Almost there

Right now my floor and desk are COVERED with books, papers, binders, pencils, and potato chips (A girl has to have a little somethin' somethin' to get her through all this work, doesn't she?). Tomorrow and Thursday are my last two days of class of Fall term. I am almost done and I cannot wait for the sweet satisfaction that will come when I am driving out of the parking garage after class on Thursday night.

Since August, I have been away from my husband because I returned to PDX to work on my doctorate and keep my place in my school district, while he remained in Germany where we had been living together for the past year. I started teaching Kindergarten at a new school while at the same time struggling through a full load of doctoral courses (13 credits!). I have spent most weekends doing homework, reading, and writing. I have been engrossed in research about culturally responsive teaching while at the same time attempting to be a totally awesome Kindergarten teacher who actually employs those culturally relevant teaching methods in the classroom. I have spent approximately 10 hours per week in class in addition to the 45 + hours I am working and sometimes when I had weekend class, I spent as many as 21 hours in class in a single week. In the past few weeks, I have been writing, re-writing, and editing papers for each of my courses, all the while stressed that my writing will not be good enough for the rigorous standards of this intense program I am part of. I know that I have been extremely stressed and not once in the past 14 weeks have I been able to get a hug from the person I love most in the world. :: tear ::

Whew. Sneaker Teacher==> plate= FULL

After Thursday, I will not have class or homework for an entire month! I am so excited to enjoy the simple pleasure of being able to relax and enjoy some free time. In exactly 17 days I will reunite with my cute husband for two weeks in Arizona. I will soak in the jolliest time of year with lots of hot cocoa, books read for pleasure, gossip magazines, and I will definitely catch up on hugs. I cannot even express how excited I am for December 17th! I absolutely love this time of year and the impending sense of relief of being done with classes makes it all the more sensational.

Oh how sweet it is!

Taking the Plunge

Last night, as I struggled to fall asleep, I decided to plan a parent meeting for my Spanish-speaking families,"una junta" en español. I am going to start sending home the Literacy Bags on Friday the 12th (provided the new shipment of bags arrives and gets decorated by then), and I realized that this totally wonderful program I have been so excited about may not work for families if they can't read the books that are sent home since they are all in English.

The first thing I did to try and solve this problem was to use all of my Scholastic bonus points towards books in Spanish. I already have quite a few, but they are in storage in Germany, so those won't really be too useful for the imminent start of the Literacy Bag rotation. I was thinking that I wanted an opportunity to show this group of parents the bags and maybe take out some of the games/activities to show them as well since the directions are all in English. Translating everything would take so long and I am really eager to get the project underway, so I decided to invite these parents to a meeting where we can talk about how this program will work for them. I am not entirely sure if they have people in their homes who can read English, so that is all part of what I want to find out. Most importantly, I want them to know that I want their feedback and I am willing to do what it takes to help both them and their kids.

I am really, really making an effort to ensure that what I do in the classroom is culturally appropriate and I want feedback from parents because I want to ensure that their experience of having me as their child's teacher is positive, especially since this could be their first experience with school given that I teach Kindergarten.

After school today, I starting making phone calls to invite the parents to this meeting. I decided that next Wednesday was a good date, but I didn't have a specific time in mind or a plan for what will actually take place once I get the parents there. I was really nervous to make these calls, thinking to myself, what will I say if they ask what the meeting is for? I was so happy to find that the parents I called were very nice and everyone said they would come to my gathering. I didn't get in touch with all of the families on my list, however I think it's pretty cool that everyone I called said they would come. I tried to explain that I want to show them some of the things that we have been working on in the classroom and also I want them to have an opportunity to share their questions, concerns etc. so that I can make sure I am doing everything I can to make them feel like they are part of our school and classroom community.  I think I will be really nervous to have this meeting without a real solid agenda, but I think it is going to be a really great thing for both the parents and myself.

I did have one pretty awkward call in which I just could not understand what the parent was saying even after I asked her to speak more slowly. I think she was getting a bit annoyed with me, but I have to give myself snaps for making parent phone calls in my second language which is very intimidating. I also think it is a good experience to be in situations where I am uncomfortable or where my understanding does not come easily because it is likely that these parents feel that way in school situations and that helps me be sensitive to what they may experience.

