Party Time

Wow! I absolutely loved basking in the glory of two Halloween parties that were entirely planned and executed by parents! I had two moms take charge of party planning and boy did they do it up! The first party involved decorating goody bags, pumpkin bowling, ghost toss, pin the tail on the black cat, a parade, and healthy snacks. I had 8 parent helpers, which was awesome!

The second party involved Halloween sugar cookie decorating, musical chairs with Halloween music, children getting wrapped up in toilet paper like mummies, and parading through the school.

I got to take pictures and enjoy watching the kids have tons of fun. One boy said that it was the best party ever and a few kiddos in the afternoon class said they didn't want to leave school. We also made some cute word family bats that I should post a picture of next week. I didn't take any photos, but they are still at school so I can snap a picture on Monday.

I feel like I got a lot done between yesterday afternoon and the time in classroom after school today. I am really excited for the new math games that I have ready to introduce next week as I attempt to wean my kiddos off of daily choice time in order to test the waters with some more "academic" activities during the 30 minutes when some students leave for ELD. I am also super excited for a relaxing weekend filled with not as much homework as I have been having lately. My voice is totally going away, so it will be nice to sleep in tomorrow and rest up!

Caught Off Guard

Today my students did an activity where they had to complete the sentence "I am a ________." because our sight word this week is "a' and we have worked on "I" and "am" in previous weeks. I gave the sentence "I am a great teacher" as an example (hehe) and I had a girl raise her hand and told me she thought that was selfish because I was saying that I was better than the other teachers. Some of the others kids chimed in and agreed.

Ok....first of all, her thought was pretty well stated for a Kindergartner, but I was thinking the kids would be more prone to agree that I am indeed a great teacher rather than argue that I was being mean to other teachers. I was a little thrown by her thought. I explained that I was just saying something about myself and that I was not saying other teachers were not great or saying that I am better than others, just that I am a great teacher (come on kiddos, I am just trying to give an example!). They were insistent that my sentence was rude.

Hmph!

At least I got lots of hugs at the beginning of the day because the kiddos missed me while I was out for two days so I know that they love me even though they seemed to take issue with the fact that I tried to proclaim myself as a great teacher. Kids are so funny!

Looking forward to our Halloween parties tomorrow that I was fortunate enough to have parents plan and organize for me! I will be dressing up like a blue crayon just like I do every year, although I have a new pair of royal blue adidas kicks to go with my costume this year :0)

Specks

Today I visited the allergist and the eye doctor. I have been having trouble driving at night, so I went to get my eyes checked and I will now be wearing glasses when I drive at night and when I use the computer for long periods of time (so basically all the time...j/k he he).

I also had a series of pricks on the arm to see if I have food allergies (which I don't), but the allergist did clarify that I am not allergic to sulfites like I had previously been told. I actually have a deficiency in metabolizing alcohol which is why I often break out in a splotchy rash if I drink.

Even though I didn't work today, I am exhausted! I just went and got myself a little Starbucks to get me through the rest of class! I bet that means I won't sleep tonight, but I have been gone from my classroom for two days and I am getting a new kiddo tomorrow, so that would probably be the case anyway. Maybe I should stay up and finish the rest of my homework that is due tomorrow....

Great Feeling

I am disappointed in my scattered posting as of late, so I want to post, but I also feel the need to make it short and sweet because this girl has some homework to do. Today I attended a training from 10-3 with my principal, school counselor, and school secretary (whose daughter is in my class). We are part of the school PASS team which stands for Partnerships for Achieving Student Success. The purpose of our work is to collaborate with parents of color in order to initiate some school wide changes and make them feel more comfortable as active members of our school community. We met in September, but at that time, I was not part of the evening session with the parents because we were told that it would be more comfortable for the parents if they could first meet only with the principal. This time, my principal invited the rest of us to join so after book club, we had part 2 of our session and our parent group joined us from 5:30-8.

It was a fantastic evening.

Three of the parents out of 6 are parents of my students, so that makes the work we are doing seem all the more significant, but I am really excited about the discussions, the openness, and the community that we are building. We each took a turn sharing what school was like for us growing up and it was so interesting to hear their stories. I feel fortunate to be part of this group and I can tell already that we are really supporting our parents of color and creating an environment where they will feel more comfortable to take an active role in the school and the education of their children. Some of the parents who are participating are already forming groups to bring other parents in on the action which is really great!

