http://kiri8.wordpress.com A blog about preschool, public schools, and what it's really like to be a teacher Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:20:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en http://kiri8.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/my-new-favorite-book/ This article in the San Jose Mercury News reports that only 15% of preschol-age children living in poverty are in high-quality programs.  This is where I want to tear my hair out and rant that we should more like the French and the Italians, and have universal preschool.  This is where ... http://kiri8.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/the-kids-who-need-preschool-the-most/ What a discouraging week.  The lead master teacher at my school has decided to work elsewhere.  She wants to work at a school with strong leadership and a staff dedicated to improving results for children.  That witch!!!  Seriously though, can you blame her? So I am left contemplating a return to ... http://kiri8.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/teaching-on-the-titanic/ Things are looking up.  Finally. After my not-so-great last day of school, I had a not-so-great last day for teachers.  My children came to work with me, and I thought they might be helpful, but instead they were bored and underfoot.  I tried to keep them busy and slogged away at ... http://kiri8.wordpress.com/2008/06/16/ahh-summer/ I'm glad we had Monday at the park, because the last day of school wasn't so great.  Our plan was to walk to the library for storytime, which would have been really fun (and would have taken up most of the morning).  Alas, it rained heavily, so we were trapped ... http://kiri8.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/a-bad-ending/ On Monday we went to my favorite coffee shop in the world and got treats (cinnamon twists for the kids, coffee and scones for the grownups) and then went to a cute neighborhood park to play all morning.  The weather was gorgeous, and the morning could not have gone more ... http://kiri8.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/a-perfect-day-for-the-park/ It's Friday night, I've got three days of teaching left, and I'm one glass of chardonnay down so far.  In my role as mentor teacher, I did an observation cycle (pre-observation conference, observation, post-observation conference) with a teacher who didn't want me in her room all year, so it came ... http://kiri8.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/diary-of-a-preschool-teacher-pt-2/ I asked the children to tell me the story of our year yesterday, so they told me things that we did, played, learned, and sang, and I wrote it all down.  Here are some samples: This year, we: had a necklace of nametag on the first day of school didn't know how to ... http://kiri8.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/what-we-did-this-year/ I mentioned M. once before -- it was her birthday and I forgot to check the calendar, and missed it.  And she is so non-verbal most of the time that she never mentioned it.  M. is one of my special ed children, with developmental delays, speech difficulties, and possibly some sensory ... http://kiri8.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/what-parents-do/ A few years ago, I was in the teacher's lounge, feeling exhausted.  A middle school teacher (my school is preschool through 8th grade) asked how things were going, and I told her all about how difficult my kids were being.  I then asked her how she was doing, and she ... http://kiri8.wordpress.com/2008/05/26/a-sad-thing-to-see/