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.

Pity Party

I'm sick.
I had to miss kindergarten today.
I'm not happy about that.
Hmph.

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...

Feelin' the Love

My friend and fellow teacher-in-training, Emily, observed in Room 3 this Monday (I wasn't there). She came back and told me that Fabian missed me. Of course, I asked what made her think that, and the following is the conversation she relayed to me:

Fabian: You're not Miss Downing.
Emily: No, she doesn't come on Mondays, I'm just here for today.
Fabian: Well is she coming back?
Emily: Yes...
Fabian: Okay good.

♥ I love my Room 3! I haven't seen them yet this week because I had to teach in 3rd grade again on Tuesday and then observe 1st grade later in the afternoon.

I do have to say, this 3rd grade lesson went a lot better than the first (even though we started a little bit later than planned). The kids were far more mellow and respectful, and it helped that the teacher was a little more participatory than in the last class. Emily and I were both sick from the craziness of the week before, but we got up there and we remembered our mistakes from the last time and we modified our lesson accordingly. It was pretty neat to see how even just teaching the same thing two times was enough to make drastic changes that really aided in the execution of the lesson. I imagine that to be a small scale illustration of the changes between the first year of teaching and the second year. Hmm. I guess I'll find out one day.

Four and a half weeks left with Room 3! :( Can't believe how fast the year has gone...

Thursday, April 5th

Four days in a row of germy 7 and unders gave me what some may call an "unavoidable" cold. Boo. :( So yesterday was a rough day; I'm convinced that losing your voice or having a sore throat is the absolutely worst thing that could happen to a teacher. It just adds all kinds of new problems to your day.

In the morning I got to help kids one on one with math that they had a hard time with, and then finish reading the phonics book with the kids I hadn't read with on Tuesday. It's amazing how much you can pick up about what aspects of reading a student struggles with just by sitting and listening to them read for about 10 minutes. Kimberly sounds out consonants really well, but struggles with identifying the sounds that go with the vowels. Andrea can sound out words and put the sounds together into a real word, but she struggles with recognizing the same word multiple times. Lizzeth can sound out each letter, but when she tries to put them together, she works backwards. Angel also struggles with re-recognizing words he has just identified. We were late to the library today so it was all a little rushed; and we were missing two library books so I went on a hunt through alllllll the book bins in room 3. No luck.

For centers, we made bunny helicopters! Really fun, but also really hard to keep them quiet in the classroom setting. It was really cute though, and the kids took the job of cutting it out very seriously once they understood that if they cut it sloppy, it would be less likely to fly. After it was cut out, one ear was folded forward and the other was folded backward, like the propellors of a helicopter. The bottom was folded and a paper clip was placed on the bottom to make it more weighted. After that we got to take them outside to fly them; it was a perfect day for it too because there was a gentle breeze that could pick up the bunny-copter and keep it up in the air for longer. Nicholas let his go and the wind kept it up in the air for about 10 seconds!

After recess, I had the challenge of teaching it to all 10 of the ELD students at once. With the use of visuals (I modified the activity so that I was actually doing it with them, instead of just having an already completed example for them to look at), they all followed along pretty well! They all finished in time and got the chance to go out and fly them before computer lab. Ashley has been really focused in all the centers she's done with me lately, and let me tell you, that has been such a nice change. She's finally getting to level that most of the kids came in at; that is a huge relief.

For the students I'd worked with during normal center time, after we finished our bunny-copters, we talked about capacity. We had a bunch of different cups and bowls and small blocks to fill them with. We talked about how we were measuring how many blocks each container could carry and how more blocks meant that cup had a bigger capacity than one that held less blocks. We used vocabulary like "biggest" and "greatest" and "smallest" and "least." All words I've been listening to first graders use this week, but at a more advanced stage. I'm so excited for my kindergartners to move on to first grade and continue to grow. :)

Tuesday, April 3rd

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera today...we learned how to play jacks! Another reminder of how young they really are. The hand-to-eye coordination was just not there, haha. But it was so cute! And they would be so proud of themselves for catching the ball, no matter how awkwardly caught it was.

Before I even let them touch the jacks, they had to practice bouncing the ball once and catching it; a challenging task in itself for many who just could not seem to catch anything that was smaller than your average kickball. Then we started with one big plastic jack; making modifications to the process for the kids who struggled more than others. But it was never really the jack part that was the problem, it was all about trying to catch that tiny ball! After they practiced with plastic jacks, they got to start with metal ones, and as they mastered picking up one jack, they got to try doing two, then three, then four. No one really made it past 3 or 4. But every time they did something new (even if it was just catching that tricky ball), it would be echoed by "Miss Downing! I did it! Miss Downing! Watch me!"

Thankfully, we played this outside otherwise we would have been a total disturbance to all of the other centers. We had a sub for center time, while Mrs. Brasler was observing student teachers in other classes. She was nice and great with the kids; but I definitely saw how hard it can be to come into a classroom where you aren't familiar with the kids or the routine.

Our new motivation for ideal classroom behavior is, "I don't think that's how a first grader would act..." Man, does that sentence carry power! But...I can't believe they are so close to be first graders! It seems like they just walked into Room 3 as scared little five-year-olds not that long ago. Time flies.

First Grade, First Grade

Yesterday I went and observed a first grade class down the hall from Room 3; I needed to go to a class where the kids weren't used to me being there because I was supposed to just sit and watch, not work like I usually do. So I went and sat in the back of Room 7 for the entire school day. The really cute part was that some of the kids in that class remembered me from when I worked in Room 3 with them last school year. One girl, Mia, walked up to me and skeptically said, "You look like someone I know..." and I asked her if she remembered me from Room 3. She pondered it, wagged her finger at me, and said "Thaaaaat's it..." Haha.

It was so weird to just sit and watch. I did help out a couple times by the teacher's request, but nothing like I normally do in Room 3. I forgot what it was like to sit in class for a whole school day! It's even more tiring when you're one of the authority figures that all 28 kids come to!

