Strange title, right? Well I don't want to start counting at Day 1 until the kids actually start their first day. Since that isn't until Wednesday, I figured I'd make today Day -1 and tomorrow Day 0. ;P
My feet hurt. I'm utterly exhausted. But my mind is still SO EXCITED. This is going to be an amazing year - I can already tell. Let me fill you in on what we did today.
We had to be there at 8:30 this morning for the first staff meeting of the year where we were all introduced and given little pins in the shapes of puzzle pieces attached to a message that more or less describes us student teachers as an integral part of the Flory family and inducted us as honorary Flory Falcons. Then we did a team building exercise where we had to build a bridge out of newspaper and it had to meet two requirements: 1) a soccer ball had to be able to roll underneath it, and 2) it had to support the weight of one dictionary. We succeeded, but we didn't make it to more than one dictionary haha.
After that we all went to lunch in a food court near school. It was nice because I just got to sit and talk with Mandy (my cooperating teacher) for a while. She's such a sweet lady, I'm so blessed to have had the cards work out in my favor. She's so energetic and funny and passionate about what she does. I couldn't have asked for a better role model in this important time in my life. It's so evident that she really cares about her students and holds them in her heart as if they were her own. That's a truly special quality to have as a teacher.
Then we came back and it was time for prep, prep, and more prep! I wrote kids names on things for hours haha. It's so funny that I'm already so familiar with their names and I haven't even seen their faces. I don't know them yet, but I already love them. No joke. All 22 of them. 22 little tinys whose parents will be dropping them off through some tearful goodbyes on Wednesday morning, trusting their most precious possessions in my hands. What a blessed job I am getting into.
After a short break and a quick pit stop to see my love and the rock who I think is going to help get me through the inevitable tough parts of this year, I was back at school for Back-to-School Night (BTSN)! There were a lot of parents, I think out of our class of 22, only three families didn't show up. What was most impressive was how many families showed up for the second session conducted for Spanish-speaking families. Our school serves a very diverse population, and with that comes a variance in socio-economic status. But putting language differences and SES aside, it was nice to see so many parents come out in support of the beginnings of their child's education. That's where it has to begin. If teachers have parents to work with that want the best for their child, they have so much more support than if they are going it alone. In Work Hard, Play Nice, I think that was a big contributor to their success - parent support gave them more freedoms in teaching and more support across the board.
With the high degree of English Language Learners and the poverty levels of families in the district, I think it will be really exciting to see how ACT strategies work in such a diverse environment. Definitely looking forward to it.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Saturday, June 15, 2013
"If you are serious about helping students from poverty to succeed, keep this in mind: your 1,260 hours have to be so spectacular that they can overcome the other 7,500 hours in your students' lives. Is your school that good?"
-Eric Jensen, Teaching with Poverty in Mind,
referring to the small percentage of hours in a
year students spend in their classrooms
Friday, June 14, 2013
An Awesome thought-instigator
So, I've pretty much dedicated myself already to looking for a job in a low-income school district that generally correlates with a lot of high-risk, low-socioeconomic status students. With that decision in mind, I bought a book a few months ago titled Teaching with Poverty in Mind by Eric Jensen and it's really caused me to do a lot of thinking about how I will have to change my class in little ways to accommodate for the variety of needs and deficits students will be bringing into my classroom. I've always said that a big appeal of teaching for me is to help every student realize how much potential they have inside them to be great and make differences in the world, but it's quite a conundrum to consider how I can get a group of students there who more often than not doesn't have support at home, or sometimes even enough food to eat.
The book is great at discussing how all "acting out" and poor behaviors is related to that child's poverty, and how the whole thing is really a cycle. A child is born into poverty, gets through school for as long as he can before dropping out, has a child before turning 20, gets a minimum wage paying job, can hardly afford to feed the family, can't afford preschool, doesn't have time to engage in conversation with their child, sends their child to public school...and that child repeats the whole process. And how can you expect a child to learn when their basic needs aren't being satisfied - when they have insecure attachments and no role models? The author points out that a classroom can be that nurturing environment, if a teacher is willing to break the cycle for those children. Coming to school in-and-of itself is not enough, a teacher needs to intervene and teach the emotions and the coping strategies and the sociability that a child is missing. It's so much more than just the curriculum.
