saying no

Do you ever feel like you stretch yourself way too thin because it's too hard to say no?

I always try to be accommodating and helpful and kind, but sometimes you just have to draw the line.

Sometimes the plate just gets a bit too full and you can't keep piling it up.

Especially when you're pregnant and your expanding belly makes doing everything take just a bit longer than it used to (like bending down...yeah I used to do that easily...now, not so much). I have made a proclamation to all my kiddos that they must learn to tie their own shoes because I simply cannot bend down and my tummy will only get bigger.

Anyway, back to saying no.

Today I said no and it felt good.

It's not really a big deal, but normally I would have said yes and then felt stressed over having just one more thing on my plate, so this time, I just said nuh-uh.

Very occasionally, I am asked by the International Reading Association to review a potential book manuscript. I think I have only ever done two, but I just got an email last night asking me to do another. They are changing their review process and they needed someone to review a manuscript by December 16th.

That is just around the corner (crazy, right? Thursday is DECEMBER 1st!)

My "deliverables" for this term are due to my advisers on Monday, so I have less than a week to get my paper in shape, which includes taking out a lot of what I already wrote and adding more that has yet to be written.

::sigh::

Mr. Sneaker will be away this weekend, so I know it will get done, but at the same time it's daunting and I know that once I press send on the email with my paper attached, I am going to need a little break from academia and reading research. I don't like to pass on opportunities to review books because they are always interesting and I think it's great experience, but I just don't see it happening in the next few weeks as my mind wanders more and more towards being with my family in CT and seeing my parents, brother, sister-in-law and nieces for the first time in a year and a half.

I don't usually say no to things and usually have a bring it on, I can handle it kind of attitude, but I think I am really embracing this whole I can't do everything and pregnancy is really slowing me down attitude. Some things just have to wait. My sanity, health, and leisure time reign supreme right now.

What did you say no to that made you feel really good?

Thanks

Thanks for the comments on my post about home visits. It's really interesting that your comments really aligned with what I think teachers think about home visits, yet most of the studies are about educators who have conducted them and feel very positively about them. I am really interested in various teachers' views because I think in reality there is a lot of trepidation and concern over how to go about doing home visits, the risks involved, and how receptive parents will be. The articles I have read really speak to the importance of home visits, but it seems like the cases that are reported and the families that are discussed were all very welcoming and eager to share--which may not be the case with all families.

I feel like it's a legitimate question to ask how teachers view the practice of home visits and whether or not they would be willing to try them out as a means to better understanding particular families.

When I was a Head Start teacher, we conducted home visits and I would agree that it was a really eye opening and informative experience. I certainly learned a lot from it, yet back then I didn't have the skills to truly incorporate what I learned in the classroom like I would hope to do now. With Head Start, we were given specific days to do our home visits and there was ample time to get them finished. We were expected to visit the homes of each family, but if I remember correctly there were days when school was not in session so we could do the visits. With public school, I think that home visits would be extra workload for teachers without additional compensation, so they would be one more thing on our already very full plates. I don't think it's necessary to visit each and every family, but even visiting 5 families would be fairly time consuming, right? If we truly wanted to develop deeper relationships with families and students, it's not a wham bam kind of activity.

I feel like unless home visits become a mandated process, most teachers are not likely to do them, but I am very curious to see if that is true and what reasons teachers would cite for being either in favor or not in favor of trying it out.

Ok, enough about home visits and a little about the classroom...

Today was our first day back after the kids had a week off. They were a bit chatty, but I made sure to remind them of expectations as we went so we had a pretty good day. One thing that we did really made me happy and reminded me that yes, sometimes it is really important to put down the script and just listen to the kids. After our morning greeting (we are greeting each other with Namaste this week because our letter of the week is N and our country is Nepal) I asked each child to tell me something he/she did over the week long break. I followed up their statement with a few brief questions and it was so nice to hear all of the things they did. Several kiddos talked about getting Christmas trees and decorating, one boy went camping in the forest, one boy went to Disneyland,  one girl's mom had a baby boy, and one girl got a new puppy. I never would have known these things if I hadn't taken time out of our scripted lessons to ask and it was such a nice little segment of our day. I loved it! I wish there was more time to do that each and everyday because it is really important for our kiddos to get the opportunity to share and talk about their lives.

