Tending the Eclectic Kinder-Garden

Multiple times.  Plural.  And while my blog-reading and blog-posting schedule will have to change a bit now that I’m back to work, I couldn’t resist subscribing to the following:

Confections

Raggedy Old Annies

The Shabby Nest

A Fanciful Twist

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Once I finish reading through the latest Artful Blogging, I’m sure I’ll have more blogs to recommend! I’ll also be pruning and updating my blogroll before school starts on Monday.

This afternoon our students get to visit with us in our classrooms for a short time! Yay! I’ll be taking their photos so I can make their center tags this weekend (having them for two days before school starts will also help me learn their names quickly), and getting contact/email/parent teacher conference schedules taken care of with their “special grown ups.” I’ll set out a coloring page for those students who want to take their desks and chairs for a test drive, and will be making quick observations and mental notes like the ones I mentioned here.

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Crayons! Thanks Sesame Street!

What wonderful cabinetry.  And I know what’s going behind the doors on the upper level: Books. Dear Daughter and I opened fourteen boxes of them, finding even more surprises left by the last crew of packers that prepared our belongings for the trip from Texas to Oz. Despite some bent corners and torn covers, it was good to see my favorite stories again after taking last year off from teaching.

Kindergarten teachers often teach concepts and skills organized into thematic units. “Autumn,” “Animals,” “Counting,” “Colors,” etc. I organize my books by how I USE them throughout the year. In August, books like Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, Blueberries for Sal, Timothy’s First Day of School, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See, are within easy reach for reading time. So are books about autumn, colors, numbers, and friendships.  My winter holiday books can all be found on the same shelf as my snow themed stories, and fairy tales are grouped together for the spring.

I also group books by author.  Norman Bridwell’s Big Red Dog Clifford keeps company with Marc Brown’s Arthur, and I love featuring Leo Lionni and Patricia Polacco as favorite storytellers too!  It’s my system, books sorted by theme, and also sorted by author, and it works for me.  Come October, I can pull down an entire stack of books featuring Halloween, bats, spiders, growing pumpkins, monsters, fire safety, and silly rhymes, and put them in the hands of my students.  Each November, family stories, Thanksgiving tales, harvest, and Indigenous Peoples pique my kindergartners’ interest.

Do you have sets of books, providing multiple copies so groups of students can read along with you or one another?  Try sorting them into easy-to-grab tubs (mine are on the bottom row of the next set of shelves):

Big Books need to be stored either flat (making it difficult to find exactly the one you’re looking for), in a book display specifically made for oversized stories, or in their curriculum kit box for easy access.

Find a system that works for you and your students- books are treasures!

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Don’t forget to organize your professional library too (mine is full of books and binders):

Tags: books, classroom, kindergarten, organization, tips

… to bring you a review of my day!

All of today’s blogging time was set aside for mother/daughter eye exams, grocery shopping, drug screening/testing for my employment, and a visit to my new school to pick up keys and drop off classroom materials.  I think it’s time for me to post some drafts in the queue just in case, but until then:

* I still don’t care for the blowy-puffy-here’s-grit-in-your-eye procedure that optometry techs seem to enjoy watching patients endure at the beginning of an eye exam.  What *is* that thing, anyway?  Is my eye dusty?  Are you testing me on my blink and flinch coordination?  Are you checking my mascara’s and eyeliner’s staying power?  My eyes water just thinking about it!

* I’ve been experiencing some confusing encounters at the grocery store I’ve been frequenting here since our arrival.  It’s on post, and each time I’ve gone, I’ve been approached by older ladies and gentlemen asking if my kids are “ready for VBS.”  Huh?  Each time their table has been surrounded by other people, so I’ve only been asked that one question before  the greeter has turned his or her attention to someone actually interested enough to stop and look at their display.  It wasn’t until this morning’s trip that I finally saw the table itself- and realized that VBS stands for “Vacation Bible School,” not “very big shoes” or “very bratty siblings.”  Enough with the abbreviations folks.  I get it with my husband’s military-jargon, I get it with all sorts of edu-speak, and I see it as I try to figure out just what my daughter is asking me for when she text messages me on her phone.

Spell…the…whole…thing…out…please.  And if you won’t,  please just step aside as I maneuver my way through the store with my thrilled-with-the-acoustics-toddler to get a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter.