As soon as I sat down, I knew I recognized one of the moms, but I wasn't sure where I knew her from. When we introduced ourselves, I told her that and she mentioned that she works at The Container Store. She was the woman who helped us create our awesome ELFA closets. LOVE HER (and the super organized closets!). Just goes to show that you always have to conduct yourself well because you never know when a stranger will become someone you encounter in a different way!

Another one?

I found out today that I am getting another new student in my PM class who will start tomorrow. One of the secretaries came in during my choice time and I started to freak out a little because I am scheduled to be out tomorrow and Wednesday. I have training tomorrow and took Wednesday off for a doctor's appointment. I told the secretary that I thought it would be better for the new student to wait until I come back to join the class because it would be really confusing for him to have a substitute the first two days and then me. Luckily, the secretary called his mom and she agreed. Whew! Again, I worry that the addition of another new student will affect the dynamics of my sweet little pm class, but I will hope for the best.

I spent a lot of time after school today trying to get organized and ready for two days of subs. Jill is going to be with my kiddos so I know they are in great hands and she has subbed before so she knows how everything goes, but I still like to make sure everything is organized before having someone else come in to teach. I got my plans ready for tomorrow but I gave her an IOU for Wednesday's plans. I will have to write those tomorrow night. I have training tomorrow from 10-3, then book club from 4-5, then the second part of training where we meet up with parents until 8:30. Another long day! I am happy that I can sleep in a bit and I am planning to hit the gym early because it has been TWO WHOLE WEEKS since I have graced a treadmill or elliptical. I hate feeling too busy for workouts, but the past few weeks have been so buys it just has not been an option!

Hopefully I will post more this week than I did last week!

Naughty and posting from Class!

My day was packed full of conferences, yet surprisingly it went by really fast. I really enjoyed talking with parents today and having good conversations with them about their kiddos, their jobs, and myself. Several parents were actually interested in talking to me about my doctoral program and many gave positive feedback about how much their children are enjoying being in my Kindergarten class. I had several very successful conferences in Spanish and I felt like I understood exactly what the parents were saying and what they were asking me/needing from me which is not always true when I conduct conferences en español. I had a great feeling the whole day and I know that I am connecting really well with these families. They are awesome and I feel really lucky. Several parents specifically commented on how they liked my personal alphabet and how fun it was to create it and my classroom blog got LOTS of love <3 <3

I also found out that the PSO gives $250 to each classroom teacher for additional materials and since I teach two classes, I get twice that amount. I am so psyched about that and can't wait to do some shopping at Lakeshore this weekend (after I get LOTS of sleep of course!) I can also apply for additional funds if I have a special project in mind like the literacy bags I am planning to create. 12 more conferences tomorrow and then I am going to soak in the bliss of a completely relaxing weekend! TGIF!

The Tough Ones

It is so hard to conference with parents when their child has a lot of need for improvement. I want to encourage parents to value learning and help their kids at home, but I struggle with communicating this without making parents feel like they are not doing enough. I want to have high expectations for their participation in the education of their child, yet I have faith that they are doing the best they can and the best they know how. I know that circumstances for some of the families I work with differ greatly from the circumstances I know and relate to. I want to be helpful and encouraging, but I think there is a fine line between being supportive and being preachy. I don't know from personal experience, but it must be so hard to be a parent. I hope they value the time we have to meet and understand that I have their children's best interests at heart!

Tomorrow is a LONG day of conferences followed by research class and all I can say is that I cannot wait for Friday afternoon at 4:30!!!

Survived!

I survived my very first Kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch! The field trip itself was great--mostly due to the large number of parent volunteers that came along--but I was not at all stoked for a 40 minute long bus ride with the kiddos. I am just a fan of traveling with a lot of other people, whether it's in a plane, bus, or train. I prefer the serenity of my own vehicle in which I can choose the volume of the music or have it quiet if that is the mood I am in. Let's face it-- a bus full of 5 year-olds is never quiet! Most of the parents followed the bus and I have to say I was jealous. I guess it's my intense desire to avoid vomit incidences that translates into not liking riding with other people, but luckily everyone made it through okay.

Once we got to the pumpkin patch the kids go to pet some farm animals, take a train ride to the pumpkins, choose a pumpkin, run through a hay maze, take a boat ride during which a fake dragon and shark both emerged from the water, and then enjoy a picnic lunch outside in the sunshine (thank you gorgeous Oregon October weather for blessing us with a sunny and warm day instead of rain!). One super nice dad bought me coffee, but I had to tease him that I was no longer appreciative once we realized that the only bathroom option was a porta potty. Actually--as most teachers know- we are champion pee holders which is a skill I have honed on long international flights during which I chose not to use the airplane toilet, so I definitely had no issue waiting to use the bathroom back at school.

