Talking to toddlers December 29, 2008

At a science museum today with my two year old nephew (and various and sundry other relatives), I held his hand and showed him the antelope exhibit.

“See, that’s an antelope.  Can you say that?”

“Annalope!”  We walked to the next exhibit.

“Oh, this is a different kind of antelope.”

“Anonner one!  And anonner one!”  He pointed.  Then he asked, “What’s he eating?”

“He’s eating the grass.”

“Annalope eating da grass.”

I got bored of all the antelope displays, and looked ahead.  “Ooh, would you like to see a lion?”

“Wion!”  So we moved on to the lion display.  “Wion!  Anonner one!”

“Yes, there are more lions.  Shall we count them?  One, two, three, four.  There are four lions.”

“Four wions.”  He paused, and looked at the lions with interest.  “Toes.”

“Yes,” I said, “lions do have toes.  In their paws.”

“Toes in dere paws.”

And so on.  Later, walking back to the car with my brother-in-law, I told him how wonderful it was to talk to his son and teach him things, and how it made my kind of angry at the same time, to think of all the other two year olds who are not being talked to.

“No one is talking to them, or listening to them.  Their parents think of toddlers as sort of overgrown babies who can’t really learn or do anything.  They yell at them, tell them No! or Stop that! or Be Quiet!, they feed them, dress them, and they love them, but they don’t talk to them.  And so they don’t really learn how to talk all that well…..And then they end up in my class.”

I told my brother-in-law about the most important study/book about education and poverty, Meaningful Differences, by Hart and Risley.  Children from families in poverty are talked to so much less than children in families with professional parents that they arrive in kindergarten with a word deficit in the thousands, having heard millions of fewer words in their little life times.

“So, some kids are already screwed when they’re three?” my brother-in-law asked.

And unfortunately, some of them are.  Those of us who are their teachers need to do as much as we can to provide them with rich experiences and lots of vocabulary to try to address the word gap. 

And it sure would be nice if teachers and policy-makers and people who care about the achievement gap could figure out a way to encourage more parents to talk to their toddlers.

happy holidays December 21, 2008

Happy holidays, everyone.  Teachers, have a great and restful winter vacation.

I may not post much in the next two weeks; I’ll be too busy relaxing and enjoying my family.

See you next year!

racism December 18, 2008

Last week on a day I was out sick, a little girl in my class kept refusing to play with a boy who had also chosen to play in the house corner. The volunteer told her that the boy had a right to be there, and that they all had to play together. The girl kept refusing. Finally, the volunteer asked why, and the little girl said, “I don’t like black people. My mother told me not to play with the black kids.”

My assistant teacher handled it the best she could in my absence, and when I returned, I asked the girl if it was true, and after being silent for a long time, she admitted that it was. I gave her the standard speech about how we are all friends in our class, and that we have to be respectful of everyone, and that the color of someone’s skin doesn’t matter. I felt that she didn’t really understand a word I was saying.

I asked our African-American assistant principal for help, and she gave me some good advice.

So we have been talking a lot about friendship, and how we are all different but really the same, and reading books about friendship and about diversity, and I have been talking a lot about our school family, and how we must all be kind to one another.

But still. I don’t know what to DO.

the painful part of winter December 9, 2008

Now that it is cold and snowy, I’m reminded of one of the many painful parts of being a teacher. My students are not prepared for the cold weather.

Most of them don’t have any snowpants. Many of my students don’t have winter boots, and while most of them do have gloves, they tend to be the cheap knit kind you get at Target, rather than warm waterproof ones that might actually keep out the cold.

I can’t go out and buy them all boots and mittens, though I’d like to.  But it really hurts me to take them outside unprepared for the cold.

effort creates ability December 5, 2008

“Effort creates ability” is the big phrase at my school.  I believe in it, I just don’t know yet how to teach it.

However, there is one little boy in my class who totally understands those words. 

On Monday morning at centers time he was in the art center, copying another child who had taken some papers out of our big scraps box, and was cutting out the letter M (left over from M week).  My guy tried and tried to cut out his M, but ended up slicing it to bits.  I stopped by to help for a little while, and thought he’d gotten the hang of it.

I sat at my desk to take attendance, and next thing I knew, the little guy was in my arms, sobbing.

“What’s wrong?!” I asked.

“I…just…can’t…cut!”  he wailed.

So I went back to the art table with him and this time I stayed, and he worked and worked until finally, he cut out a letter M.

By Wednesday when we were cutting out mittens and animals to put in the mittens (for Marvelous Mittens Day, of course), he was cutting like a pro.

I’ve been thinking about this child, and I realize that he understands that if he works hard to learn something, then he’ll be able to do it.  When I taught the class the names and characteristics of the four seasons this week, he was paying attention, and now he’s the first to identify the seasons for me.  A few months ago, he couldn’t write his name, and then his mom started working hard on it with him at home, and now he can write the whole thing.

Now, how to get that idea across to the rest of the class?

Seven Random Facts (I’ve been tagged) December 5, 2008

Angela Powell at The Cornerstone for Teachers tagged me to do this meme, asking for seven random facts about me.  So, here goes:

1.  My first language was Indonesian.  Nope, you don’t get an explanation.

2.  My chocolate chip cookies are so good that I’m “famous” for them.  The strange thing is, I use the Nestle Tollhouse recipe, same as I have since I was nine.  I have the magic touch, though — when I make them, they taste better than when other people do it using the same recipe.  Spooky!

3.  I’m a fountain of useless entertainment and movie trivia.  I remember everything I read about movies, and almost always can identify the actors in any movie, even ones I’ve never seen.

4.  If I couldn’t be a teacher I think I’d like to be a graphic designer.

5.  My favorite place on the planet….is a room in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I hardly ever get to New York, so I don’t get to visit my favorite place that often.

6.  I loathe olives.

7.  I have a secret, shameful love for the music of….Blue Oyster Cult.

Now I have to tag some other bloggers out there…..

everyone knows when I have a bad hair day

kindergarten chaos

miss brave

kindergarten 3 r’s

memory maker

and of course, my friend Mrs. V at don’t put your boogers in your neighbor’s cereal

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people (if possible) at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.