The book's made me start thinking a bit about how I can get my students to believe in themselves and learn how to interact socially at an acceptable level that promotes success. Multiple times he suggests role playing or introducing scenarios...something that the ACT Program I'm working in advocates in all classrooms...to help students learn emotions beyond the basic six that every human is born with. Not only would students be gaining experience in handling emotions and making level-headed decisions, they would also be addressing higher level thinking skills - problem solving. I think of it in the elementary school setting as like a detective: having a period each day where I need my students to be the "Problem Solvers" in a particular situation.
I also think a lot about how to help boost student self-esteem and make them feel that they deserve to be successful. I am obsessed with the quote from The Help: "You are smart. You are beautiful. You are important." I know this is going to become sort of a mantra in my classroom, no matter what the grade level. I think it would also be ideal to increase self-esteem and cohesiveness amongst the group by having like a seminar circle at the end of every class or every week where the students have opportunities to compliment each other or point out something nice that someone did for someone else. Teach them how to interact with each other in an acceptable and kind way.
I don't know. I've got a while to think about it. And I've got another 100 pages or so left in the book. But...the book is really reaffirming my belief and my dedication to becoming a teacher for students that need the most help and the most love.
The book is great at discussing how all "acting out" and poor behaviors is related to that child's poverty, and how the whole thing is really a cycle. A child is born into poverty, gets through school for as long as he can before dropping out, has a child before turning 20, gets a minimum wage paying job, can hardly afford to feed the family, can't afford preschool, doesn't have time to engage in conversation with their child, sends their child to public school...and that child repeats the whole process. And how can you expect a child to learn when their basic needs aren't being satisfied - when they have insecure attachments and no role models? The author points out that a classroom can be that nurturing environment, if a teacher is willing to break the cycle for those children. Coming to school in-and-of itself is not enough, a teacher needs to intervene and teach the emotions and the coping strategies and the sociability that a child is missing. It's so much more than just the curriculum.
The book's made me start thinking a bit about how I can get my students to believe in themselves and learn how to interact socially at an acceptable level that promotes success. Multiple times he suggests role playing or introducing scenarios...something that the ACT Program I'm working in advocates in all classrooms...to help students learn emotions beyond the basic six that every human is born with. Not only would students be gaining experience in handling emotions and making level-headed decisions, they would also be addressing higher level thinking skills - problem solving. I think of it in the elementary school setting as like a detective: having a period each day where I need my students to be the "Problem Solvers" in a particular situation.
I also think a lot about how to help boost student self-esteem and make them feel that they deserve to be successful. I am obsessed with the quote from The Help: "You are smart. You are beautiful. You are important." I know this is going to become sort of a mantra in my classroom, no matter what the grade level. I think it would also be ideal to increase self-esteem and cohesiveness amongst the group by having like a seminar circle at the end of every class or every week where the students have opportunities to compliment each other or point out something nice that someone did for someone else. Teach them how to interact with each other in an acceptable and kind way.
I don't know. I've got a while to think about it. And I've got another 100 pages or so left in the book. But...the book is really reaffirming my belief and my dedication to becoming a teacher for students that need the most help and the most love.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
I'm back! (For real)
Phew. What a long hiatus. However, the hiatus was only from this blog, not from my work with kids. That never stops and that's probably playing a large part in why blogging came to a standstill, but it's been fun nevertheless. Here's a quick update on what I've been doing:
-Once a week volunteering in kindergarten still. First year teacher who is doing an outstanding job with a pretty challenging group of kids. I'm excited because I'll be here to see them "graduate" this year! :o)
-Coaching. The usual, but my group has grown tremendously and it's very exciting!
-Sign language. I took a beginning sign language this semester to add some basics to my memory to be used in the classroom once I'm out and working.
