Tending the Eclectic Kinder-Garden

As organized as I try to be at work and at home, once our family has to relocate, the packers, however nice and polite they may be, seem to think it’s GAME ON.

Boys, I made you all lunch, three days in a row.  Granted, the first day was pizza, but hey, day two was homemade sub sandwiches. We certainly kept the fridge stocked with Gatorade, water and soda so you wouldn’t dehydrate or run out of energy.  We even pushed Otter Pops on you when the temp got unbearable!

So would you mind telling me where my dining room chair pillows are?  How about half of my Somerset magazines (that were all in one spot when you started)? The receiver for our cordless phone?  Because the way things are going, I’m thinking I’m not going to find these things until I open my SCHOOL-SUPPLIES-THAT-HAVEN’T-SEEN-THE-LIGHT-OF-DAY-IN-OVER-A-YEAR that *you* opened and “re-boxed” because of some packer/moving company policy.

Soon-to-be-teaching-colleagues, I’ll apologize right now for any outbursts of exasperation you might hear coming from my new classroom two weeks from now.  It’s not you, and no, I’m not some psycho hose beast.  I’ve just finally found my crochet hooks~ in exactly the furthest location from where they originated in our home.

Darn packers.

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My finger and toenails are happy this morning.  After enduring two weeks without a mani-pedi, I gave in, removed what little polish was left on them last night, buffed, filed, and polished with a non-summer color.  MUCH better now.  Yes Bev, you read that right: my nails were in disrepair for two weeks!  Nope, I didn’t go looking for an emergency bottle of polish for the chips and nicks either.  Scary, huh?

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With the repairs and modifications we’re having to do to the rental, we’re stuck, shuffling boxes and piles around and around and around as we get each new area designated, arranged, and decorated.  The upstairs is  nearly done, but the only reason why is because the downstairs still looks like a bomb hit it.  My desk is upstairs, along with most of my crafty stash that was stored beneath it in Texas… but it will be clutter free when what I hope will be my crafting area is set up and ready downstairs.

Now if I could only find my three remaining ribbon boxes.

Maybe I should have made the packers extra cookies.  Lesson learned.

Tags: colleagues, family, military life, organization

Bev was my first kinder-colleague and friend, thirteen years ago, while Jess became my latest kindergarten partner-in-crime-and confidante two years ago. They share a birthday today~ I can’t tell you how glad I am they were both born!

Tags: colleagues, friends

I’ve caught myself in a state of self-reflection again, this time in regard to my presence out here on the web.

I’ve read the newest issue of Artful Blogging. For months now I’ve been enjoying my morning ritual of parking myself and my coffee in front of the computer to scroll through NetNewsWire. I’ve noticed the monthly blogging/commenting challenges that have popped up all over Blogsville this past week, and have wondered if I should join in or just keep my blogging activities to myself and my readers. I’m still confused as to why some of my subscriptions load reliably almost every day, while others get stockpiled in blog limbo and then flood my feed in one fell swoop after a month or so. It reminds me of my cell phone service here in the Bordertown. I miss calls, and messages get held for days, weeks sometimes, before hitting voicemail. Message after message, the callers’ tones seem to get testy, because they* JUST KNOW* I’m ignoring them and not returning their calls.

There goes that blind trust and over-reliance on technology again. Don’t trust the phone company or advances in voicemail technology, trust ME.

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From what I could gather during my job interview over the phone with my new employer (I’ll be back in Oz, this time at District #2), I’ll be working with a staff that is a bit different from the last three with whom I’ve taught. This is completely understandable to me because I’ve witnessed first-hand the diversity that exists in the United States each time Uncle Sam has relocated us, however it might still come as a surprise to those who assume school districts across our nation are actually nearing some state of standardization with one another.

During my interview I was asked about PLC’s and technology in particular, a question I’ve never been asked before. It’s a question I myself have asked prospective employers at each of my interviews here in the Bordertown, a question I received very awkward answers to, responses indicating that I was more familiar with current technology usage in education than the interviewing principals were. I was told by District #2 that my classroom would have at least three wireless laptops for my students to use, so no, I wouldn’t have to bring my outdated iMacs with me when I moved. For the first time, I was able to say “I have a blog” without worrying that the interviewer’s mental alarm bells were going off, imagining a site full of inappropriate photos and text of a wanna-be-web-celeb instead of a teacher/crafter/mother/military wife who was sharing recipes, craft ideas, family updates, and links to kindergarten-related themes. I’m guessing someone at District #2 has already Googled me…probably did it before ever dialing my number for the interview. I would if I were in his or her position.