I have 10 families altogether that I am inviting and I think I got in touch with about half. Two of these families are completely bilingual which I think will also be helpful at the meeting in case I am not understanding something or not able to express exactly what I want to say. I really have no idea how this meeting will turn out, but I have high hopes that it will be a positive experience and the start of improved family-school communication and relationships.

more than just friends

As I was reading a story today at the end of my AM Kindergarten session, I looked up and saw two of my students-- a boy and a girl-- looking very cozy. The boy was sitting with his arm around the girl looking a little bit more like a teenage couple than 5 year olds! Geesh, they start young these days....

In other news, I found out that the school PSO approved my request for funding to finish my literacy bags project. I am now able to create enough bags so that each child will get to take one home each Friday. I went shopping at Lakeshore for some activities to go along with the themed books. They have so many cool games and activities and it was so fun to shop with funds that won't ultimately come out of my own bank account. I ordered some more bags online that I will have parents help me decorate and I just have a few more bags that I need to make activities for since I used all of the funds I have. Here are some of the games/activities I got...

 There are certain games that go along with particular books, so I got this letter matching game that goes with  the A My Name is Alice book. These will be part of a "Names" bag with The Name Jar and Chrysathemum.

 This recycling sorting game will be part of the Earth & Environment theme bag

 This shell word building game will go with the Hawaii theme bag which includes the books A is for Aloha, Hula Lullaby, and a story about a lost sea turtle.

I got the dinosaur number puzzles to go with the dinosaur theme bag

These cute bean bag fruits and vegetables will go with the Food & Nutrition theme bag. The cards on the key ring describe different activities that can be done with the bean bags.

Fun bug sorting to go with the insects bag

I still need to create activities for the camping bag, the families bag, the all about me bag, the colors bag, the rhyming songs bag, The Jan Brett bag (which contains The Mitten & The Hat), and the Laura Numeroff bag (which contain If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and other books like that). I am trying to make sure that each bag has some kind of activity relating to either math, letters, or word building. I am so excited to start sending these bags home, but I just need to finalize some things before I can. I am hoping to start sending them the week after Thanksgiving. I told one little boy about the camping bag since he really likes to camp and he was so excited. I told him that I would make sure he could take it home first and he was like...."Thanks Mrs. Sneaker." So cute! I am a little curious how these bags will work out for my Spanish speaking families since all of the books are in English. I am thinking of inviting them to come in so I can show them the games and how to play and maybe make some suggestions of what to do with the books if they don't read in English...I am not sure the best way to go about it. 

If anyone has any suggestions/ideas for activities related to the themes I still need to make activities for, I would love to hear them!

Whoops!

and no, that was not the word we were trying to spell....

shoe love

I have been out of the classroom for the past two days with Courageous Conversations training. I really enjoy the work we are doing with this committee, but it's hard to be out of the classroom and it's even harder to be out two days in a row. I am really excited to be back with my kiddos tomorrow!

I got an email today from a parent expressing how much her daughter misses me since I have been out. We only had 2 days of school last week, then this little girl was out sick on Monday and then I was out Tuesday and Wednesday, so it's been awhile since I have seen her. This mom just wanted to tell me how much her daughter loves me and that she has been missing me a lot. What a sweet email to receive and so appreciated because I don't think teachers can ever hear enough about the positive influence we have on the kids we teach and the families we work with! She also said that her daughter talks about me all the time and how cool my shoes and scarves are. I have never had a class before that got so excited about my shoes.... love it!

Sometimes I get so caught up in teaching and getting done what I need to get done, that I forget how powerful my impact is on the lives of lots of little people. I think about them all of the time when I am outside the classroom, but it's really nice to know that they are thinking about me, too and talking about me and what we do in the classroom with their parents.

Also, I just got this new book, which I am really excited about. I feel like I have a huge stack of "teacher books" that I have been meaning to get to, but I haven't been doing a lot of reading outside of what I need to read for my courses. I can't wait for winter break because my classes will be on hiatus and I can just enjoy some good reading (and seeing my hubs!)

