Deliberate and Intentional

There is not much going on in the classroom to report on this week so I thought I would just muse a little bit about what I've been thinking about on my drive home these first 6 weeks of teaching.

But first, a funny comment said to me on Monday:

Boy to me: (Gasp of shock and perhaps horror) You are wearing MAN shoes!

Well, thanks. Now, I'll never look at those shoes the same again. Maybe it's time to go shopping.

Classroom management is about being deliberate. It's hard because I just want them to know and remember what to do every second of every day. It is easy for me to forget that they are just still figuring out how to behave and act accordingly in the world. It's tiring to remember to repeat the expectations and rules every other minute or two. It's also easy to get frustrated and feel helpless when the boy you just reminded NOT to play in the bathroom is hanging from the stall doors. It's easy to get frustrated when you turn around and see three kids holding scissors, one eating/chewing on a pencil, and two crawling under their desks when they are supposed to be listening or working or looking at books or doing anything productive except all of the aforementioned things. But then I stop and think for a minute about WHY they're doing it. Because when kids do all these things, it isn't because they like to be bad or like getting in trouble. It's probably because they're just kids. Just kids who are five years old and don't have an attention span longer than 3 minutes--especially for just sitting and listening. It's probably because I'M not being very exciting or engaging and probably didn't remind them of what they ARE supposed to be doing. It's probably my fault because managing a classroom is about being deliberate.

DELIBERATELY planning engaging lessons

DELIBERATELY pointing out good behaviors instead of giving the attention to negative ones

DELIBERATELY repeating myself about what is expected

DELIBERATELY modeling everything I want them to repeat

DELIBERATELY explaining directions step by step

DELIBERATELY and consistently enforcing the rules with consequences

There is no assuming that everyone understands or "gets it."

There is no assuming that everyone knows what to do.

There is no assuming that these 5 year olds will start acting like adults tomorrow.

The more deliberate and intentional I am about EVERYTHING I do. The better my day goes for me and the students.

Will they EVER get it? Will I ever have any control? Do I have any control? Well, yeah, they will and I do. How do I know? Well, it isn't in those frustrating moments that's for sure. However, it is clear when I'm able to take a step back. Like when the sub only wrote positive comments and the parent helper for picture day said our class was "the best" at sitting and waiting our turn. You see, sometimes I wonder what my class looks like from the other side. I wonder if people are watching us go by and say "Wow, there goes THAT class" and "SHE must be the new teacher. Look at THEM" because sometimes it feels like that ALL the time. I wonder what if I'm doing anything right. UNTIL, one moment, one time, they do exactly as they are told, the first time, exactly as they should. And I realize that I have done something right and most of the time they do get it. It's just this reality that they are just 5 years old, crammed full of too much energy, never think before they do anything, and just dying to chew on something that gets in the way.

With the help of the K teacher across the hall, my students signed a big piece of posterboard to help me celebrate my birthday. I brought in Neapolitan ice cream with all the toppings for snack and we celebrated in style! B and A (two K teachers) got me chocolate lover's cake for all of to share too. We have feasted fabulously for two days and have about 2 more to go. So don't worry mom, I did have a cake on my birthday and my kids sang to me so I got everything covered. : ) I told them I was 23 and had at least one shout "That's how old my mom is!" Wow. I'm pretty glad I don't have Kindergartner right now. I had many well wishes and it was topped off by dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, John, and Bethany and a 2 hour amazing premiere of Grey's Anatomy.

Dad should will also be glad to know that his hard work hanging yarn and clothespins from my lights is finally being put to use. We read a great story called "Leaf Man" by Lois Ehlert and then made a leaf man which we have proudly hung from the pins. The kids loved it and I'd say they turned out quite well. Now, for a relaxing weekend of coloring, cutting, copying, and laminating for file folder games. Yeah!!

My First Substitute

Day was a scheduled School Improvement Day or SIP day. Students only came until 12 and then, the teachers get together and learn about how to be better teachers. This time, all "new" teachers were to get the special treatment and spend the whole day in meetings instead of just the morning. Consequently, I had to make sub plans and prepare for a sub. While I dreaded the entire process the whole time I was doing it, it actually forced me to create a sub folder and prepare for the off chance that I wake up puking my guts out someday and absolutely cannot go. Otherwise, I'm going to make it because I HATE making sub plans and I've only had to do it once for a 1/2 day. Perhaps it's just because I'm new at this and don't hardly trust myself with my plans let alone someone who is coming in blind. I've MADE the plans and most mornings I'm still turning in circles to figure out what I'm doing. Anyway, it worked out very well and there was more than enough stuff for the sub to do and only one behavior problem from someone I expected to have a behavior problem. This has also left me a little confused about what day it is because since I didn't see the students it didn't feel like a school day but it was because there are only two days left already this week.