-Applying for the credential program! This one is the most exciting, as it most directly relates to an eventual classroom of my own. I applied and was accepted to the program and I will be continuing to work with kindergarteners at Flory, but now as a student teacher! Woohoo! My part-time assignment will be with 5th graders, a whole new world for me, so I'm sure I'll get some good experience from that too.
So where am I at now? I graduated Magna Cum Laude with my degree in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in Physical Education and a minor in Spanish. Before I even graduated, I was offered a position by my most favorite professor as a Graduate Assistant (G.A.), helping him with his school visits and writing reports about his studies and experiences under his ACT program, a self-created program that reaches out to local schools and teachers and instructs them on how to incorporate theatre arts into curriculum and in what ways it actually enriches learning. I'm so excited!!
So with that, we are doing mostly school visits until school gets out in the middle of June. The first one that I accompanied him on was today, to a kindergarten classroom. The goals for the day were:
1) Review the parts of the story of The Three Little Pigs
2) Count by 2s, 5s, 10s
3) Identify and relate pennies, nickels, dimes
Obviously, the goal is to do all of this with drama infused into the lessons. Dr. M. had taught them how to act out The Three Little Pigs the week before, so they did a review of it this morning. It was amazing because after a long weekend, the children were able to remember all the lines, characters, and plot from the story based on the "acting" they had done last week. And the little wolf was so cute! He tried his hardest to speak in a scary deep little voice and he was so proud of himself!
Counting by 5s and 10s involved a dance which was great. Counting by 2s was a little more challenging because the kindergarteners hadn't learned that yet. But we did a little bit of teaching on that based on using the children themselves as visuals and manipulatives. And the money part was fun because we used hand gestures to help the kids think about how many pennies were in a nickel or a dime; which is pretty much the beginnings of learning how to make change.
Some of them got it, some of them didn't quite get there...but every single one was engaged and putting forth an effort, which is what I think is the coolest part about the ACT program. It's so engaging and it really adds an element of fun to learning, something that changes the way a lot of children look at school.
Excited doesn't begin to describe how I feel about the potentials this summer job is offering me. I think euphoric is better. I drove home with a smile on my face and the wind in my hair, knowing this was going to be a fantastic summer and truly feeling that I am living out my dreams.
-Once a week volunteering in kindergarten still. First year teacher who is doing an outstanding job with a pretty challenging group of kids. I'm excited because I'll be here to see them "graduate" this year! :o)
-Coaching. The usual, but my group has grown tremendously and it's very exciting!
-Sign language. I took a beginning sign language this semester to add some basics to my memory to be used in the classroom once I'm out and working.
-Applying for the credential program! This one is the most exciting, as it most directly relates to an eventual classroom of my own. I applied and was accepted to the program and I will be continuing to work with kindergarteners at Flory, but now as a student teacher! Woohoo! My part-time assignment will be with 5th graders, a whole new world for me, so I'm sure I'll get some good experience from that too.
So where am I at now? I graduated Magna Cum Laude with my degree in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in Physical Education and a minor in Spanish. Before I even graduated, I was offered a position by my most favorite professor as a Graduate Assistant (G.A.), helping him with his school visits and writing reports about his studies and experiences under his ACT program, a self-created program that reaches out to local schools and teachers and instructs them on how to incorporate theatre arts into curriculum and in what ways it actually enriches learning. I'm so excited!!
So with that, we are doing mostly school visits until school gets out in the middle of June. The first one that I accompanied him on was today, to a kindergarten classroom. The goals for the day were:
1) Review the parts of the story of The Three Little Pigs
2) Count by 2s, 5s, 10s
3) Identify and relate pennies, nickels, dimes
Obviously, the goal is to do all of this with drama infused into the lessons. Dr. M. had taught them how to act out The Three Little Pigs the week before, so they did a review of it this morning. It was amazing because after a long weekend, the children were able to remember all the lines, characters, and plot from the story based on the "acting" they had done last week. And the little wolf was so cute! He tried his hardest to speak in a scary deep little voice and he was so proud of himself!