* Drug screening.  Today was the first time *this* kindergarten teacher has had to walk in to a medical facility, surrender her i.d., allow someone else to lock up her purse and do the little aim-for-the-plastic-cup-routine with an audience standing right outside the bathroom door.  Oh, and I wasn’t allowed to flush the potty afterward either.  Yep, everything had to be as…witnessed…as possible.  Wow.  Just…wow.

* Yes indeedy, I did get the key to my classroom today!  Dear Daughter and I were so excited, so pleased, so impressed with what we saw as we walked through the school, peeking into classrooms, lounges, cafeterias, etc… and when we got to see my room, I just about cried.  This is the first time I’ve been given a classroom that is fully supplied.  FULLY.  I guess I’m no longer at a Title I school, and the difference leaves me in awe, and saddened.  Standardization across the nation?  Honeys, it isn’t happening.

The classroom is beautiful.  Most of it is appropriate for kindergarten, though my teacher’s desk is fixed to the wall as part of a built-in, and it seems I can’t lower it to a better height for use as the reading table.  The students’ coat cubbies are actually closets with doors (another interesting safety issue) and I have tons of storage for manipulatives, books, etc.  I’ll be sharing a bookroom and a set of student bathrooms with one of my colleagues by way of two “walk-through” areas.

* I’ve brought home a school binder that seems to have our policies and procedures explained in it, but getting them committed to memory is becoming more difficult with each new move I make.  Every school has its own set of rules, procedures, routines.  The first one used clipboards for fire drill and stranger danger drills, the next had little red and green paddles we were to hold up outside during a fire alarm along with scrap pad sign-off sheets that had to be turned in to the office after each drill.  The next required a binder or notebook with students’ names and contact info, while at this, my newest school, who knows what the variation will be.  In the past six years, I have had to follow four different rulebooks on school procedures for fire drills, xerox copying, attendance reporting, lunch requests, stranger danger, parent pick-up, field trip requests, classroom newsletters, professional development, parent teacher conferences, NCLB documentation, lesson plan formats and due dates, social club dues and rules, phone etiquette, lunch time and recess procedures, before and after school bus duty, parking space assignments, computer lab sign up, nurse pass procedures, email and internet do’s and don’ts, office errands, teacher lounge clean-up, grade level planning times, preps, and tornado safety practice.  Talk about a jumble.

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Off to bed (this is a late night posting)- I have a classroom to inventory and set up in the morning!

Tags: school, teaching

… because it’s just around the corner!

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If you have a kindergartner gearing up for the first day of school, it’s time to put yourself in his/her shoes in regard to LUNCH.

*Soggy sandwiches aren’t fun to eat, so try coating both pieces of bread with peanut butter with some jelly in the middle to avoid jelly-soak-through.

*Orange chips stain clothes. Yes, kids still wipe their hands all over their shirts and pants, ignoring the cute napkin you included in their lunchbox.  Lunch time is social time so kids are too busy chatting, visiting, and listening in on conversations to remember the good manners you taught them.

*Those little plastic wrappers on the straws for juice boxes don’t always have a slit cut into them.  Juice boxes tend to be easier to punch straws into than the pouch style drinks.

*Though teachers discourage it, food bartering/swapping still takes place at lunch or snack time.  Please remember that some students have food allergies, occasionally severe. It’s important that your child knows he/she is still a good friend even though s/he won’t share peanut butter cookies (or offer “just a taste” of some other treat) with classmates.

*If your child likes to save leftovers for a snack later in the day, please practice fastening those plastic storage lids or ziploc baggies NOW, otherwise, be prepared for very messy spills and mountains of crumbs in backpacks or lunch sacks.

*If you send a thermos with lunch, make sure your child knows which way is “up” when it comes to putting the thermos back in the lunch box, otherwise s/he will be back in Leak-and-Spillsville.

*Not every classroom has a refrigerator available, so if you live in hot climate, plan on skipping the mayo and milk.

*Snack packaging (the wrappers on cookies, chips, graham crackers, trail mix, fruit snacks, etc.) isn’t always easy for little hands to open.  Cut a small slit in the top of each to help ease your child’s frustration. The same goes for the tips of bananas, or the peels on oranges.

*Yes, teachers are happy to help your young ones learn how to open milk cartons and lunch wrappers, but children feel such a sense of accomplishment, independence and helpfulness when they can do it on their own and teach their friends the “tricks of the trade” as well.  Small milk cartons are available at most grocery stores if your kindergartner would like to practice before school starts.

