Details

I heard back from my new teaching team yesterday and got some fantastic information about the year to come. From their email I can tell they are SUPER organized and I am really happy to have an idea of how the schedule works now!

This is what the day looks like....

 

     8:10-8:20        Table work as the students come in
     8:25-9:00        FastTrack Phonics
     9:00-9:30        Literacy Activity (Word of the week, Letter of the Week, writing)
     9:30-10:00      ELD students leave for ELD; other students have playtime and a  
                            supplemental activity.
     10:00-10:30    Math
     10:30-10:40    Story, Star of the Week

**Where is the time alotted for packing and cleaning up? That can take a long time with 5 year olds!
**The kiddos will also have specials, but I guess not everyday and they change throughout the year. One of the teachers said they go to library then computer but not PE or Music....

They also sent me a cop of their YEAR LONG plan and said they will create the plan for next year in August (which hopefully I will be present for). They have an Excel document that lists what topics will be covered in every subject/category for every week of the school year including special events, holidays, and field trips. WOW! It is great to know the different topics/themes that will be covered since I feel like Kindergarten does more with holidays than I ever did with my first grade classes. I was really happy to find out that they work very closely as a team because that is important to me. I find it really helpful to work alongside one another when planning to maintain consistency between classrooms. I don't think it's necessary to always do the exact same activities in the exact same way, but it's good to have a master plan that everyone agrees to. 

I will also admit that I am happy the reading program is based mostly on Fast Track Phonics and less on Treasures because I think Kindergartners need a strong phonics program and Treasures does not offer it (at least we found it to be weak at the first grade level). I have tons of games and activities that quickly became too easy for first graders, so it will fun to use them for stations and small group activities. 

I am not too sure I like how ELD (English Language Development) is set up because personally I feel like all children in Kindergarten would benefit from language development, but in our district only students categorized as ELL receive this instruction. At my old school it was taught by some classroom teachers and ELL teachers, but I guess at my new school it is just taught by the ELL teachers. ELL students leave the classroom and the district policy is that ELL students cannot miss content instruction while they are having an ELD lesson. In a day that is already short, I feel like that creates a period of time that cannot be used as effectively. Because ELD is supposed to be specific language instruction taught to students according to their acquisition levels, you can't just have everyone in the class participate in the lessons since they would be different levels of English speakers including both ELL and native English speakers in the mix, which is why ELL students are pulled out and grouped according to level. I just wish that somehow all students could be involved...it's complicated, but the 30 minutes of ELD time was always a source of frustration because the other children could not be working on content areas or receive new instruction during that time. Since we always felt short on time (and I am sure it will be intensified with SUCH a short day) it is frustrating to feel like you have to spin your wheels waiting for 1/3 to 1/2 of the class to return. I guess that is a good time for additional  literacy/math activities, however I want my ELL students to have those opportunities too. Regardless of what we do when they are gone, they are missing something because I am not just going to provide a recess time for other kids during that time (and even if I did...don't they deserve time to play too?). 

I am still trying to brainstorm good ways to stay organized this year. In addition to creating a binder of songs and rhymes, I of course, need to put together an assessment binder and files for each child. File maintenance will be a bit larger of a task with about 50 kiddos...

***

It is so hot here today, I can't even believe it. We are having this pattern of extreme heat during the day and then wicked thunder storms at night with heavy rain and lots of lightning. This has happened for the past two or three nights! I was so afraid the power would go out! No hubby and no power would not be a great combo.

In reading news, I have read a few Ramona books this week in addition to The Penderwicks, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and Love That Dog. I am currently on The Borrowers, which I am hoping to finish today. I am not really sure why three different Ramona books are on the top 100 list. I think she is a great character (the trouble finding silly girl character before Junie B. Jones without the incorrect grammar!), but I honestly don't think the stories are that worthy of having three spots on the list of must reads. Some of the others in my stack are Dear Mr. Henshaw (actually not on the list but when I saw it in the library I wanted to read it), The Island of the Blue Dolphins, Ramona and her Father, and The Hobbit (still avoiding that one...)

Groove

Today I subbed for a third grade math period and I can't even express how good it felt! I have had a lot of great experiences this year having the opportunity to work with several different teachers in several different classrooms, but there is nothing like being with one group that becomes your little family. I work in this third grade classroom several times a week as a Support Services teacher, but today I got to teach a real lesson and it was fan.tas.tic!