Since I am really interested in the concept of making scripted reading programs more culturally appropriate and relevant, I think this will be a very interesting read. Sometimes I really question the kinds of stories that are included in the reading program that we use, so I am interested to read some more about what criteria are used when pieces of literature are selected. One of my ideas for my doctoral research involves taking a deeper look at the curriculum we use across grade levels to evaluate how culturally appropriate it is for groups other than White students.

Some Cool Art

One of the many projects that my very organized Kinder teammates do involves making an art project for each letter of the alphabet. For the letter M, each child got to paint and then cut out two mittens and for the letter A, each kid got to dip cut up apples into paint and stamp them on the page. Although I like the kids to have the chance to do art, I found that in the half day schedule it was nearly impossible for all of the kids to finish these projects. They required parent helpers and if I didn't have parent helpers, there was just no way for me to get it done, especially for the kids who leave for ELD. I felt like the projects were ending up incomplete or rushed and I really didn't like that part.

I decided that instead of doing the projects that way, and getting results that were not too thrilling, I would change it up. I do recognize the importance of creating a project that requires following certain steps, yet to me, art should without rules. I want kids to really have the chance to create, so I decided to see what would happen if I sent my alphabet pages home, giving kids free reign to choose any word they want to that starts with our letter of the week and to create an image of that word in any way they like. I have been so impressed with some of the artwork that has come back, I just have to share it.

I just about died when I saw that turtle. It is phenomenal. I sent a letter home indicating that these projects can be worked on with family members, but I can just imagine all the quality family time that went into these and that makes me so happy! Some of them come back with just a pencil drawing, but each time, I show the kids all of them so they can get ideas about different materials they could use. I can't even begin to fathom how amazing it is that they have incorporated so many different artistic methods and mediums. Paper tearing, collage work, 3 dimensional art, painting, photographs etc. etc. etc. This is one of my many attempts to make learning more meaningful for kids. Instead of me telling them that p is for pigs, they got to choose whatever word they wanted to choose. Instead of me giving them a limited number of art supplies/items, they can go to the depths of their creativity and make some great things.

The idea is that all of these pages go together in an alphabet book that will represent different things that are meaningful to each child. I was hesitant to try this out because I wasn't sure if certain families would have the resources at home to complete fun projects and I am guessing that the really cool ones are coming from the upper middle class families, but I am happy I pursued the projects in this format because it's really fun to see how creative they are. They are actually giving ME ideas of different art projects that would be great for them to do.

We also sent home a Turkey project that is similar. The kids could decorate the turkey in any way they like and those are amazing as well. I didn't take pictures yet, but I will because they are blowing me away as well.

Is a project like this still great if some kids don't bother to participate and return theirs? Is a half completed art project from school better than no project at all, or does the potential for real creativity outweigh the fact that some kids just won't do it? These are the questions that I ask myself. I just want to keep encouraging kids to be creative and hope that eventually everyone will participate and try out some fun ideas with their letter pages. I don't want this to be just another way for the White families to outshine the Hispanic families. I just have such a strong feeling about the need for art to be representative of what the kids want to make and not just a "product" that is the same for everyone based on specific directions. It's hard to make choices that are right for everyone, but I am on such a mission to make sure that I am valuing what kids from all cultures bring to the classroom.

PS I am getting ANOTHER new student on Wednesday. This will be the fourth consecutive week that I have gotten a new student (almost). It's a girl and I hope she is lovely :0)

Talk about a butt kicking

It started Wednesday morning with a slight sore throat, but I felt fine enough to get through the day. It got a little worse as I drove to class, but I still headed downtown because doctoral classes are important and I didn't want to miss out. However, during my first class, which lasts an hour and 15 minutes, I got the chills and started to feel horrible. When we transitioned to our next class I told my professor that I really wasn't feeling well and needed to go home. She was fine with it and the telltale sign that I was really sick was that I didn't care at all about missing class in the slightest (and usually I am such a nerd and won't even leave to use the restroom unless it's an official break).

On the way to the car I got so cold my teeth were chattering and I was totally shivering. I cried the whole way home which was pretty painful considering how sore my throat had gotten. I got home around 6 and went to bed and proceeded to sleep 15 hours. Thankfully we did not have school on Thursday and Friday was our grading day, so we were able to check out and work from home. I saw the doctor Thursday afternoon (my friend Jill drove me and was kind enough to wait SO long for them to do everything). I thought I was going to pass out as the guy was checking me in since we had already waited in line for a long time. I hadn't eaten anything, so I sat down on the floor with my back to the counter while he completed my paperwork.