Here's an outline of how their day went:
Morning warmups
Carpet time - learning about adding '-ing' to the end of words
Reading "Johnny Appleseed"
Short Recess
Read-to-Self time
Center Rotation
Lunch
Independent Math practice with games
Math Lesson

I'm not going to lie...I really liked it. I still think I like kindergarten more; but I could definitely see myself in first grade after yesterday. They're still young and growing at exponential rates, but there is also more content that they are responsible for learning. And the organization the teacher had going in the room was outstanding and inspiring. She treated each of the children like individuals and they each had standards they were held to and responsibilities that they were expected to fulfill. Her classroom management was like what you read in books about - she could work independently with one student or a group of students, and have the other students being productive and learning independently without her being right there overseeing it. It was nice to see that that kind of classroom environment really is possible; it was really motivating for me as a future teacher.

So as much as I enjoyed the day, my favorite part was seeing my kindergarteners at lunch time. :) Two of the boys came running up to me shouting, "Miss Downing! You're back!" And I walked over to see everyone else and all the girls were so thrilled and I got so many hugs and so many hellos and so much love...it was just nice to know that my presence and my influence means that much to them. That's what makes it worth it on the days that you feel like you're not making a difference.

An Introduction to 3rd Grade

So as a Liberal Studies major, teaching hours or observation hours are required in a lot of my classes (taking the place of research papers and the like). This last week I taught a California History lesson to a group of 3rd graders at a Newbury Park elementary school. Despite the chaos and the late nights that went into planning and organizing and creating the lesson, I was pretty happy with how it turned out. It was also more fun because it was a dual teaching assignment with one of my best friends here at school.

So the premise of the lesson was "Who has walked here before you?" We were to present 5-6 of the cultures that walked in this area in the history of California and present a cultural activity that the students could participate in. This relates specifically to Community, which is the theme of 3rd grade history (actual California history is in 4th grade). So we outlined our lesson plan to include the contributions and impact of the Chumash, the Spanish, the Basque, the African-Americans, the Chinese, and the Norwegians.

We incorporated creative dramatics and had them imagine that they travelled back in time and were walking back forward to present day, meeting a specific person from each culture in the time that they were most prevalent in this area, and having that person introduce them to the activity for each lesson. Here's what we did for each culture:
Chumash - Traditional game of chance
Spanish - Decorating sombreros
Basque - Learning a children's dance
African-Americans - simulating the blacksmith experience by creating "tools" out of pipe cleaners
Chinese - Learning to write Chinese symbols and know what they mean
Norwegians - Number ordering contest

It was a lot to cover in 40 minutes and it was incredibly chaotic. But the students had fun and the teacher had really great feedback for us. Honestly though, I would never try and incorporate that much stuff into such a short period of time. There's a difference between being ambitious and unrealistic. But we made it through...barely! The students had some good reflections for us, too.

I know I can't base my whole decision on this one experience...but I walked out of that classroom feeling really affirmed in my desire to teach LOWER elementary. The students were still fun and young and interesting....but based on this one experience...I prefer my Room 3 munchkins. :)

I get to go teach it again to a different school in a couple weeks. A less financially well-off school (the one I went to this week was bigger than my high school and had only 21 kids per class!). We'll see how that one goes, stay tuned for some more perspectives on this one.

Oopsie...

I have been a bad, bad blogger. But let's be honest, I knew this was going to happen as the semester wound down and project due dates approached. Let me back up a little bit...

Two weeks ago the kids were on spring break so I didn't see them. As much as I missed their smiling faces, I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy sleeping in on Tuesday and Thursday. :)

I went this Tuesday (March 27th) and they were so excited to see me (as I was to see them)! They all had stories to tell me and things they needed to catch me up on...it was wonderful. I love feeling that I am someone they look forward to talking to. Morning routine was the usual, I helped on some math corrections for kids who didn't understand the lesson from the day before. Centers were really loud - lots of high energy. But mine was pretty quiet and everyone stayed pretty focused. We were making our own book titled "Graph it!" Working together with their cooperative learning group, they graphed different animals in a picture using bar graphs and answered some questions based on the information they saw in their graph. It was strange to think about these little five year olds doing graphing; I don't remember ever doing graphing when I was in kindergarten, but most of them didn't even have a hard time with it.

The most shocking part for me was how easily it came to some of our ELD students, particularly Ashley. She has a really hard time staying focused and getting things accomplished; she entered our class at the beginning of the year significantly farther behind developmentally than many other of the students. So while she has progressed, she will probably be repeating kindergarten. But she stayed really focused during the graphing activity - I don't know if the methodical/repetitive actions of the activity were helpful to her, or if it was just something that she truly understood. But she was understanding and progressing through it faster than some of the other kids. It brought a smile to my face and one to her's too; I think she needs to start feeling proud of herself and to build some confidence in her abilities.

It's hard to believe I only have 5 more weeks with them. I will be so sad to leave them when my school year is over and theirs still has another month. I wish I could be there to watch them be promoted to first grade; but I'll be in Costa Rica hopefully volunteering in a local elementary school in the area I will be studying in (new blogging adventures!).

I'm on spring break now so I will have a lot of blogging time. Not only will I be in Room 3 on Tuesday and Thursday, but I will be observing a first grade class on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Busy week coming up, but I'm sure that it will be very enjoyable. :)

Academics Took Over

And that is why I've fallen behind on my blog updates. Honestly, I barely even remember Tuesday. Thursday we spent most of the day doing St. Patrick's Day activities. They got to make their own leprechaun traps out of blocks and legos, and all week they had an optional homework assignment of building leprechaun traps at home and bringing them into the class. It was the highest participation I've seen on any optional homework for the entire year. They were pretty creative; you could even see their personalities reflected in some of them. :)

I'm teaching them how to jump rope at recess, so every day I come home with this stuck in my head:
Cinderella dressed in yellow
Went upstairs to kiss a fellow
Made a mistake
And kissed a snake!
How many doctors will it take?
1...2...3...
They're doing pretty well! I get a line of all the kindergarteners from all the other classes too; they all just love the attention so they want to try whether they know how to do it or not.

We've been doing a lot of reading practicing in the mornings, and there is no other activity that makes me see how much they've grown as much as that does. Andrea and Briseida both read an entire story to me, sounding out letters and blending them together to form words. Call me a nerd, but I think it is so exciting to watch a child learn how to read. Reading just opens up this whole new world that they will have access to for the rest of their lives.

There was a lot of imagination going on this week too...leprechauns "tickling legs" and "crawling under tables," but obviously, no one can see them. They don't like to be seen by people, right? Haha, what a great holiday for stimulating story-telling.

