Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Violated and angry
My bank cards were stolen while I was at work today. I feel unsafe now and wonder what else has been stolen or messed with that I am not aware of . Obvious things like my license and credit card are still there. If it was just one bank card that was missing I would think that I had lost but both are gone. I give my whole heart, a lot of my time, all of my effort, and most of the contents of my wallet to that classroom. The fact that someone in the community would take my bank cards infuriates, scares, angers me beyond words.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Giving beautiful thanks
In preparation for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday, I read the book Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks to the class. We had a class discussion about what it meant to be thankful and students cited some examples from the book. Always curious about and moved by how they think, I wanted to have time gather their responses. I have listed some of them below:
" I am thankful for rainy days"
"I am thankful for bike rides with my dad in the park"
"For hugs and kisses from Mommy"
"toys"
"my friends. They play with me at school"
"family"
" Playing outside at recess. It is fun"
This was a challenging question for many of them, as it is a little abstract. I was impressed with their answers and surprised to see how many of them chose non-material things like hugs, friends, and bike rides with a parent. I am also impressed with their language skills. We have been working on adding detail to our drawings and sentences. Finally, many of them were able to sound out some of the words and use inventive spelling. At this age, when they are just learning letters and sounds, the willingness to try to sound out words and commit your attempts to paper is a huge risk. Go K1!
As the holiday approaches, I hope that each of them finds a few moments of joy and quality time with their families.
Happy Thanksgiving
" I am thankful for rainy days"
"I am thankful for bike rides with my dad in the park"
"For hugs and kisses from Mommy"
"toys"
"my friends. They play with me at school"
"family"
" Playing outside at recess. It is fun"
This was a challenging question for many of them, as it is a little abstract. I was impressed with their answers and surprised to see how many of them chose non-material things like hugs, friends, and bike rides with a parent. I am also impressed with their language skills. We have been working on adding detail to our drawings and sentences. Finally, many of them were able to sound out some of the words and use inventive spelling. At this age, when they are just learning letters and sounds, the willingness to try to sound out words and commit your attempts to paper is a huge risk. Go K1!
As the holiday approaches, I hope that each of them finds a few moments of joy and quality time with their families.
Happy Thanksgiving
Saturday, November 22, 2008
What do you eat at your house and theres an /s/ in that word
Somehow or another my kids work food into many conversations and activities. Recently one of the students said " We eat lobster and crab at my house". Puzzling. Very puzzling and a completely unexpected comment. I know the family and some of their financial situation pretty well and wouldnt expect them to be able to purchase these foods, which are slightly more expensive then some other foods.
Many of the kids asked what lobster is. The kids have been talking about lobster and looking for it amongst the food in our dramatic play area. I brought in some books about lobster, most of them showed lobsters in the ocean or in traps and not necessarily on someone's dinner plate, so I am not sure if they made the connection.
Fast forward a few days and we are talking about the letter S and the /s/ sound. The kids are thinking of words that begin with /s/. I am writing down their ideas on the white board. The list includes "sit" "Sunday", "soup", "sauce" and the names of classmates whose names begin with S. A student who frequently struggles with letter-sound acitivities raised her hand and said "there is a /s/ in lobster." The lobster surprised me again! Typically students recognize initial and final sounds of words long before they hear and discriminate the middle sounds of words. THis particular student has tremendous difficulty with beginning sounds and I was surprised about her fairly higher level answer. I stretched out the word for the kids, exaggerating that sound so that more students could hear it. I wonder if she really recognized and heard the /s/ sound in lobster or if she was just guessing that the word began with that sound, and it was just coincidence that there was a /s/ sound in that word she chose. I wish I had asked her more about her thinking so I could better understand and help her.
The whole experience reminded me not to make too many assumptions about my students' experiences outside of school. It also made me think more carefully about this particular struggling student and what I can do to modify phonetic awareness activities to increase her success and ability.
Image is from http://www.sealifegifts.net/user_images/lobster4a.JPG found on 11/22/08 AT 3:15PM
Parent teacher conferences
This past week I wrapped up my parent teacher conferences at school. I had a good turn out, as I met with 10 out of 11 families in my class. Some good, most were productive and of course there were some just plain old odd things that came up.