I can't believe it's 8:00 already! I spent a long time at the doctor today. First I waited for the doc to come in, then the appt was longer than usual, then I had to wait in a loooong line for a prescription and I didn't get home until 6:30. I am debating going to the gym because I really don't want to go, but I know it's important to get exercise and I haven't been doing an awesome job at that since being preggo....

I guess if I bring my book on Funds of Knowledge I am technically killing two birds with one stone....

what I've been thinkin' about

I know, I know...it's been awhile.

I seem to have issues getting my act together to post lately and I blame it entirely on not wanting to do anything but veg out once I get home from work in the evenings. I feel the need to exercise and work on my paper and blogging seems to always fall to the wayside. I feel rested after a nice trip to Cali to see my in-laws for Thanksgiving, so I am back and ready to blog.

Speaking of my paper, some big changes have been going on (both good and bad).

I have been working on my "specialty paper" as the second major milestone in my doctoral program but about 40 pages in, a committee at PSU decided that the specialty paper will no longer be a requirement for doctoral candidates. It's not as if my work has been in vain because the specialty paper functions as the first 2 chapters in the dissertation proposal, so that made me feel a bit better. Rather than having to complete the first two chapters and then present and defend that work before moving onto the next part, I can roll the work over and basically I am now working on my dissertation proposal, which adds a third chapter, the methodology section.

When I started the paper, I was focusing on how the type of reading instruction that is taking place as an outcome of No Child Left Behind (very scripted, using core reading programs etc.) puts culturally and linguistically diverse students as a disadvantage because the content included in the scripted lessons does not necessarily reflect and/or relate to their background knowledge as much as it does with White students. I was arguing the point that a scripted program is an excellent foundation, but that teachers need to have some flexibility to modify or enhance the scripted lessons in order to make reading instruction more culturally relevant.  I know that teacher flexibility and expectations for fidelity vary from school to school, district to district, and state to state, but in my district, we are expected to stick to the script.

Now that I am at the stage of actually designing my own research which requires me to come up with my own research question, I am starting to go in another direction. Here is a brief overview of my thinking:

• teachers need to have the flexibility to enhance scripted curricula using culturally responsive instructional strategies
• culturally responsive teaching strategies involve incorporating student voice, texts that reflect students' cultures, and students' funds of knowledge
• teachers' need to be familiar with students' funds of knowledge in order to appropriately modify curricula
• how can teachers familiarize themselves with students funds of knowledge? Research shows that home visits are an extremely effective way for teachers to gain a better understanding of  culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families by getting to know the knowledge and strengths that are present in their households

This train of thought leads me to the question I have been thinking about lately...

What do teachers think about home visits. In most cases, home visits are not a standard practice in public schools (at least where I work), so why is this the case? Are teachers opposed? Would teachers be willing to conduct home visits?

So, as I think about creating my own study, I am interested in your thoughts. 

Are home visits required where you teach? 

Have you ever done a home visit? 

Would you be willing to do home visits? 

Would it depend on whether or not you were paid/given time during the workday/how many homes you had to visit?

Although I am still really interested in the idea of changing practices to better incorporate culturally responsive teaching practices, I feel like investigating funds of knowledge and how teachers go about making the effort to better understand families is a better starting point for my work. I get really caught up in my own thinking though, so I would love some feedback from different educators to make sure I am not leaving out anything major.

doh

My teaching partner told me after school that a parent from her class brought cupcakes to school for her child's birthday.

2 problems arose from this gesture.

1. We clearly state at the beginning of the year that cupcakes, cake, and ice cream are not allowed for birthday snacks. Too messy, not healthy, filled with sugar etc.