Not having had my own class this year has really given me some perspective and I am so motivated for the start of a new school year (and how lucky, I get TWO of my own classes!). I do think I have gotten a bit spoiled because the kids at my school are SO well behaved. I have kind of gone into a blissful denial of some of the more challenging behaviors that will certainly be part of my Kindergarten classroom, but I am ready for it. I have learned a lot from seeing different teaching styles and the passion and energy is bubbling inside me right now. That may sound corny, but it's exactly how I feel.

I feel like I have so many ideas and so much excitement building up for the year to come and I can't wait to have the relationships that come along with being with the same group of kids everyday. There are some aspects of having two groups that I am bit worried about because that means twice as many parent calls and twice as many report cards, but it also means twice as many fun personalities and twice as many hugs. I am still trying to get some more specific info from my new school about how the 2 hour and 20 minute schedule actually plays out, how the core reading program is implemented, what the science themes are etc. because I want to use my summer productively to get ready. I feel like a P.I.T.A emailing my principal so many times, but if I were a principal I would be happy to know that a teacher was asking questions and trying to get ready. Hopefully she won't be annoyed, but once summer comes I know she won't be sitting at her desk replying to work emails, so I feel like I only have a short window of time left to get the answers I need!

Tomorrow the girls are coming over to watch the Bachelorette and we are baking some amazing looking chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting for my friend Jill's birthday which is on Saturday. We are taking a girls' trip to Prague for the weekend to celebrate because it's a special birthday ( I won't say which one, but it's a milestone!). The next three Saturdays are birthdays...Jill, Mr. Sneaker, then me so I am looking forward to lots of yummy treats in the near future!!

I got a feeling...

Check out this awesome video that Sarah@Confessions of an Untenured Teacher posted!

Ah....visions of group dance parties with students excited about reading!!! I usually end the year with my kiddos by having an all out silly dance party on the last day of school with conga lines and funky dance moves. It is great to just enjoy those last moments of the year together by going all out and getting down!

***

Tomorrow I am subbing for my friend's third grade math period because she will be out. We took some time to plan a fun lesson together and I am really excited to see how it works out. We have been noticing that some of the kiddos in her group need some reminders about good listening skills. I came across an activity that divides the class into two groups: talkers and listeners. Each student gets a slip of paper with a direction on it. The talkers get instruction to speak about a particular subject for two minutes while the "listeners" get instructions to do something like look at the ceiling or take out a book while their partner is talking. After the kids have about two minutes to follow their directions in their partnerships we are going to come together as a group and discuss what the purpose of the activity was and how to talkers felt when the "listeners" were quite obviously not listening. We will then discuss what the qualities of good listeners are.

After we have chatted about what good listeners do and look like, I am going to read them a short non-fiction story then play another game based on the text. I am going to call on students one at a time to share something they learned from the text, but I will randomly tell them to stop (even in the middle of a thought) and ask someone else to continue the sentence so they can practice really tuning into what other students are saying. The other day in class my friend asked a question and about 6 different kids gave the same wrong answer because they were not listening to what others were sharing. I really think they will enjoy these activities and I hope they refocus some of their energy on really listening to each other and their teachers.

***

I have also been trying to get in touch with some people from my new school so I can get some info about Kindergarten. I want to utilize my time off this summer in the best way possible to get prepared for next school year. I emailed both the principal and the two other Kinder teachers I will work with. I am used to working with a fabulous first grade team where team planning was a huge part of how we operated. With Kindergarten it is a bit harder because one teacher teaches a full day session, the other teacher only teaches AM and I will teach both AM and PM with two different classes. So between the three of us, no one has the exact same schedule. It will be hard to plan with the full day teacher because her schedule will be SO different. I am still trying to wrap my brain around how anything can be accomplished in a day that lasts 2 hours and 20 minutes. We certainly won't be getting in 90 minutes of reading and if you subtract the time for a recess break and the time it takes 25 five year olds to clean up and pack up at the end of the day, I think I am left with about an hour and a half of instructional time.

It is going to fly by! I can't even image.

I inquired about what special topics are covered throughout the year so I can begin to accumulate resources and I wanted to know if the core reading program is even used considering the time constraints. I know our full day Kinder last year was using Fast Track Phonics, which I really liked, but I just don't know what there is time for! I will be really happy to get an idea of how much time is allotted for different activities in the half day schedule. Seems hard to get kiddos ready for first grade with that little time.

I just have this huge excitement to go to the teacher supply store and purchase my lesson plan book so that I can start planning for the year! My goal this year is to be all about organization so this summer is truly Operation Organization!!!

Cute Kinder Songs and Management Strategies

I was going through old files that I made after my master's program and I came across a few handouts from my behavior management class and first steps training that are cute and seem like they have useful ideas. I love using music/songs with my students and I have the feeling I will be doing a LOT of that next year with my Kinder buddies.