*****

I know that time has continued to march on as my family and I relocate from state to state. When I left Alaska, my teaching experience was built over a decade’s worth of observations and paradigm shifts, most notably in regard to technological advances and their impact on school and society. I had to learn how to be responsible for an entire new iMac lab (not so new now!), and had to exercise caution because of what my students might encounter or see “out there,” *NOT* what they themselves might PUT out there. Teachers with their own web pages were testing the water for all of us, and must have felt the pressure of it. My usage of White Out decreased significantly when a computerized report card replaced the traditional hand-written one.

In New Mexico, the kindergarten curriculum included goals for computer technology, but my classroom was given rarely operational PC’s for the job because really, why would five year olds need computers? They’d just “play on them.” Many of my colleagues had never heard of or seen Living

Books before (another no-longer-”new” resource). Teachers emailed, or instant messaged one another, but other than professional communication and entering data for attendance records, computers were to be used for student assessment only via Accelerated Reader. During chats in the staff lounge, no one complained about their own childrens’ MySpace pages, and no one understood why I would want a dry erase, mobile magnetic white board in my room instead of the singular chalkboard I had. My son’s and daughter’s teachers didn’t assign web projects. My own students were taught how to use the overhead projector, c.d. player, computers, and scanner instead of just being parked in front of them during lessons. Report cards still had to be filled out by hand. DIBELS too, though the number crunching of scores took place at Central Office somewhere.

In Oz, District #1 seemed to focus on using technology primarily again for student assessment. Improved reading and math scores were the be-all-end-all goal, with lists of acceptable web resources and sites xeroxed off and distributed ad nauseum during most professional development seminars, while statewide assessment test “practice” took precedence over any other web activities or lessons that students might have normally been assigned. My old iMacs came in handy, as my students were never a priority for computer lab time when the assessment crunch was in full swing unless my colleague and I were prepping them for future first grade AR assessments. I’m guessing the proposal I helped to author for an additional portable/cart computer lab wouldn’t have created increased computer access for my kindergartners…it would have provided more test prep for additional (older) students. District email was handy, as were the attendance and report card programs though the kindergarten report card wasn’t aligned with state standards and didn’t provide enough narrative space for additional and essential info/documentation.

A younger group of teachers have MySpace pages, but several still don’t quite know that their just-out-of-college-weekend-partying photos that they regularly post on their public sites are still viewable by students, parents, and colleagues. Some post photos on their personal pages of not only themselves but their students as well, something as a parent and teacher I find highly inappropriate. Some colleagues have their own personal blogs, where they reflect on their teaching practices and philosophies, their frustrations and their goals. Many of their identities are kept private for good reasons, as professional retribution and/or public misunderstandings by parents and colleagues who might search the web for them would be unbearable and possibly even job-threatening.

District #2 sounds incredibly promising, pro-teacher and therefore pro-student.

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I’ll reflect more on why I blog at some later time, but I have to tell you, it’s because of blogging, reading, commenting, participating in discussions, and contributing to the sea of teaching perspectives out there that I’ve been able to continue my own professional development during my Stay-at-Home-Mom year. My professional learning community stretches around the world, crossing borders, philosophies, cultures and ages, and in many cases it includes my own personal tastes and interests apart from public education. A wiki on cross stitching, a MySpace group devoted to scrapbooking techniques, a subscription to a photographer’s blog overseas, my weekly download of the latest Oprah podcast for A New Earth, and my own contributions to blogs like In Practice aren’t threatening to me or my employer- they’ve been essential to expanding my connections with others, and with myself.

My next goal? Podcasting- reading my students’ favorite stories for them to access at school or at home. My voice, and the memory of face-to-face storytime can increase the personal connection with my students that promotes literacy better than any digital/cartoon character ever could.