Then I had to bring my papers over to the nurse treatment door, where we had to wait another 20 minutes or so for them to call me. At least I got to enjoy the best beach smoothy ever while I waited. I got the strep test (which by the way is so awful) and then I had to bring it over to the laboratory so they could analyze the results. When we got there we had to take a number (like at the deli counter) and wait for it to be called. It took about 15 minutes for them to call my number and then once I gave them my test thingy they said I would have to wait another 30 minutes.

Once they came out and said it was positive, they told me to go over to the pharmacy to get my prescription. I waited in line, gave them the info and they told me to wait on the chairs. 45 minutes later, we were still waiting! I got back in line and was seriously ready to tell them I was about to throw up or something just to get them to get the lead out but finally the pills were ready.

I have spent the last two days in serious pain. It feels like there are knives in my throat each time I swallow. I have chills, sweats, dizziness, body aches, and a headache. For some reason strep totally kicks my butt. I have gotten it a few other times as a teenager/adult and it has been the same horrible mess each time.

Yesterday I started to feel a bit better, but my throat still really hurts which makes it hard to eat and drink. It's hard to feel better without any fuel, so I pretty much hung out on the couch and watched tv all day.

I had been looking forward to a relaxing 4 day weekend and I saved a lot of my school work to do with all of that time. Now I feel the pressure to get stuff done because two days just went by without much productivity at all. The funny thing is, I am really happy that if I had to get this sick, it was on a long weekend, because I cannot even imagine having to write up plans and take care of business with school while feeling this sick. I am so happy that it was not part of this crappy week. Although I am not getting to go out because up until today I was still contagious, spending the entire day under a cozy blanket watching tv is not that bad of a way to spend a day. I just wish the horrible knives in my throat were not a part of it.

The good news is that ice cream is pretty much the only thing that tastes good so I have an excuse to eat lots of it :0)

Hopefully I will start to feel better today because I have had enough of this strep crap. The worst part of it all is that when my husband gets sick, I take such good care of him and make multiple trips to the store for whatever he needs or feels like eating, I make him tea, bring him everything in bed etc. When I get deathly sick, of course it's when we are living in different countries! I think he owes me some pampering over Christmas break just because!

What do you think is the nicest thing to do for a friend who is sick?

Green Eyed...

Today I was just a tad bit jealous as I watched my parent helper get my class completely quiet and behaved. She used to be a teacher before she had kids and is currently a stay at home mom, but her new name is the "Kinder Whisperer." She is so great with them. I needed to do assessments today and when I need to do assessments that means the kiddos get to watch a 30 minute educational video so I can pull them one at a time. I hate having them just sit and watch a video, but I need the time (and quiet) to work 1:1 and that is the least stressful way (for me) to get my assessments accomplished.

I get slightly embarrassed when I have a parent helper on assessment days because I am already feeling bad about putting the kiddos in front of the boob tube and it makes me feel just a little worse when there is a parent to witness said boob tube watching. It was, however, a total blessing to have this mama there to supervise the video watching. Let's face it, when left semi unsupervised, Kindergarten children do not remain quiet and peaceful. There is always a little wild rumpus going on and it was wonderful to be able to just do assessments and not worry about keeping the kidlets quiet. When the video was over, I still had a few remaining kids to work with, so I grabbed the book Courderoy and the Kinder Whisperer proceeded to read it to the class. They were so well behaved and wonderful and her soft, soothing voice was enough to make me crown her as the Queen of all parent volunteers. She rocks.

The green eyed monster arose, however, when she left and I took over with the kids and they were their usual wiggly, chatty, buns in the air selves. Why!? I am always so insecure about my classroom management skills and although I know I definitely have systems in place and do/say the right things, I still feel like keeping the kiddos on task is a constant effort. I know that comes with the territory of teaching Kindergarten and there is not a Kindergarten teacher out there who can say that his/her class is quiet/on task/well behaved/sweet/polite all the time (right?!), yet I couldn't help feeling a bit jealous that a parent helper could step in and create a total cloud of peacefulness in my classroom when I am typically dealing with buns in the air, chatty patties, and rooty tooties. I think that there is some effect that the "other" person has on kids--maybe it's the novelty of a different person doing something with them, a new face, a different voice--who knows, but it made me feel a little sad for my always trying to get them to be quiet self.