*Not every child knows that you’d rather not open a lunchbox full of wrappers, banana peels, or used juice straws at the end of every day.  Additionally, kids don’t always know that you might want their plastic containers returned home!  Decide and discuss which items morph from “food wrappers” or containers to disposable trash, and which don’t.  You’ll keep a lot of  your Tupperware collection intact if you address this sooner rather than later. Ditto for silverware!

*Make sure you write your child’s name on that lunch box or lunch sack, because there’s always at least one classmate who will have the same one, or one similar looking enough that mix-ups will occur.

*If your child will purchase lunch at school each day, make sure you find out the “routine” in advance and see if you can prepay so your child won’t panic or experience a meltdown if lunch money has been lost on the playground.

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Do you have any tips or helpful hints for lunch time?  Please share by commenting!

Tags: kindergarten, school

**The following was originally posted by me at In Practice**

It’s that time of year for kindergarten teachers: planning to meet “next year’s” (August’s) kindergartners. After Easter and spring break, school districts nationwide hold their Kindergarten Roundups, encouraging enthusiastic parents and usually eager-yet-nervous children to start making their immunization, school shopping and pep talk plans in the hopes that the first day/week of kindergarten is emotionally survivable for all involved. I have to admit, I’ve never been able to keep the image of lassoing five-year-olds-that-yes-have-made-the-cut-off-date out of my mind during spring registration, and in fact, several of my former administrators have even suggested that my colleagues and I “troll for kids that look old enough” as we drive through the school’s neighborhoods before work each morning. Each administrator has wanted our numbers to be as close to accurate as we can have them before school staff sizes are re-evaluated over the summer due to increases or decreases in enrollment- very understandable.

Teaching in schools with larger student and family populations that fall within lower socio-economic levels means that I have had my share of hosting kindergarten “sneak peeks” involving myself, my students, future students, and their preschool or Head Start teachers, and not the students’ parents. Typically, preschool teachers contact me and my colleagues in advance, asking us to look at calendar dates to find a morning or two when they can bring their students over to see what kindergarten is all about. They ask to sit in on storytime, centers, and participate in snack and possibly recess. I of course, give my Super Stars the heads up that younger visitors will be spending time with us during the week, and each year we inevitably agree that we should do what we can to help them feel comfortable during their stay.

Three or four students per preschool teacher arrive for their sneak peek, usually wide-eyed, and not at all reluctant. I purposely revisit old standby stories such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See or Green Eggs and Ham for storytime, and my Super Stars teach their guests the motions to our fingerplays, “Two Little Sausages,” “Once There Lived a Quiet Mouse,” and songs like Shake My Sillies Out. The preschoolers visit the learning centers they are most interested in, and can tour the classroom and its materials on their own, with a friend, or with one of their teachers. Painting, playing with blocks, dressing up in the pretend center, counting/sorting/classifying with math manipulatives, pounding and rolling clay, putting puzzles together, working on the computer, playing musical instruments, or quietly looking at books…are some of the activities that I will watch my future students exploring during their visit. *

Why am I watching instead of putting myself front and center, vying for their attention? For one, I might not be their teacher in August. Two, I feel it’s important that the children make this transition successfully in their own way(s) and in their own time. It’s not important that students *like me* when they first meet me, it’s important that they feel welcome, and that they feel safe. And finally, yes… I’m taking mental notes, sometimes scribbling thoughts and observations down about each of the children as they familiarize themselves with their future environment.

~Does the child wear glasses? Hearing aids? Appear to have physical limitations that differ from his/her peers? What is the child’s size, and how does s/he use physical space? Does the child squint, or say “huh” or ask for directions to be repeated again?

~ I listen to them speak…is there an accent? Is the child bi-lingual? Is only English spoken in the home? Does the child speak English at all? Understand it without speaking it? Are there pronunciation issues separate from language comprehension and expression? Regardless of oral language, does the child prefer to use sign language of some sort, gestures, to communicate rather than speaking?

~ Does the child interact with others? Others of the same gender? Opposite gender? Does the student only demonstrate parallel play? Does the child recognize and choose to acknowledge and cooperate with transitions?

