Parent Helpers

I finally got myself organized enough to thoughtfully plan out what kinds of help I need from parents. Rather than just asking who wants to volunteer, I created "job descriptions" and put a sheet for weekly helpers at our supply drop night. I was asking for help on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and I was lucky enough to get volunteers to cover everything that I was asking for. I thought I was pretty clear that I really need help with these jobs every single week (and I am not just making busy work like I sometimes do when parents just want to pop in randomly).

Well, now that I am seriously counting on these parents to come in weekly, I am really disappointed when they email (sometimes with really short notice) to say they can't make it.

I get that things come up and they get sick too. And, they are volunteering, so I should appreciate whatever I get whenever I get it, but now that I got myself organized enough to set aside things I need help with, it sucks to have to then do it myself when a parent can't make it in.

Is there such a thing as a parent volunteer sub list? I wouldn't want to ask the parent to find a sub, but I am thinking it would be nice if I had a few parents I could call in the event I get stuck without the help that I need. Hmmm...something to think about.

How do you organize your parent volunteers? What do they do for you?

Weekend

It's almost 4:00 on Sunday and I still have to plan math for the week. I had class on Friday evening and from 9-3:30 yesterday, so that definitely cut down on my amount of me time this weekend. They always go by too fast!

I love getting together with my cohort group and I always feel renewed and motivated when I leave them. I am setting goals for the term and aiming to have a final version of my next paper by mid-December. Ideally, I would be able to defend prior to Winter break, but I don't know how likely that is. Here's hoping! I have a lot of writing to do in order to get a first draft ready by October 15th, but once I get back into the habit of writing daily, I think that is feasible.

I am mostly planned for the week and feeling really organized, so once I get math in order, everything should be ready to go. We are finally into our "real" schedule and so far things are going very well. The kiddos are doing a nice job with everything so far and I am happy to have routine in my life again...although I do miss the lazy days of summer.

I am finally starting to get some energy back, so I participated in our jogathon with the kids on Friday and went for a run with my friend Janine this morning. Daily exercise needs to come back into my life!!! I am gearing up to make something yummy for dinner and then I have a date with Jill and Janine for The Amazing Race premier tonight (and I think Desperate Housewives starts too!). Then it will be off to bed to start a new week.

What I didn't tell you about Venice....

Do you remember this picture of Mr. Sneaker and me from Venice this summer?

Well...when I shared my stories about the trip, I left a little something out.

The day we took this very romantic gondola ride...

We found out that Team Sneaker (and Mrs. Sneaker in particular) will be expanding!

That's right...

Baby on Board

Baby Sneaker will be making a grand debut sometime around spring break.

Phew!

Thanks for all the comments on The Crying Game! I am glad to know that many other teachers react to crying the same way I do....by not giving it a lot of attention. I think we all wish we could be a little more sympathetic but it's that all too common issue of not being able to do it for one kid if you can't do it for all of the kids and the fear that if too much attention is given for crying that the crying will increase.

I actually had one very sweet student start crying because the girl across from her was crying and she felt so bad. I guess she thought I should have been helping the girl who was crying a bit more than I was, but I was really touched by how worried she was for her table mate.

I don't have much time to post today because we are on our way out the door, but stay tuned for a big Sneaker Teacher announcement this week!

Crying Game

Kindergarten teachers are no strangers to crying children, especially at the very beginning of the year, but I have to ask all you other Kinder teachers...what do you do when kids cry?

When kids cry, I get very torn. I feel really bad when some of my kiddos miss mommy or daddy, but with many other children in the room, it's really really tough to give one child all of your attention in order to cheer them up.

Today I had a little girl start crying out of the blue. We were in the middle of math and after I gave directions I went over to her and asked her what was wrong. After a bit of talking I was able to gather that she was really over tired because she was allowed to stay up late last night to watch her new princess movie. She wanted to go home, she wanted her mommy, and she wanted to take a nap.

I don't blame her.

But, at the same time, if she is tired, she is not going to not be tired because I talk to her about.

I feel like I sound like the most heartless teacher, but I don't feel like I should remove my attention from all of the other kids and stop teaching because she didn't get enough sleep.

I let her cry and after a little bit she stopped.