First off, I worry that this parent will think I am not doing a good enough job since it was clearly easy for her to engage my children in a quiet adoration of her story reading. I also worry that maybe my classroom management really is not good since I seem to always run into the same issues (probably because I have always taught 5 and 6 year olds...hello!) Am I too hard on myself?

Anyway, needless to say, despite my desire to become the Kinder Whisperer instead of watching her skills from the side table, I heart parent helpers!

Danny Boy

There is a little boy in my class who started school with very few school related skills. I have posted about him before and how much I appreciate his sense of community and other areas of strength, but when it comes to writing, math, reading etc, it is pretty obvious that he entered school without a lot of experience in these areas.

The first time we colored a pattern, his page was basically scribbles. I had explained to the class that each child should choose two colors and alternate the colors in a pattern. I provided a model and showed them, talked about the different colors, and "read" the pattern so they could hear the alternating color words. For Danny Boy, a pattern did not happen. He scribbled. That's it. There was no attention paid to the lines or to selecting only two colors in order to create a pattern. Last week, we colored another pattern. This time, he chose pink and orange and completely blew me away by mastering the pattern coloring. He totally got it! I was so proud :0)

Although he is still behind his peers, I can tell that things are starting to click and he is really trying hard. He keeps telling me at the carpet that he is being "piet." Good thing we just learned the /q/ sound because to him "piet" means not talking while I am teaching.

I really have high hopes for this little friend and I am so proud of the progress he has made!

Clicking

Today I assessed one of my students on Fast Track Phonics. The last time I assessed her she was having a hard time recognizing what sounds different words start with and was struggling to remember many of the sounds. Today she recognized 18 of the 21 sounds that we have covered and she was sounding out and reading words! I have heard from the other Kinder teachers that at this grade level, at a certain point in the year things just start clicking. They said it usually happens for many kiddos around February, but I am really happy to see that things have really started clicking for this student already. Today she turned in a pile of homework that up until today had been incomplete and I feel like she transformed into a student. She is now more attentive on the carpet, focusing on the sounds and words, and even shushing the kids who are being too noisy. I am so proud of her progress and feel such joy to see this transformation happening. Witnessing the process of kids learning how to read and having an integral role in making that happen makes being a Kindergarten teacher the best job in the world!

PS I got another new student today-this time in the morning class. Thankfully, she is really sweet. She just moved from California and primarily speaks Spanish, so I don't know how much of what I taught/said she understood, but she tried so hard and was a model student today! I always feel such stress over having a new student, but so far each one has been a pleasant addition to the group. I have a few behavior challenged in the AM group, so I don't feel like I can handle any more. I was very happy to discover that my new friend is terrific!

Out in the open

Today I read the story called My Friend with Autism to help my students understand their classmate who has Autism. They listened really intently to the story and I could tell they sensed the importance of what I was reading. We talked about how this boy doesn't speak, but that it is still important to talk to him and that it might be nice to give him some extra time to make eye contact because that is something he is working on. We talked about the time this child took a girl's bracelet and how sometimes he doesn't understand when kids' have hurt feelings or when he bumps into someone that it might make them upset. I ended the discussion by asking the class what they would do to help my student with Autism and one boy said he would pray for him so he might not have Autism anymore. What a thoughtful idea. I wish it worked like that.

I really think that with young children it is important to be specific when we talk about something like this. It's important to use the word Autism and to name the child that has it because it helps the kids really understand what we are talking about. There is nothing wrong with the fact that this child has Autism, but there are things that I can do and the children can do to help him reach the goals that he is working towards which requires a certain level of understanding. At first I thought it would be weird to talk about him while he was out of the room, yet really, it was helpful for the children and I think they gained a better understanding of some of the behaviors/things they see in the classroom. I think talking about Autism and letting kids ask questions or share thoughts will ultimately help them become more knowledgeable, compassionate, and understanding people who don't fear people with disabilities. I of course got permission from both the child's parent and the SPED teacher before openly discussing this child and his differences and I am really glad that we took some time today to talk about Autism.