I used to sing something like this with my first graders, but this one is a little different and has a second verse.

For Lining Up:

I'm giving myself a great big hug (arms folded across chest)

I'm standing straight and tall,

I'm looking right ahead of me,

I"m ready for the hall.

I will not shove, 

I will not push

I will not try to pass.

I will not stay behind the rest,

I'll line up with my class.

For the Classroom:

We raise our hands to speak,

We work quietly in our seats,

We use voices soft and sweet,

We keep our places tidy and neat,

We are helpful, friendly and fair,

We take turns and we share.

I also love to use particular songs for certain transitions like coming to the carpet in the morning and packing up when it's time to go home. I found it very effective because as soon as the song would begin playing, the majority of the class would know exactly what to do. There were always a few stragglers, but for the most part, I didn't need to give any verbal directions at all once the routine was in place. 

I always played Good Morning by the Beatles (mostly for the repetition of the words Good Morning) and that worked really well. The rest of the lyrics have nothing to do with kids, but the animals sounds are kind of fun.

My favorite song to play at the end of the day is Home by Michale Bublé. Again, when you really listen to the lyrics, they are not for kids, but the main refrain is "I want to go home" which seems very appropriate at the end of the school day. Not sure I can use it next year, because in really listening to the lyrics I think it will make me tear up as I will be away from Mr. Sneaker and will be missing him and my home in Germany. We'll see...Maybe the abundance of hugs from my students will make it better.

I am also a fan of using lots of different ways to signal that I want quiet. 

5,4,3,2,1 Now your talking should be done.

I always mix up my quiet commands because I think that keeping it fresh is good for kids. I use the same few signals, but rotate them so it's not exactly the same every time.  Some other good ways to get kids' attention:

• voice: changing volume and going from normal to very quiet
• If you can hear me clap once....if you can hear me clap twice
• clapping patterns and having students repeat
• 1, 2, 3 eyes on me (teacher). 3, 2,1 our talking is done (students).
• ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention please (followed by compliments to those students who gave eye contact right away).

What tips do you have for smooth transitions?

Do you use any fun songs?

One of my summer goals is to type up a bunch of good songs to sing with Kindergartners and common rhymes and put them in plastic page protectors in a binder so I have a book of songs/rhymes. I am kinda bad at remember lyrics sometimes and if I have them typed up I can easily throw the page up on the big screen using the document camera.

For New Teachers

 I came across this on Mike Rose's blog and thought it was worth sharing. It is entitled:

  To the New Teachers: The Graduation Speech You Won't Hear, But Should

(It was first published in the Los Angeles Times)

Let me begin by celebrating your calling to join one of our society’s grand professions. What is more important than to play a central role in the development of young people’s lives? Cherish this calling, for it will be tested.

You are entering teaching at a troubled time. For all the political talk about the importance of education, a number of cities and states are trying to balance their budgets through cuts to schools. You will also hear conflicting messages in the national conversation about education. Teachers are universally praised as the solution to our educational problems and simultaneously condemned as the root cause of all that’s wrong with our schools.

What underlies this bipolar craziness is an ideological battle to define what teaching is. And while there’s not much you can do to affect the economy, you can be tough-minded and vocal about what it means to teach.

As is the case in so many spheres of modern life, there is a strong push to define teaching in technical and managerial terms. Education policy is increasingly being shaped by economists who have little knowledge of classroom life. Curricula are “scripted,” directing the teacher what to do when. Student learning is reduced to a few scores on a standardized test. The teacher becomes a knowledge-delivery mechanism whose effectiveness will be determined primarily by the scores on those tests.

You hear little from either the federal Department of Education or the local school board about engaging young people’s minds or about teaching as an intellectual journey. You don’t hear about the values that brought you into teaching. So let’s talk about these things now, for they are the mind and heart of the work you will be doing.

Teaching is a profoundly intellectual activity, and this applies to kindergarten as much as to Advanced Placement Physics. Most people will grant the brain work in physics, but what is neglected is the intellectual chops it takes to teach any subject to any age. The good primary school teacher knows about child development and how to engage young people across a range of subjects. She takes in a room full of kids at a glance to see who needs help, thinks on her feet, knows how to respond to a wrong answer and provides the apt example or comparison to guide a child toward clearer thinking.

You might not fancy yourself an intellectual. New teachers sometimes say that they’re going into teaching because they “like kids.” But remember, this is a special kind of caring, a relationship focused on children’s cognitive, emotional, and social development. This is way more than affection; you are using your mind in the service of others.