~ Is the child passive or aggressive? How about passively aggressive (that one usually takes time to observe once the new school year has started, unless parents, a previous teacher or daycare provider tells me in advance)? Allergic to anything?

~ Is the student a watcher or a do-er? A little of both? How long does it take him/her to come out of a comfortable shell?

~ Is the student aware of his/her own needs and wants, and is s/he capable and willing to be in control of belongings, potty issues, and sharing resources? Does the student ask for help?

~ Left handed? Right handed? Ambidextrous? Knows how to cut, hold a pencil or crayon, and move objects and materials from hand to hand smoothly?

~ How does the child move? Running? Jumping? Climbing? Walking, skipping? Does s/he have good balance?

~ Does the student appear well nourished, clean, wearing clothes that fit? Does s/he appear well rested? Is the child lethargic, or a bundle of excess energy?

~ Does the child like to complete one task before moving on to another, or does s/he flit and float, moving between activities and projects, dabbling a little bit here, a little bit there?

~ Are hands and kleenexes used when the child sneezes, or are sneezes wide open and shared with the classroom? Does the child still put objects like toys, pencils, crayons, rulers, scissors in his/her mouth?

~ I also listen to our guests, what I call “professional eavesdropping.” Do my students shout out “Hey, we have that book at our house!” Do they question what paint or clay is? I can learn a lot about my future students’ prior schema just by listening in on their stories and interactions while they’re in my room.

Colleagues at each of the schools I’ve worked have asked me if I can tell with just one visit which students have had prior exposure to a school-type setting or structured learning environment, if I can tell which students have been read to nightly at home, which students have experienced hands-on learning, which students have made mudpies with real dirt and water and which have only made them by drawing or painting them with a computer program.

Yep. I can. While I hope that Kindergarten Roundup leaves each preschooler with a good feeling and anticipation about the upcoming kindergarten experience, it gives *me* my own sneak peek, providing me with vital information that I feel better about having long before the DIBELS test booklets arrive in the building in the fall. Recognizing and appreciating the wondrous diversity, strengths, needs, and potential that each new class represents makes essential relationship-building happen more smoothly and naturally for our youngest learners.

Welcome to kindergarten! Bienvenido!

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* Yes, some schools include preliminary formal assessments for incoming kindergarten students during Roundup . I’ve worked at one that did, and two that did not. My own preference is to refrain from putting barely-five-year-olds through additional performance stress on a day that should be about discovery, bravery, inspiration, anticipation, and belonging. Of course, that’s just me.

Tags: kindergarten

It’s February, but there is something I’m *not* loving at the moment… the all-encompassing FEAR that many/most (if not all) of us have felt for quite some time now. Fear of terrorists, fear of our children “being left behind,” fear of immigrants, fear of gender, fear of race… interesting how we’ve allowed ourselves to be steered in this direction.

Living in the Bordertown gives me visual reminders of fear everyday:

Now these homes aren’t in bad shape, nor are any of these located in what’s considered to be a “bad” neighborhood, but their prison “look” is representative of the rest of the community at large. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter if your gates and bars are painted a complementary color to your home, or if you add swirly curly-q’s to them, or try to make them architecturally interesting by making their line follow the architecture of scalloped walls: you’re still locked in behind those bars, and you’re trying to lock everyone else out. Sure, we outsiders see your fence of fear (oh I know, the manufacturers call it a “security fence”), but you know what? When you’re looking out of your window, so do you. Must be a great view.

Fear.

Somehow, we can deny entry into our country to any music star who might have a drug conviction, but we can’t keep terror cells outside of our own borders. And just when you try to return to Mom, baseball, and apple pie, someone somewhere decides that 9/11 footage should be shown AGAIN. How’s your adrenaline?

Blanket statements about immigration ignore those newbies to our country who came here the “right way,” legally obtaining citizenship. Instead, we’re fed information from a different slant. Many statements (usually racist) made about how all of “our” jobs are being lost, our school/health/welfare systems are overburdened by non-citizens, etc. Riled up yet? Oh wait, is that….adrenaline again?

As a teacher, I resent the fact that many people in this country have bought into fearing me, fearing that I might “leave your child behind.” In twelve years of teaching, somehow I’ve morphed from trusted guide and awesome kindergarten teacher to “She-Who-Must-be-Doubted-and-Feared.” No, my intense interest in finger paint, glue sticks, and songs by Raffi is actually not an indicator of substandard or inappropriate teaching practices. Really. Surprised?

