Makeovers

Do you ever end/start a school year thinking you need to give some aspect of your classroom/routine/program a complete makeover? I often feel that way about Star of the Week and birthdays.

Ironically our Star of the Week program and our birthday celebrations are a few of the only things we do in class that really honor individual kids. (sad, I know). We also do family projects, which I love, but I always end up feeling like celebrating birthdays and carving out space for students to do all of their Star of the Week duties cuts into what we "have to get done." I don't like feeling that way, but I do. I think it stems from the fact that celebrating student birthdays (aside from being a frustrating exercise in coercing parents to actually follow the rules about not bringing cupcakes and giving advance notice) results in some kids having birthday treats in class (those whose families can/choose to afford snacks/bring them in) and some kids not having that special attention. As the teacher, I leave it up to parents and don't really do a whole lot to celebrate birthdays unless parents initiate it. #teacherfail

Sometimes I feel like we have 2 hours 20 minutes...celebrate your birthday at home. #grinchteacher
(And, I really don't like serving the kids any kind of unhealthy treat at 10:30 in the morning before they've had lunch).

So, I feel the need to come up with a different approach because of all people, Mrs. Sneaker sure understands the importance of celebrating birthdays and feeling special on your birthday. I need to do something different so that kids get recognized regardless of whether their parents bring in a snack. (sidenote: I have developed an annoyance with any kind of snacks at school due to various allergies and healthy snack preferences that require me to store and provide "special" snacks to various kids. I understand allergies, but when it's parents avoiding food coloring and other such preferences whose children then tell me they can have the snack and clearly feel bad that I'm giving them something different that their parent provided it just makes me feel like serving snack is a chore).

So, this year I am really think about putting the kabosh on birthday snacks altogether and doing a birthday board instead where I prepare a little baggy for each kid containing a special pencil, eraser, sticker etc. for them to receive on their special day. That way every kid gets acknowledged. That way, if I have children who don't celebrate birthdays, they don't have to leave the room while the rest of us eat a cookie and sing happy birthday. This is what I have in mind. I don't know if I would do it exactly like that, but similar.

 I also like the idea of a birthday chair like these.

I found all these photos on Pinterest. I'm not sure what the etiquette is for giving credit/linking to the source, so please know they aren't my photos and I am giving snaps to their creators!!

I know that I routinely complain about birthdays and the various "cupcake incidents" we've had even after making a rule that they are not allowed because they are so messy not to mention unhealthy. But, this year I am trying to make it into something different because if we only do a few things that really honor individual kids, we certainly need to continue doing those things. 

I hope parents are understanding if I don't allow birthday snacks, but I am hopeful that they can understand my wanting every single kid to get acknowledged in the same way. And, I don't want to end up having 5 birthday snacks within the first 3 weeks of school like last year. 

What are you giving a makeover for this coming school year?

Do you have any creative ideas for celebrating birthdays?  

Revelations

This is my view right now.

Mr. Sneaker and I just got a new desk and I am putting it to good use this morning working on my year plan for math. 

I'll give you a little tour from left to right:

school laptop with my document where I sorted the Math Expressions lessons by CCSS strands

Diet Coke (of course)

home laptop where I am composing a more specific year plan in Excel

new fancy schmancy Erin Condren teacher planner ::swoon::

and in the background my cute little Baby Sneaker photo and monitor so that I can hear when she wakes up from her nap

I don't think I have ever done this much planning at this point in the summer, but I am really enjoying it. And, I had a big realization while working on this year plan. 

I feel like I am thinking for myself for the first time in my teaching career.

Let me explain.

#1. When I first started teaching, I did everything my team told me to do because they were awesome and I was a freshy. I figured they had it down pat and I could learn from them.

And I did.

But I still relied on them a lot to guide me. 

#2. I have always used scripted programs, teacher manuals, and pacing guides (except in Germany). I truly feel that I am not anti-scripted curriculum, yet I have come to realize the biggest reason to feel that way--they suck the creativity right out of awesome teachers like a portable containment unit sucks up Slimer the ghost. 

Is this a new revelation? No. Teachers have been saying it for years. But, I've just been doing my job the way my employer wants me to do it. I like what I do. Using a scripted program isn't awful. The kids are learning. So, I guess I've somewhat just put my own thinking skills on the back burner. Why should I contrive a new way to do it if they give me the teacher manual and the pacing guide and tell me to use them??

But, now I have hit the comfort zone. This will be my fourth year teaching the same grade in the same school. This is when I start to get this feeling that bubbles up--not of boredom--but of confidence. It happened after my third year of teaching first grade, but then I left to move to Germany and that was a whole new ball game.