It's so much different if a child is hurt or if a child is crying because of something another child did, but a child who is over tired because of--let's be real--her parents' poor choice...I don't feel like all of my energy and focus should go to consoling her. I truly felt bad that it was affecting her so much, but I also felt like even if I did try to console her, it would not have made a difference.

So, I am curious. What do you do? Are there other Kinder teachers out there who will also let a child cry? Please tell me I am not the only one. Maybe there is a good cheering up strategy that I am overlooking...

In other news, my new rug came today! Woo hoo! I am really excited to start working on transitioning from the morning greeting carpet to the new carpet so that we can get out learning on come Monday!

Starting the week with a bang

Wow-having Back to School Night on a Monday makes me worried that I am going to be tired for the entire rest of the week. When I am with the kiddos, I don't really think about being tired because let's face it--there is no time to actually think about yourself or your own needs when you have 17 or 20 other little people in the room. But once my little gems left for the day, I realized just how exhausted I am and took off early. Since back to school was two additional hours beyond our work day, we were allowed to leave right after school yesterday and return in the evening. I didn't really have much time to leave--well actually I just kept working and working, so aside from my very short dinner run, I worked straight through.

So, I left early today instead.

I tidied up my room, put all the work that was done today into mailboxes and headed for the car. I meant to bring a few things home, but I realized when I was turning onto the freeway that I forgot them. Oh well....tomorrow is another day.

Luckily, my kiddos are doing great so far and I am feeling really good about what they are already able to do. I would like to attribute it to this being my second go round as a Kinder teacher, or to my implementation of the stick system from day one this year, but I truly think I just have a different batch of kids. Last year I had a lot of squirrely boys. This year, the boys seem pretty on task, which is great. I do have 7 ELL students in the AM class, but language needs are so different than behavioral needs. Yes, I have a few kiddos who are not exactly tuning in to my directions as much as I'd like, BUT I have already seen improvement and I am honestly very proud of how accountable I am holding them. They will get it. They just have not been in this type of environment before (so rigorously academic) so they need some time.

I have been really pleased with how well they are responding to my quiet signal this year, especially my PM class. Seriously, so far they are a dream class. 17 kids, really respectful and hard working, and super super cute to boot. I was on cloud 9 today during math because I looked around and every single child was following the directions.

We have been focusing on one number a day and today was 2. We started out with our rainbow number where the kids trace a big two with all the colors of the rainbow in order to practice number formation. This is more of an exercise in stopping, watching, listening, and waiting than actual number writing, but they did really, really well. Then I broke out the stampy markers and demonstrated stamping each one twice to make groups of two. I told the kiddos they could choose 5 stampers, they had to stamp each one twice, they had to circle the group of two, and then write 2 next to it. Lots of directions for Kinders but they totally rocked it out. As I was putting the papers in their cubbies I was looking them over and most of the kids did this without any problems. Of course a few of them got a little stamp happy, but we'll do it again tomorrow with the number three and the following day with number four, so they will have more time to practice.

After the rainbow numbers I set out the math trays that go with our math program. At the beginning of the year, we train the kids to put their number tiles in order from 1-5. We've been practicing this and most kids do it without assistance now. Since our number was two today, I asked the kids to show me two of a variety of things and they were so on point with doing exactly what I asked and waiting patiently while I checked out everyone's work. I loved it! They had little rows with two pennies, two fruit counters, two connecting cubes, and two little letters. Spot on!


I am really excited to see where these groups go this year.

Really excited.

I attempted to start our phonics program today but we are still awaiting our new rugs so I haven't been able to practice transitioning to specific carpet spots. My fingers are SUPER DUPER CROSSED that the rug arrives this week so I can add in that part of our daily routine. It was a little touch and go starting to work on some of the phonics activities (especially when the director of C&I and the principal walked in), but I think I just felt out of my element because I didn't really want to start yet, then felt guilty so decided to just try out a few parts with them.

So far so good and hopefully things continue to get even better as we settle into routines and move into our "real" schedule in the coming weeks.

Words Cannot Explain

Words cannot explain how tired I am, but maybe if I tell you I just had to re-type the word words four times before I got it right that might give you a clue.

We had Back to School Night tonight (ugh on a MONDAY) and so...