The kiddos were so tired out that a few fell asleep on the way home. Most of the kids got picked up by 1:00 or so, but I had about 10 with me until the very end of the day. They mostly played while I assessed a few of them and we ended our day with the story Pumpkin Soup which I read while they laid on the carpet in exhausted heaps.

As soon as I put them on the bus, I came back into the classroom and began a 4.5 hour stint of conferences. They all went really well (even when I had to break the news about kiddos not listening, drawing on books/tables, or saying not nice things to other kids). I really have awesome parents this year and I love it. They know their kids and I am glad that we can have an honest conversation about what they do at school. It has taken me a long time to learn that I don't need to sugar coat everything because in the end that does not help anyone. I did one conference in Spanish and I understood everything the mom was saying to me! She was asking me if it was bad that her daughter is learning letters and sounds in both Spanish and English because she thought maybe it was slowing her down in English since she is confusing the two. I told her that I think it's great she is learning both and that she will get it and she is doing fine! She should be so proud that her child will be bilingual. I wish I had learned another language when I was that young and I think that in our world, the more languages you speak, the more people you can communicate with, which I see as a very positive thing!

Out of the whole super busy fun filled day, my favorite part had to be hearing one little boy on the bus singing in a sweet little voice....beautiful girls, all over the world... So cute!

Tomorrow I have a regular day with the kiddos, then class after work. Thursday and Fridays I have the rest of the conferences and then it is going to be the best weekend because I don't have class and I will finally have time to relax!

Way Too Long

It's been way too long since I last posted, but it speaks to how crazy busy I have been lately. Last week I had class Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, and most of the day Saturday. I really love my weekend class and the people in it, but when half the weekend is spent in a classroom, it really goes by fast. I didn't get to work out at all last week and I have felt so rushed in everything.

Today I started my second round of assessments for Fast Track Phonics which required the use of my lovely TV and educational DVD's. I really hate putting the kids in front of a video, but if I need to assess, it's hard to have them doing stations or playing because that makes for a lot of interruptions and a less than quiet room. I was able to get a good amount of assessing done, just in time for my first batch of conferences tomorrow. We are going on our first field trip to a pumpkin patch about 40 minutes away. I am not quite sure why we have to go that far on the bus when there are patches closer to the school, but I guess it's quite a fun place with a boat ride and other fun features. I have a lot of parent volunteers which is great! Each parent will only have 2 kids and I don't have to have a group, so I can be free to take pictures and circulate to make sure everything is going okay. It should be an interesting day given that my PM class has to come in the morning and all of my kiddos will have a longer than normal day. Fortunately most of the parents are taking their kids home/picking them up at 12:45 when we get back so I will only have about 12 for the remainder of the day. Also, fortunately many of those kiddos are ones that I need to spend some time assessing so that works out well. All the kids except for one turned in their permission slips and despite calls home, verbal reminders, and extra permission slips sent home, I have yet to receive one for this child. The rule is that no permission slip means no field trip, but I would be so sad if this little boy could not come (because I feel that his parent is being irresponsible and not him). I sent him home today with a permission slip safety pinned to his shirt because he doesn't bring a backpack on most days. Hopefully the message will be received at home and he will be pumpkin picking with us tomorrow!

My doctoral courses are sparking lots of ideas relating to instruction/activities that are culturally appropriate. One of the activities we do each week is one page that goes into the children's alphabet books. These are crafty type activities where each child makes the same thing. We are always rushed to get it done and I feel like the end products are less than stellar since many kids have to leave in the middle for ELD. I have been toying with the idea of just sending home the page and having families create their own (kind of like what they did for their personal alphabet). They could choose something meaningful that starts with each letter so that their alphabet book at the end of the year would really be meaningful to them. I could see that concept going one of two ways. I would hope that the pages would be creative and show time and effort, yet I worry that for some kiddos, especially those who don't have access to school materials at home, it would turn into them just not making the book.

I had a really great turnout for the personal alphabets, yet if I really examined which kids returned theirs, it was mostly the white kids. I am really trying to think of activities that sparks interest for my culturally diverse students as well. It is so hard to infuse creative ideas when I am so crunched for time. I hate to just send things home for families to do, but maybe that is a great way to get families more involved? Thoughts?