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Thanks for reading. Don’t forget to comment here for a chance to win the blue wreath tomorrow~

Tags: blogging

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a complete popsicle stick advocate when it comes to classroom and home crafts, or, go figure, for making popsicles. But when these creativity-inspiring, cool-snack-enabling pieces of wood are used for classroom “discipline,” I can’t stand the little buggers.

Discipline: training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character; control gained by enforcing obedience or order; orderly or prescribed conduct or pattern of behavior; a rule or system of rules governing conduct or activity; a form of punishment.

Have you witnessed a student being told to go “pull a stick” in a classroom after demonstrating behavior that a teacher doesn’t like? Have you heard a student be told by classmates “oooh, you’re gonna have to go pull a stick!” Or “uh oh, if you lose another stick you won’t get to go outside for recess!” Are you a teacher who routinely warns students about their “stick status?” Substitute the words “card” or “face card” for “stick” in any of the above examples- it’s the same concept: using public humiliation as a form of behavioral control. Sadly, popsicle stick discipline pocket charts are popular “classroom management” tools.

Excerpts from “Public Humiliation” at Wikipedia: “Just like painful forms of corporal punishment, it (public humiliation) has parallels in educational and other rather private punishments (but with some audience), in school or domestic disciplinary contexts, and as a rite of passage. Physical forms include being forced to wear some sign such as… a “Dunce Cap”, having to stand, kneel or bend over in a corner, or repeatedly write something on a blackboard (”I will not spread rumors” for example).” “In some cases, pain or at least discomfort is insignificant or rather secondary to the humiliation…” “Even when not strictly public, humiliation can still be a psychologically “painful” aspect of punishment because of the presence of witnessing peers, relatives, staff or other onlookers, or simply because the tormentor witnesses how self-control is broken down. This is also true for punishments in class.”

In my mind, classrooms are not prisons. I am no warden. As a teacher, I am employed to educate, guide, and serve the academic, physical, and emotional needs of my students. To fulfill my job requirements successfully, I take the time at the beginning of each year to build a positive repoire with my students and work with them to establish a safe environment in my classroom. This means I observe my students at length, I interview their parents (personally and in surveys/questionnaires that are sent home), and I constantly model appropriate behaviors and reactions to most, if not all, of our classroom experiences. No yelling, no threats, just explanations, questions, and role playing appropriate reactions for “next time.” Praise, praise, appreciation, and more praise.

“You must feel so good inside. You accidentally spilled the glue, but you told me and helped me clean it up. That’s terrific!”

“Thank you for showing J. what a good friend you can be. You hurt his feelings, but then you apologized. I think he feels better now, I hope you do too.”

” I’m so glad you remembered how to move safely during free center time! You didn’t run, so you didn’t get hurt/hurt others today! Good job!”

“Thank you for letting B. have a turn to talk with me. When I’m done talking with her, your turn will be next. Thank you for waiting nicely, you’re being very polite.”

Perhaps such phrases sound Pollyanna-ish, and I admit, I go home with a sore throat and sore face every day for the first month of school because of how much I verbally communicate and smile with each of my students. It’s become apparent over time that the fact that I actually enjoy talking to and WITH my students has set me apart from some of my colleagues in the past, as have my beliefs about children in general.

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~ Just-turned-five-year-olds are not experts on issues of self-control. Neither are many adults. Ever see an adult burst into tears, “vent” in a less-than-appropriate venue, or behave in publicly embarrassing ways? Of course you have. No one is perfect, though adults have years and years and YEARS of experience built from successes, mistakes, and regrets that young children can’t and won’t possess, no matter how many time outs, cards pulled, or whistles blown that you inflict upon them.

~ First graders tend to be a little more acclimatized to school than kindergarten students are, while second graders demonstrate a bit more familiarity with the choreography of the classroom environment than they did the previous year. No, fifth graders don’t have “it” all mastered, just because they’re older than kindergarten students. No, tenth graders don’t have “it” all mastered just because they’re in high school.

~The need to guide and respond in meaningful ways to our students is so great, but it’s one of those essentials that many teachers and schools ignore because they believe “there isn’t time.” Popsicle sticks are faster. Embarrassing a student is faster. But it’s not better.

~ Too often teachers forget that their students are children, no matter what they wear, how they behave, or what they say. While children aren’t social savants, they are certainly masters of observation, and they have emotional reactions to and an elephant’s memory for interactions, good and bad, with the adults in their lives. You are making an impression on your students, and your treatment of them will determine their reaction and responses to you.