I. Am. Completely. Exhausted.

I got to work at 7:15 am and besides 15 minutes of siting at lunch and a 15 minute hurried trip to Whole Foods for some dinner, which I took back and wolfed down in my classroom, I was busy and working until 7:40 pm.

Hello 12-hour workday....

This is the first time in my entire teaching career that I have had to do an actual presentation for back to school night. I really liked getting to share a lot of information with parents, but it was SO hot in my room and I want nothing more than to crawl in bed right now.

I have more to share about what is going on in the classroom, but maybe tomorrow?

Happy Face

I am so glad that it's Saturday. I slept so late today (compared to how early I get up for school) and I am feeling totally content to be home and carefree for the next two days. Having four days in the first week this year really wore me out. Some schools start with only half of their Kinders at a time and then finally have the whole class on day three, but not us. We got 'em all right away and continued to get new students each day of the week (except yesterday). My AM class now has 20 and my PM has 18, but one has yet to show up, so I am thinking he may not actually join us. Those numbers are awesome and I hope they stay that way!

Yesterday one kiddo in my AM started to give me a run for my money, but I talked with the school counselor and we came up with a plan to try and get him on board for making better choices. He was acting a bit defiant, yet he does have some issues that we already know about that are most likely contributing factors, so I am trying to have a lot of patience until we can really figure him out. I know he is going to do great once we do.

My PM class is a dream so far, except the little girl who was terrified of the bus is still having some issues. Yesterday she refused to come into the classroom and was crying so hard that when she finally did come in she was so worked up she threw up. Ugh! I made it through three years of teaching without any vomit and yesterday that streak was definitely broken. Luckily, there was a parent volunteer right across the hall so I asked her watch my kiddos so I could bring this little girl to the office carrying the trash can with us the whole way. I am pretty sure I have mentioned before the extreme extent of my aversion to throw up, so it's never a fun day when somebody gets sick. I have to feel bad for her though because obviously she is pretty traumatized, yet she has been in school before and did pretty well in the classroom up until yesterday. Poor thing. I hope she is better next week. And, fortunately for us, Mrs. Bee's classroom is empty in the PM since she only teaches in the AM, so I just had the class line up and and we went into her room for our first few activities while our room was being cleaned. Mrs. B helped get a story started while I went and grabbed some of our stuff and the rest of the kiddos, although a little concerned about their friend, did a fabulous job just adapting to the situation and going with the flow. There were a lot of exclamations from me like, "look, Mrs. Bee has an alphabet rug just like we do!" and "oh, good, Mrs. Bee has glue and scissors just like we do." After about an hour we returned to our room and finished up the day. Thank goodness for an escape route in the event of puke incidents!

I stayed until 5 yesterday doing my planning for all of next week and getting everything ready. Friday is not the preferable day for that since technically we are aloud to leave when the kids get on the bus, but it felt good to get a lot done so I can start the week feeling organized. The to do lists definitely helped! A few of you commented about some cool planners by Erin Condren. I was wondering if they are only available online? I am guessing so since you can have them customized, but I didn't feel like I could see enough of what the calendars looked like to decide if it would work for me or not. And, they are quite spendy, so I wouldn't want to get it and be disappointed....I need to get my appointments and Mr. Sneaker's travel organized though! We use an online google calendar but I am just not good about using that. I want to have something that I can keep with my lesson planning materials and bring to class and staff meetings.

I am working on getting the photos of my kiddos printed up. I got an email from Snapfish that they are running a deal for 1 cent prints. You just need to use the coupon code PENNY094U and you can get up to 500 prints for only 1 cent each.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We are having some really hot weather here in Portland (I think it's supposed to be 95 today) so I am staying cool in the AC and enjoying the sunny view from my window.

TGIF (almost)

Whew! I am spent! I am having a great first week with my kiddos, but I feel like I have tons to do and even though I have a decent amount of time before school, between sessions, and after school, it seems like there is always something that is left undone when I leave at the end of the day. I spent way too much time this morning trying to print out labels for the new students I have gotten since the first day in order to make sure they have their name on all the different little things that I had already labeled prior to their arrival.

I got a lot done after school today and I decided that I just need to get into the habit of school "to do" lists. I love me some to do lists and sometimes I feel like I am not as efficient as I could/should be at school, so I need to fix that. I was adding up all the time I have and it's a lot. I have been getting to school at 7, so that gives me an hour and ten minutes before school. Then I have an hour and 10 minutes in between sessions, which includes my lunch time (but I never actually sit down to take a lunch, so I consider all of that planning/prepping time). Then, I have about an hour and a half of contract time after the kids leave.

