Access to pre-K for Spanish-speaking children April 27, 2009

Here’s an interesting article about the barriers to getting Latino children into preschool.

I work at a school with a significant Latino population, but in the beginning, when my program was added, I attracted mostly native-English speakers.  Slowly, parents at the school with younger children learned about my classroom, and each year I have more and more children whose first language is Spanish.  (Why oh why did I study French in high school?!)

I’m always proud to send them on to kindergarten, knowing that they will do very well, and that they are much better prepared than their peers.

Ana Solano, who immigrated from Mexico five years ago, was unaware of the importance of early childhood education until the home-based visits began for her 4-year-old daughter, Ana. She said she immediately noticed a remarkable difference between Ana and her older son, Juan Carlos, who had struggled in kindergarten. “I just thought he would pick everything up in school. With Ana, I see how much it helps and how much better off she will be,” she said.

I hope that with a new administration in office, early childhood will get increased funding and attention, and ALL kids who need it, will get access to high quality preschool programs.

Wednesday: Library April 26, 2009

We went to the library for preschool storytime on Wednesday.  I’d forgotten to give Miss Nelson advance notice, so when she came in she got tense.  Then she said she wouldn’t go — and would keep her four early childhood special ed students back, too!  She left the room right after that.

When she returned, I told her I didn’t feel comfortable with not bringing all four children.  I knew she was worried about Leo, but it had been such a long time since we’d been to the library, and back then, Miss Nelson was never saying “no” to him.  Now, she was setting limits for him, and he has come a long way in terms of his behavior.

It was very clear she was angry with me for taking this stance.  She ended up coming along, as did all four of my special ed children, but she was very tense and wouldn’t look at me for quite a while.

But storytime was lovely, and Leo and all the others did just fine.  The only thing that bothered him was when we clapped after a story — too noisy — so I asked the librarian not to do the clapping anymore, and that solved the problem.

It’s exhausting to have these little mini-dramas on a regular basis.

Thursday: neglect? April 24, 2009

I have a kid in my class — let’s call him Kid — who is one of several children at his home.  He’s got some issues.  He also has had green goo coming out of his nose for months, his breath is stunningly bad, and his adenoids are swollen and slimy.  If I were his mother, I’d have taken him to the doctor ages ago.

Miss Nelson has been concerned about him, I’ve been concerned about him, Miss Slinger has been concerned about him, the speech therapist has been concerned about him, and the nurse has been concerned about him.  The speech therapist says he’s so congested he can’t form the sounds correctly, and his infection is probably in his ears, because it seems like he can’t hear her.  The kids stay away from him because he smells so bad.  He’s needy and he bursts into tears at the slightest provocation. 

Miss Nelson and the nurse have been trying to reach mom for ages.  Finally Kid’s social worker went to the house to meet with mom.  Upshot is, she said she would take him to the doctor (she said she did, months ago, and the doctor said there was nothing wrong.  I find that difficult to believe.).

Then Thursday morning the social worker emails us and says, do we have enough evidence to file a report of medical neglect?  Miss Nelson promptly goes into a tizzy and we all try — and fail — to meet, so emails go bouncing around.

We decided to give mom one last chance.  She said she would take him to the doctor on Friday (today) so we’ll see. 

If within two weeks we see no evidence he is receiving medical care, we will file.

YUCK.

Friday: blood April 24, 2009

So Titch kicked a little boy with Down’s Syndrome in the face and knocked out his tooth.  Apparently there was blood everywhere.

We were on the playground, and I was trying to gather my goslings to line up and get ready to go home, and Titch — the line leader — was missing.  Miss Slinger found him and brought him  in, and then next thing I know, Titch’s dad is there, calm but upset, telling me what Titch had done.

Titch’s dad works at my school, and was responsible for the little boy whose tooth his own son kicked out.   How’s that for complicated?  After I sent the kids home on the bus, Titch’s dad and I went to talk to the assistant principal and I had to recommend suspension.  Titch’s dad understood, and then I emailed Titch’s mom at work, and she called immediately.

Titch’s parents are getting divorced — painfully — and the stress is clearly finally getting to him.  What happened today was the culmination of a difficult, and slightly violent, week for him.  (Choking Harold in the bathroom, hitting Harold at gym class, poking Owen and Ferdinand during meeting, kicking Leo, etc.)