~ Students are not sent to school in order to make a teacher’s day brighter, more cheerful, or to feed their ego. It’s amazing to me that a classroom full of children “complying” by sitting in their chairs, completely silent, demonstrating no interactive or inquiry-based behaviors is considered a successful model of classroom management, a successful model of teaching. No questions are being asked, no ideas are being explored, no communication is occurring, but teachers receive atta-boy or atta-girl praise that they enjoy from their administrators and colleages, which reminds me…

~ Children aren’t adults, nor are they robots, no matter how much some teachers and administrators wish they were. Information is exchanged with students, not just dumped into their open skull caps, lips zipped.

For my initial month’s worth of teaching, guidance, and constant communication, my students work in an atmosphere that frankly, throws people for a loop for the remainder of the year. Month after month, observers, parents and colleagues come in and sit at my reading table, just to watch and listen, and take it all in. They hear children, those “uncontrollable and impulsive” kindergartners talking, apologizing, encouraging, laughing, singing, and debating. They witness students approach me with questions, not interrupting, waiting until I’m done speaking to someone else. They hear explanations of feelings, expectations of how someone can help, negotiations between peers, instead of tattles and screams and cries. They hear productive noise, which many had previously felt indicated mayhem, a “lack of control,” a “zoo,” proof that this teacher has no “classroom management skills.” Funny the things visitors hear when they stop to truly listen, what they see, when they truly observe.

Because I’ve listened respectfully, because I’ve shared without force, I’ve modeled and therefore taught kindness instead of humiliation. I’ve appreciated my students for who they are and what they do, and in turn they reciprocate when I indicate it’s time to transition from one activity to another. They respond appropriately, they enable each other, they cooperate. They help me create and maintain a positive learning environment, their ownership and sense of belonging being the essential foundation upon which the rest of our learning is built.

I invest in my students, their feelings, and their potential to learn. I do not believe their first and foremost responsibility is to learn how to comply, Pavlovian in nature. If you can only “control” your students through threats and public humiliation, it’s time to rethink your purpose, teaching philosophy, and moral compass. How would you feel if your principal, administrator, or spouse put you on a popsicle stick chart? Go ahead, imagine it… you talk out of turn, to your grade level partner during inservice (pull a stick!)… you arrive late to a staff meeting because your potty break could only happen as soon as the bell rang and you had bus duty (pull a stick!)…you accidentally forgot to stop at the store and pick up milk (pull a stick!). I’m betting it wouldn’t take long before you’d categorize such behavior as emotionally abusive. How long would you tolerate it? How willing would you be to perform your best? How long could you perform your best while suffering from repeated overdoses of humiliation inducing fight-or-flight adrenalin?

Working with a staff made up of mostly popsicle-stickers can be excruciating. You see your former students squashed into compliance, their new teachers finding fault in their questions, their exuberance, their anxiety, their need to adapt- everything that demonstrates that students are children who require guidance, instruction, experience, and time to reflect on situations that might occur outside of the math or reading curriculum. Relationship-building is seen as a chore, a “touchy-feel-y” approach, instead of as the foundation to which I referred earlier, an essential “safe” zone where students can re-evaluate and recover from natural mistakes. Teachers don’t invest in it because it’s not a quick fix, and it isn’t “done” after a particular grade, though many of them have no problem doing everything possible to ensure that public humiliation goes hand in hand with public education, year after year. Why invest in embarrassment? Invest in reasoning, invest in valuing, invest in fairness, and invest in an attainable and attractive ideal that enables the best kind of learning to take place.

In my classroom you’ll find popsicle sticks in our Creative Construction Zone, math calendar counting chart, or classroom refrigerator, three places they absolutely belong.

Tags: classroom management, discipline, kindergarten

Jim Horn at Schools Matter discusses Testing and the Death of Play, quoting a Morning Edition Story on NPR:

“Guess what? Play is required for the healthy development of children. Imagine that.”

“It turns out that all that time spent playing make-believe actually helped children develop a critical cognitive skill called executive function. Executive function has a number of different elements, but a central one is the ability to self-regulate. Kids with good self-regulation are able to control their emotions and behavior, resist impulses, and exert self-control and discipline.”