Sardines at Snacktime

Every Wednesday our Star of the Week gets to bring in a snack that starts with our letter of the week to share with everyone. This week our letter is S. When I was about to pass out the snack, one little boy turned to his neighbor and said, "I hope it's not sardines!" Lucky for him it was striped shortbread cookies. Much tastier than sardines!

I also had a little boy tell me yesterday that he can do a pushup and now he has muscles! I think fitness must be important in his house because he is always telling me about his muscles :)

I am heading to class after work today. I think I finally have an afternoon without meetings, so I should be able to get caught up in my classroom and take off a little bit early so I have some time to sniff the flowers and blow out the candles before class. I felt like such a bag lady today leaving for work with an entire grocery bag full of food (lunch, snack, and dinner) along with two water bottles (as I am trying my hardest to drink a lot of water during the day!). The latte in my hand didn't make it much easier to carry all that, but I usually feel like I deserve a Starbucks Latte on Wednesday mornings since it's such a long day.

Hopefully day two with my new PM friends goes well!

My Little Friend

I have a little friend in my PM class who has quickly made an imprint on my heart. His skill level is really low, but I am so committed to helping him make leaps and bounds of progress this year. I can tell he has not really worked with pencils and crayons a lot before coming to school and his fine motor skills needs work. He is starting to recognize his name and I made him a little activity with bottle caps that have the letters of his name on them so he can practice putting them in order. Even though none of the other children have this morning job, he is really happy to do it. When I had the rest of the kids on the carpet, he was lagging behind and I noticed that he was working hard to put his name in order. He switched around the a and the e, but he did a great job and was really motivated to see it through to completion. He also worked on tracing the s's on his morning worksheet very carefully. His intent and concentration were awesome! I had him use the large wooden tracing letters that I got the other day and he was so happy to trace each one even though the other kids were using markers to write. He is perfectly content to work at his own level and I love that. I would love to see him progress in his fine motor coordination so he can start writing his name like the other kids, but I love that he is making small steps forward each day and continuing to love school and work hard.

Even though he doesn't have the same academic skills as the other kids, he really has a good sense of caring for others and noticing things about the other kids. He knows which child goes on which bus, asks a lot of questions, is very friendly to other kids, and always loves to help. I am so excited to see his progress this year.

We were told that a few teachers who are on a special team geared towards culturally appropriate instruction will be trying out home visits this fall with families. My principal said anyone who wants to choose a family and do a home visit is welcome to, but we are not being mandated to do this. I am still trying to decide if I want to or not, but I definitely think that if I decide to do it that I will choose to visit this boy's family. His mom is coming on our field trip next week and I am really excited to get to know her.

Do you do home visits? What do you think about them?

P.S I still have hives! I went to the doctor today but there wasn't really a conclusion about why they have popped up. Possibly stress???

New Student

I just got an email that I will be getting a new student in my PM class starting tomorrow. Why is it that my first fear is that this new child will completely throw off the rhythm that we already have going? I wouldn't want to add another body to my already full AM class, yet I am so pleased with the calmness that ensues during the afternoon that I am very fearful of enlarging that class and having that nice dynamic change. In all my years of teaching, I have rarely had a new student move in that really impacted the entire class flow in a negative way, yet I have had it happen. I am hoping that tomorrow adds one more cutie to the mix.

I am still working on homework, getting conferences scheduled, trying to be organized and mentally preparing for next week. We have a field trip on Tuesday next week during which I will have both of my classes at the same time. Any parents who go on the field trip must take their kids home when we get back around 1, but I will still have just under two hours with the rest of the kiddos who need to ride the bus home (without having had a bathroom or lunch break). I will get to eat lunch, but it will be with the kids, so it's not a standard lunch break. As soon as the kids leave, I start conferencing and go until about 7 since I have class Wednesday and Thursday and cannot stay later on those days. Wednesday I teach all day then have class until 9:30, Thursday I have conferences all day then class until 9:00, and then Friday I have conferences all day. It is going to be a crazy week! Perhaps I should add a note on the bottom of conference reminders letting parents know how much I appreciate soy lattes and chocolate! hehe! It will be so nice when all of that is over! Also, I have class Friday/Saturday this weekend so I won't have a lot of time to get work done between this week's classes and next week's. I am definitely feeling the stress! I actually broke out in hives today for some unknown reason. One of my students actually pointed it out to me and sure enough there were hives all over my forearm. I felt fine so I just kept on teaching, but I am really curious what could have caused it.