Little Socrates and Shakespeares

Big philosophical and eventful day for kindergarten. I think this ranks up there as one of my best days yet, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the content for instruction for the day - so let me just get that part out of the way first.

Thursday - cutting out pictures for their frog metamorphosis project, library time, centers where we made animal cubes. One cube that they colored and I folded and taped had animal heads on it, and the other cube had animal bodies. They were supposed to stack the cubes after they were made to match the animals, or create silly animals of their own. Ok, moving on.

Story #1. Ryan came and sat down at my table during center rotations, and all of the seats were full except the one right next to him. Austin was the last one to arrive at the table, so that was to be his seat. He looked at me and said, "Well Ms. Downing, I don't want to sit next to Ryan." I looked at Austin, looked at Ryan, and then back to Austin. I could handle this situation in one of two ways: 1) I could tell Austin that I'm sorry he felt that way but that is where he is going to sit, or 2) I could have a little lesson on kindness and empathy. I went with my second option and said to Austin, "Well that wasn't a very nice thing to say. I think you know how to be a kind friend, Austin, but that wasn't a very kind friend thing for you to say to Ryan. How would you feel if someone said that to you?" Austin slowly sat down and said, "I would feel sad…" I asked him if he thought he should apologize to Ryan and he said yes, so he did. I moved on with the lesson, but within seconds, Ryan quietly said, "Thank you, Ms. Downing." I said, "You are very welcome," but as I said it, I was struck with how powerful that thank you was. It would have been easier and far more convenient to dismiss Austin's comment and just tell him, "Too bad, that's where you are sitting." But how often do things like this happen and teacher's don't take the time to address the real problem of the situation? The problem wasn't that Austin wouldn't sit down, the problem was that he was saying hurtful things to Ryan, that he may not have originally seen as hurtful.

Story #2. Sophia loves cats; it wouldn't even be too much of a stretch to say she is obsessed with cats. Well, yesterday her mother came into the class before school started to inform us that Sophia may be having a rough day because the night before, her cat Ernie had died. I immediately understood that this was not an easy event to overcome for her as the young animal lover that she is, as did Mrs. Brasler. She asked Sophia's mother if it would be okay for her to use this as a platform to have a discussion about death that morning, in a sensitive and empathetic manner. With the okay, before doing the morning sharing of celebrations that the students may have to offer, Mrs. Brasler invited Sophia up to the front of the room for a hug and to talk about what happened with her cat. Sophia teared up a little bit and shared what happened, and then Mrs. Brasler talked about death being a terribly sad thing, but also a reality. She then shared that when a person or a pet close to you dies, you may be sad for a while, but you have to know that it will be okay because you are going to carry them with you in your heart forever. As she said this, Sophia put her little hand over her heart and I absolutely thought I was going to lose it. All the other kids in the class were so quiet and respectful, and wanted to share how sad they were for her, and how they could understand because they too had known people or pets that had died. Mrs. Brasler pointed out how we are never alone in our experiences, as shown by all the other students who had experienced losses similar to hers.

Needless to say, death was the discussion among the kids for a great part of the rest of the day. Not in a bad way, but just sharing stories about pets they once had that died. But here's the real kicker…you ready? Adrianne comes up to me after another student had been telling me about a dog that died and says, "I keep my grandpa in my heart because he died, but I still love him." Right!? Break my heart.

Story #3. Not as emotional and heartfelt, more of an interesting experience to be a part of. The Kingsmen Shakespearean Company came to do little performance/history lesson on Shakespeare. They started out by talking about who Shakespeare was, and the time period that he lived in. The two actors had created a "play" that they wanted to present to Shakespeare, but they needed Room 3 to help by being actors in their play titled The Storm. They traveled back in time to go present the play to Shakespeare, but along the way they ripped a hole in their pants and had to call a tailor, broke their shoe and had to call a cobbler, and got hungry and had to call a muffin-man. They finally made it to Shakespeare and acted out their play, where 1/3 of the class was the rain, 1/3 of the class was the wind, and 1/3 of the class was the thunder. Every single child was absolutely riveted. They were involved and they were learning and they were having an absolutely fantastic time. They learned about the Elizabethan period, but to them it was all fun and games. They learned to curtsey and bow, they learned that "Huzzah!" means hello and good job, they learned that "Cease!" was the command to stop, they learned about Shakespeare and the Globe Theatre, and they learned about jobs that people may have had during Shakespeare's time. The actors pretended that their idea of The Storm was what inspired the play The Tempest, and they avidly used their imaginations to pretend they were time traveling and encountering different obstacles along the way. The enthusiasm and the energy were catching. It was a flawless blend of Theatre Arts and standard curriculum and it was a pretty inspirational thing to watch as a future teacher. You can bring the arts into your classroom and keep up with the standards and required curriculum, as long as you are willing to put in the creativity. Something like that would be a great activity for the start of a new lesson, like an overview style. I enjoyed it almost as much as the kids, and it definitely got my brain thinking.

Tuesday, March 6th

Yesterday was a drizzly sort of day; muddy shoes means sock feet on the calendar rug and lots of shoe tying for me. The letter of the week is Y and we have started our unit on animals; this week's poem is about giraffes and their silence. It's a nice, relaxing week after the craziness and eventfulness of the last few with President's Day and Dr. Seuss Day.

One of our parent volunteers couldn't be there to help, so I took over her center and the kids at my typical center had floor puzzles with animals to work on instead. At Center 3 we worked on a cutting/pasting and matching activity. Each child had a piece of paper with 10 animals on it - 2 mammals (a boy and a girl), 2 insects (a ladybug and a grasshopper), 2 birds (an eagle and a flamingo), 2 reptiles (a snake, and a tortoise), and 2 fish - all mixed up. Their assignment was to cut up these 10 pieces and glue them in the correct categories on a second piece of paper. *Side note, the general rule is "Cut one, glue one" to prevent students from cutting all ten at the same time and undoubtedly losing one or more. Great rule, but not fool proof - we still lost at least one animal per rotation.*

We worked on it as a group, talking about what qualities define animals as mammals or reptiles, why birds can fly but humans can't, and how different animals move. I love being able to have these open ended discussions with them where I can pose a question and they can take off with it, relating it to things they already know or have experienced. They feel so much more eager to learn in discussions like that, not that they aren't eager to learn always. But it makes me realize how beneficial it can be to make information relatable to students in later grades, where eagerness may not be as common. I read about it in all my text books all the time, but it's different to actually see it in practice. It feels more real that way, you know?