I value my ability to put food on my childrens’ plates, clothes on their backs and someday, Uncle Sam willing, a long-term roof over their heads. I’ve spent a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of effort obtaining knowledge from a college I didn’t have to attend in order to learn how to teach well. I complement my educational expertise with ongoing training in child/parental psychology, health and nutrition guidance, nurse/EMT training, multi-cultural awareness, sociology and communications, technological advances, and a slew of other areas of specialty, again, so that I can do my job well. I utilize developmentally appropriate practices and I believe children are very different from adults (and should be allowed to be so).

In my classroom you’ll see children BEING CHILDREN, learning through experience and exploration, expressing themselves, sharing, laughing, singing, and yes full-day-kindergarten-advocates, taking naps. Sorry folks, but no matter what politicians or testing company CEO’s try to tell you, duct taping students’ fannies to their chairs multiple times per week to assess their knowledge gained actually results in kiddos spending less time participating in activities and experiences that enhance and facilitate their learning.

Stop. Think. Breathe. You can understand this one, really. If you have to take your kids to soccer, then to the store to get new pants, then over to the dentist’s for an appointment, then over to the bank to deposit a check, how are you putting your family’s photo album together at home? And when? If you keep taking kids away from their teacher, and keep making them spend extra time on math and reading in isolation in order to pass a single test, when are they going to learn how to play an instrument (which by the way, would offer yet another way for a child to have an “a-ha moment” in regard to both math and reading!), have time to explore literary genres, or learn a foreign language and exercise their bodies? After school? Uh, honey, check the newest after-school activity list: here in the Bordertown you won’t find band, babysitting, or computers. You’ll find TAKS TUTORING. When did you decide that it was okay to no longer value your child’s creativity? His or her inner song? Interests? Gifts? Mental, physical, and emotional health? Did you learn best by sitting in a chair, day in and out, in a room filled with silence, or are your most vivid memories of learning filled with sights, sounds, textures, smells, exertion, emotion, and interest?

Someone told us to be scared. And we bought it.

What other messages of fear have you been fed lately? Which ones have you gulped down, hook, line and sinker? And to whom has it been of benefit?

Questions to ponder… I know, they’ll tick some of you off:

What’s the big threat, really, of having a president whose anatomy includes breasts and a vagina? Same goes for a male president whose family tree doesn’t solely include ancestors who were Elmer’s Glue “white.” A president represents his or her entire nation, all colors, sexes, creeds, and beliefs. In order to do so, s/he must have a diverse background, advisers who are paradigm shifters, and the ability to understand that the most honest answers (and best solutions to problems) will come from going straight to each horse’s mouth. Please stop talking to CEO’s and other salespeople about how I should be doing my job. Talk to child advocates, other teachers, parents, and children. Fame does not equal credibility. Donald Trump and Bill Gates may be Googled more than I am, but that doesn’t mean they could do my job better than I do it. Their business models are MODELS FOR BUSINESS, not for teaching and guiding young children in ways that will enable them to lead enriched, expressive, generous and tolerant lives.

Presidents aren’t perfect, they’re human, and will make some mistakes. But isn’t it time to have hope again- hope that our president will stop serving a single agenda, and stop steering us with fear? We’re not just a nation at war. Americans are starving, we are homeless, we are displaced. We have no health care. Our environment is suffering, a lot of people are depressed. And we are allowing ourselves to be herded like sheep with scare tactics.

Eek! A woman! Eek! Someone with brown skin! Eek! Someone who isn’t a teacher has told us to be afraid of education! Eek! A Republican! Eek! A Democrat! Eek, someone whose marital decisions entitle little ol’ me to judge them! Eek, a veteran! Eek, a non-veteran! Eek, someone whose religious practices don’t match my own! Eek, a person who doesn’t photograph well! Eek, change!