I am off to the gym with research articles in hand so I can workout and get some reading done. Happy Monday!

Education as a balanced diet

Wow, even though I had a three day weekend, I didn't post at all yet! That is what tons of homework will do to a person! At least I have gotten out for a few exercise classes (pilates yesterday and yoga this morning) which helps to reduce the stress!

On Friday we didn't have school because it was a state in service day for teachers in Oregon. We were not mandated to do any workshops, but I signed up to go see Howard Gardner (The King of Multiple Intelligences!) It was great to hear him talk about his most recent book Five Minds for the Future, but I actually enjoyed the presentation that followed his even more. When Mr. Gardner was finished we heard from Mike Geisen who was National Teacher of the Year in 2008. He is a middle school science teacher from Oregon and he was fantastic. Not only was he very engaging and funny, but he used this metaphor/analogy of education as a balanced diet that really resonated with me. He talked about how the packaged curricula are kind of like the meat and potatoes that address the standards and get it done, but that there are so many other things we can do with our students that extend the breadth of their "diet." The concept seemed really brilliant to me and just made so much sense. We don't want to feed our kids "fast food" (quick and easy) we want them to have a healthy balance. We don't want to push institutional food that is bland and unappealing, we really want to be chefs who serve interesting, tasty, and exciting food that they want to eat!

I went to the teacher store today and got some fun new activities that I want to use with my kiddos during choice time. I am also trying to brainstorm ideas of how to help my kiddos who are really struggling to write their letters and write their names. I got some jumbo traceable letters that kids can write on and then wipe off. I may incorporate them into my letter writing time for the few kiddos who still stare at me blankly when it's time to write letters. I am getting really motivated to really take on a few kiddos as my projects this year and rock their worlds with all they will learn.

I think both of these will make great choice time station activities. The letters on the matching board are kind of like sandpaper so that adds a nice tactile touch to it for kiddos who are struggling with the shapes of the letters. I can't wait to try these out tomorrow!

More Kinder Comedy

Today the same two students who worked with the missing initial sound stamps decided to do that activity again. The one little guy thought it was the funnest thing he ever did in his whole life, so it doesn't surprise me that he wanted to another crack at it.

Since they did the activity with me yesterday, I let them do it on their own today while I circulated and worked 1:1 with some students to check in with how they are coming along with their sounds and blending sounds together.

When I checked in with my stampers, one of the children had used the "sock" stamp. Since the initial sounds are missing, she had a picture of a sock and _ock stamped on her paper and she had written in a letter at the beginning of the word. Well...some of my kiddos are confusing the sound s makes with the sound c makes. She had expressed that confusion on this particular word. She thought that the letter c made the /s/ sound. I prompted her to think about what letter says /s/ without reading aloud the word she had created, but the other little smarty at the table boldly exclaimed, that says COCK (loudly).

During snack time today, we enjoyed apples and apple juice for our Aa snack (a is our letter of the week, so the student who is the star of the week brings in a snack for everyone that begins with our letter of the week). The apple juice came in cans and one little boy proudly showed me that he had opened his all by himself. He told me, "I did it because I have muscles."

Using my document camera today was fabulous! The kids did so much better with the activity because they were able to look at my model and copy what I was doing. It was great. There are a few who are really fascinated with the fact that they can see my hands when I move the materials around and a few who keep trying to put their hands under it, but for the most part it made for much better math lessons, which makes me really happy :0)

I have class tonight and I am hopeful I remembered to do all of my homework! So much to think about, so much to remember!

Funnies

Today was a better day. Once again the afternoon was fantastic and I even got to pull kids to have them practice sounds and words 1:1 with me during choice time. I find that I learn so much information working/talking 1:1 and because of that I HEART choice time. During my AM session, I didn't pull kids and instead I worked with 2 children on some initial sound games. The first was the sound trains where they pick a train mat that has a letter on it and find the picture cards with a matching initial sound. Then we did the initial sound stamps. Those are stamps with an image and all of the letters for the word except the first sound. The students stamped their papers and then practiced writing the letters that represented the missing sound. When it was time to clean up the little boy that I was working with was seriously over the top about what we did. He literally exclaimed more than 5 times that it was the funnest thing he ever did. LOVE IT!

