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!
If you are inclined to vote for me it starts June 25th at 1:01 am est (random time!)
Happy monday everyone!
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!!!
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! ;)
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! :)
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!
Class Award
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? :)
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Are they ready?
I just got back from a informational roundtable about the latest kindergarten readiness assessment that our state is looking to pilot in the fall and roll out officially the following year. It was a really interesting meeting that brought up a lot of excitement about the possibilities of a common assessment as well as concerns about how this will really look...Who will give the assessment? Will it be done before the school year starts? How will we find the time to fit it in if the assessment falls on the plate on the classroom teacher?
One thing that REALLY surprised me was that only 6 kindergarten teachers were at the meeting, 4 of which were from my own district! This could be a potentially huge development in kindergarten and classroom placement, yet the majority of people at the meeting were early childhood specialists. Do you find this odd, or it it just me? I think this is mostly due to the fact we only found out about the meeting (or the possibility of the assessment even!) last week. Most teachers are busy with their own family lives on a tuesday evening, so i'm sure a lot of them couldn't make it even if they wanted to.
I am really concerned that if not enough kinder teachers are involved it could end up being created for the "ideal classroom" and not realistic with the demands already on our plate.
I really enjoyed being a part of this roundtable and felt like our notes and opinions were taken into account, but am still a little nervous about how it will all turn out.
The council began this process in january and are implementing it with little time for change or feedback. I am crossing my fingers that it turns out to be a positive READINESS assessment and not another kindergarten assessment for the teacher to add to their testing agendas.
I am dreaming of something that can be done before the school year starts and help evenly distribute students between classes with valuable starting information on each child.
So this leaves me wondering, What do you do to assess your kindergartner's readiness before they start school?
**P.S. sorry if this is a poorly written post. I tried to keep it coherent but I am running on 3 1/2 hours sleep...Off to bed now!
One thing that REALLY surprised me was that only 6 kindergarten teachers were at the meeting, 4 of which were from my own district! This could be a potentially huge development in kindergarten and classroom placement, yet the majority of people at the meeting were early childhood specialists. Do you find this odd, or it it just me? I think this is mostly due to the fact we only found out about the meeting (or the possibility of the assessment even!) last week. Most teachers are busy with their own family lives on a tuesday evening, so i'm sure a lot of them couldn't make it even if they wanted to.
I am really concerned that if not enough kinder teachers are involved it could end up being created for the "ideal classroom" and not realistic with the demands already on our plate.
I really enjoyed being a part of this roundtable and felt like our notes and opinions were taken into account, but am still a little nervous about how it will all turn out.
The council began this process in january and are implementing it with little time for change or feedback. I am crossing my fingers that it turns out to be a positive READINESS assessment and not another kindergarten assessment for the teacher to add to their testing agendas.
I am dreaming of something that can be done before the school year starts and help evenly distribute students between classes with valuable starting information on each child.
So this leaves me wondering, What do you do to assess your kindergartner's readiness before they start school?
**P.S. sorry if this is a poorly written post. I tried to keep it coherent but I am running on 3 1/2 hours sleep...Off to bed now!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
What would you do?
Can I just say there are 14 days left of school and I am feeling it?! I know this isn't the subject for my post, but I couldn't help it.
Onto the real subject. What to do when your (school) children are being naughty under someone else's care. Another teacher, an aide, their own parent....it drives me nuts! My students have learned what to expect with me. They are not perfect, and neither am I, but they know that misbehaving will NOT be tolerated.
So what do you do when you catch your students misbehaving for someone else? I am always torn between speaking up or letting the person in charge handle it. For instance, it is easy to step in and stop the behavior when it is happening during a parent led lesson or library. But it is harder for me when it is outside of "my control" like before/after school. Like when you are talking to their parents and they are being really disrespectful.
Or what is happening currently in my school. Some of our kinders go to "extended day" letters class (read title 1 interventions) while the rest go home on the bus. I send the letters class off to lunch, put the others on the bus and then it is my prep time for the day. Letters class is taught by our reading specialists and then at the end of their day they listen to a story read by an assistant in the hall outside my room until their bus arrives. This is about 15 minutes. I haven't had them in my "control" for over an hour by that point and recently they have begun acting up big time during the story.
Let me say that it is not just my kids. All Title 1 serviced 1/2 day kindergartners are involved in this story time. Even a few pm kinders arrive early to listen to the story. It is a lot of tired kids, ready to go home and play, trying to sit and listen to a story. The assistant always says "you don't have to listen, but you need to be quiet". needless to say, it is not working. they are LOUD and she is constantly stopping to redirect them. I have gone out there a couple of times to talk to them and told her she can always send them to me, even if they are not in my class. But, it is just getting worse. I feel like i've stepped in but don't want to step on her toes at this point.
But honestly. They are obnoxious and in the hallway. If I was her, I would be going NUTS. heck, I am going nuts just listening to it from my classroom!!
So tell me, what would you do in this situation? Or in general when a student of yours is being disrespectful? Do you step in and stop it at the risk of undermining the adult in charge? Or do you leave it to them and let the naughtiness continue??
I have a feeling the kinders can feel the 14 days left as well...even if they don't know what it means! Sigh...
Onto the real subject. What to do when your (school) children are being naughty under someone else's care. Another teacher, an aide, their own parent....it drives me nuts! My students have learned what to expect with me. They are not perfect, and neither am I, but they know that misbehaving will NOT be tolerated.
So what do you do when you catch your students misbehaving for someone else? I am always torn between speaking up or letting the person in charge handle it. For instance, it is easy to step in and stop the behavior when it is happening during a parent led lesson or library. But it is harder for me when it is outside of "my control" like before/after school. Like when you are talking to their parents and they are being really disrespectful.
Or what is happening currently in my school. Some of our kinders go to "extended day" letters class (read title 1 interventions) while the rest go home on the bus. I send the letters class off to lunch, put the others on the bus and then it is my prep time for the day. Letters class is taught by our reading specialists and then at the end of their day they listen to a story read by an assistant in the hall outside my room until their bus arrives. This is about 15 minutes. I haven't had them in my "control" for over an hour by that point and recently they have begun acting up big time during the story.
Let me say that it is not just my kids. All Title 1 serviced 1/2 day kindergartners are involved in this story time. Even a few pm kinders arrive early to listen to the story. It is a lot of tired kids, ready to go home and play, trying to sit and listen to a story. The assistant always says "you don't have to listen, but you need to be quiet". needless to say, it is not working. they are LOUD and she is constantly stopping to redirect them. I have gone out there a couple of times to talk to them and told her she can always send them to me, even if they are not in my class. But, it is just getting worse. I feel like i've stepped in but don't want to step on her toes at this point.
But honestly. They are obnoxious and in the hallway. If I was her, I would be going NUTS. heck, I am going nuts just listening to it from my classroom!!
So tell me, what would you do in this situation? Or in general when a student of yours is being disrespectful? Do you step in and stop it at the risk of undermining the adult in charge? Or do you leave it to them and let the naughtiness continue??
I have a feeling the kinders can feel the 14 days left as well...even if they don't know what it means! Sigh...
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