Parents, teachers, administrators, “behavior specialists,” this is a *must read*.

Go.

Now.

Here.

Tags: behavior, developmentally appropriate practice, Early Childhood, kindergarten

A former colleague of mine is now on maternity leave after the much-anticipated arrival of her daughter. My friend has been preparing her classroom, materials, and students for the long-term sub for months now, hoping that she and her students “get a good one.” I’m keeping my fingers and toes crossed for her too.

For all of the wonderful substitute teachers, classroom aides, and paraprofessionals out there, thank you for all that you do. And thank you for all that you try to do.I was raised “a teacher’s kid,” and was therefore privy to the inside track of public education from a very young age, but I still had to “do my time” as a substitute teacher before I was given the chance to teach my very own group of students. And Ladies and Gents, I never had it as difficult as many of you do simply because of my upbringing and exposure to the world of teachers, inservices, and educational training. I knew which substitute teachers my mother would request by name and why she would request them, and I knew why some substitute teachers had their names crossed off of sub-caller lists after their first visit to a school. I had my mental file cabinet full of tricks and could navigate the “Yay, it’s just a SUB” minefield that miraculously appears whenever someone other than the classroom teacher enters a room.

Subs, aides, and para-professionals have to deal with so many issues when they step into another teacher’s classroom. The biggest one being that they are not the regular classroom teacher. It’s obvious for all to see, and the usual response from many students when a stranger enters the room is to assume all of the rules, limitations, allowances, and expectations of the classroom teacher were just thrown out the window. In response, many subs tend to choose one of several paths: they try to exactly follow whatever schedule or routine that has been left for them, attempting to don the costume, tone, mannerisms and authority of the teacher they are covering (while failing miserably on the classroom stage); they try to call down the thunder in their very best Viola Swamp impersonation, somehow failing to gain the compliance of the students as effectively as she; or they sit behind the desk, warming the teacher’s seat and letting the students run the show for the day, merely looking up to check that no blood is left on the linoleum. But the exceptional substitute teachers, aides, and paras, are all able to leave a positive mark on our students, encouraging the academic learning process to continue to motor forward, and giving students some valuable social experiences as well.

Here are some of Amazon.com’s recommendations for substitute teacher handbooks. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I haven’t come across a “Subbing for Dummies” book… or “Teaching for Dummies” for that matter.

As for my colleague’s sub? Please do a good job. Enjoy your new students as much as she does. Laugh with them, sing with them, read to them, share with them, encourage them, listen to them, guide them, teach them.No pressure.

Tags: education

Looking back at the old while looking forward to the new- it’s my year-end blog review! For those of you who would like to try this one, just find the first blog entry from each month of the past year, cut and paste the first sentence or title next to each months’ name, then read and contemplate.

January: “Perhaps only other teachers will understand this.”

February:

March: “Apologies in advance, I’m still recovering from our latest round of Parent Teacher Conferences and all of the germs that have taken an extended tour in my classroom this month.”

April:

May:

June: “There are little eyes upon you and they’re watching you everyday…”

July:

August: “I’ve moved, unpacked, settled, and explored, and after once again having the time and inclination to visit the blogs and websites of teachers I admire, I feel myself getting back into the teaching mode.”

September: “My mother used to tell me ‘you can catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar.’”

October: “With a toddler running loose, time is of course, limited.”

November: “It’s November now, requiring some home decor swift-o change-o!”

December: “We decided to add bugs, ballerinas, and bulbs…”

Thoughts? It was a very busy year with my husband deployed, requiring I do the single-parent-thing as I worked full-time. I have certainly appreciated the time off since August, which is when my blogging really started to pick up. Writing almost every day has become part of my professional development as a teacher, has been my outlet for sharing what I’ve discovered elsewhere with others, and yes, has been therapeutic.

One resolution for 2008? Learn some more self-editing techniques!

By the way, I’ve posted again at In Practice, this time sharing authorship with Alice Mercer. Happy Reading!

Tags: In Practice

… so today I felt inclined to add the word “eclectic” to my blog title because it just seems to fit. Many aspects of my life are always in motion, never static, so I encounter a lot, with equal amounts of discovery happening on accident as on purpose. I focus on an area of interest for a time, and am then drawn elsewhere, with occasions of something out of left field walloping me up alongside the head for good measure. Those left-fielders generate an immediate and usually loud response on my part, but my other discoveries tend to lead me down fascinating paths, inspiring me to share what I’ve found.