Any idea why our nation’s enemies find us so deserving of their attention? Why we are viewed as predictable and easily-targeted drones? Oh, go ahead spin doctors… our nation is the strongest in the world, our American way of life is awe-inspiring, so other countries and cultures fear us and our strength and our divine right to demand compliance from them, er, our desire that they accept our generous gift of democracy, yadda yadda yadda…

Sweethearts, I’m an American woman with a multi-cultural background who teaches students in our public educational system. I’m a mother, and I’m the proud wife of a United States soldier. Members of my father’s family are considered “indigenous” people, meaning they were here on this continent, living on the land that is part of our present nation, long before my mother’s family arrived on the boat. I would be proud if my children chose to serve in the military, and I would proud if they chose to become doctors, mechanics, computer techs, non-fiction writers, woodworkers, or rocket scientists. I appreciate the fact that it is your tax dollars that move and house me and my family with each new military assignment my husband receives, but I also know that it’s my family’s tax dollars moving and supporting us too.

Hope isn’t frivolous. Hope isn’t a fad. And regardless of what you’ve been told, Hope isn’t going to bring our enemies “into our backyards.” We can be a nation of hope, and have a strong, capable, and appropriately equipped military to defend it. We can be a nation of hope, and provide our children with the best education possible (once we stop taking money away from our students to give it to corporations- yes, I said “students,”not “schools”). We can be a nation of hope and require that all immigrants join us legally. We can be a nation of hope and of health and provide for ourselves as much as our political-correctness inspires us to demonstrate care for others.

It’s time hope returned to our nation. I VOTE FOR HOPE.

Candidates, please deliver, regardless of your political party’s affiliation. All of America is your party.

Tags: Bordertown, NCLB, rant

So, HI GRAMMY!

We went to campus to set up Daughter’s science fair board last night:

We enjoyed seeing the other entries too (”What’s Aliva in Your Saliva?” was a title that caught our eye, but we didn’t want to freak the entrant out by photographing it…)

And today we’ll return to the Home of the Miners so Daughter’s entry can be judged. Toddler and I plan to roam around parts of campus if we can (parents aren’t allowed in the gym during judging, toddlers are even less welcome, understandably!) and hopefully the sun will cooperate with us for photos.

If you want a terrific college hoops story/movie to watch (you can’t ALL be having Superbowl parties this weekend!), try Glory Road.

Tags: Bordertown, family, Hi Mom

I’m up *way* too early this morning thanks to my toddler and have tried to transition from my bleary-eyed-morning-grogginess to some sort of state of alertness by enjoying a mug of coffee and some blog-browsing. My reading has included a posting at Schools Matter about the TAKS here in Texas, and how gee, surprise surprise, teachers are teaching the test at the expense of information about social studies, science, etc. Shared by Jim Horan, the commentary is from teacher Paula Whiteley, a teacher I’m seeing eye-to-eye with this year after moving to a bordertown in the Lone Star State.

TAKS has been impacting my daughter, an eighth grader since our arrival. Her stress and boredom with school has only been soothed by extra curricular activites like volleyball (somehow, this district allows students her age to have sports practice at five thirty in the morning- yes, five thirty in the MORNING!) and our reassurances that we won’t be stationed here forever. When she does well on the TAKS practice tests (oh yes, we hear all about TAKS practice, which seems to have been happening since school started) and is acknowledged for it, some of her peers who haven’t done as well target her with cutting comments, glares, and that silent-yet-deadly communication that many teenagers master early on.

Our daughter will always do well on the test, and not thanks to all of the practice and disregard for her REAL education that this state (and nation) has so blatantly put into place. She will score well because of her family, our resources, our ability to give her enriching life experiences, our care, and the choices we actively make for her education. She will do well because of those highly qualified, caring teachers that have found ways to do their job not *because* of NCLB, but in spite of it. In the past, we have felt that our taxes, our classroom and school donations of materials and time have been of some benefit to her economically disadvanted classmates.

Yes, there’s obvious inequality. And NCLB doesn’t appear to be making it better for those students who sit in classes with my daughter every day. After reading the introductory letters from her teachers the first week of school and sending them BACK to her teachers, corrected by me, I’m not impressed with the district’s choices of who would be best suited to deliver a comprehensive curriculum, provide educationally enriching activites, and help to inspire my daughter’s future educational endeavors. Oh wait, that’s because they weren’t hired nor expected to do those things- they are expected to get all students to pass the TAKS, no matter what.