Favorite part of the day? Blowing five year old minds when telling them flamingos aren't born pink. And then hearing Ethan say, "What if when kids became grownups, their normal hair turned pink?" and all the other kids getting wide-eyed and grabbing their hair…so imaginative. Love it.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities."

Happy Birthday to a revolutionary of children's literature, Theodore Geisel! Today would have been his 108th birthday, and his life and his work was celebrated in elementary schools across the nation - Pajama Days, Literacy Nights, Book Readings, Arts & Crafts, etc. A big advocate of imagination and the power of reading, Dr. Seuss wrote timeless stories that will probably be enjoyed for as long as there are books to read.

Room 3 has been celebrating all week with readings and a Wednesday night literacy night for the whole school, and many Cat-in-the-Hat crafts at center time. Today we made Thing 1/Thing 2 out of handprints and did some fun Dr. Seuss themed activities on the Promethean board. They also got to wear their Cat-in-the-Hat hats that they had painted earlier in the week.

Today was Specialty Day - every Friday the kids go to Science Lab, Computer Lab, and Math Lab all before lunch. It's pretty neat that the school is able to do these things for the students; they get benefits in these subjects that other schools may not be as lucky to have. The kids don't realize it now...but I think they'll look back on it fondly and realize what a neat experience that was.

In Science Lab we talked about animals and how they move. The teacher started them out with a brainstorm about how different animals move, and then they got to dance to a song called "Animal Action" and practice their different animal movements.

After this she took them over to the tables to watch a video that had different animals and their motions, and then reinforced the different ways animals can move by having them help her create a list of animal motions on the Promethean Board. Needless to say, they were very wound up, but it was a good kind of wound up. And it was a good reminder of how young they really are - watching them move around and dance to a song as simple as this and just have a wonderful time.

In Computer Lab, they got to explore a new website - ABCya.com. Today's focus was on the math activities, and they were so engaged. They went from wild and crazy animal students to focused and mature students in the matter of a short walk from science to computers.

I didn't stay for all of Math Lab because they weren't doing a full lesson today. They were however learning about the up and coming World Math Day! Each of them has been given their own profile on the website where they can participate in Math activities on Math Day.

I left when they went to lunch, because they have minimum days on Fridays - they get out at one so they only had a brief amount of time left in class anyway.

In other news, on the first Friday of every month there is an assembly for the Students of the Month in each class; teacher's decide on a girl and boy from their class who wins the title each month, and they go to an assembly that their families are invited to and they receive an award. My focus student, Lizzeth, was Student of the Month! And she got all dressed up and looked so cute and was so proud of herself...oh my gosh, the wonders it will do for her confidence. I'm so proud of her, too.

Tuesday, February 28th

This morning's prep work included my gluing these lions onto background papers and cutting up a bunch of teenie pieces of yarn that the kids were going to glue on for the lion's mane Thursday during centers. We're getting into things that I remember doing with last year's students, so I'm more familiar with the activities and starting to recall what things worked/didn't work with the class last year.

I got to read with my focus students during morning routine; watching a child learn to read is seriously one of the most wild things. I mean, I don't remember learning to read, I just know that at one point I couldn't, and now I can. So to actually watch the progress of a student who barely knows the alphabet at the beginning of the school year to a student that can read full sentences...wow. It's so exciting to listen to them sound out each letter and then smush them all together to form a word. They do their little animal symbols for each letter, and then when they say the word they do one big CLAP that symbolizes all the letters coming together into a word.

I didn't get to do anything really fun at centers today - I was monitoring the finishing of the "Shape Books" where they are creating objects out of different shapes. It was just stressful. But I think this was the last day of it, fingers crossed.

The room is all decorated for Dr. Seuss Day! They've spent all week doing related activities, but the actual Dr. Seuss Day is tomorrow (Friday, March 2nd). I didn't go to Room Three today because I wanted to be there tomorrow to read a Dr. Seuss book to them and help them with their crafts (we'll be making Thing 1 and Thing 2 out of handprints). It's also their Special Lessons day - they go to the computer lab and the science lab...so I'll get to go and observe some different activities that I'm not usually a part of; looking forward to it!

Missing

The sad news is....

I left my camera in Room 3.

This is bad for two reasons:
1) No pictures for my blog until next week.
2) Mrs. Brasler has a sub today so I can't even email her to put it in her desk until I get there Tuesday.

I know exactly where it is, on top of the cubbies right by the door because I put it there after the "Purple, Purple Everywhere!" picture (a bunch of girls were wearing purple and playing with purple hula hoops and purple hand balls and they were just too proud of themselves for me not to take a picture).

Fingers crossed that it is still there on Tuesday and that no one's little grubby hands will have picked it up between yesterday and then. That camera has been good to me and has lasted a long time...and I'm pretty reliant on it for my Cooperative Education class. And I mean...c'mon...it's pink. Losing a gem like that would just be unimaginable...ok, no not really, I could care less about the color. But the big picture is I NEED MY CAMERA.

Cross your fingers for me that it's still there!

Oh no you didn't...

We made George Washington three-corner hats today and worked on a shapes book at centers today. The kids were extra excited about me today, I don't know what makes one day different from the next. But when I left today, and Mrs. Brasler said it was time to say goodbye to me, they all went, "Awwww...." and said some goodbyes and some I love you's. Melt my heart.

Walking Addison back from the nurses office in her wheel chair she said to me, "You know what the teacher said about you?" I said, "I do not, what did she say?" She said, "The teacher says you're doing a really good job." Melt my heart again.

However, just to prove that not everything about kindergarten is touchy-feely. The current controversy is that a parent of one of our students has made a racial comment to the district about the number of Hispanics in our classroom. I was absolutely shocked and almost immediately sick to my stomach. It makes me sick that people can treat others as less than human and less deserving because of their ethnicity or the color of their skin. Sheltering a child from the diversity of this world will do nothing to help them grow and learn and it hurts me that this attitude is so easily passed from parent to student and that is why racism and discrimination is still so prevalent. It's just so hard for me to understand how people can be that way, or think that way.

Our hispanic students are just as deserving of these opportunities and just as worthy of love and affection and effort as any Caucasian student; or any other student for that matter. They are all entitled to equal opportunities and equal representation in a classroom. I am SO proud of our ELD students because even if they are not up to par with the other kindergarteners, the strides they have made and the eagerness they have shown surpasses that of some of their more advanced peers. It just makes me so angry that people feel that they have the right to treat others that are different from them as unequal or undeserving.