I was recently told I was a “fluff” blogger, sharing links, topics, and thoughts on “things of little value or significance.” Thank goodness for being in my thirty-seventh year, because the comment merely gave me insight into the person who said it without immediately inspiring me to remove the person’s name from my cookie-recipient list. Yep, I choose to share recipes, story titles, and music recommendations. I document some of my family’s special moments, photograph my latest attempts at home decor, and complain about my daughter’s teachers. I give my two-cents’-worth about issues in teaching, early childhood education, and kindergarten teaching practices specifically, and I sort my own preferred blogroll/links/favorites by kindergarten categories. As friends, colleagues and family often read my blog, I feel like I’m sharing with like-minded and like-spirited individuals, with those new readers who stumble across this blog free-as-always to either bookmark me or travel off in some other direction.

In my three-dimensional daily life, I’m all about sorting and classifying, “organizing.” The coffee mugs are in the cabinet above the coffee pot, the spice cabinet and side dish mixes in the cabinetry above the stove. All of my scrapbooking materials are in their own pouches which can be found in one cabinet. Magazines are kept in baskets in the living room and bedroom, yarn, crochet hooks and finished baby afghans on one shelf in the hall closet. When I’m done using the “autumn” candlesticks on the table, they’re put back in a cabinet with all of the OTHER candlesticks, and the winter votives come out for the season.

In Blogland however, I’ve found I don’t stay on topic for this particular blog site, Edublogs, and maybe that’s where the fluff comment originates. Many educators I’ve encountered online either have or contribute to several blogs, each with its own topic. I first started blogging on MySpace, then thought I’d spread my wings a bit by moving over to Blogger. As time passed, I was asked to contribute to In Practice here on Edublogs, and just found it easier to write “for them and for me” at one location. Friends, family and other readers have their own blog site preferences, so I tend to publish the same blog entry on all three sites (I know, redundant, redundant, redundant) to accomodate them all. I promise, sometime in the future, I’ll choose just one or two sites, really!

Until then, perhaps it’s best to describe any of my blog submissions as eclectic offerings shared in the spirit of educational collegiality. My colleagues? Anyone out there living LIFE, wanting to share information, resources, and ideas about whatever subject interests us!

As for the critic(s),

Tags: blogging

Larry Felazzo’s post at “In Practice” does a good job of reassuring me that experiential, cultural and behavioral diversities exist everywhere, and that standardizing the use of technology is probably an impossible task. It’s one that finds me torn between several ideologies when dealing with the responsibility of preparing my kindergarten students for their future school and learning adventures.

My students come to my classroom with vastly different prior schema. Some are used to all sorts of learning tools, Leap Pad, computers, cameras, dvr/dvd machines, mp3 players, calculators, etc., some have only seen PC’s and are surprised to find Macs as a learning center in my room, and still others don’t have a computer in their home, much less a dvd player.

While kindergarten tends to be left out of the heavy debates regarding curriculum on inservice days, I’m still responsible for getting all of my students groomed for the first grade. When one first grade teacher is having students author short stories and use educational resources online while the other teacher merely sees computer use as a reward (and gives out “reward time” very sparingly) most of what I’ve tried to do gets undone before my students ever make it to the second or third grades. With each successive grade, the use of technology in education grows exponentially. Finding teachers themselves all falling within very disparate comfort levels when it comes to the technology that may be available to them and their students, I often find myself trying to anticipate other teachers’ shortcomings when setting up learning centers/experiences for five and six year olds. “If **I** can give them the exposure, maybe my students won’t be impacted too terribly while they tread water in the next grade.” It’s a horrible thought.

My classroom is for exposure, exposure, exposure, and exploration/development, exploration/development, exploration/development. So no matter the prior schema, all students can start where they need to, and go where their interests lead them. They receive gentle prodding when necessary by me, but are usually motivated to explore with their friends. I still use the overhead projector, modeling use of math tiles, coins, base ten blocks, Judy clocks, etc., but also give my students overhead transparency sheets for their artwork, so when bulletin board space doesn’t allow, we can put temporary displays up and the kids feel like they are in an art gallery, their masterpieces filling the walls, larger than life!

