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. :)

A Day at Center #4: Take 1

So this semester, I get to run my very own center - me! 20 minutes of teaching a lesson with 4-6 kindergarteners. Now...I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit nervous thinking about it this morning. There was definitely a chance that she would give me the lesson for my group and it would totally flop. This is the most freedom I've been given at once - it's like I get to practice teaching my own lesson 5 times.

So at 8:00am I got my first set of instructions for my activity - we were going to be learning about force, defined as the push or pull that moves an object. Here's a little side note about me: science has absolutely, never ever, even been close to my favorite subject. But, I find myself in a situation I knew I was bound to encounter eventually, teaching something that really isn't my favorite but is a requirement for the grade level. Oh boy...

I had to introduce the topic to them and have a little discussion about force. Using blocks I showed them that I could be the force to move the blocks, and I could move them in many different ways. We also discussed how some objects can roll and some objects can slide and what makes them able to do so. Then, my instructions were to have them build a ramp out of other blocks, and measure the distance that the rolling and sliding blocks travelled, and if a taller ramp made them travel a shorter or longer distance. From there we discussed how heavier cylinder blocks would travel farther than light-weight cylinder blocks. Then we switched gears to a pendulum demonstration, illustrating how we could make it move, and stop, and how shorter strings would move back and forth faster than longer strings. We talked about momentum and gravity and forces...

The excitement on their faces was out of this world. I want to bottle up that kind of joy and awe and wonder and keep it forever to remind me of what it is like to truly be fascinated with the world. Getting the chance to predict which object would roll farther, and then seeing how much farther it actually went, must have been the coolest thing since sliced bread. And it didn't get old! No matter how many times we repeated the same little experiment, it was still exciting and fun and interesting.

The best part for me though was that everyone got it. And everyone was so in to it, like nothing I've ever seen during reading time, or math time, or writing time. It was something that reached even the ELD kids, and they could understand because it was visual and interactive and something that they could relate to. Our ADHD student was able to sit through the entire lesson with relatively no disturbances because he was doing something engaging that required listening and using his hands to create something that worked for a purpose. Yes, I was only working with 6-kids, tops, at a time. But the discussions we were having? Unbelievable. They way they could take the little demonstrations we were doing, and relate them to a rock falling down a cliff, or swinging on the swings at recess? Shocking. It was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. Amazing.

I was also pretty proud of myself. My first rotation didn't go quite as smoothly as I would have liked. I mean, we still covered all of the material, but it was kind of chaotic and the kids never really left the rowdy stage to enter the academic stage. But by the second rotation, I sort of surprised myself with this level of intuition that I hadn't experienced before; I realized what I did didn't work the first time, and tried something new and more organized. And hey, what do you know? It worked. And once I figured out my system, the rest of the rotations were a breeze. I was explaining it to my best friend and she mentioned that maybe that's what the first year of teaching feels like...but once you get the first year under your belt, everything else starts to fall into place. Hmm.

So in other less meaningful news, I got my first classroom related injury. Sliced right through the side of my finger with a pair of scissors. One of the more smarty-pants kids said to me, "Well you know Miss Downing, I've never cut my fingers with scissors..." The sass...it kills me!

A Little Something to Think On....

I Miss My Munchkins!

I haven't seen them in weeks! I'm so excited to be back on Thursday morning, I don't even care that I have to wake up earlier than I have in three weeks. I have to admit, the mornings will probably be the hardest part of my future career....I just have to keep reminding myself that I'll be lucky because I'll get winter and summer vacation. :)

Smiles from Room Three! I'm so ready to be back and see all these beautiful faces.

Historical Parallels

This is relevant to this blog too. I just couldn't decide which blog was better to post it on.

A Running Theme

I got this book for Christmas and just finished reading it, along with "You Can't Say You Can't Play," (more on that one later):

Vivian Paley uses the books of Leo Lionni as a staple in her curriculum in her final year as a kindergarten teacher. They do writing assignments, art assignments, story-telling assignments, and classroom discussions all based on his books; analyzing a new one every couple of weeks. Analyzing in a kindergarten class?! I know, right? That's what I thought at first. But reading this book, I was shocked. Sure, they don't analyze the same way you or I would, but in a way, it's better that way. They are more open and honest, less biased, and increasingly curious.

The point was, the kids really got into it; at least, they did when this book was written 15 years ago. They achieved things that never would have been accepted of them because they were challenged and as a class they rose up to that challenge. It didn't matter what challenges or advantages each child may have had, they all worked together to make these books come to life and really delve into their deeper meanings. In kindergarten! Wow.

I want to do this. But I want to start it at the beginning of the school year instead of at the semester. Have it be the theme of a school year and see how each child's growth is reflected in their thinking on these books and have something that unites the class from the beginning to the end. To describe it in a way a former elementary school teacher of mine would have hated - "It's so cool!"

Scholarship Essay Submission

Bridging Gaps

Ryan doesn’t care if I think he’s funny or not; it won’t stop him from giggling to himself as he dog paddles back and forth across the pool. He’ll swim to the wall and look at me with wide eyes and a big smile as if he’s listening attentively to every word, but when he pushes off the wall, all instructions are lost as he swims the way he enjoys. The lack of focus and the difficulties in communicating create obstacles for Ryan that cause his progress to take months longer than the other swimmers in his age group.  Ryan has Autism. Our coach and athlete relationship has a lot of give-and-take, and although the challenges are many, it makes the progress that much more satisfying.

Ryan exhibits just one of the differences any given child can bring into a classroom at the start of a school year. Volunteering in a kindergarten classroom has shown me many more obstacles a child can bring into a class - physical or mental disabilities, broken families, and language barriers among them. The first couple years seem to be the most telling, as kids become more aware of themselves and their peers in the public education system.  The children with significant differences need to learn that traits are what make them an individual, and children without obvious differences need to learn how to fully accept others.

My biggest goal is not only to become an elementary school teacher, but to be able to successfully incorporate the values of diversity into the curriculum and emphasize the importance of individual differences. I do not believe that children are naturally judgmental, but I do believe that without intervention to sway them the other way, it is one of the most easily acquired traits.  I want to provide an environment in my classroom that some children may lack otherwise; I want it to be beneficial not only to the kids who struggle, but to the kids who make it through school easily and naively, like my own experience in early education. I took it for granted that school came easily for me, and I didn’t learn until I was much older that it doesn’t come so easy for everyone.  I don’t only want to help the children with big differences to overcome, but I want to help widen the worlds of the kids who can easily take what they have for granted.

I was raised in a relatively easy home life, and it took me far too long to realize that not everyone had the same experience as me. I am now dedicated to changing my perspective and widening my knowledge of the world that I am a participating citizen in.  Most recently, I’ve added a Spanish minor to my degree and am anticipating spending a month this summer in Costa Rica, learning a culture and a language that I’ve had no exposure to until my required high school language courses.  Working with Ryan has been another challenge, as I have had to let go of conventional ways of instruction to better meet his needs. I feel changed as a person by these experiences, and I hope that not shying away from opportunities like these will improve my teaching abilities and broaden the horizons of what I can bring to a classroom setting.

My college education is preparing me to achieve my biggest dream of obtaining the career full of potential that I’ve wanted since before I understood what college was.  Helping others is a passion of mine, and finishing school and getting my degree and my credential from California Lutheran University will be the first step in allowing me to live that passion for the rest of my life. I firmly believe that I will step up to the challenge of not only being an innovative teacher academically, but also inspiring my students to be themselves and strive to reach their full potential.