In general, I think parent teacher conferences are important. It gives parents and teachers valuable one-on-one face time with each other. As a teacher, I get to talk about how the child is doing at school, what progress she has made and what some of the next steps are for that child. Just as important as all of that, I also get to listen. I get to listen to the parents share their observations of their child, I get to listen ask they ask questions, and I listen to their non-verbal cues as well. What are they "saying" about school by how they are sitting or standing? How does their facial expression change when I say their child is doing well with language skills but struggling mathematically? Do they frown or avoid eye contact the whole time? Are they eager to be there and showing evidence of active listening themselves? Do parents see the value? Is the information I share with them as helpful as the information they share with me? The bigger question for me is whether I can gain insight about the children from interacting and observing their parents?
While I see the value in meeting with parents and our principal encourages it, he does not provide logistical support to make it happen. We have to open houses a year and parents come whenever in the two hour block. Because of the open- ended structure it is nearly impossible to meet individually with parents during that time to discuss student progress. So because I believe conferencing with parents is vital to student success, I need to use my own time to do it. Conferences were set up for before and after school times and also during my planning period. Added to that was the fact that the parents perceive time differently than I do. If I have arranged to have a conference with you at 800 am, I will plan to arrive at 755 just in case I'm late. That was not the case. People arrived at 817 for their 800 conference and then wondered why I had to be extremely brief. I use my personal time because I am committed to and value the idea of working with parents, however, the net result was that I was exhausted. I was going in even earlier so I could do more work BEFORE the conferences started and so on.
One of the parents said that he and his wife were delighted with their child's progress. He pointed out specific examples and talked about how happy his child seems. It can be so rare to hear things like this from parents so I figured I would celebrate this comment by shairng it here. The purpose of sharing these comments is not toot my own horn, but simply to pause and reflect. So often we are unsure of the parents' perception of the work we do each day with their children, that these comments are heartening, inspiring, and helpful to me. Another parent said that her daughter goes home and sings our classroom songs and talks about specific things I said to her during the day.
A few parents seemed appreciative of my reccomendations for home. While each kid received individualized recommendations, if one parent does one of the recommended activities, it could be THE thing that makes a difference for that child. Go Parents!
One parent, who was a bot confrontational at the beginning of the year, was on board and open to my ideas. Her observations were similar to mine and I feel that we are going to be communicating better with each other. We now understand that we both have the same goal: helping her struggling child to succede in school. I was apprehensive about that particular conference but grateful and a bit surprised that we saw eye to eye.
Of course there are some low lights. The parent who came in her lingere and flannel pajama bottoms. The parent who thought I would provide free private tutoring before school to her struggling child. The parent who asked me what she was supposed to do with her child when school is closed for upcoming muchly needed Thanksgiving recess. The parent who couldn't be bothered to actually stop her cell phone conversation. Anyway, I do not want to dwell. I do feel that, overall, despite some low lights, it was a valuable investment of my time and effort. I know that I am doing my part. I have provided valuable information to parents on their child's individual progress and gave suggestions to how they can help at home. It was a lot of work and I truly was wiped out by the middle of the week when conferences ended, but it was all worth it.
In general, I think parent teacher conferences are important. It gives parents and teachers valuable one-on-one face time with each other. As a teacher, I get to talk about how the child is doing at school, what progress she has made and what some of the next steps are for that child. Just as important as all of that, I also get to listen. I get to listen to the parents share their observations of their child, I get to listen ask they ask questions, and I listen to their non-verbal cues as well. What are they "saying" about school by how they are sitting or standing? How does their facial expression change when I say their child is doing well with language skills but struggling mathematically? Do they frown or avoid eye contact the whole time? Are they eager to be there and showing evidence of active listening themselves? Do parents see the value? Is the information I share with them as helpful as the information they share with me? The bigger question for me is whether I can gain insight about the children from interacting and observing their parents?