My students use calculators, headphones and dvd players, my iMacs, and printers. Microscopes, hand lenses, thermometers, microwaves, and a tabletop laminator are used by students with extra supervision. Cash registers and “dead” phones in dramatic play, hammers and screwdrivers for creative and LOUD constructions, and musical instruments round out centers filled with paints/puzzles/puppets/ and clay in my room. There aren’t many first grade classrooms that carry over learning centers like these.

I understand that the older children get, the more their “exposure” occurs thanks to being able to speak and read. And I’ve met some teachers who believe “Why experience it when you can read about it?” With all of the curriculum that needs to be covered and tested each year, teachers need to find ways to show students concepts in a timely manner. But when students find topics of interest and don’t have the time and resources to continue to explore, learn about and experience them because teachers are reluctant to stretch their own horizons, how can we feel we are truly doing our jobs? I personally don’t feel the need to be “up” on every new trend or fashion that comes out of our human expression, but I do believe that students should know HOW and WHERE to safely explore their interests, utilizing all resources available, and technology is at the heart of them.

I’ve realized that technology isn’t a passing fad or trend, but an essential element to how we live, learn and share. If we want our diverse students to communicate, demonstrate knowledge, explore concepts and curiosities, and navigate the world as safely as possible, then we as teachers must diversify our knowledge base enough to offer our students the tools they may or may not want, choose, or be required to use, be they overhead projectors, dvd players, computers, or whatever technological innovation is waiting around the next corner.

GETTING those tools of course, is another matter.

…but until then, we’ll do what we can to support each other through this interesting time.

I was raised in a family of teachers. I have rather vivid memories of not only events in my own kindergarten classroom thirty-three years ago, but of years and years and years of bulliten boards, schools, towns, school board meetings, parent teacher conferences, school carnivals, open houses and all of the other events that I accompanied my mother to or helped her with in Texas and Alaska. I did some more growing up while in college, choosing teaching as my field of study and profession. I wasn’t too terribly observant of all of the educational history I was surrounded by, but a few tidbits here and there got my attention and had me thinking as I began teaching my own students. With my family, my master teacher’s input and guidance during my professional year, and terrific mentor teachers as colleagues, those tidbits were sewn together, and after five years of teaching, I felt that I could reach out and invite practicum students and student teachers into my classroom.

I’ve made new friends and worked with new colleagues after relocating to the Lower-48, and have found these collegial relationships reflecting the fact that I have continued to grow older. No longer the newbie on the staff, nor the youngest, but not so old as to be thought of as “disenchanted” or merely “hanging out until retirement,” teachers new to the profession come and ask me for input, advice, or ears to listen and shoulders to cry on when the going gets tough. Shrapnel from the CRT fiasco is still raining down on some of their shoulders and though I now live several states away, how they feel, what they think, and how they problem-solve to manage this situation and their own self-care matters to me greatly.

“Newer” teachers ask new and fresh questions and think of innovative and paradigm-shifting solutions to educational problems, but they also ask those basic questions that more experienced teachers have already moved past. More experienced teachers have been there, done that, and have moved on with their professional knowledge and development, and perhaps don’t feel the need (or have the time) to share stories from their own educational histories with the colleagues that have recently graduated from college. When a former colleague expressed both hurt feelings and disappointment over teaching and posed a question on her blog about test scores, “…do they mean that a teacher isn’t teaching or that a student isn’t learning?” I was inspired to tell a few stories.

Ah, you’re in mental-overload-mode now aren’t you? That tends to happen to conscientious people such as yourself. As per our OTHER discussions, I’m not sure if the following comments will help stem the tide of professional disappointment for you or if they’ll just take your mind zooming in another direction:

* Do low test scores mean that a teacher isn’t teaching or that a student isn’t learning? Good question. Can you answer it by putting a spin on it though: do HIGH test scores mean that a teacher IS teaching and that a student IS learning? Everyone would have you think so- teachers, administrators, board members, politicians, “experts,” etc. but many of us have seen firsthand how reported test scores aren’t accurate for whatever reason- a teacher’s inexperience administering the assessment, a child’s home life or start to that particular day, learning strengths and needs, behavioral issues, disturbances during testing, cultural or socio-economic biases… and don’t forget “dumbing down” the test by making it easier so more kiddos will pass, timing the tests with the idea that smarter kids fill in bubbles faster (I still don’t understand that one!) and that dreaded “no-no,” fudging the scores.

