Blogging and Technology Reflection

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.

*****

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that my classroom would have at least three wireless laptops for my students to use, so no, I wouldn’t have to bring my outdated iMacs with me when I moved.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.

*****

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.

*****

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

Read It Read It Read It Read It!

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.

Introductions

Like most teachers, I have many wonderful memories of each year’s group of students I’ve taught. Those funny moments, hysterical stories, soul-searching questions and eager explorations could fill a book effectively mapping my teaching career. They are more milestones to me than any of my teaching evaluations could ever be.

As a kindergarten teacher, I don’t always feel that I’m teaching lessons or concepts in the traditional sense. What I do feels more interactive and social in much the same way I find myself operating when I’m in “military spouse mode.” Meeting new people, making introductions, following social etiquette, trying to put people at ease, guiding the audience to feel welcome… the same format applies when I’m seated with five and six year olds on the floor, ready to sing or share a story.

Each year, one of my favorite “introductions” is between my Super Stars and Martin Luther King Jr.

My students enjoy some background stories and information, Weekly Reader or Scholastic usually provide take-home fliers, posters and activities, and then we listen to the “I Have a Dream” speech. In its entirety. And every year that my students have listened to the speech, you could have heard a pin drop on carpet. The wigglers, the blurters, the most animated of children, all transfixed, for the entire speech.

There’s something about listening to a message that has purpose and truth behind it- even children can intuitively feel the speaker’s intent. Some of my favorite student comments:

“Teacher, I like that man. He said I could go to school with my friends.”

“He has a big voice, but he’s not scary or mean.”

“Did his dream come true, Teacher?”

Introduction made. Talk amongst yourselves.

Separation of Confusion and Bewilderment

This was in my daughter’s backpack, discovered as she cleaned it out in preparation for her return to school this morning:

prayersheet

When I asked where the sheet had come from, she replied that multiple copies of it had been passed out during lunch at school before winter break. When I asked who had passed them out, she said “adults” at school. I then asked her if they were adults she recognized from school (teachers, custodians, administrators, volunteers, etc) or strangers visiting. She told me that they were adults she saw regularly, and thought they were teachers though none she has for any subjects this year.

I’m a bit confused, only because our own family life is very categorized. “School things” happen at school, “church things” happen at church. My daughter attends public school, and does NOT belong to any religious youth groups that happen to meet on campus after school hours. I haven’t found religious practice required in any of the curriculum requirements and standards for her grade either. And what is with the “I am also going to pray for this myself: yes, no?” Guilt much?

Explanations? Ideas?

Pirate Post

Happy “International-Talk-Like-a-Pirate-Day!”

pirate 1pirate2pirate3pirate4pirate5
International Talk Like a Pirate Day

A Pirate’s Life! (kindergarten unit)

British Council Pirate Song

Music and Movement

I was recently asked for my Kindergarten Playlist, so here’s part of it (yes, it grows and changes all the time):

August/September:

Good ol’ kindergarten standards: “Shake My Sillies Out,” “The Wheels on the Bus,” “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” the “Hokey Pokey,” “Baby Bumblebee” (and we do the GROSS version), and rounds of the “Alphabet Song,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and “Baa Baa Black Sheep” (they’re the same tune!).

Our “clean up song” is “The Fox” by Nickle Creek (find the book and your students will thank you!).
nickle creek
October:

Keep the songs listed above and add: “Five Little Pumpkins,” Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” and “The Hut on Hen’s Legs (Baba Yaga),” “The Purple People Eater” and “Monster Mash.”

Clean up song: “YMCA” by the Village People

November:

Add: “Apples and Bananas,” the “Turkey Song,” “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly,” “Down by the Bay,” “Popcorn,” “Old MacDonald Had a Farm,” and for quiet DEAR time, the “Thanksgiving” album by Windham Hill.
thanksgiving
December:

“Must be Santa,” “Dreydl Song,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (classroom buddies love teaching my students the Batman version), “Jingle Bells” (anyone else have students who ask “Teacher, what’s a SOAPENSLAY?”), “TheTwelve Days of Christmas,” and “Feliz Navidad.”