ANGER.

President's Day Chaos

Nothing special about today, other than there was no school yesterday for President's Day so I got to experience what would typically be the Monday Crazies. I'm preparing for Dr. Seuss Day by tracing and cutting out hats that they are going to wear, and every time a kid walked by the door they had to come in and ask me what I was doing; they all received the same answer: "You only get to know if you know what day March 2nd is." Of course, none of them knew that that is Dr. Seuss Day.

Since today was like Monday, we started with the letter of the week - D: Deedee Deer. They did the weekly worksheet where the practice tracing and writing the letter D and then draw pictures of things they know start with the letter D (they get to make attempts at labeling their drawings, but Mrs. Brasler usually ends up helping out on that one).

Centers were kind of a hot mess today. Computers weren't working, Jack had a meltdown because he couldn't trace shapes at the shape book center, Room 4 ELD students had to work on the carpet because Room 4 was occupied by the Hearing & Sight Test lady, Austin's ADHD was at a new high, and my center revolved around completing a potpourri of worksheets on presidents from last Friday along with an additional few worksheets for those had been exceptionally on task and finished everything. Le sigh.

But I did get a lot of hugs, and those are always mood lifters. And there was measurable Reading Comprehension progress with some of our lower-readers in the class which was super exciting to see. All together a pretty typical day in Room 3.

Thursday, February 16th

Blustery day makes for wild kids - today seemed to be the day of injuries, aches, and pains (and headaches for Mrs. Brasler and myself). It seemed a little more exhausting than usual, but I did notice how my lack of enthusiasm can easily rub off on them, so I changed my attitude pretty quick this morning.

I practiced reading with some of the kids this morning - a book titled "Recess Mess" that is a first grade reading level. Austin and Sophia each got a chance to read it with me, and then had to answer some comprehension questions about it. It's moments like those that I really get to reflect on how far they have come since I met them in August. Looking at it from that perspective really reminds me how rewarding this job is.

I was walking around the library with them and I was remembering fondly the time spent in the library each week when I was in elementary school. Books just fascinate me and I have such great memories of getting to choose a book each week to take home and read, and then be able to bring it back the next week and pick out a new one. I remember what it was like to get wrapped up in a book series and not want to check out anything other than those books for months at a time, or finding a good picture book that you really enjoyed but not being able to check it out two weeks in a row (so then you make sure to be the first one to grab it the week after). I saw a bunch of books in their library that I read when I was in elementary school and it made me smile thinking of how universal something like reading can be.

At the reading center today we tried something new - an increased focus on the letter of the week. This week's letter is O, so the students were given a selection of books they have already read to go through and read once more. But this time, after reading each page, they were to create a tally chart of how many upper- and lower-case o's they found. So this activity focused on not only reading, but letter recognition and math skills and counting as well. We've been working on tallying in math lessons, so it was nice to be able to cross reference it in another subject. We discussed how we had a lot of o's because it is a vowel and words use a lot of vowels, but we didn't have a lot of O's because there aren't a whole lot of words that we use that start with the letter o. I think we only found 2 O's in any of the books used in the whole lesson, but some kids got upwards of 45 o's all from one book. I think it was important that we used books the kids had already read, because it would have been too much to ask of them if they were given a new book they had never seen with a particular task to complete. They would be too excited to look at the new book and it would be a distraction from the real task. Also, using books they have already read on their own or in groups made it easier for them to read them by themselves a second time around.

After recess today I had to lead the majority of the class in a game of "Rhyming Bingo" while Mrs. Brasler did an assessment with the ELD students. Let's just say...that could have gone better. It showed that they all did have respect for me and that I was able to manage them, but everyone was a little confused in playing the game, and clean up time was when everything really fell apart. I think everyone was just a little too feisty with each other today. I'll stick to blaming the wind...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from Room 3! We were all decorated and ready to celebrate today. Very wound up and we hadn't even started the consumption of sugar yet...oh dear. I brought Winnie the Pooh Valentines and sorted them before the kids got in the room; but they were having a really hard time not coming in to see the growing pile of Valentines yet to be sorted into their bags.

Earlier this week, they made zebra bags to carry all the Valentine's Day goodies they received from their friends - so cute! I even got one of my own.

All of these goodies (below) had to be placed in the bags above. What a big job this was! They had to do it as one of their center rotations, and it was a pretty challenging task for them - especially for the children who had written names on all of their cards. So. much. stuff. Everyone was so excited when they brought in their bags and saw how this pile was growing.

At first recess, I set all of the bags out on the calendar rug with aisles for easy deposition of Valentines. By the end of the center rotations - bags were overflowing!

The rest of the centers were special and Valentine-themed as well. At one center they were making "love-bugs" to take home that afternoon....

The math center was counting and graphing candy hearts - tempting not to eat them before counting.

And here's my center. We were making mosaic hearts with glue and tissue paper to be taken home to each student's family as a Valentine. We struggled with the concept of "the less glue the better" today, but it's okay because I think they will still come out great. It was a pretty easy center to lead, I just had to make sure the kids were understanding the concepts of overlapping their tissue paper to make sure there were no empty spots.

I got my own bag too (he lost an ear)! And it was full of little treats that the Room 3 students brought to me for Valentine's Day. I am so spoiled! Who needs boys when you've got a class full of 28 kindergarteners who bring you chocolate and roses and tell you you're beautiful? :)

Happy Birthday to Me (cha-cha-cha)!!!

Last Thursday was my birthday and I started it out perfectly with all 27 smiling faces in Room 3! They sang me Happy Birthday at the start of the morning routine, making me wear a crown and practically begging me to let them sing the version with "cha-cha-chas" in between each verse. After library time they got to celebrate by eating Animal Crackers during quiet snacks/recess.

Today was reading day - I read a "silly" book titled Kiss Me, I'm Perfect to get in the mood for Valentine's Day. It was about a girl who had no clean laundry so she had to wear this embarrassing shirt that her grandma got her that said "Kiss Me I'm Perfect" on it. On her way to school a bunch of animals kept kissing her, and she ultimately changes her mind about the shirt, so she calls her grandma and has her buy one for everyone in her school. It was cute and the kids got some good giggles during it. My favorite activity after we read a book is to let them go back and pick out the page that was their favorite part of the story and tell me why. I can't pick out my favorite first though, otherwise they all copy me. Even when I tell them at the end, a lot of of them say, "Oh actually that one is my favorite."