Also, I read the story There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed Some Leaves to the AM group. I got it along with some other free books from Scholastic this month. Although the original song is funny, I have to say that the various books I have gotten based on the song from Scholastic are not my favorites. This one was pretty lame (according to me), but the kids enjoyed the repeating phrase, "I don't know why she swallowed the leaves, perhaps she'll sneeze." Of course I was trying to be very exciting and dramatic each time I exclaimed that I didn't know WHY she swallowed the leaves. About halfway through one little girl raised her hand (the same girl who had a marathon hand raise just to tell me my shoes were beautiful) and she said "because she hambre" (hambre means hungry in Spanish). She didn't get why I didn't get why the woman ate the leaves....she was hungry...duh! This little girl is just about the more precious thing out there! I love her comments.

I have class again tomorrow and I think I still have some homework to finish up...boo! The Biggest Loser is on tonight so I just may be multitasking! At least this week the snack shares are up and running so we should have some good snacks to munch on during both classes!


PS There is a big smile on my face because operation document camera was a success and I now have one to use in my classroom! I cannot wait to get started on using it for math because Kinder kiddos need good modeling and it has been very difficult to model all of the activities that require numerous manipulatives. I am anticipating some mesmerization (is that a word!?) tomorrow when they see how it works!

Sniff the flowers, blow out the candles

This morning, I had one of those days that made me want to put my head down on a desk and cry. My morning class had a very difficult time staying on task...not all of them--most of them are actually really on task and good at following rules and directions. There were a few kiddos however, that made the morning quite a struggle. I had to make my first negative parent called and tried to explain in my best Spanish that we are having some behavioral issues in the classroom that make it very challenging for me to teach. This child had a time out (missed PE while I retaught the lesson he ignored), then after another incident, I had a private talk with him in Spanish about behaving and following directions and he still kept it up. I don't like to have children miss recess or fun activities because I recognize that some kids need MORE activity than we are allowing which makes taking away opportunities for movement seem illogical in terms of getting them to settle down, so I am finding that I struggle with finding appropriate consequences. Sometimes I ask a child to leave the group and return when they are ready to follow directions, yet that sometimes backfires and the child just goes back to his/her seat and does nothing so they basically get out of the work. Because I am so limited on time, that makes holding students accountable a challenge. I sometimes feel like a failure in the consequences department because I have a hard time finding true consequences (which actually cause the undesired behavior to change). Yes, I can ask a child to leave carpet, but if they were not interested in what I was teaching in the first place, that is probably going to actually increase the probability they will misbehave in the future rather than decrease it. I also use choice time as leverage and indicate that students who make good choices earn their playtime, but some of the kids in my class receive ELD instruction in small groups and it is during this time that the rest of the students get play time (don't even get me started on how much I think that is not fair to the students who leave, but I cannot teach anything new while are gone, so choice time infused with learning games is pretty much the only option) so some kids don't get play time regardless of their behavioral choices. As a result, I lose the leverage of play time.

I am hopeful that a call home to parents will be a good start to recognizing there is a big problem and that we need to work together to help this kiddo understand the expectations in the classroom. I worry about how this parent may have perceived the call because I don't like to make negative calls prior to actually meeting the parent face to face. I did, however, feel it was necessary today. The afternoon seemed like a dream compared with the morning and I was thankful for a quieter, smaller group to spend the rest of the day with.

Our new math program has the kids drawing "scenes" in which they have to depict a certain number (like Anno's Counting Book). It is really interesting to evaluate these scenes because some children are SO much more advanced when it comes to drawing than others. We did our scene of 4 today and some kids showed 4 houses (like my model), others showed 4 people, and one showed 4 cars. Yet, there were also kids who just randomly scribbled like they have done for both the scene of 3 and the scene of 2. The idea is to draw a scene that incorporates the number in lots of different parts of the scene. For example an outdoor scene with 4 trees, 4 birds, 4 clouds, 4 flowers, and 4 kids playing. Sometimes I feel like such a failure when I look at certain things the kids do, but I try to keep in mind that some kids can be almost a year older than others in the same class and that a lot of things we do in Kindergarten are completely developmental and the skills will come in time with practice. I try not to be too hard on myself, especially when it comes to kids and their artwork. I do not want to imply that there is a right or wrong way to draw/make something because art is very subjective and I know that certain kids are just starting to use crayons and pencils.