Our clean up song is the “Christmas Medley” by Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and my students love to dance to the beautiful rhythms on this album:
kwanzaa

January:

raffi

Raffi gets some more airtime with “Baby Beluga” and “Brush Your Teeth,” and the students love to sing about “Frosty the Snowman” when they look at compound words that begin with “snow.” My students warm up and get to cleaning up the room when they hear Gordon Lightfoot sing “Old Dan’s Records,” (just more proof that I’m Alaskan) but I’m sure they’d love some wonderful music from China for Chinese New Year. Any suggestions?

February:

Our kindergarten list experiences a little bit of growth with patriotic music for Presidents’ Day, “Sing a Song for Martin,” and “Concetta” by John Tesh. I’ve had several families go and purchase
tesh to get their children to clean up at HOME!

March/April:

My students are hoppin’ to songs like “Little Bunny Foo Foo” and “The Bunny Hop,” but they love to sing “Five Little Ducks,” “Five Speckled Frogs,” and “Five Little Monkeys” too. What is it with the number five? As we enjoy stories by Dr. Seuss, my students enjoy the Moxy Fruvous song “Green Eggs and Ham.” Weird Al even has his own version, but it’s…. migraine inducing.

Clean up song: “Michael’s Ride” from the Waking Ned Devine Soundtrack.

May:

For the end of kindergarten, we enjoy the music from the entire year, and add songs such as “Raining Like Magic” (hey Raffi sure does get around!) and “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang.

Now get out there and SHAKE YOUR SILLIES OUT!
dancing

I’ve been exploring…

…and here’s what I found:

Bill Lucas’ Studying the Creation of Kindergarten

Kindergarten Skills by Shallowford Falls (I’m sending this one to my sister since she’s homeschooling my nephew now)

Internet for Classrooms (just some more help as our technology in early childhood education/teaching practices continues to evolve along with everything else!)

The Special K Kindergarten Page

And finally, for Jan Brett fans everywhere (check out her new calendar!)

It’s time for another cup of coffee.

precious

Crowns and Wands in Oz


I thought I’d preface my latest blog with an image of the bright, vibrant coloring crayons that herald the first day of kindergarten with their sharp “never used” points, exotic names that can’t yet be read, and that **smell.** Crayons and brand new pencils, colorful plastic handled scissors, and glue sticks (I know better than to unleash wet glue during the first week of school) all welcome schools’ newest attendees each August or September. As of this April, I’ve opened thirteen years’ worth of crayon boxes, glue stick lids, paints, clay, and silly shaped erasers and pencil sharpeners. But now, after experiencing three different interpretations of what kindergarten is and should be in Alaska, New Mexico, and Kansas, I feel the burning urge to learn how to open up something new: a huge can of “whoopass,” and so my choice of images changed.

My grade level partner and I more than survived our last round of S.F.A. observations last week. Considering we teach at a “non-S.F.A.” school, we have found it interesting that we’ve still been bound to the S.F.A. script whenever the observer has come to visit. Apparently we don’t care much for bondage, and so we enjoyed turning the tables, going through the motions, putting on the show, just to see what, if anything, our observer would “catch.” We purposely created exactly the same center displays, wall artwork, sentence strip vocabulary words and poems, hallway bulliten decor, and lesson plans as eachother, all following the S.F.A.’s KinderCorner assigned unit, “Buggy About Spring.” Sounds like we followed the script, right? Not quite. The centers, the artwork, the sentence strip poetry and the hallway displays followed the THEME of the unit, but none of the ideas came from the actual S.F.A. “Buggy About Spring” unit handbook aside from a xeroxed bug counting “book” that the kids traced and colored at the math center before they moved on to counting bug shaped manipulatives and measuring with inchworm rulers. My colleague has shared her own monthly journal idea with me this year which all of our students have enjoyed, another non-S.F.A. gimmick, and we displayed our students’ work, both academic and artistic as nice features in our classroom. As Easter was right around the corner, we even blatantly displayed paper bunny baskets, eggs, and multiple packages of egg dye and grass, none of which were included in the unit’s script- a big “no no” according to other kindergarten teachers in the district. While our students loved learning about bugs and “ooohing” and “ahhhhing” and “oh-grossing” over the non-fiction selections about insects that we checked out from the library (nope, none of the books on the acceptable or recommended lists), our students enjoyed, learned, and expressed themselves in ways that the S.F.A. observer found exceptional. No black marks on our observations. Lots of praise and Atta-Girls. Yet while we might have set up what looked like the prescribed props, nothing matched. And there was no comment made about it.
This could have been for any reason: we still seemed to follow the “format” of the S.F.A. program so no harm done; perhaps the observer remembered we weren’t an S.F.A. school so she wasn’t going to be such a stickler this time around; maybe she felt we were going above and beyond, obviously supplementing the “already terrific” materials and lessons that S.F.A. provides with our own ladybug poems and non-fiction selections; or maybe she had no clue that our students were in fact demonstrating that they could be fully engaged, eager to share and experience, and be both guided and work independently in a classroom that has not followed an S.F.A. script throughout the year. Perhaps she was just glad to be winding down after so many observation visits. Maybe she was distracted by her own thoughts of Easter egg hunts and pink dresses. I noticed what she didn’t say, what she didn’t point out, what she didn’t question, what she didn’t ask, knowing that there are many, many teachers killing themselves in this district, bending over backward, pulling themselves inside out reading verbatim from the script and props the observer is supposed to be checking on during her visits. The truly frightening aspect of it all? Most of those teachers truly feel they are **teaching** by putting themselves on autopilot, happily putting their thoughts, inspirations and goals INSIDE the box- the S.F.A./NCLB box.

