Monday, June 25, 2012

happy to teach k!

Can I just say how happy I am that I teach kindergarten?! I am helping my mother in law with her preschool VBS this week and spent almost the entire 3 hours today switching off between 3 year old twins who were screaming bloody murder for their mommy. It was heartbreaking, but drove me nuts at the same time! once one of them stopped, the other would start in and they both would go into hysterics. I'm talking so loud that I had to go in the hallway and sit with them which was even loud for the older kids. Man oh man, am I exhausted!!

Monday, June 18, 2012

Fascinating

I was honored to wake up to an email this morning letting me know that I had been nominated for the "2012 fascination awards" as a kinder blog. I honestly don't know what would put me in the "fascinating" category, but regardless I am very honored! Thank you!

 If you are inclined to vote for me it starts June 25th at 1:01 am est (random time!)

Happy monday everyone!


fast degree programs

Summer is here!

Today is our first day of summer break...and wouldn't you know it, it is raining! oh well... beggars can't be choosers, right?

I spent the morning helping my dear friend move out of her classroom for the 4th time. We started teaching the same year and became friends through our new teacher orientation group and kept it touch sharing the trials and triumphs of kinder teaching over long walks with our pups and coffee dates. She is such an inspiring and loving teacher and because of this horrible teaching economy we came into at just the wrong time, she has been temporary status every.single.year! seriously?! I swear, all of the "budget saving measures" have made each year as a newer teacher completely heartbreaking. I love her so much and so wish we could have been doing something else instead of packing up again. But regardless I count myself blessed to spend time with her and know that whatever group of kids that gets her next year will feel the same way!

I love you C!!!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Last day

Today was the last day of am kindergarten and i couldn't feel more loved by my class! Look at how sweet their gifts are? I teach at a title 1 school so it means so much to me when they reach out and even write a heart felt card, let alone shower me the way they did today!

The rest of the school has a half day tomorrow but because there would't be a pm kinder we finish half day a day early! After a super busy week of field trips, 2 different placement meetings for next year and the overall craziness of the last day I am definitely looking forward to a quiet day of packing up my room for summer tomorrow!

But for now i'm off to my other job :)

Happy summer!!!
I think we are one of the last states to be getting out for summer break, but if you are still in school i wish you all the best!! Just keep reminding yourself you get to start later than everyone in the fall! Everyone will be jealous come august! ;)

Friday, June 1, 2012

Class Award, Assessments and General Randomness

Considering there are 8 days left of school, 2 of which include field day and a field trip, i'd say i'm doing pretty well! But as the title of this post might suggest, my brain is a little scattered! :)

Class Award
My class won the Golden Dustpan award for the month of may! This may not seem too exciting to you, but I was FLOORED! Kindergarten is not known for its "tidiness", but my OCD tendencies and extra push for cleanliness lately I think is really helping! My kids were so thrilled to hear our name over the announcements, and I was doubly thrilled to see that this award comes with my very own parking spot! It's too bad I get to school so early that I have up front parking every day already! haha. but honestly, being 1/2 time, if I leave and come back there is almost never a parking spot for me! I have at least 2 days in the next couple weeks that I will be coming back for meetings, so this makes me a very happy girl! 

Assessments
we had our end of the year DIBELS assessments this week and we were all anxiously awaiting our results. Our reading specialist is ah-maz-ing and so she got them out to us before the day ended (I seriously love this woman!!) I was pretty bummed to see some of my kiddos didn't score as highly as I thought they would. don't get me wrong, the class still did really well as a whole, but a couple of the kiddos (2 of my brightest readers!) scored in the strategic category and had their scores DROP significantly. This floored me, so I talked to our reading specialist about it and she agreed that assessing them one more time might be a good idea. I am so happy to report that their scores significantly improved the 2nd time and overall I can tell that dibels day was an "off" day for some of my kiddos. I know it shouldn't bother me like it does, but it can be so frustrating when they show you such an accelerated reading level on a daily basis and then their "official" scores show them as needing extra support. Even if they were to retest at the original score, it puts me at ease to be able to check back one more time to make sure. Am I just crazy?

General Randomness
one of my little girls came back from the bathroom today with a tissue next to her lip. she showed me a small bump that was a little bloody and said that she "popped a zit"...umm, seriously? Is it even possible for a 5 year old to have a zit?! She loves to tell fabricated stories, but it definitely looked like a popped zit (not that I know about those...ugh) I just can't figure this one out!!

What about you? any general randomness for the week? :)