Counting by 5s and 10s involved a dance which was great. Counting by 2s was a little more challenging because the kindergarteners hadn't learned that yet. But we did a little bit of teaching on that based on using the children themselves as visuals and manipulatives. And the money part was fun because we used hand gestures to help the kids think about how many pennies were in a nickel or a dime; which is pretty much the beginnings of learning how to make change.
Some of them got it, some of them didn't quite get there...but every single one was engaged and putting forth an effort, which is what I think is the coolest part about the ACT program. It's so engaging and it really adds an element of fun to learning, something that changes the way a lot of children look at school.
Excited doesn't begin to describe how I feel about the potentials this summer job is offering me. I think euphoric is better. I drove home with a smile on my face and the wind in my hair, knowing this was going to be a fantastic summer and truly feeling that I am living out my dreams.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
I've Been a Terrible Blogger
And I fully acknowledge that. But sometimes being a busy undergraduate student takes priority over blogging...and sometimes you just need to have a little bit of a social life so you don't go crazy because of the academics. School is over for me now, and my last day in Room 3 for the school year is this coming Thursday. I can't believe the year is over; my, how time flies.
To catch you all up on what you've missed while I was absent (pictures to come later):
We went on a field trip to Albertsons to learn about healthy foods and unhealthy foods ("all-the-time food" vs. "sometimes-food") and to learn about different jobs in the community. It rained for the walk there and, although cold and a little soggy, all of the Room 3 students were very well behaved. They were so excited to be able to go off campus as a group, but most of them didn't even need reminders to behave responsibly. This was one of those activities that absolutely would not have been possible without willing parent volunteers. I left my camera at home on accident, so all my pictures were taken on my phone.
The last couple weeks have been dedicated to making a Mothers Day project with the kids - it's kind of been my last hurrah; a project that was completely my doing from start to finish. We spent two days paper-mache-ing canisters, two days painting, and one day on finishing touches, to create a pencil holder for them to gift to their moms today (Mothers Day). Very messy, very high energy, very tedious...but they all turned out pretty great in the end. :)
Last Thursday I did my last pacer test for Room 2 and Room 3 students. They were absolutely amazed at how many laps they are now able to do, and I was amazed at how first-grade-like they were behaved for the entire process. It went so smoothly, I almost couldn't believe it was the same group of kids that I tested last September. It was also teacher appreciation week, and I got a boatload of flowers and some fresh fruit.
I finished my final presentation for my Internship Class, and my professor couldn't stop raving about what a great opportunity I'd been given. I didn't know what else to say besides, "I know, I've been very lucky." Because it truly is just as simple as that. I'm preparing to fight the waterworks on Thursday...I can't possibly fathom saying goodbye to this group of 28 munchkins.
To catch you all up on what you've missed while I was absent (pictures to come later):
We went on a field trip to Albertsons to learn about healthy foods and unhealthy foods ("all-the-time food" vs. "sometimes-food") and to learn about different jobs in the community. It rained for the walk there and, although cold and a little soggy, all of the Room 3 students were very well behaved. They were so excited to be able to go off campus as a group, but most of them didn't even need reminders to behave responsibly. This was one of those activities that absolutely would not have been possible without willing parent volunteers. I left my camera at home on accident, so all my pictures were taken on my phone.
The last couple weeks have been dedicated to making a Mothers Day project with the kids - it's kind of been my last hurrah; a project that was completely my doing from start to finish. We spent two days paper-mache-ing canisters, two days painting, and one day on finishing touches, to create a pencil holder for them to gift to their moms today (Mothers Day). Very messy, very high energy, very tedious...but they all turned out pretty great in the end. :)
Last Thursday I did my last pacer test for Room 2 and Room 3 students. They were absolutely amazed at how many laps they are now able to do, and I was amazed at how first-grade-like they were behaved for the entire process. It went so smoothly, I almost couldn't believe it was the same group of kids that I tested last September. It was also teacher appreciation week, and I got a boatload of flowers and some fresh fruit.
I finished my final presentation for my Internship Class, and my professor couldn't stop raving about what a great opportunity I'd been given. I didn't know what else to say besides, "I know, I've been very lucky." Because it truly is just as simple as that. I'm preparing to fight the waterworks on Thursday...I can't possibly fathom saying goodbye to this group of 28 munchkins.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Thursday, April 12th
Academically? Easy day.