It’s the end of October, and my daughter has done one book report so far. One. She hasn’t asked for chemistry help, hasn’t asked us about current events for social studies, hasn’t mentioned any meetings for National Junior Honor Society of which she is a member. Her band concert last week was… is there a word to describe “worse than mediocre?” She’s been asking to go to the book store (yay, I’m glad she’s continued this habit) to buy new books to read in school when she’s finished the TAKS practice and her classmates continue to work for hours afterward. Yes, she’s stuck in the room with them, having to be quiet, not rustle any papers or materials from her bookbag, waiting until they finish. I resent not only what TAKS and other nationwide tests are taking away from my daughter, but how they blatantly deny what disadvantaged students really need to get ahead: a quality, well-rounded, experience-rich education that yes, for whatever reason, might only be accessible to them at school.

Is anyone really going to be surprised when my daughter’s classmates attempt to go to college and are denied admittance because of their entrance exam scores, which will hopefully NOT be fudged by proctors?

So without further ado: Thank you to Bev, for encouraging my daughter to experience kindergarten (and life) as a whole person, curiosity, apprehension, silliness and all, writing in pistachio or chocolate pudding, playing dress up, shaking her sillies out, bonding with boys more than girls, as she wore her girlie braids and dresses almost every day of the year. Thank you to Rich, who taught my daughter that no, she wasn’t going to get in trouble for defending herself on the playground and that science was a hands-on, fun activity that anyone could do, even if they couldn’t yet read in the first grade. Thank you to John, the teacher who built a relationship of trust with my daughter, quietly and calmly nudging her into the world of reading, recognizing she was a late bloomer, but knowing that she WOULD bloom, nonetheless, in the second grade. Tammy, our girl became more expressive, and really felt she could spread her wings in your class, even though I was in a classroom across the hall from you! To this day she remembers Fairbanks history because of the play your students presented. Lisa and Marilyn, you should see the chapter books/novels our daughter loves to read now! And you should see how well she navigates the web, knowing how to search for, locate, and apply the information she finds for her needs! She was able to have two teachers in the fourth grade thanks to you both, which helped her greatly when we moved and she was introduced to a multiple-teacher-per-grade-structure. Bryant, she’s enjoying volleyball and tennis both in and out of school because early on, she wasn’t made to feel afraid in P.E. class, and you told her that you knew she could do it. She still has her National Physical Fitness patches!

Terri, while snakes kind of gross our daughter out, she learned so much watching them, feeding them, caring for them while she was in your class. Her introduction to life away from Alaska was a smoother transition than we thought it would be because of your hands-on, humorous approach, and welcoming attitude toward all students. To the Kansas middle school staff, we never felt our daughter was just a number to you. She had her favorite teachers of course, but she felt she could come to any of you as resources for her projects, inquiries, and not only academic help, but social as well as she worked her way out of teenie-bopperdom to teenagehood. Thank you for grading her honestly, answering my emails, and teaching us how student-led conferences really don’t have to be a way of teachers bailing out of talking with parents. Our daughter continues to “dialogue” with us and others because you helped to make it normal for her to do it somewhere other than home. To the band directors in Alaska, New Mexico and Kansas, thank you for helping our girl express herself through music, associating emotions and human diversity through notes on a page.

Who will I be thanking this year? Hard to say, considering I feel like I’m in mourning as my daughter and her classmates endure the “TAKS Nazis.”

(Interesting, the images one can find on the web:)

Tags: TAKS

Not sure if Jeff Foxworthy really added a list like this to his joke repertoire, but it’s fun to share and contribute to:

You might be a teacher if…

You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one
belongs to the child out of line.

You get a secret thrill out of laminating something.

You walk into a store and hear the words ‘It’s Ms/Mr. _________’
and know you have been spotted.

You have 25 people that accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time
or another.

You can eat a multi-course meal in under twenty-five minutes.

You’ve trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct
times of the day: lunch and prep period.

You start saving other people’s trash, because most likely, you
can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the
classroom.

You believe the teachers’ lounge should be equipped with a
margarita machine.

You want to slap the next person who says ‘Must be nice to work 7
to 3 and have summers off.’

You believe chocolate is a food group.

You can tell if it’s a full moon without ever looking outside.

You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says
‘Boy, the kids sure are mellow today.’

You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their
behavior when you are out in public.

You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own
children.

You can’t pass the school supply aisle without getting at least
five items!

You ask your friends if the left hand turn he just made was a
‘good choice or a bad choice.’

You find true beauty in a can full of perfectly sharpened
pencils.

You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer.

You have an overwhelming urge to nod and say, “Now
I understand why your kid is the way they are,” after
meeting the parents.