We attended our last grade level meeting at Central Office. We sat in a room with other kindergarten teachers and the directors of curriculum and instruction. We were asked what we’d noticed about teaching a full-day kindergarten program this year, and almost every comment volunteered from every table had to do with how well the students were performing on DIBELS or how the S.F.A. observer had been pleased with the progress shown in reading and writing in most, if not all of the classrooms, thanks to, you guessed it, the S.F.A. KinderCorner materials (talk about a sales pitch, eh?). When I volunteered that the students had obviously benefitted from having more time to practice their socialization skills because of the full-day schedule, my comment was politely recorded into our table’s notes, but the brainstorming quickly returned to DIBELS, sounding out nonsense words, and questions about how to supplement for those “high kids” in our classrooms. Recognizing my chance to contribute to the conversation, I offered that it’s really easy to find challenging-yet-not-discouraging materials for the kids at the top of what used to be the bell curve, and that collaborating with first grade teachers and librarians would make it easy to find inspiring and interesting texts for students that wouldn’t be redundant when they went to the first grade. The responses? Totally **lost** looks and:
“Um, no, the district should just really buy us the first grade Reading Roots program so I can follow with the S.F.A. curriculum.”
and
“Uh, I’m sorry, but if the other kids, the lower ones, see the higher kids with different looking books, there’s going to be a problem.”
The thought running through my mind at that point? “Sweethearts, there’s this really cool room in each school in our district. It’s a MAGIC room, with helpful little elves and magical stories, interesting facts, amazing graphics- perhaps you’ve heard of it. It’s called a LIBRARY. It’s okay to think on your own, really.” Dimples dimples dimples. Smile smile smile. And my grade level partner **just KNEW** what I was thinking because of our amazing Vulcan-Mind-Meld-Bond, so she told me to START WRITING. Ah yes, Grasshopper, “think it, don’t say it.” So I was a good girl, and started writing. Furiously.
The meeting continued, and someone asked how students were doing on reaching their kindergarten benchmark goals as outlined by our state standards, as well as on other assessments, too ridiculous to list. Several teachers offered that they pushed, pushed, pushed students to constantly improve with lots of practice outlined in the S.F.A. manuals, yadda yadda yadda, AND THEN, the “teacher trick” of all Teacher Tricks reared its ugly head:
“Well in MY room I have an academic referral chart. All the kids’ names are on the chart with the DIBELS skills and S.F.A. goals listed and whenever the kids master a skill, they get a star. If they don’t master the skill and make progress, they get a minus, and those kids you know, they don’t like hearing their friends say ‘ooooohhhhh! You got an academic referral! Ohhhhh!’ Those kids know the pressure is on!” At which point I not only THOUGHT the following, I said it: “Oh good! Five and six year olds with ulcers! Sign me up for THAT!” I then remembered the graphic above that I had come across while dressing up my MySpace page, and it seemed to **fit.**
Math skills? Science? Social Studies? Socialization? Fine and gross motor skills? How kids “feel” about school? Nooooooooooooooooooo, NOT the priority. DIBELS DIBELS DIBELS. “Hey, those kids have to be introduced to the types of assessments they face in the upper grades, might as well start them now!” Yes, another quote.
I never thought I’d be one of the “old timers” with only thirteen years of experience under my belt. One of those old-fashioned teachers who talks about “teaching the whole child.” An old bitty who has favorite authors and can think up the names of books and poems for kiddie lit. on her own. Someone who actually believes in thinking OUTSIDE the box, and frankly believes that we SHOULD be able to teach our way out of a paper S.F.A. bag. A crazed eccentric who believes in shifting the paradigm, and therefore KNOWING the paradigm. The outdated model that can actually punt when necessary, and think on her own.
No, apparently here in Oz, teachers are much too worried with impressing the Wizard to be bothered with even noticing the curtain at the left-hand corner of the room. And so it’s not Glinda’s crown and wand I’m wanting. It’s Dilbert’s dog’s.

