

Water by @fanbeanie

New Fanfic

What ifs by @typebeanie

Nightmare by @typebeanie

New Arcana by @typebeanie

it's like i'm living the sweetest of dreams in july by @m4rs-ex3

the ocean's color's on your face by @m4rs-ex3

week 1: early years by @blutopaz15

Up-dated Fanfic

A Dark Alternative: Chapter 70 by @zuppizup

Unlikely Allies: Chapter 55 by @konmaao3

piece of your heart: Chapter 8 by @ttm-rayllum-baby-au

(Uuuh just TikTok's new trend)

dawn

(rated G+, mild language--barely)

At some point in these past six or so months, being a night person had made Rayla—Rayla—somehow their de facto morning person too.

For the week around the full moon, anyway.

In a fortnight, Callum would be the one up out of bed at three in the morning—that was certain—and likely most of the other mornings of the month too.

Because of course he would—he’d do anything for her.

Sarai doesn’t seem to mind either way, though, whether it’s her or Callum who’s up with her when she can’t make it through the night…and what better way to have spent the last few sleepless, moonbright hours before dawn?

It is dawn now, though…and regrettably, she and little one can’t just flip through picture books and listen to Daddy snore into his pillow from across the room any longer.

“Do you want to go wake up your daddy? Hmm?” Rayla scoops her up while she coos, settling Sarai on her hip, a low whisper becoming sing-song at his bedside. “What do you think? Think he’s drooling? I bet he is—”

Callum snores himself awake, and yep—there’s a nice little trail of drying spit on his cheek to go with the sleepy crusties.

“Oh, hey, baby girl—” he breathes, voice creaking along with the bed as he scoots so that she can set Sarai on his stomach. “Need me to take her?”

“No, just time to come wake up sleepyhead,” she plops down at his waist, already licking a finger to smudge crusts of all kinds away. “Don’t panic but we have a meeting soon.”

The only reason he doesn’t bolt upright is the balancing the baby chewing on her fingers currently on his belly…but he does thrash backwards awfully dramatically for someone who’s not supposed to be panicking.

“Oh! Oh, shit—sorry—”

“I said don’t panic, dummy.” Rayla presses a hand over his heart as he—more carefully—sits up…and he obeys, scooting backwards against the headboard instead of getting to his feet. “We still have a while yet.”

“C’mere then?” he insists…and what, is she going to argue? While a nice big Callum-hand steadies Sarai, he lifts his other arm and—mmm. This might be the only bad part about early morning solo wake-ups: limited lazy sleepy snuggling. Callum breathes in deep against her scalp, letting a kiss linger right between her horns. “Mmm, love you so much.”

His skin’s still overheated from sleep, his shoulder firm and smooth under her cheek. “So sappy when you’re sleepy.”

Callum snickers and gathers Sarai up tighter, daring to angle her baby the tiniest bit away from her—

“Fine, we’ll keep our snuggles all to ourselves, thank you very much.”

—but Sarai is not having it, tiny baby fists opening and closing in Rayla’s direction. Callum helps her along, of course—

“Yeah, that’s right, Moonbeam! Get your mom!”

—until those tiny baby fists have grabbed right into her pajamas.

What’s an elven warrior to do? She goes down honorably…bested by a six-month old sprawled on her chest.

“Oof, I’ve been got.” She pulls Sarai the rest of the way up, earning a sweet, sweet baby giggle. “When'd you get so strong, hmm?”

…and as if this could get any better, Callum envelopes the both of them.

He gives out a few more kisses—a couple for their little one, and one for her cheek—and then gently slides Sarai back against his chest instead.

“Go get dressed, okay? I got her.” He and Sarai follow when she gets up, but they head through the nursery’s archway, Callum’s voice carrying until she’s gone the other way to the washroom. “Mmm, council meeting. I think your little red dress? Wanna match with Uncle Ez? I’ll bet—”

Rayla opens the washroom window and stretches out the stiffness of early morning quiet, sighing out low and long—

—and happy.

So happy.

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