The hard thing is that his face looks happy and calm.  He shows no signs of remorse or concern.  “I was on the climber and he was on the ladder coming up and I didn’t want him up there so I kicked him in the face” as if it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

I started my weekend feeling so tense and upset and sad for Titch and his family.

Donald Crews April 17, 2009

 

We are learning about Transportation now, and my bookshelf is full of books about trains, planes, buses, boats, and cars.  Of course we have a Donald Crews shelf — with Truck, Freight Train, and Sail Away on it.

 

Princess finished her journal page this morning, then took Freight Train off the shelf and brought it to me.

“Teacher, what does this say?”

“Freight Train,” I told her.

“fff,” she said, pointing to the letter F.

“Yes, that’s right, that’s the word Freight.  Freight starts with F.”

“Duh, duh, duh, ” she said, pointing to the D. 

“Yup, that’s D.  D is for Donald.  Donald Crews wrote the words and he drew the pictures.  And you know something else about Donald Crews?” I asked.

“What?”

“He has brown skin, just like you do.”

“I LOVE this book!” she yelled, and clutched it to her chest.

spring break April 8, 2009

I haven’t been posting because I am on spring break, in a warm place with sand and palm trees and — most importantly — margaritas.

I am a happy teacher who is having a well-deserved lazy vacation in the sun.  I have read three novels in four days and just started novel #4.  Also — in reference to Mrs. V  — I have a fresh pedicure with coral nail polish, and now my toes look lovely, too.

See you soon, back in the real world.

Princess! April 2, 2009

Princess can write her name!  As of April 1, 2009, the girl can actually write her whole name!

Miss Slinger has been working with her for weeks — no, months — on this task.  Princess was the only one left in the class who couldn’t do it, and she made no progress on it whatsoever from September to March.  Well, she learned to write the first letter, sort of, in around December or January.

In my classroom, after I greet the children at the door in the morning, they go in and sign their names in our sign-in book.  It’s very sweet — we get a little line-up of kids chatting and waiting to sign their names.  We started on the first day, and only Harold could do it.  None of the others could,  but after attempting it day after day they all started to figure it out.  Princess was the only one who was clueless.  It didn’t bother her any; she just used pretend writing with flair, and went off to sit and scribble in her journal and talk in her loud voice.

A week ago she suddenly learned how to write the first three letters, and from there she went zoooom to the whole thing.

Miss Slinger was so excited she almost got choked up.  She’s trying to decide if she wants to go to school to become a teacher, and this was one of those moments that might just push her in that direction.

linky love April 2, 2009

Angela at the Cornerstone blog has linked to one of my posts here.  It’s worth checking out, because she has found lots of great blogs to highlight. 

Thanks, Angela!

when parents can’t read April 2, 2009

On Monday one of my students came in halfway through the morning.  “I thought it was spring break starting today,” explained his always-harried mother.

“Oh, no,” I said.  “That doesn’t start until next week.  It was in the newsletter I sent home on Friday, and it’s in my monthly calendar.”

And then it dawned on me that this was the third time I had reminded her that all the school dates she needs to know are in my weekly newsletter.  Maybe she isn’t disorganized, I thought….maybe she can’t read.

The week previous, a mom had come to school with some formal papers for her to sign so that her son can get speech therapy at school.  The speech therapist and I had been waiting all week for those papers to come back to school.  When she came in last Friday, she was holding the papers.

“I’m just kind of confused,” she said.  “Could you explain this to me?”

I ended up going page by page, summarizing each one and explaining the process to her.  It occurred to me that perhaps she couldn’t read them.  She is very young — had her first child (the one in my class) at 15, and has had two more since then.

I’ve talked to the social worker, and she will call both moms and ask how things are going, and are they happy with the way they get information from the school?  I’m not sure what else to do, except call those mothers personally when there are things they really need to know.

As a book lover, though, I think it is indescribably sad.

Update — April 3.

I’m rethinking my position on the first mother.  I’m maybe back to thinking she’s just really disorganized.  Yesterday she told me that her son has been using our special words, and that he had said “disappointed” at least five times over the weekend.  (She was grinning with exasperation.)  I don’t remember talking to her about the words, which means she read the letter with the list of the three words.  Maybe.