When ever they rotated to a new center, they would all take a moment to say happy birthday to me on their own and it was just cute and so innocently considerate. I drove home that morning just overcome with happiness about how lucky I am to be in this field and to have this as my future career.

Interesting new obstacle that has been added to the classroom environment - Addison fell off a wall at home and broke her ankle. She's not allowed to put any weight on it and she's too young for crutches...so she's in a wheel chair for the next month.  When I'm there, I'm the one that wheels her around, and she can push herself short distances, but it's been really challenging for Mrs. Brasler when I'm not around and they need to get around campus, or maneuvering her around the classroom (which is not really wheel chair accessible). So to be continued on that one...

Observation Day!

Yesterday was the 100th day of school! I wasn't there to celebrate with them, but I was told (multiple times) that "Zero the Hero" definitely came to visit...

Today was the day my advisor was coming to observe my classroom interactions and development as a future educator - I wasn't so nervous as to how I was going to do, but I was nervous about whether or not the kids were going to behave.

Right off the bat I was presented with a choice this morning - I could either run the center where I oversaw the completion of a counting by 10s worksheet that involved coloring, cutting, and gluing; or I could lead the center exploring the flow and properties of water. Clearly, for observational purposes, the worksheet would have been the obvious choice. Naturally, I picked the second. The water center would be challenging, yes, but also more exciting and far more rewarding. I was willing to risk a potential disaster during the observation time in order to do something that felt more meaningful and had equal amounts of potential to be a great lesson. And what kind of future teacher would I be if I stepped down from a challenge?!

It went great - although a little trying at times because I've been losing my voice over the past couple of days - and my advisor was very entertained and impressed. And the kids were so well behaved! I was so proud of them; not that science centers are ever very hard for them to get engaged in. :)  We had three tasks to complete in 20 minutes for each center:
1) Discuss water as a liquid that takes the shape of it's container and has flow. Answer the question, "What is flow?"
2) Demonstrate a fountain by pouring water into a cup that had straws inserted on both sides and discuss what was happening and why.
3) Created a trough/water fall out of clay with walls to keep the water in that could be successfully used to pour water down and into a bowl. Discuss how to create the trough and why some things worked and some things didn't.
Tables were wet from missing bowls when pouring water, hands were sticky from mixing the clay with water, but every single student had the opportunity to ask and answer questions and make connections. A couple times we got off on more involved topics because of student imposed questions - like what purpose a dam serves in a river and how we can demonstrate it with our troughs, or how filters can create flow for pools of water (fish tanks, swimming pools, etc).

This is real life stuff, guys. And these kindergarteners get it. I am always so impressed and excited for them. I think their excitement is contagious...

**Side note, I did go back and add some pictures today - I'm working on trying to use different mediums, and since I have to take pictures anyway, why not include some on here?**

Murphy's Law

Yes. Today was one of those days - what could go wrong did go wrong, and by the time I got in the car to drive home, I felt like I had been there for days.

Here is how the morning was supposed to go:
Morning routine
Library time
Room 4 Students leave and the others do pacer testing
Tracing shadows
Recess
Pacer Test for Room 4 students
Computer lab at 11:30am and I go home.

A pretty typical Thursday, with the exception of the Pacer Testing, because that's something we only do once a month. Pacer testing is a way of measuring physical development - each month the kids have to listen to this CD and run from one line to another in a set amount of time. They continue to do this and I keep track of how many laps they can make before they get to tired to make any more.

Anyway, this is how the day really went:
Morning routine
Library time
Room 4 students leave and Boom Box for Pacer test won't work, so I lead Shadow Tracing while Mrs. Brasler goes to find another one.
Ryan barfs all over his shadow, himself, and Austin K, who had been on the ground tracing the shadow.
Mrs. Brasler has to take them to the nurse. Still no boom box.
Improvisational game of follow the leader (away from the barf), until Mrs. Brasler comes back.
Back up plan - I lead a center of Groundhog Day related worksheets and drawings. Mrs. Brasler takes the other half outside to listen to a book on tape.
Recess - Lizzeth's finger ends up reopening a cut on her finger and freaks out about blood.
Pacer test for ALL Room 3 students
Everyone is late to computer lab.
I leave at 12pm

The good things? I gave Lizzeth an AR test this morning and she got 4 out of 5 questions correct! Then we went back and read the book again, but together with her reading the words she had memorized or could sound out and me filling in the blanks. And...I got these yellow flowers.

:)

Tuesday, January 31st

I'm going to start off by saying that center rotation was absolutely not the highlight of my day yesterday. We were practicing counting out 100 objects and talking about how we could split it up in different ways (2 groups of 50, 4 groups of 25, 5 groups of 20), and while I'm sure it was good exposure for them and they had fun...it was not the most enjoyable for me. Trying to get 6 kindergarteners at once to avidly keep track of 100 things when a good portion of them can't count passed thirty was a little on the challenging side and not all together thrilling. But I suppose it was a good illustration of how sometimes, as a teacher, you have to do things you don't like doing because it's something the students need to know or need to be aware of. All I have to say to that right now is blah blah blah. :P

The more intriguing part of my day came from some discussions with one of the little munchkins named Lizzeth. She's always stuck out to me as a bigger personality in the classroom, not as in loud and attention-drawing, but as in eager and willing to learn and improve. She is an ELD student, so four times a week she spends time in Room 4, with all the other ELD children to work on their English language skills.

Recently, she's been inquiring a lot about why she has to go to Room 4. She absolutely does not like it - Mrs. Brasler confided in me that Lizzeth has said she doesn't like missing the things in Room 3 while she is gone. She has even told Mrs. Brasler that she wants to come in during morning recess before school starts to do the activities she missed the day before while she was in Room 4.

So she sat next to me as I filed papers in Friday Folders yesterday morning, creating a cat by cutting and tearing that she had missed on Monday. Other students were in the room at the computers taking AR Reading Comprehension tests. I noticed she was watching them and not paying much attention to her cat. I asked her what she was looking at and she looked back at me and said, "I want to take AR tests too."