2. This parent brought 24 cupcakes without asking my teaching how many kids are in the class. She has 25 kiddos.

As much as they always have the best interest of their child at heart, sometimes parents drive me totally bananas. Thankfully this wasn't in my room because inside I would have wanted to tell the parent to take the cupcakes home because there weren't enough and they weren't allowed in the first place, but I often have a hard time being that "harsh" with parents who have no concern for following the rules that are established. Even though it would be completely justified, it's hard to call a parent out when they don't do something according to "plan."

I had a similar situation last year where a parent sent in 19 frosted cookies (because she used a class number from the beginning of the year) and by the time it was her child's birthday I had 3 or 4 more kids in the group. That day I was ready to cancel birthdays altogether, but I got over my grinch moment and decided to continue allowing kids to bring birthday snacks this year as long as they are healthy-ish and I specified that cupcakes, cake, and ice cream are not allowed.

Fortunately, most of the time although situations like that can be frustrating and test our patience and tolerance for inattentive grown-ups, we can laugh it off and realize it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of everything.

What would you have said to the parent toting 24 cupcakes for 25 kiddos? Send them back or divide and conquer?

Good Move

We don't have school at all next week. Well, the kids don't. We have training days on Monday and Tuesday, but then we get Wednesday off as a nice little treat this year. We started school on Tuesday this year instead of Wednesday and had school on a state-wide teacher in-service day, so having Wednesday off was kind of owed to us. Mr. Sneaker and I get to fly to Cali on Tuesday night this year instead of Wednesday, so we get an extra night/day with the Sneaker-in-laws.

So, back to no school next week...Despite having the entire week off next week, I have had several families tell me that their children will also be missing some school this week. I get it. I have to travel for holidays, so I can see that sometimes you need some extra time, and sometimes, especially when you have pretty with-it, smart kids, it's not such a huge deal to take them out of half day Kindergarten for a few days in order to make real life holiday craziness a bit easier.

However, it just so happens that several assessments fall on this week, so the kiddos who are out will miss a Unit 1 math assessment and the second Fast Track Assessment, which will be completed Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week.

Sigh.

Kids absent for assessments is always a challenge because sometimes I just never get around to administering the assessment 1 on 1 when I originally gave it to the whole class at once. It's tough.

Somehow today my preggo brain pulled out the big guns and proactively assessed two kiddos who will be out the rest of the week in both math, writing, and Fast Track, so they are good to go and will be caught up when they return.

Fortunately both kiddos are pretty solid little learners, so having them take a math test during morning work was no biggie for them. I also had them do the writing sounds assessment while the rest of the class did it just as practice to prep for their turn later in the week.

Having the sense to do those little check-ins and assessments with them today just made me feel like I really had my ish together--and that felt good.

I can't say the same for the kiddos who are out later in the week without notice, but at least I was able to remain on the ball for these kiddos so maybe--just maybe--all of the assessments will be done by Friday afternoon.

That would be nice.

Two Weeks

Wow two whole weeks since I have posted. I think that's a record. This past week I was definitely a bit preoccupied because my best friend and her husband were in town from Wednesday night until early this morning. On Thursday my bestie accompanied me to my ultrasound appointment where we found out that baby Sneaker is a GIRL.

I was totally surprised because I had this gut feeling it was a boy. Mr. Sneaker and I are very excited for our little Miss and Cristina and I did some shopping for a few cutie patootie baby outfits. I got myself a few things too--including a pale pink maternity shirt which I will be wearing to school tomorrow to let everyone know we're having a girl.

Everything has been good in the classroom, but I guess I have been a bit uninspired in the posting department. The days and weeks are just flying by and sometimes during the day I think oh I have to post about that, then the day is over and I never get to it. Bad blogger! I thought I would get caught up today, but after an hour of prenatal yoga, I came home and spent the rest of the day in bed. I was feeling fine, just enjoyed a long day of resting and hanging out with Mr. Sneaker. These are our last few months to have the luxury of lounging in bed all day on a Sunday, so we might as well enjoy it while we can!

I am still plugging away on my paper even though technically it's no longer a requirement for my program--that's a whole other post though. Hope everyone had a great weekend!