My mind is saying "I've got this."

And, as a result, I want to make it better.

And that, my friends, is where this desire to rework my entire math plan came about. 

I don't hate the math program we use, but I don't love it either. The fundamental concepts are good, but it repeats a lot and spirals a lot making me feel like we jump from topic to topic. I don't know about you, but I need many encounters with something before I can really understand it and know it. 

No wonder some kids still haven't mastered the skills at the end of the year. We wait until they have completely forgotten about something to bring it up again. 

That doesn't work for kindies!

So, I am making a grand effort this summer to reorganize the content into CCSS strand chunks so we can just focus on one strand/topic at a time. 

Here's my basic plan

Sept/Oct-Counting & Cardinality (1-10)

Nov/Dec-Geometry (basic shapes, 3-D shapes, patterns, counting review)

Jan/Feb-Numbers and Operations in Base 10 (11-20)

Mar/Apr-Measurement and Data

May/June-Operations and Algebraic Thinking

From there, I inputted our 2013-2014 school year dates into my new planner and labeled all the holidays, end of quarter dates, conference dates etc.

Then I started to plug in what I want to cover during each topic and how I can fit that in around conferences and quarters. That meant I had to shift some dates around so that I am beginning/ending new units within the quarters when possible. 

The units on Geometry and Measurement & Data will be a bit shorter because there's not as much content. 

Now, I am trying to plug in specific content and activities at least for the first few months of school. I am trying to get my mind situated around the fact that the kiddos receiving this instruction are not independent almost first graders like my latest memories of my kiddos, but unsure, new to school, Kinder babies that will be just starting school. That definitely is an adjustment in terms of pacing and planning. 

As I go through this process of thinking about how/what I want to teach, I had this revelation that I literally have NEVER done this before in all my years of teaching--it's been done for me. 

A few Kinder representatives created our pacing guide based on what they thought we should include. That is what we are supposed to use, so I have. But I just feel the need to do things differently this year. 

Call me a rebel, but I need to make it my own. 

This is an experiment because I may end up not liking how this plays out, but at least I know that it's my work, my thinking, my analyzing, and my teachery intelligence that went into making this plan. Doing work like this makes me feel excited to be a teacher. 

Isn't that what we should feel all the time??

yogi mama

Since Baby Sneaker was born my exercise regime has gone drastically downhill. It's been pretty non-existent thanks to the amazing calorie burn that is miraculously accomplished through breast feeding which made it completely unnecessary to exercise in order to lose all of my baby weight plus some. #thatwasawesome

But now that it's summer and I have free time on my hands that hasn't been part of my life for the past four years due to studying, homework, and paper writing, I feel like I NEED to get back into the groove of daily exercise beyond our stroller walks in the neighborhood.

So I got this.

I actually got it through Amazon Prime Instant Videos for about 7 dollars so I can play it on my laptop or watch it on my TV through some amazing configuration Mr. Sneaker did with our Apple TV.

My goal is to do this video during Baby Sneaker's morning nap. There are two levels and each one is about 30-35 minutes. All it requires is a yoga mat. No additional equipment. I figure I can spare 30 minutes a day to start getting back in shape.

Some of the reviewers posted negative comments about it saying that it's not like traditional yoga and that Jillian has no place trying to do a yoga video. But, the non-traditional style is exactly why I like it. It's not your typical slow zen-like yoga workout--it's yoga pumped up Jillian Michael's style with repetitions in each of the poses followed by power poses that are held for 15 seconds each. For me, a formerly in-shape/decently fit, yet now completely out of shape mama, it's a perfect combination of just right with a bit of a challenge. Jillian always has one person showing modifications of each move for beginners, but I found myself following the girl showing the more advanced options most of time. Yet, in the second level there were some moves I will really have to work up to that involve balancing your knees on your extended elbows. #icantdothatyet

Even though the video isn't as crazy hard as her Shred series, I was definitely sweating and I feel a decent about of soreness that tells me my muscles are doing something they are no longer used to doing. I already feel like my Chaturanga pushups are improving. And I've done the video enough times to be able to correctly pronounce Chaturanga so that's a plus.

I'm pretty sure I'll get bored of these two workouts because you can only do an exercise video so many times before you have it memorized, but for the time being they are exactly what I need. It's inexpensive too, so I know I'll get my money's worth.

What do you enjoy doing during the summer break that you just don't get to during the school year?