My heart broke a little. Let me set this up. Typically, AR tests are a right afforded to the higher readers in the class, but other students may ask to do them as well. The way it works is, Mrs. Brasler puts a selected AR book in their Friday Folder that they take home and have their parents read to them (or read with them). Lizzeth's family doesn't speak English, and her speaking is a bit broken, which is why she is in the ELD program. Unfortunately, because the school system and the AR test program is centered around the English language, something like this is more of a challenge for her.

Thinking this through in my head as I looked back at her she said, "Miss Downing, I want to read." I smiled and looked at her and said, "You're learning! And you're getting better every day." She kept cutting her cat and I had a lightbulb moment. I said to her, "Maybe we can ask Mrs. Brasler if I can read you books in the morning and you can take an AR test on them. Does that sound like a good idea?" The smile that I got after that let me know that I had said the right thing. If a child wants to learn, you should never ever tell them that they can't.

With that being said, I've been thinking about changing my focus student. Originally, I was going to be working with Andrea, who had suffered from a crippling shyness at the beginning of the year, and still needs help with her communicating skills, but she has made huge leaps and bounds all on her own. And while I can help aid that along, there isn't much else I really do for her academically; it's mostly social. So while I will continue to engage her in conversations and help her learn to communicate her thoughts and ideas, I think I want to make Lizzeth my focus student. I recognize her desire to learn; and I know that she could easily fall into the group that loses that desire because she is limited by her native language.

So...to be continued.

A Difficult Calling

Let's say there are at least 17 ways of understanding reality, and, until we have learned all of them, we have only part of the truth. The point is that there are multiple perspectives on every issue, but most of us have learned only the "safe" or standard way of interpreting events and issues. A multicultural perspective does not operate on the principle of substituting one "truth" or perspective for another. Rather, it reflects on multiple and contradictory perspectives to understand reality more fully.

-Affirming Diversity: The Sociopolitical Context of Multicultural Education by Sonia Nieto & Patty Bode

Let's be real for a moment: the public education system in the United States is terrible. It's always been a known fact in the back of my mind, but it was something I was inclined to push away and pretend it wasn't so. Why did I do that? Because that's what I was taught to do in the public school system! You see, it's a never ending cycle. In school, we are taught to accept the information give to us as 100% truth with no other way of looking at it, and if it doesn't fit into that ethnocentric perspective...we just push it aside. Most of the teachers, with a few wonderful exceptions, that the average child will have in public education have also gone through the system; and they are therefore satisfied with teaching the same way. 

So why not go into a private school instead? Because I want to change it. I know that I can't change the field all on my own, it is a massive institution. But I can start with my class, and I can talk to other teachers and organizations...and in my class, I can make an attempt to change the way kids look at things. I am a product of this flawed education system, but I'm hoping my refusal to accept that I have to teach the same was I was taught is the first step in making a change. I'm conscious of it; I know that I don't want to teach the stereotypical view of looking at the academic subjects. I know that children learn differently and come from different backgrounds with different experiences, and that learning from past experiences is the best way to learn. 

When I started reading this text, it was a little shocking. It may have been the first time I've really questioned my decision to go into teaching. But you know what happened when I questioned my choice? I had answers for my own questions, answers like the things that I've just said. Will it be a huge challenge? Yes. Will it be hard? Yes. Will I be unsuccessful sometimes? Yes. But trying is better than not doing anything at all. And eventually, if I try enough and learn what works and what doesn't work, I will improve. And improving is endless.

Thursday, January 26th

I swear I have other interesting things to say about education and teaching and the like...but as usual, school is eating up my life right now. So until I get some more free time on my hands, sticking to the weekly journals.

Today was a pretty interesting day - I got to start by testing some of the students on their letter and number recognition, their knowledge of letter sounds, and their ability to recognize high frequency words. The students who I assessed were ones that had previously scored low, and they were being tested again since we are now officially half way through the school year. Wow...time went so fast! But I love doing things like this with them, where I can see how much they've progressed. My focus student, Andrea, went from being so shy and insecure to being able to correctly identify all letters and their sounds, numbers, and high frequency words.

A lot of the kids in that group are the ELD students, and it was interesting to observe their improvements and how they were similar. When learning letters and their sounds in room three, we have a Letter of the Week that corresponds with an animal and a motion to help remember the letter. For example, "s" is Sammy Snake, and you slither your hand like a snake while making a "sssss" sound. The ELD children seemed to rely more heavily on the motions and animal names when remembering letters during the assessment. The native English speakers did it on a couple of the more difficult letters, or I did the motion and said the animal to help remind them, but all ELD students did the motions and named the animals on at least 75% of their letters. It's interesting how the visuals can be such a trigger for their memories and allow them to better grasp a concept.

During Reading Workshop today, I got to read a book to the group of students as they followed along, instructed to look for high frequency words while listening ("a," "the," "have," "like," etc.). The book was called Library Mouse, and it was about a little mouse named Sam that lived in the library, but only came out at night when their were no humans around to see him. When he did come out he would read and read and get lost in the worlds of books. Eventually, he decided he wanted to write his own book, so he did and he put it in the bookshelf for the children to find in the morning. He did this three times before the librarian left him a note, asking if they could have a Meet the Author day, since no one knew who he was. Instead of allowing the students to meet him (he was too nervous!), he created a "Meet the Author" box with a mirror in it, so each child would look in and see their own face. He also made a bunch of blank books and left sharpened pencils to encourage each student to write their own story. All the students began to write and filled up a whole shelf in the library with stories they had written about things they knew.

I followed this up with a chance for the students to go through the book and find which page was their favorite page in the book and explain why it was their favorite. I got a variety of responses from, "Because Sam just looks so cute and chubby!" to "I just really like how the author illustrated this page and showed everything that was going on," and "Because all the children got to write their own book just like Sam!"  We then talked about if they would like to write a book someday, and what they would write about; most of them chose something that they are really interested in right now (fairy tales, horses, volcanoes, science, ghost stories).

I absolutely love getting to read to them. I think the power of listening to a book being read to you incomparable; I still get completely enthralled and will tune out everything except the story if I hear someone reading something out loud.

This was a perfect book for today because, after weeks of waiting and proving that they were responsible enough, Room 3 students got to borrow their first book from the school library. They were so excited to get to look at their books that Mrs. B had to set aside time later in the afternoon with the promise that they would get some quiet time to spend with their book of choice. :)

Tuesday, January 24th

Let's start this off with the "Little Kid Quote of the Day," shall we?