I remember my friends in Barrow (an Eskimo village) years ago not understanding why they got a question “wrong” on the ITBS test. They were asked: what would be good to eat? a) a flower b) a chicken c) a whale d) a car. Now the Eskimo kids who had never SEEN a chicken but who annually helped haul bowhead whales onto the shore when the whaling captains landed “a strike” chose “C, whale.” And they got it WRONG. Children who had butchered, cut up, cooked, and eaten bowhead whale had test scores that put them in whatever “needs help” category existed for the test. School experiences happened in isolation, ONLY AT SCHOOL, and “life” for the kids happened outside of school. Students were tested on subjects that were only applicable to them during the school day, not during the annual whale hunt that put food in their bellies and refrigerators.

So NCLB comes along with perhaps a Pollyanna view of reforms aimed to help those considered less fortunate… by ignoring the kids who don’t “need” help because they score too high (have you seen any big push for gifted/talented kiddos lately?), making sure the average kids don’t slip below their baseline, and by throwing a lot of school experiences at kids that are often only applicable to poor children when they’re AT SCHOOL. And school funding is based on the kiddos who are least likely to apply school-knowledge in all aspects of their lives (usually because parents don’t), so panic sets in when teachers, administrators, board members, and local politicians figure out that they are being judged on the performance of their lowest students, and they know they are NOT to fail. NCLB doesn’t take care of the socio-economic issue or culture of poverty no matter what its proponents claim. The poor stay poor, but now parents, colleagues, and politicians can zing you for not doing their job.

* A lot of people are sucked into the drill that this “school reform” has created. I certainly did not get into teaching to become a revolutionary, a politician, a yeller and a screamer. Nor did I want to be a thoughtless drone, blindly following the commands of all of the “experts.” I wanted to help students safely expand their knowledge and appetite for compassion and lifelong learning, and I wanted to work with colleagues who had the same goals. I hoped to be paid for doing something I LOVED, which I suppose is rather indulgent. I certainly do not love all of it now, and I’ve found that it is usually only with my students that I feel the most fulfilled and effective, the most “aligned” with my own personal goals for my job. What has gotten me through has been reaching out to other like-minded teachers. I was very lucky to have been raised in a family of teachers, a family of GOOD teachers. I was even more fortunate to have worked with the same group of colleagues for a decade before leaving Alaska. We were FAMILY, and while we didn’t all agree, most of us felt safe in working together because of our professional mutual respect. When I moved to a new state, I was alone because of the grade I taught and the mood of my grade-level colleague. I had to do my own “professional development” because no one else talked my language. I stayed in touch with colleagues in Alaska, asked them to send me links or copies of materials they were finding useful, and bless them, they did it! I looked online, started finding websites that I could visit regularly so I could maintain some balance and not feel so isolated. When I moved to the next state and was hired, it took a lot of time to find balance between the DRAMA and the real educational issues that needed to be addressed. I had so much I felt I could share, and knew I needed and wanted others to share what they knew with me, but workplace psychology took up more time than should be allowed. So blogging, MySpace, and searching out other resources became a part-time hobby that helped my full-time teaching brain.

I encourage you to continue to reach out. Read some blogs, purposely seek out the thoughts and expressions of teachers from around the world. You won’t feel so alone, you won’t feel so judged, and you’ll know there are a lot of other people out there on your side and on the side of your students.

I’m concerned that many first-year and newbie teachers are leaving college ready to work, ready to teach, and ready to blindly trust educational reforms, mandates, and practices that are not beneficial to students. Some of the newbies are so busy with the duck-and-dodge of their first classrooms and students that they’re barely able to come up for air. Others are noticing a huge discrepancy between theory and practice now that they’re out in the real world. Many, like my friends, are facing moral and ethical dilemmas as they decide whether or not to risk future tenure, letters of recommendation, and the ability to put food on their tables and clothes on their own childrens’ backs by calling other more experienced teachers and administrators “out” for horrible educational practices.

Tags: NCLB