Teaching, then, is a special kind of relationship. You’ll need to learn about the young people in front of you, where they come from, and what matters to them. This will call for special effort if you – like many teachers – are a foreigner to the communities in which you teach. Listen to your students. Try to understand the world as they see it. You will be both troubled and inspired by what you hear. And you’ll be smarter for it.

Don’t expect things to be reciprocal. Kids will not always respond, will even shun you. But stick with it. Show them that you’re serious and available even when they’re not. This will register. Young people are hyper-alert to betrayal and consistency. A veteran teacher I know tells her beginning teachers, “Don’t think that because a kid can’t read, he can’t read you.”

Get ready to fail. A lesson you slaved over will flop, or your understanding of a kid’s problem will be way off base. This will happen during your first year or two, but, believe me, it happens to all of us through the years. Education, wrote W.E.B. DuBois is “a matter of infinite experiment and frequent mistakes.”

For some of you, this will be the first time you’ve failed in a classroom. It will be painful and disorienting. So it is essential you know how to handle failure, for at those moments you will be vulnerable to your own insecurities and to those who are cynical about young people, some as close as the Teachers’ Lounge.

It is imperative, then, that the minute you walk through the schoolhouse door, you start figuring out who the good teachers are. Buy them coffee. Get to know them, for when you fail you’ll need them to help you make sense of things, to convert those failures into knowledge rather than doubt and bitterness. Learning to teach well is a long journey, full of deliberation and self-assessment. You don’t want to make that journey alone.
You’ve surely noticed by now that I haven’t given you any advice about what to do on Monday morning. This takes us back to the issue of what teaching is. Knowing the nuts and bolts of running a classroom is hugely important, and if your training was any good, you’ll have some plans in place. Furthermore, you soon will be swarmed with advertisements for products that promise to make your classroom hum.

             I’m more interested in the way you think about what to do on Monday morning. Every good teacher I’ve known, regardless of grade level, subject, or style has the equivalent of what musicians call “big ears”; they are curious, open, on the lookout for anything they can use in the service of some larger goal. They possess a mindfulness about materials and techniques and have their fingers on the pulse of their students, figuring out if and how something will work with them. That is what it means to think like a teacher, and that thinking defines the work you are about to begin.

The Reading Teacher and more Books

I just opened my mailbox to find my first edition of The Reading Teacher. Yay! Ever since I joined the IRA and signed up to receive this publication, I have been anxiously awaiting my May edition. I guess it really takes a long time for it to get alllll the way to Germany, but it arrived just in time for my sunny Sunday.

I have been continuing to read up a storm in the attempt to finish all of the books from the top 100 novels list that I took home this weekend, but I did take the day off from reading to join my friend Jill in Heidelberg for a day of shopping!

 view of the Heidelberg Castle which I visited yesterday with my friend Jill

The Neckar River

 

You are supposed to touch the monkey's mirror in order to have wealth in your life.
If you touch its tail you will have many children.

I finished Bridge to Terabithia this morning and I am now reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Again, I recall reading this book in 6th or 7th grade, yet my recollection of the story is pretty vague. I love that it takes place in Connecticut (where I grew up) and I am enjoying the writing so far.

As I read through these books, I am really noticing why they have become such favorites. The writing is great and some of them contain wonderful examples of literary elements. I really enjoyed the similes in Bridge to Terabithia like, "Mama would be mad as flies in a fruit jar if they woke her up this time of day." I guess many of the books that I now read as an adult (and of course all those education texts) just don't compare when it comes to fantastic writing. Some of them do, but it's refreshing to go back and read these stories and really appreciate the authors' skills and what students can learn from the texts.

I have also noticed a major theme emerging among these books. It seems that many of the main characters have experienced the death of both of their parents.

Anne of Green Gables
Mary in the Secret Garden
James in James and the Giant Peach
Jeffrey in Maniac Magee
Kit in The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Harry Potter

In the grand effort to practice what I preach, I have been trying to make connections as I read and oddly enough, it seems that each new book I begin has some connection or similarity to the previous one. It's cosmic! I am hoping to finish The Witch of Blackbird Pond today and I also have the Hobit waiting in the wings. I am not super excited about that one though (anyone have some great things to say to pump me up?). Between the two books to finish and my newly obtained copy of The Reading Teacher, I think you can guess how I will be spending my day!

How is your weekend going? 

How is the weather where you are? 

The sun finally decided to make an appearance again in Germany and I have a pretty good sunburn to show for it...