That is a lot of time, right?

When I think about that, I realize I need to change some of my work habits because I should be able to get a lot more accomplished than I have been. I also need to designate a day for planning out the following week. My first grade team used to meet every Thursday for a long time to plan everything out for the following week. Now, I find myself with an empty plan book on Friday afternoons that gets thrown into my bag to take home so I can map everything out while I watch TV on Friday evening. Our schedule is pretty routine, so it's not like our planning is hugely innovative or different from week to week, but it still takes time to figure everything out and get everything organized and prepped. Obviously waiting until Friday leaves me very little time to make sure I've got everything ready to go. I am thinking maybe Wednesday would be a preferable day, but we often have staff meetings on Wednesdays. Tuesday could work, but then my mind is all wrapped up in what will happen next week and I lose track of this week.

Can you see why I need to incorporate some to do lists?

I still have a lot to do in the morning, so I am going to head in at 7 again, but starting next week, I think I need to give myself 15 more minutes to sleep and head in a bit later. I shouldn't need that much time in the morning, so hopefully once I start being super efficient with daily lists, I will waste less time and therefore need less time prior to school.

PS I really need a new planner/calendar too. It has been on my mind to get one for weeks and I just haven't. I am not really good with keeping a calendar on my computer so I need something I can write appointments and important dates on. Any ideas of where to get a good one??

Relief

Wow, I feel so much better after having successfully navigated through the first day of Kindergarten...twice. After the AM session I went into Mrs. Bee's room and told her I was so jealous that she was done for the day. I kind of forgot how deflated I feel sometimes about doing everything all over again on the first day. Once I get into real teaching and actual lessons, it's not bad to be on repeat everyday, but all the beginning of the year stuff can get old the second time around. 

I. Am. Tired.

For the most part, I instantly fell in love with the majority of my students. They are so little and oh so cute. I was really impressed with how smart they are (or seem) and how most could already write their name. A few were quite shy and a few obviously need some good training in how to behave, but so far, I think both classes are going to mesh really well. I am getting one more boy in the AM which would make 19, but one boy didn't come and apparently moved, so the class actually stays at 18. Not bad. I'll take it for one more day. I haven't gotten notified that there are any additions to the PM class. 

I have one little boy, out of all of my kiddos, that I am a bit concerned about because he really didn't seem to tune into what I was saying or the routines at all. He peeled the paper off about 8 crayons even after I told him not to, wasn't able to make transitions based on being called by table color or by name.  I think there may be some receptive communication issues so I need to figure him out. 

I had success with the behavior management system and I loved introducing it from day one (as opposed to mid-year like last year) because I think most kids caught on really well. I had to be tough and take sticks away for very small things, but I have to do that in order to bring the point home that it's good to keep all of the sticks and not good to have some taken away. This system was beyond my friend that I am worried about, but I think he will need some special accommodations, which I will have to figure out. I think he is going to need some picture cues to help him understand what he needs to do. I just need to know him a bit better before I can figure out what he is going to need. 

I really felt like a ROCKSTAR when I walked through the cafeteria during First Grade lunch. Many of my friends from last year were shouting my name and waving frantically. They are so cute. There are some that I will really miss this year and I actually emailed several parents from last year's classes when I got home to say that I hope the first day in first grade went well for their kiddos. 

I need to sit down and plan out tomorrow....but I need to put my feet up first. I like to take it one day at a time at the beginning of the year because not all the kids come the first day and I always need to reflect on what happened in order to plan the following day.

I hope anyone else whose first day was today had a great one!

Here are some classroom pics that I have been promising. Everything doesn't look entirely done because I haven't started my instruction with the reading and math walls because my carpet still hasn't come, but the basic areas are there....

 Around the World Wall where we'll focus on learning about a different country for each letter of the alphabet. The green board on the right will display the word and letter of the week for daily review during our morning circle. 

 The blue wall is the Fast Track Phonics wall, which the kiddos will face when I am teaching Fast Track lessons.

 Math wall that still needs some love. I might post shapes above and label them or other math vocabulary.