Walking around at recess, Kimberly came up to me and said, "Miss Downing! Fabian pushed me!" Fabian came running up shortly after her and I said, "Did you push her?" And he said, "Miss Downing. Kimberly broke my heart." Trying not to laugh, I asked if she had pushed him in the chest or if it was like an inside hurt. He looked at me dumbfounded and said, "Well I'm sad!" The levels of cuteness were just too high; kids really do say the funniest things.

Today was Science Center day...with magnets! Again...the look of utter amazement on all their little faces was the best part. We related it to last week's discussion on force, and how magnetic force is an invisible pull on metal objects. We talked about how magnetic force can be so strong that it can work through things that aren't magnetic; and illustrated it by putting two decent magnets on each side of their hands and seeing how they stayed in place because the magnet pull was strong enough to go through their hand. Then we talked about how all magnets have a North Pole ("like where Santa lives") and a South Pole ("like where the penguins live") and how they are attracted to their opposite ("North and South want to be friends"). When you try and put a South Pole with a South Pole, they don't like that and they repel. They got to put a magnet on their hand and put a repelling one underneath and watch the magnet on their hand roll over.

In case you weren't aware, this stuff is better than magic. They get to play with it on their own tomorrow and they are SO excited. And once again, I was just floored at their abilities to relate it to things in their own lives - magnets on the refrigerator, things they'd seen in TV shows and movies, toy trains that they have at home... And once again, it was applicable to ALL of them. They were all interested and excited and proud of the fact that they could work with these magnets and produce the effects that I was asking them to. Ashley, one of our ELD students with the most severe struggles, was communicating and excited to be learning something - a rare and heartwarming sight for me in her classroom behaviors.

Today was the first day I had to walk a child to the office who was being overly disruptive in class. Mrs. B was very fair in the opportunities she gave him to improve his behavior, and it was only after a sequence of disciplinary that he found himself being marched to the front office. He was first given a warning, then asked to leave the carpet area, then the classroom, and then to the office. He obviously wasn't very happy about it by the time he wound up in the office, but I explained to him that he wasn't bad, but they way he was behaving was unacceptable and disruptive to all of his learning friends in Room 3. He ended up losing his recess after some inappropriate behavior on the playground...but this isn't a normal thing for him. Makes you wonder what might be going on that is different in his typical routine...

Thursday should be a normal day...but coming up, we have my birthday and Valentine's day that will be spent in Room 3. Stay tuned!

Last Thursday

I'm a little behind - I should preface this post with saying I am supposed to keep a journal each day that I spend in my kindergarten classroom. I'm using this blog to post it on, and I will edit as necessary to compile it into the journal that I will turn in for my credits. Obviously, I do more than post about my weekly experiences on here, but I have to do that part for school, and it's relevant to this blog.

The posts that are going to be used for this journal are going to be titled by the date that I spent in the classroom. For example, if I had written this post on Thursday like I was supposed to, it would be titled: "Thursday, January 19th." These might not always be very in depth, as I'm just supposed to write about what I did that day; and let's be honest, although every day in a kindergarten class is quite the adventure, some are more distinguishable than others.

Thursday's are my more mellow days in Room Three. It's the day that most of the ELD students spend the morning in Room 4 with all of the other kindergarten ELD students doing language enrichment activities, so our class size is about 18 instead of the usual 27 (Yes, you did the math right, we have 9 ELD students in our room). So I spend the first hour/hour and a half doing classroom prep work with Mrs. B. before the kids come in at 8:45, filling papers in their Friday folders, and prepping activities that the kids will be doing later in the semester (this last week I was cutting out 100 masks for the 100th day of school - hence the sliced finger).

After the morning routine including singing the weekly song, talking about the letter of the week, and completing the calendar activities, they all go to the library. This Thursday, they all got their last sticker on their school library card, which means they are now able to borrow books to take home. They are all very excited about this new responsibility - it was all they talked about all week ("Miss Downing, guess what?! This week I get my third sticker and that means I can borrow books to take to my house!"). While they are gone I finish up all my quiet work and set up the classroom for Reading Workshops that we start when they come back.

I lead a group of about 6 for a "I Can Read" type book - a lot of repetitive sentences and high frequency words (can, like, have, my, etc.) and pictures that match the words. This week's main book was "Objects All Around." It was describing that pretty much anything is considered and object; we would read a page together and discuss the picture for comprehension purposes. Some words were a little difficult for them, especially for the ones who haven't quite mastered the art of sounding out a word. It's challenging in a setting like that to get the fast readers to slow down and stay with the group - they're so eager to get through as quickly as they can. I think the point of slowing them down is to make sure they are understanding what they read; but possibly also to help the slower learners gain some confidence. I've played around with having each student read their own page with my help - I kind of like that better so far. That way, when a slower reader has trouble with a word on their page, a quicker reader can help them with the tricky words.

The hardest part is keeping them focused. They see something that reminds them of a story or something that happened in their life and they want to tell you all about it; I want to listen because I think their abilities to communicate are a vital part of their education, but when there are certain things that have to get done, it's hard to take the time to deviate to listen to them. They all just want so much attention all the time, but more often than not, I have to remind them to save their stories to tell me at recess (and of course, it's usually long forgotten by then). And if their own stories aren't enough of a distraction, some of them just get so silly when they get to do small group activities with me! I haven't quite figured out why that is, but I'm hoping the more we do it, the more they will see that Reading Workshop is a time to focus on reading, not on trying to make Miss Downing think you're funny.

After Reading Workshop, the ELD students return and we go to recess where I open snacks, tie shoes, break up arguments, and hear stories about everything I've missed in their lives. You see personalities so much more at recess.

Quiet time to finish unfinished work comes after recess and then they head off to the computer lab - I usually go with them to help with log-ins for the students that aren't great at number/letter recognition yet. This Thursday they had to take a little Fruits/Vegetables survey that big buddies helped them with, but normally they do a reading and/or math program that is supposed to be supplemental to classroom activities. Once they are all there and logged in, I jet off and head back to school for Spanish class.

Well this ended up being significantly longer than I planned on, but well...there ya have it! I'm going to make some solid attempts to start writing the afternoon after I'm at Room Three, instead of days later. But expect other posts in between that...not related to my actual classroom time. :)