While I see the value in meeting with parents and our principal encourages it, he does not provide logistical support to make it happen. We have to open houses a year and parents come whenever in the two hour block. Because of the open- ended structure it is nearly impossible to meet individually with parents during that time to discuss student progress. So because I believe conferencing with parents is vital to student success, I need to use my own time to do it. Conferences were set up for before and after school times and also during my planning period. Added to that was the fact that the parents perceive time differently than I do. If I have arranged to have a conference with you at 800 am, I will plan to arrive at 755 just in case I'm late. That was not the case. People arrived at 817 for their 800 conference and then wondered why I had to be extremely brief. I use my personal time because I am committed to and value the idea of working with parents, however, the net result was that I was exhausted. I was going in even earlier so I could do more work BEFORE the conferences started and so on.
One of the parents said that he and his wife were delighted with their child's progress. He pointed out specific examples and talked about how happy his child seems. It can be so rare to hear things like this from parents so I figured I would celebrate this comment by shairng it here. The purpose of sharing these comments is not toot my own horn, but simply to pause and reflect. So often we are unsure of the parents' perception of the work we do each day with their children, that these comments are heartening, inspiring, and helpful to me. Another parent said that her daughter goes home and sings our classroom songs and talks about specific things I said to her during the day.
A few parents seemed appreciative of my reccomendations for home. While each kid received individualized recommendations, if one parent does one of the recommended activities, it could be THE thing that makes a difference for that child. Go Parents!
One parent, who was a bot confrontational at the beginning of the year, was on board and open to my ideas. Her observations were similar to mine and I feel that we are going to be communicating better with each other. We now understand that we both have the same goal: helping her struggling child to succede in school. I was apprehensive about that particular conference but grateful and a bit surprised that we saw eye to eye.
Of course there are some low lights. The parent who came in her lingere and flannel pajama bottoms. The parent who thought I would provide free private tutoring before school to her struggling child. The parent who asked me what she was supposed to do with her child when school is closed for upcoming muchly needed Thanksgiving recess. The parent who couldn't be bothered to actually stop her cell phone conversation. Anyway, I do not want to dwell. I do feel that, overall, despite some low lights, it was a valuable investment of my time and effort. I know that I am doing my part. I have provided valuable information to parents on their child's individual progress and gave suggestions to how they can help at home. It was a lot of work and I truly was wiped out by the middle of the week when conferences ended, but it was all worth it.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
30 Hours: Thoughts about having a pre-prac student
I have a student in my room from a local college doing observations for her intro to special education class. This is an observation- based field assignment for her before she does her full time student teaching next semester. I was excited to have a college student in my classroom for a variety of reasons. First of all, its an extra pair of hands and eyes, lowering the student to adult ration in the class. Secondly, they say that you learn something best when you have to teach it. So I think I get to further my own learning and development by trying to explain the classroom and all of its goings-on to someone new. Finally, hooray, someone else wants to enter the profession, and I am in a position to help this person.
Then I got nervous. I thought about all of my field placements during college and graduate school. I thought about teaching related employment experiences that I had before my current position. I started remembering some of the high and low lights of these various experiences when a thought occured to me: Am I responsible for this person's learning?
I know that I am responsible for my students' learning and progress. I also know that I am responsible for supervising and supporting Ms. S (a.k.a para of the year) and her interactions with the kids in the classroom. Am I also responsible for learning and development of this college student? Or am I just responsible for supervising her in the classroom? I mean its a big thing to be responsible for someone else's learning and development. Then I started questioning myself: can I really teach someone how to do what I do each day? Do I really know enough to teach someone who is just starting out in the field?
After a few days of thinking about this, I have come to several other thoughts and possible conclusions. First of all this college student is an adult and she is ultimately responsible for her own learning. That's the thing about adults. My role is to provide an environment that fosters and supports her learning. I can set up certain experiences for her and provide feedback. I can create opportunities for her to observe me and work successfully with students. I can answer her questions and encourage her to ask questions.
I am thinking of KW, whose class I student taught in my senior year in college. KW taught me so much about this age and continues to serve as an inspiration to me. I was amazed as a student in her classroom with her engaging and far reaching curriculum. KW let me take as much responsibility as I was comfortable taking. I am also thinking of Mr BR who provided a lot of feed back to me in graduate school. Under his supervision I really felt like I was able to sharpen and refine some very specific teaching skills that I continue to use today. Thank you to these wonderful cooperating teachers who later became mentors and friends. Your work continues to motivate and inspire me and I strive to provide as high quality of a learning experience for the college student in my classroom as you both provided for me.