 In front of the yellow and blue walls will be my awesome new carpet where the kids will have their own assigned carpet spots. I have never done assigned spots before, but I've also never had a rug with specific squares on it, so I am excited to try it out once it comes!

Overview of the morning greeting carpet area. This is where we'll meet in the morning and where we'll have story time. I scored two nice rocking chairs at the end of last year, so I have one for each carpet area.

First Day Jitters

So you all know that I just moved (again), which means locating both my camera and my camera cord in order to upload pics of my classroom is proving to be way too challenging at the moment. I will be happy if I can keep my head on straight tomorrow. I will try to post pics soon, but I still feel like my room isn't totally ready since my awesome new carpet is not arriving in time for school....BUMMER!

For some reason, I always have extreme anxiety and worry about the start of a new school year. Perhaps it is the result of having two entirely new classes full of kids I don't know yet, but for some reason, I tend to assume to worst and worry that it will be a really hard year. Most of the kiddos I did get the chance to meet last week were very sweet and many seemed really shy, but of course there were a few--those charming few--who can totally make or break your entire year. I am trying to be rational and think about the fact that they simply are über excited to start school and don't know (yet) what is expected of them. When I clearly explain the rules and procedures, most of them should settle in and settle down just fine.

Here's hoping.

I still have really good numbers (18 in the AM and 19 in the PM), but as I said before, I don't anticipate those numbers staying the same despite my continuous finger crossing, praying, hoping, wishing, and begging. I know we'll get more kiddos registering tomorrow and as of now, our numbers are pretty even which means for every new kiddo that Mrs. Bee gets, I will get 2 (1 in the AM and 1 in the PM). I kind of wish I could just have everyone on the first day, but then again, I will be happy with these smaller numbers for as long as they last. And I will reteach routines and procedures over and over and over in these next few weeks, so any newbies won't miss out.

What's on tap for tomorrow...

• a little morning work followed by an explanation of my quiet signal (red bell who I am naming Buddy Bell this year).

• explanation and practice of transition to the morning meeting carpet with the good morning song as a cue.

• more practice cleaning up morning work and transitioning to carpet.

• morning greeting circle with some name games so I can get to know the kids. I am being brave this year and not putting name tags on them because I hate how they start peeling off after 5 minutes. 

• visit to the bathroom to teach bathroom expectations and etiquette along with a chance for a potty break.

• story time with The Kissing Hand followed by a project based on the book.

• explanation of behavior management system (which I will be altering for the first month so I can be more on top of calling out the unwanted behaviors and kids can get used to it). I will transition to the actual system in October.

• review of bell, morning routine, and sticks.

• maybe another story if there's time. 
• practice lining up (with a cute song I have) and then buses. 

Hopefully all the kiddos get on the right bus so I can relax in between sessions before I do it all over again with 20 fewer minutes.

If you are starting tomorrow I hope you have a great first day. Many of you have already been back for what seems like weeks, but I hope you have a great day/week as well!

still here...

I'm alive, I promise.

I haven't posted in over a week because I have been busy trying to get my classroom ready and wrapping my mind around the fact that I have students joining me in said classroom on TUESDAY.

In the past, we have had the Tuesday after Labor Day as a final prep day and the first day of school has been on Wednesday. This year, our schedule changed and we no longer have that one last day of scrambling on Tuesday. So, I did a lot of scrambling yesterday.

Finally printing my labels for folders, attendance chart, tables etc. only to see that a new student had been added. And that was after I had already reprinted several labels to account for the nicknames that I learned about when families came for our supply drop off.

Trying to get the room ready while silently cursing myself for not having anything written in my plan book for the first week.


Worrying about making sure I have the correct info for how kiddos are going to get home from school so I don't put anyone on the wrong bus or keep anyone waiting at school if they should be taking a bus.

I'm exhausted.

Not to mention we moved again today to our second temporary housing location and toured around Portland with our relocation agent trying to pick out the apartment we will move into next.

I will try to post again this weekend with some pics of my classroom and some teachery stuff but I have to get back to unpacking the numerous bags we have so our new place can feel more like a home than a hotel.

Happy Labor Day weekend! It's supposed to be 90 degrees here all weekend, so I am hoping to enjoy some sun, to sleep late, and to calm myself before the big day on Tuesday!