Climbing the Walls for Students

hook
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. As a result, my brain has had to sort through a Sudafed-haze before coming to any semi-clear landscape where the teacher’s voice inside my head can speak without generating a painful echo. Nice acoustics in here when I’m sick though…or perhaps I should be worried?

As usual, the part of me that craves efficiency, simplicity, an Occam’s Razor bottom-line when it comes to kindergarten issues, is feeling a bit let-down after conferences. Many parents attended ready to talk and interact, interested in not only how their children were doing academically but socially as well. They made proactive statements, asked proactive questions, and expressed interest in not only the Here-and-Now but on down the line as well. Several other families, recovering from their own bouts of illness attended and made sure to bring their grocery-list of questions to remember to ask (I assume they too were navigating a cold/flu medicine fog) which we readily covered, checking off each topic as we moved from handwriting, coloring, math skills, recess behavior, school crushes (yes, this early), and whether or not PE shoes were getting too tight. Finally, the Award/Accolade/Keeping-Up-With-the-Joneses-by-Pushing-Our-Children-to-Ridiculous-Extremes families attended. They voiced their concerns with accusatory questions, such as: “Why isn’t my daughter reading at a second grade level by now like her brother was at her age?” “What do you mean, there is no Gifted and Talented Program for my child in kindergarten?” “Why isn’t my son sitting and sounding out words for several hours each day at school, he will learn to read, won’t he?” “Isn’t it time to move the students away from those learning centers? I mean, they’re just PLAYING.” You get the idea, and I’ll bet you have a very clear mental image of who I’m talking about.

Just to let you know, the accusatory part of the questioning isn’t what bothered me. I’ve taught long enough to know that while I can’t please everyone all of the time, I can still do a good job and provide students valuable, fun, and meaningful learning experiences that help build their foundation for not only school, but for life. The part of the Scorekeeper Parents’ questions that bothered me was the fact that they clearly reflected the families’ true nature of competition instead of care. Acquiring shiny trophies over acquiring a decent self-truth. Hoop-jumping instead of Life-Living. It also reminded me of just how little parents CHOOSE to know about their children, and therefore, about me and the job I do. Oddly, it still surprises me annually when I’m faced with the realization that some of the parents of my students don’t feel the need or obligation to think outside of their own boxes when necessary, which happens on a daily basis with children. It must be the optimist in me. I trust that people will think, explore, postulate, and re-evaluate. Perhaps it’s a natural carry-over from the fact that I’m PAID to help children do these things. It’s a bridge to me until I run smack into the wall that some parents have somehow managed to bring along with them on this kindergarten trek. And each year, I have to have the rope and grappling hook ready to fling over the wall, the fitness and fortitude to haul my butt up to the top, and then the diplomacy skills to entice the parents to scale their side of the wall to join me for a looksie.

What do I try to show the parents who join me at the higher altitude?

That reading isn’t sounding out words in boring texts. “Sad Sam was sad” isn’t NEARLY as interesting or literacy-rich as “NO DAVID!” (Be honest S.F.A.’ers, do you really LIKE those KinderRoots “books” or does David Shannon speak more to your own inner-reader?). Guess why?

That learning is three-dimensional, multi-sensory, and consuming. It offers new information, it helps develop preference, it gives us a common language and schema so that we may better communicate and interact, and it offers its own rewards and pleasures. Ask any adult trying a new cuisine for the first time about their own apprehension, their awkwardness, their fear, their effort, their discovery, their satisfaction, and their possible JOY at having learned or found something NEW. That’s what children experience daily, all the time, and not just with food, but with LIFE. It’s not **just** playing. It’s learning. It’s developing. It’s reinforcing. It’s expanding. It’s negotiating, sharing, and making other discoveries possible and less frightening. Don’t take away those Lego’s just yet. Yes, the silly puppet voice really does help. Shake your Sillies Out regularly. For some kids, mustard and peanut butter sandwiches are AWESOME tasting.