Then I got nervous. I thought about all of my field placements during college and graduate school. I thought about teaching related employment experiences that I had before my current position. I started remembering some of the high and low lights of these various experiences when a thought occured to me: Am I responsible for this person's learning?
I know that I am responsible for my students' learning and progress. I also know that I am responsible for supervising and supporting Ms. S (a.k.a para of the year) and her interactions with the kids in the classroom. Am I also responsible for learning and development of this college student? Or am I just responsible for supervising her in the classroom? I mean its a big thing to be responsible for someone else's learning and development. Then I started questioning myself: can I really teach someone how to do what I do each day? Do I really know enough to teach someone who is just starting out in the field?
After a few days of thinking about this, I have come to several other thoughts and possible conclusions. First of all this college student is an adult and she is ultimately responsible for her own learning. That's the thing about adults. My role is to provide an environment that fosters and supports her learning. I can set up certain experiences for her and provide feedback. I can create opportunities for her to observe me and work successfully with students. I can answer her questions and encourage her to ask questions.
I am thinking of KW, whose class I student taught in my senior year in college. KW taught me so much about this age and continues to serve as an inspiration to me. I was amazed as a student in her classroom with her engaging and far reaching curriculum. KW let me take as much responsibility as I was comfortable taking. I am also thinking of Mr BR who provided a lot of feed back to me in graduate school. Under his supervision I really felt like I was able to sharpen and refine some very specific teaching skills that I continue to use today. Thank you to these wonderful cooperating teachers who later became mentors and friends. Your work continues to motivate and inspire me and I strive to provide as high quality of a learning experience for the college student in my classroom as you both provided for me.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
The kids said:
Today, when we were talking about the election, one of the students referred to Barack Obama as "Rock yo mama".
At the end of the day lat week, as I was saying bye to the student, she said "Who is Bye?" I explained that goodbye is what people say when they leave each other ( and not to mention that I always make a point to emphasize greetings and farewells each day).
While playing in the kitchen area, another child said "I'm sick of you, get out of my house"
Finally, a former student of mine today ended the school day by telling me this fantastic story about a motorcycle, a chair and 3 eyed red monster. He was so animated while he was talking. I wished that I had brought out paper and pencil so I could jot down his story and so that he could illustrate what he was saying.
Just wanted to share some kid thoughts
At the end of the day lat week, as I was saying bye to the student, she said "Who is Bye?" I explained that goodbye is what people say when they leave each other ( and not to mention that I always make a point to emphasize greetings and farewells each day).
While playing in the kitchen area, another child said "I'm sick of you, get out of my house"
Finally, a former student of mine today ended the school day by telling me this fantastic story about a motorcycle, a chair and 3 eyed red monster. He was so animated while he was talking. I wished that I had brought out paper and pencil so I could jot down his story and so that he could illustrate what he was saying.
Just wanted to share some kid thoughts
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Field Trip pictures
Teaching the kids to notice and appreciate the beauty of nature on a brisk fall morning. Everyone was bundled up because it was very cold, though most of the kids were dressed appropriately for the weather and did not complain about the cold. Here are some the things we found. I used the camera to document the trip, to take picture of the things that they saw. The photos posted here serve as a record for them and inspiration for me. Other pictures show the kids really touching the bark of a tree, throwing leaves, comparing two different leaves, noticing a crack in the path we walked on and so much more. We concluded the field trip by giving each student a clipboard to write about the favorite thing they found during the trip. Students first tell what they are going write about, then draw their picture, and then retell it to a teacher who takes dictation. This week my students were working on adding detail to their drawings and their statements about the drawings. I did see a lot of progress just from last week to this week. I really want them to develop the idea that they are writers.
With each passing week, I am more and more excited about the digital camera. It is such a powerful tool to use in the classroom. Last year I used it to document student work that could not be saved in a folder. Block towers and writing on white boards are two examples that come to mind. This year, I am using the camera to document more and more student work that can't be put into their work folders in addition to photographing more activities in the classroom. The city was gracious enough to purchase laptops for all of the teachers last year so I am experimenting now with video documentation and hopefully will attempt video modeling for individual students later in the year. The students love to see themselves. The students are excited to look at the class photo album or be part of a movie.
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