While I was supposed to spend the entire day learning about the next reading strand, the literacy coach who planned the day ended up being sick. So, we had another person who knows everything about it and just wasn't prepared to give the presentation and we didn't get to have it all day. We ended up going back to our buildings and spending the rest of the day learning about how to use the PDAs. Depending on your perspective, we either got the shaft or the best of both worlds. Personally, I would have liked to spent a little more time working on the reading stuff because it's more complicated and a lot less self explanatory but this is the nature of working with kids. Plans change.

As for the first two days this week, it seems as if Mondays will typically be pretty good and Tuesday a little rough. For some reason, that's been the pattern and Tuesdays are always just a little bit crazier. Maybe it's because everything goes so well on Monday that I let my guard up but for some reason the kids get away with more and seemingly poke, push, jab, and talk more than usual. For crying out loud they all hate to be touched but can't . . . . stop . . . . . . . . touching. And I'm not even talking about each other. I mean they do that too with pushing and poking and pinching, but it's the constant need to have their hands doing something that just makes me shake my head and sigh. For example, cutting anything at all including but not limited to chairs, glue bottles, tables, pencils, napkins, hair, fingers, and every once in a while paper, holding pencils, rapping pencils on the desk, sorting pencils, hiding pencils, eating crayons, and my favorite chewing on the pencils. Maybe someday they'll figure it out someday or at least I hope so. Until then, I take the stuff away and ask them if they would like to go back to preschool because I used to work with preschoolers and they eat crayons and cut their own hair and I thought I was a kindergarten teacher but if all I had was preschoolers we can go right back. And, believe it or not, this actually works. Apparently, they actually do enjoy being in kindergarten. : )

Mr. E=Mystery?

Here at Pleasant Acres, our principal has a really long last name. Consequently, he is more commonly referred to as "Mr. E." Apparently, this is a wee bit confusing for young children who are still learning how to spell. Let me explain. When one of the first grade teachers was helping a student write a letter to Mr. E, she looked over his shoulder and found him addressing the letter to Misteree. Yeah, that's right. Mystery. They have no idea what abbreviations are and go ahead, say it out loud. That's exactly what it is. Mystery. The name of our principal. Or at least what 200 of Rantoul's youngest think is the name of our principal. Ha!

Applesauce & PDAs

We were talking about the letter "A" this week so on Friday I decided we should make applesauce. I played pretty well but didn't get to school early enough to cut up as many of the apples that I would have liked to have done before the kids got there. However, I had the ingredients (apples, water, sugar, cinnamon&sugar) ready to go and actually have just the right amount. My goal was to have most of them cut up and in the crockpot at the start of school so that I could just cut up one or two in front of the kids and let it start cooking. Instead, I had about 3/4ths of them done and spent an hour getting the kids to work on "A" worksheet pages while I waved the knife around and tried not to cut up my thumb and start bleeding everywhere. I had already grazed the skin once and put a bandaid on one thumb which was noticed very quickly. When asked whether or not I had cut myself I replied that I was using the bandaid to protect my thumb from getting cut which wasn't exactly a lie but didn't exactly answer his question either. It made our room smell absolutely delicious and tasted just the same! The kids really enjoyed it, and I think it's definitely a keeper idea for next year.

Fridays can always be a little crazy at school and this one was no exception. It seems to me like Power Store Fridays are even crazier than most. The Power Store is this cabinet with pencils, school supplies, and small toys that the kids can buy with their "SOAR" tickets that they have been earning the last few weeks for being respectful and responsible. Most kids get between 8 and 15 in two weeks. Then, they go and spend their tickets on junk, but they LOVE it. Anyway, since my kids are in Kindergarten they aren't quite ready to count and pick out their prizes by themselves. This requires me to go through and count their tickets and then tell them which 5, 10, or 15 ticket prizes they can buy. Each class only has 10 minutes at the "store" so we don't have time for 18 kids to stand up there and have their tickets counted and then look at everything and pick something out. There is a poster with all the choices on it that goes around and I make them choose their prize and put it on a sticky note on their plastic bag of tickets. Then, when we go to the store, the teachers helping grab the bag, take the tickets, and hand out the prize. This also prevents us from standing in the hall for 10 minutes which for me is pretty much my worst nightmare. Do you know how hard it is for Kindergarteners to stand calmly and quietly in hallway without small toys in their hands!??!? Impossible. That's how hard. So to make this long story a little shorter, I have to make sure that the kids are really independently busy while I count the tickets and help them choose the prize. I did an impromptu art project last time which worked well, but this time with a planned apple tree making project I wasn't quite as successful. When the kids left for PE at 2:30, the room was trashed, the project was not done, and I felt more than a little bit out of control and we had 5 minutes after they got back to pack up and get ready to be dismissed. Ah. We made it okay though and I will continue to look for a good project to make Fridays a little more successful in the future.