That test scores aren’t the bottom line and they aren’t who your children are, no matter what a teacher tells you. No matter what a school district report card tells you. No matter what a nation’s government administration tells you. Personal preferences aside, parents, employers, neighbors, are always going to be wanting to rank each other in some form, in some way, for whatever reasons…. be they good ones or not. It’s the nature of our beast. But if YOU don’t like being merely a number, don’t do everything in your power to turn your child into one (or let others do it for you). Remember, figures don’t lie, but liars sure can figure. Imagine your life today if it was steered by that one red-ink percentage score on the French test you failed in high school. Not cool.

And finally, parents need to be brave. Choose bravery over living in fear. Your children do it every day in my classroom. Don’t fear the tests. Don’t fear the Joneses. Don’t wake up shaking because your daughter only has a Dora backpack instead of a Louis Vuitton. Get some finger paint out. Bake some cookies. Catch some bugs. Listen to the rain. Sing a song. Have a book swap with your friends and neighbors. Actually TRY eating green eggs and ham. Stop. Listen. Think. Hear. Smell. Taste. Touch. See. Live. It’s how you discover what your own Big Picture is. It’s how you help your child discover his or her own. Enjoy your discoveries. Don’t fear them. If you like trophies, these are the shiniest of them all.

Thankfully, enough parents each year scale that wall, balance at the top for a bit, and then join me on the other side. The optimist in me can’t help looking forward to the year that the bridge runs unobstructed from point A to point B, with mutual sharing and learning motoring both ways. Until then, the rope and grappling hook are properly packed and stored.

Happy Almost-Spring. Time to read some Carl Sagan again before the next round of Sudafed. Maybe it will help!

Mid-Year Reflection….Planning!

Half the year is over, so it seems appropriate to reflect on what is working in my classroom, and what is not.

My students are as they should be: eager to learn (”What are we gonna learn today, teacher?”), inquisitive (”How come people keep asking me if I lost my tooth? I put it in my pocket until I got home and then Mom put it under the pillow and the Tooth Fairy got it and gave me money. It’s not lost. SHE has it!”), expressive (”You know teacher, I’m learning how to not pick my nose no more ’cause Gramma says that’s gross!”), tolerant (”Teacher, he’s being a pest but I think he won’t be so sassy at recess.”), helpful (”I can help you write those “k’s” ’cause they’re hard.”) entertaining (”Teacher, Mom is proud of me ’cause I learn-ded my money! I know quarters, nickels, pennies and DIAMONDS!”) and kind (”She fell down at recess but I think her mouth hurts so can I take her to the nurse and talk for her?”).

Managing the curriclum requirements is going well also. I’ve been able to align my lesson plans with the state’s kindergarten standards and benchmarks, our curriculum materials for the most part are useful, or at the very least, “tweakable,” and my students are making progress not only academically, but socially. DIBELS, Round Two is coming up, though I’m not too terribly concerned with how lost my students will look as they try to sound out nonsense words and name letters that they at this point, only use the sounds of for writing. My students recognize more and more sight words each day, enjoy writing and drawing, and have even picked up some science, social studies, art, and music concepts despite the best efforts of NCLB to obliterate those areas of “interest” from public schools. How many kindergartners do you know who will ask “Teacher, when do we get to listen to ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ again?”

Parents are involved and have continued to volunteer in our room, or drop in for visits and observation. I get email regularly from parents who just want to “touch base,” or do some mutual sharing of kindergarten “funnies” that are observed at home or at school. Apparently a few homes get a replay of “me” each afternoon or evening after dinner as children play “school” in their rooms. All of my students’ families attend parent teacher conferences. There’s a good bond of teamwork going on this year.

My kindergarten-colleague is a joy and brings laughter and levity to those not-so-fun chores of paperwork, meetings, and… more paperwork! We enjoy our own Vulcan-Mind-Meld communication that other colleagues watch from a distance for entertainment, and we readily use our cell phones when necessary for “heads up” calls to help eachother navigate any surprise mine fields that periodically appear. We don’t merely have polite professionalism between us, we have a fun friendship! You know what blessings those can be.