Behaviorally? Could have gone better.
Squirrelly kids today, I tell ya. Must be something in the water. Or the rain - I'm convinced the rain just makes living things a little wacky. Anyway, today was a pretty laid back day; but for some reason behavior failed to be in accordance with that. Owen got sent to the back of the room multiple times, two Room 4 students lost their recess because of poor behavior in their ELD class, and Drew and Nicholas both lost recess time for poor behavior with me during center rotation.
This morning we went through normal morning routine - the letter of the week is X and we have started a science unit on plants. After morning routine, the kids got to get out the Sparkies (hand held devices for taking digital quizzes) and practice some number and word recognition on the Promethean Board. Poor Mrs. Brasler, she is trying really hard to get up-to-date on all the technical innovations, but everything keeps giving her trouble. She's getting there though! The kids got scolded during this time for not taking it seriously. All it took was the threat of never doing Sparkies again to get them to get more serious and focused on the activity.
Today was Mrs. Magdalena's birthday! She is one of the yard duties, and she teaches the kids PE every week. She is a really sweet lady and Mrs. Brasler made a giant card for her that all of the students got to sign their names on. When she came out for recess they were all SO excited to tell her happy birthday; you could tell it really meant a lot to her. And I can relate...those were my favorite birthday wishes of the whole day when I was at Room 3 for my birthday.
During centers, we played High Frequency Word Bingo! Very fun and a good way for them to practice recognizing words that they can't sound out. It didn't require a whole lot of brain power for me either, which was a nice break after this week....
In a couple weeks, I get to go on my first ever kindergarten field trip! We'll be learning about different jobs in our community, so we are walking (yes, all 28 5-6 year olds are going to successfully walk together) down the street to the Albertson's. My first "chaperone" experience! I'm probably more excited for it than they are. Maybe I'll do some grocery shopping while I'm there...just kidding! :)
Still counting down the days until Room 3 transforms into a bunch of 1st graders! After today, they have just 34 more school days...
Behaviorally? Could have gone better.
Squirrelly kids today, I tell ya. Must be something in the water. Or the rain - I'm convinced the rain just makes living things a little wacky. Anyway, today was a pretty laid back day; but for some reason behavior failed to be in accordance with that. Owen got sent to the back of the room multiple times, two Room 4 students lost their recess because of poor behavior in their ELD class, and Drew and Nicholas both lost recess time for poor behavior with me during center rotation.
This morning we went through normal morning routine - the letter of the week is X and we have started a science unit on plants. After morning routine, the kids got to get out the Sparkies (hand held devices for taking digital quizzes) and practice some number and word recognition on the Promethean Board. Poor Mrs. Brasler, she is trying really hard to get up-to-date on all the technical innovations, but everything keeps giving her trouble. She's getting there though! The kids got scolded during this time for not taking it seriously. All it took was the threat of never doing Sparkies again to get them to get more serious and focused on the activity.
Today was Mrs. Magdalena's birthday! She is one of the yard duties, and she teaches the kids PE every week. She is a really sweet lady and Mrs. Brasler made a giant card for her that all of the students got to sign their names on. When she came out for recess they were all SO excited to tell her happy birthday; you could tell it really meant a lot to her. And I can relate...those were my favorite birthday wishes of the whole day when I was at Room 3 for my birthday.
During centers, we played High Frequency Word Bingo! Very fun and a good way for them to practice recognizing words that they can't sound out. It didn't require a whole lot of brain power for me either, which was a nice break after this week....
In a couple weeks, I get to go on my first ever kindergarten field trip! We'll be learning about different jobs in our community, so we are walking (yes, all 28 5-6 year olds are going to successfully walk together) down the street to the Albertson's. My first "chaperone" experience! I'm probably more excited for it than they are. Maybe I'll do some grocery shopping while I'm there...just kidding! :)
Still counting down the days until Room 3 transforms into a bunch of 1st graders! After today, they have just 34 more school days...
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