You believe “shallow gene pool” should have its own
box on report cards.

You hand pieces of paper to your friends and make
them spit out their gum in front of you.

You correct a total stranger’s grammar errors.

Any sustained loud noise causes you to impulsively
flick the light switch on and off.

You think it’s normal to go through four years of
college to earn a salary that’s below the poverty
line.

You send another adult to detention for using
four-letter words in public… and they go.

Don’t tell me you’re not laughing! Now add to the list!

In anticipation of our next move (yes, still nine or ten months away) I’ve been trying to get my thoughts arranged in a neat and orderly fashion. Thoughts of this, our temporary home, our daughter’s temporary school, this temporary time that my husband will actually be “mostly” home with us instead of deployed or going TDY hither and yon…this temporary time I’m away from a classroom. I operate well under stress, as long as it doesn’t overstay its welcome by more than oh, let’s say, a YEAR, but once the crisis is over, I require down-time to sort, examine, re-examine, file, and toss whatever fuzzy stuff remains from the experiences, trials, mistakes, and surprises that have kept me on my toes for so long. Even though our next move is ten months away, I’m trying to get my mind in order, get a clean slate, because of all of the other goodies Life is certain to throw our way in the months before we relocate. Long-term mental and physical exhaustion is never fun, at least not for me.

Moving from Alaska to New Mexico to Kansas to Texas in five years has been exciting yet has contributed to my extended fatigue. If you’re the type of person who hates to move, don’t join the military or marry anyone in it. I’d like to think I’ve gotten good at the routine: yard-saling a month prior to the packers showing up; researching the new post and outlying towns/cities; packing up my classroom and hauling everything home; making sure every member of the family has a traveling tub or suitcase already packed and stashed in the truck for use on the road; making sure the packers are happy (sodas, water, pizza, and cookies help tremendously); going through the house with a fine-tooth comb when the packers THINK they’re done; providing movers with pizza, water and Gatorade and making sure that they put a sticker on every single box and item before packing it all tighter than a Tetris Master could dream of on an eighteen-wheeler truck; cleaning the house for inspection; and finally, trying to keep everyone sane as we drive for hours on end with a toddler, a sleepy teenager, and a screaming cat. Our last move was even more fun as my husband had the Army equivalent of LASIK eye surgery two days after returning from his deployment to Iraq. He drove as if he were still in Iraq (looking for bad guys and things that “go boom” on the side of the road) with fuzzy vision. No folks, we’re not aiming for a repeat of that situation in Summer ‘08!

Once we arrive at our new home, we have to sign for housing, check out our daughter’s school, inventory the house (yes, PRIOR to our household goods arriving) for damage, repairs, etc. so we won’t be charged for them, and get the floorplan set in our minds before the UN-packers arrive with our furniture. We check over every sticker on every item (oh it was fun this year, many items had two, even three stickers so we had to cross-reference the items on three separate lists), sort, unpack the necessary stuff, and thank our lucky stars if we have enough storage closets to keep my classroom stash safe from the elements. Set up the rooms, get the kitchen in working order, have the house decorated so it feels more like home, and then on to the task of finding a job, daycare for the baby, and activities for the family once we know what my husband’s schedule will be. Our lives accomodate upheaval.

All of this moving, evaluation, research, preparation (not-so-successful attempts in some cases) and readjustment generates an excessive amount of information in my mind, and I’m not able to do a brain dump with it as efficiently as I’d like. Yes, I’m one of those perhaps annoying women who cleans her kitchen before starting a baking project. I clean my workspace before scrapbooking, I clear room in the middle of the floor before wrapping a pile of Christmas presents. But I haven’t been able to reach a state of mental tabula rosa lately. Too much information about school/teaching/administrative practices in Alaska, New Mexico, Kansas and Texas is floating around in my head, and I dread knowing that I get to add another state (possibly another country) to that list in a year’s time. I haven’t been in one place long enough to be able to get out of this compare/contrast mode so that I can operate within the new rules and put them on autopilot as I experience other things. Cultural differences, political differences, social differences, religious differences, environmental and climate differences all provide me with much-appreciated lessons on diversity but also overwhelm me. I suppose I’ve just figured out I don’t downshift as quickly as I’d like to be able to, and I question what it is I’m supposed to be doing with all of this information.

Tags: military life