Having learned School #3’s unique schedules, colleagues’ names, district’s strengths and shortcomings, and of course, neighborhood quirks during the first semester, the only hold-over issue appears to be PLANNING.
paperwork* I do lesson plans for the After School Program.
* My grade level partner and I plan for our T.A. Time (a prep supplied by a teacher’s assistant who takes our students to another classroom and uses materials we’ve prepared and explained beforehand- yes, you’ve read that right, we “prep for a prep.”) two or three times per week (usually we try to plan for a month’s worth of T.A. lessons in advance).
* If it is indoor recess and I have duty, I have to plan activities and lead them for first grade students.
* I plan activities and prepare materials for the paras (aides/paraprofessionals) assigned to help my students with IEP’s.
* I prepare materials and provide screening results for Speech, Academic Support, and E.L.L. staff members for when they work with my students.
* I help plan and prepare for professional development activities.
* My kinder-colleague and I planned and hosted this year’s Secret Santa activity for the staff.
* I plan activities that our fourth grade buddies help us with two or three times a month.
* All teachers must meet with the district Art teacher because while she prepares the materials for projects and leads the process at the front of the room during each visit, she does not choose the lessons herself, or align them with grade level curriculum requirements. If we have “extra” information we’d like the students to know about a particular artist, or would like to tie in the art project’s PRODUCT to whatever concepts we might be learning about at that time, we have to prepare additional lesson time or explanatory notes to glue to the back of each handprint flower or sponge-painted buffalo (hey, Kansas Day is coming up!). Any books or stories to accompany the project? Yep, we gather those too.
* And lately, due to illnesses and death in the family, I’ve had to prepare plans and materials for subs, which any teacher knows can be more labor intensive than regular teaching.

My kinder-colleague and I have been approached by the school librarian. She’s feeling a bit left out because she only sees our students when they come to return their books and check out new ones. Library Science is not taught at our school, nor is “library time” a prep option, like Music, P.E., Computer Lab or T.A. times are at many other schools. Our “liberry-lady” would like to get together and spend some of our planning times…planning. Activities and lessons that she can co-teach with us in the library. And as dear a lady as she is, we have been unable, and yes, unwilling to give up more time to go and plan for yet one more person in one more corner of our building.

I can entertain the thought that perhaps I’m merely seeing the glass as half empty instead of half full. I am very appreciative that this district supports collaborative efforts in doing what’s best for our students. I am even more pleased that so many colleagues at my school WANT to spend time with us. It means a lot that so many people enjoy my Super Stars the way I do, that so many look forward to their time in our classroom. I am pleased that my students have diverse learning opportunities available to them. But let me be blunt: there are too many spoons stirring the “pot” this year. Too much of a “good thing” isn’t a good thing for five and six year olds. I’m used to providing a nice balance between a safe, predictable routine and exciting (yet still safely predictable) surprises or “extras” for my students. But the balance has been tipped grossly to one side, the side where my own time with my students is gobbled away just so we can say we are all collaborating and giving kids as many different learning opportunities as possible. And frankly, in most cases, it’s not true collaboration. It’s ME getting materials and lessons prepared for others to attempt to teach.

My students are still learning how to “be” at school. They’re not seasoned fourth or fifth graders who know the drill and how to maneuver quickly through all of the resources, materials, personalities and expectations they encounter. My kids have just now noticed there are rectangular ceiling tiles in my room. They’ve noticed. They are commenting on them. They are distracted by them. Ceiling tiles. Because ceiling tiles are interesting. More interesting than the concepts of “putting together” and “taking apart” are at this point in time. Going to the library to have the librarian “help me” teach addition and subtraction this week is… I’m sorry… ridiculous. It won’t happen. Because while I’ll be able to get my kids back on track (and even use those ceiling tiles for math soon enough!), taking them to the library would just send them off in a completely different direction, for DAYS! Books! Stuffed animals! Computers! Steps! Round tables! Wagons! New cabinets! Maps! More stuffed animals! Shelves that present great potential for climbing! The hunt for a new bathroom! Card catalog drawers! Whoo hoo!

And yet I’ve been asked to plan… help plan… so that the librarian can feel involved. So that I can say I’m “doing my part” to provide another valuable learning experience for my students. As if I weren’t doing my part already. And yes, attempts at tossing feelings of guilt upon my shoulders have been made.

Valuable Kindergarten/Life lesson #35: “Know when to say ‘no,’ and know that it’s okay to say ‘no’ sometimes.”

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