What I'm Reading/What I've Read

Now that it's summer and I have more free time I am adding two very important things back into my life. 

exercise and reading for pleasure

Since I completed my dissertation I have finished three books and I am now reading a fourth. I recently read 

Now I am reading 

This one definitely requires a little more brain power, so it's going a bit more slowly than the pace at which I whizzed through the others, but so far it's interesting. It motivated me to dive into the math curriculum work I had planned for this summer and I got a good chunk of it done. I realize that I need to be a bit more creative with math this year because once I pulled all of the lessons relating to each particular CCSS strand, I realize the great extent to which the same lessons are repeated over and over and over because the program is laid out to "spiral." If I want to chunk the concepts next year, I need to teach the various skills in different ways or else the kids are going to be bored to tears. I still have more work to do and want to think about how many times I want to actually do the lessons that repeat in order to provide enough practice. 

So far this summer I've been a pretty productive stay at home mom. I've been doing yoga when Baby Sneaker naps in the morning and then showering up and cleaning until she wakes up. Then in the afternoon I've been getting other things accomplished like organizing drawers and cabinets, pinning gazillions of teaching ideas on Pinterest, and reading. 

What are you reading this summer? 

Reading teachery things or reading for pleasure (or are those the same for you?)

Over

Another year over.

I posted on facebook the other day that this was my 8th year teaching, my first year as a working mama, my first year teaching part time, and the end of teaching while also being a student myself. In the few weeks since I turned in my final final final copy of my dissertation, I've had more free time on my hands than I've had in as long as I can remember. There is absolutely nothing hanging over my head that needs to get done. No homework. No deadlines. No paper that needs to get written or edited. I can't say that I've used my time really wisely in the past few weeks because I haven't taken up exercising yet and my house still isn't super clean. There's still a big pile of laundry and I haven't cooked any super fabulous gourmet dinners. I've watched a little too much TV and I've read 3 books so far, but none of them had anything to do with teaching.

I'm still super busy chasing after Baby Sneaker who is busier than a bee, but I have this urge to find a new project. It's stressful to be super busy, yet I do need a certain level of busyness to feel productive and content. Now that I don't have a dissertation to write, I feel like I finally have the free time to do more work with my Kindergarten curriculum and finally make things align better and make more sense. I brought home almost all of my teaching manuals so that I can spend some time this summer rearranging the math curriculum around the common core strands and so I can familiarize myself with the new reading adoption. Once I am more familiar with the new reading curriculum, I want to plan our science lessons around the reading content and stories we'll read next year.

I am excited to do this work and feel like each year I "own" what I teach just a little bit more. And, I can't wait to set up my classroom again because I love to change things up every year. That will have to wait until August though. I do want to enjoy summer and have some time to just relax and enjoy the various Housewife cohorts as well as the Bachelorette. I want to read books that don't require a lot of thinking. And, I want to enjoy spending the entire days will Baby Sneaker. I am looking forward to lingering over my morning coffee and to spending more than 30 seconds in the bathroom at a time. I am excited for play dates with my friends' little ones and I may even sleep past 7 AM if Baby Sneaker cooperates.

What are you looking forward to this summer?

Timing

Why is it that at the end of the year I always find myself full of new ideas and excited to revamp everything I do in the classroom? Maybe it's because I am on the brink of having a lot more free time and that makes me excited to use that time for preparing, as I always do, for the best year ever.

I have some big plans for next year that I am excited about, so I know I'll be spending some time this summer figuring how some of the aspects of my day and my classroom that I want to change. I will still be sharing my classroom, but now that my roommate and I have a year of sharing under our belts, I think it will be easier to plan and figure out how we want to manage things next year. 

My district just adopted a new reading program to start next year (Journeys) and I am kind of excited to teach reading differently and use the themes from the reading program to better align our sporadic science instruction with other things are learning/reading about so that science fits better and is done with more frequency next year.

I also want to focus on the common core math standards and pull lessons from our program that fit each main strand rather than focusing on teaching the program according the pacing guide. I get so frustrated by how much the program jumps around ("spirals") and I feel like the kids will benefit more from focusing on particular standards in units. I divided the year into two month segments where I will focus on a particular strand/area at a time and now I just need to go through the curriculum and pull the lessons that apply to each strand and add in additional content to make sure math is fun and not too repetitive. 

My iPad grant team met all day today and we reviewed our data from this year and talked about what we want to keep the same and change for next year. I am really excited by what our data shows and excited to experience year 2 of our grant with a little more organization. I didn't blog about our iPads at all this year, so I'd like to do that more next year as well because what the kids can do is amazing. 

Do you feel tired out and spent at the end of the year or renewed and excited?

Exited for summer vacation maybe?