Today was a good day for deep breaths and I am hopeful that tomorrow will be a better day! I try so hard to be positive and compliment the kiddos who are doing the right thing, yet it gets hard to be upbeat and positive when I feel like I am slowly losing my mind inside!

How was your day?

How do we learn?

For my principles and practices of learning class, we had to read an article about two metaphors that are applied to the process of learning. One is the acquisition metaphor where it is believed that people acquire knowledge and that knowledge is something that can be obtained. The other metaphor is the participation metaphor which explains that learning is more of a constructive process and that the learner has more of a role in building what they learn. The article makes the point that we cannot view learning in just one of these ways and that it truly is a combination of both. I feel like for most of my life, I experienced learning as an acquisition of knowledge, but I think this left me without understanding the true significance and value of what I learned and I also forgot a lot of what I learned throughout my schooling. Now that I am in a position where I go to class and learn about things that are pertinent to the job I do everyday, I think I am getting a little bit better at bringing myself into the learning and making it more about my own personal journey of learning. It's not just about collecting little bits of knowledge in order to have them, rather it's about incorporating those bits and changing yourself as a result of possessing them.

I have spent quite a bit of time doing homework this weekend and I am starting to get back in the groove of having school on top of work. I don't think I have ever felt this challenged before, but being in a doctoral program kind of takes it to a whole new level of rigor. I have met some great people in my new cohort and reconnected with some wonderful people that I "know" from last year.

Again, I feel like my posts here have been different lately...more of just a report on what I have been up to instead of really focused on teaching and what I am doing in the classroom. I have seen that not as many people are reading and commenting, so if you have something in mind that you would like to see more of, please let me know! I would love to connect you all to my classroom blog, yet I hesitate because I need to protect the privacy of my students. I would like to start including more posts about what we are doing in the classroom and possibly some examples of student work so stay tuned and bear with me as I usually don't feel this busy! I have something going on everyday after school this week and that makes me feel stressed. I am starting to crave pilates and yoga in the afternoons/evenings as a way to relax!

What do you do to relieve stress?

Brainstorming

As I sat in yet another class this morning (learning about all of the resources the university library has), I have to admit my mind started drifting a bit. We were learning about entering search terms and how to utilize all the bells and whistles to get the kind of info we are looking for, so I started thinking in terms of what topic I am really interested in, which is multicultural education. I always strive to think of ways to make my instruction more meaningful for my students and in order to do that I recognize that I need to know them better. I need to know about what kind of little people they are outside of school, what they enjoy doing, what makes them happy, what their hobbies are, what they like to eat, what they do with their families, who is in their families, who their pets are etc.

I thought of an idea that I think I am going to have my students do with their families sometime next weekend (since we have Friday off and a three day weekend!). I have heard about an activity before where students think of one word that begins with each letter of the alphabet pertaining to a particular topic. I thought it would be fun (and informative) if I had my students work with their families to create their own personal alphabet list. We use pictures with our Fast Track Phonics, so A is for apple, B is for bat and ball, C is for caterpillar etc. I like the little alliterative phrases that go with each, yet certain images like tower for t, probably don't resonate with kids as much as they could. When we discuss sounds and I give examples, I would much rather use words that truly have meaning for my students. How will I know what is meaningful to them? I will ask! I need to ask because I need to know.

So the task I will give them is to fill in one word for each letter of the alphabet that tells me something about them and their family. For example, I could say g for grandma, but some kids call their grandma Oma, so I could use that word for long o instead of a random word like "open." Certain words have more meaning. If I am asking families to do this, I want to provide them with a model and a way to get to know me better so here is what I came up with for my own personal alphabet

adidas
baking
connecticut
doctoral program
exercise
friends & family
germany
husband John
internet
jogging
kindergarten teacher
lattes
making a difference
no kids (yet)
oregon
pilates & peanut butter (couldn't choose!)
quilting
reading
speaking spanish
traveling
understanding other cultures
visiting interesting places
writing
x
yoga
zumba

This was fun for me to create, so I am hoping that families will have a fun time doing it too. It's actually a great way to reinforce the letters/sounds we have already been learning. This would be way too hard for my students to do alone, so it is a bit more of a parent project, but I kind of think it's more fun that having them fill out a questionnaire to tell me about their kids. Also, parents can talk about things kids like and then direct them where the word would fit instead of saying a sound and having the child come up with a word that starts with that sound. I really want this to be about the kids and families and sharing themselves with me. I figure I can always ask and hope that parents return them to me!