After school, I hadn't planned to stay very long because it was Friday and I had actually done quite a lot for the next week and felt like I knew I could come back on Sunday and get everything perfectly ready to go. Then, at 3:30 they asked us to go the library because the technology man was there. Not only was he there, but he had brought our brand new PDAs! What originally was just a 10 second thing to put the software on our computers became a two hour thing where we played on our PDAs and tried to figure out all the cool things that they do. I'm pretty sure I haven't really explained this to many people, but the entire teaching staff is getting a PDA to do assessments and primarily DIBELS. DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills and is an assessment used on students to figure out how much reading intervention and help they need. The Title I teacher has already "DIBELED" all my students so their results are already compiled and ready to go in my little handheld device. : ) It is very cool and fun to play with but at 5 we decided that we better go home because we really could play with it just as easily at home. I was surprised and pleased though with how well my students did on the assessment. Most are in "green" which is okay and only 1 is in red which is that she doesn't know much of anything. Definitely an indicator of who I need to be paying close attention to. There is going to be a lot to learn with it and a lot of changes as it the district figures out how we can use them most effectively but I think I'm going to like it.

I'm going to go backwards here but on Thursday we had staff social event where as many people who wanted to met at TGI Fridays for dinner and getting together outside of school. I went and had a fun time even when the principal came and sat right next to me. : ) I was a little surprised he came but everyone was glad he did and it was fun to get a chance to see everyone a little bit more relaxed and out of "school mode."

I know I haven't talked about the other staff and principal much but besides the Kindergarten teachers I haven't really had much interaction with either. On Friday though I did actually have an actual conversation with the principal about how school was going, my class, and other general things. I already knew this but he is very nice and easy to talk to as well as extra supportive of his teachers and staff. He is very involved with helping teachers with problem students, parents, and just everything that comes along with being a teacher. He is very hands on with students and about being open with teachers so that he can help in any way that he needs to. However, he leaves the instruction to the teachers and trusts us to do what is best and involve him when we feel the need. Having only heard stories of other principals, I feel very fortunate that my first experience is proving to be a very positive one.

Well, I think I've written enough for one week and with no ILLINI game to watch, I'm off to do some Saturday projects. An oil change, the bank, a haircut, and bedroom room organizing! Looks to be one dandy of a day. : D

On the News!

We had a lot of excitement at PA today when the channel 3 WCIA folks showed up for the morning assembly. Walmart was doing a promotional to support the community and came to give away 10 $100 gift cards to the teachers. They also brought cake and balloons! They put all the certified staff names in a basket and had ten students come up and draw a name out. Each time a name was called the news lady would run up to the teacher and ask them what this meant to them and how exciting it must be. It was a little chaotic but a very fun start to the morning. And, yes, I did win one. : ) I don't think my clip will be on the news though. I'm pretty sure the camera man wasn't fast enough to get the camera on us. I declined to be one the two teachers to give a real interview after it over. I let two second grade teachers take care of that.

In other excitement, I got my first paycheck today! Not quite enough to pay off everything that I have racked up on my credit card bill but luckily I will get another one before it comes due. I now feel like an official full time real world person.

In almost excitement, one of my students got sick on the playground today. I feel bad for her but am really glad it didn't happen in the room. It's already hot, humid, and stinky anyway. I'm pretty sure adding vomit and then cleaner to the mix would have made for a REALLY long afternoon. I am trying to stay away from the sickness but it doesn't help that I come home to it too since Bethany brought all of the symptoms for N1H1 here from home last weekend. She swears it's just cold, but I'm making the meals. I haven't made up a sub folder yet so I can't be sick or gone. It's just not choice. MUST STAY HEALTHY.

Open House

Well, I thought this would be easier to keep up but I am not doing a very good job. : P

We have moved into September very smoothly. Even after a three day weekend, it didn't take as long as I thought it would to settle back into routine. The kids are starting to settle in too which means a lot more silliness and a lot less paying attention. I've done my best to crack down and try to keep reminding myself that they are just being kids and school isn't always the most exciting place. (Despite my best efforts.) I am also down to 18 students as two have withdrawn since the beginning of the year. Of course, this makes classroom management a little more manageable, but I think I will still miss one of them in particular.

Tonight was Open House. There were hotdogs, chips, and ice cream for all the families and then they could come into the classrooms. I had about 8 students and their parents. Not as many as I had hoped, but everything went very smoothly. We made an "All About Me" book for them to take home and to have out on the tables when they came tonight. In the "When I grow up I want to be a ______," I was a little surprised by the responses. A little different from what I remember as a grade schooler. Including my favorite from one of the cutest tiniest little girls in the class, "a garbage truck driver." Others included a fashion model, bus driver, Dad, and one teacher! Yeah!!! While I won't be able to post any actual pictures of my kids here, this is the closest I can get. We made these pictures of ourselves last week. Take a peek at how 5 year olds depict themselves these days. We also spruced up our hallway with these colorful collage rainbows.