student in free fall November 21, 2008

I visited a second grade classroom, and a boy I remember from my visits to first grade last year was there.  I was shocked by his deterioration.

Last year he had an attitude, and sometimes didn’t pay attention, but he was clearly smart and he eventually did his work.  No big deal.  Yesterday was different — he had somehow lost control of himself and his body.  He couldn’t sit still, so I sat behind him and touched his back gently, and whispered his name.  With most kids that would work but it seemed to rile him up more.  Soon he was leaning on the kid next to him or flopping on the floor, instead of sitting up in the circle.  I eventually moved away as it seemed I might be making things worse.

The poor teacher was trying to give directions for the math activity but I never once saw this boy look at her or give any indication that he heard a word she said.  He made his hands into guns and “shot” the kids around him.  He was in his own world. 

Then an older woman I realized was his grandma stepped up, and she tried and tried to get him to pay attention.  She was whispering to him lovingly and even guided his head so he’d be facing the teacher, and she didn’t have any luck either.  It was almost like listening or focusing was beyond his abilities.

Later, she sat next to him to do the activity, and instead of listening, he built guns out of manipulatives.  It was like someone had shot him up with ADHD poison, and he was completely lost in his own hyperactive world.  I mean, it looked like he couldn’t even look at grandma and have a conversation with her.

It made me so sad for the rest of the day.

life as a mentor teacher, part two November 19, 2008

So I never posted about my experience visiting first grade and teaching a math lesson to that class of wigglers….

Last Thursday, after having demonstrated an interactive read-aloud to my peers at a meeting before school, I left the meeting early and went to first grade, where I talked to the teacher about the lesson to be sure I understood what I was supposed to do.  Next I rushed to my classroom, where I greeted my kids and got them sent off to art class.  Then I had a few minutes to prepare for the math lesson. 

I saw the assistant principal in the hall and grabbed her.  “Could you take a look at this?  Is this a lesson objective, or am I merely describing the activity?”  We had talked about it at our mentors’ meeting the day before, and I wanted to be sure I was modeling my lesson objective correctly.  The AP and I stared at the document on my computer screen and then figured out how to strengthen what I had written.  I hit print and raced off to first grade.

It went well.  I had already placed three lines of tape on the floor, having noticed that in a large circle, many of the wigglers were not facing their teacher and weren’t willing to make the effort to turn their heads and pay attention.  The kids were pretty interested in the change, and sat down in three nice rows for me. 

Next change:  I passed out trays, paper, and pencils, so that they could work sitting right there in the meeting area.  (On my previous visit I noticed that once the kids were at the tables, the screen was too far away for them to pay attention.)  Trays are awesome.  I have been using former airline meal trays for about 13 years.  In preK they can be used as a writing surface, the way I used them in first grade, but they are also great as a workspace.  (At our lego table, no one is allowed to touch anyone else’s tray — let alone take someone’s legos.)

Third change — I used a document camera.  The teacher was accustomed to using an overhead projector, but in order to beam the image onto the screen, the o.p. had to be on a cart right in the middle of the meeting area, making it impossible for the kids to sit there.  Doc cams are great, as they can be over on the side.  I used it to share my lesson objectives (“by the end of the lesson, you will be able to…”), and then to model the activity. 

K-5 is using Investigations this year, which I am not familiar with, as preK uses a different curriculum for math, but I hear good things from my fellow teachers (unlike the bad old days when we had Everyday Math, which Everyone Hated).  In this lesson, I showed the children a shape for 5 seconds, and then hit the a/v mute button so the screen went blank, and asked them to draw the shape from memory.  It was surprisingly challenging for them, and some really struggled (and a few really wiggled), but by and large, I had their attention, and we made it through together.

This week, I notice that the three lines are still on the floor, and the teacher is still using the document camera.  So I smile a little to myself and hope that I was helpful.

first grade wigglers November 11, 2008

Today while my kids were suffering through art (a topic for another post), I went to a first grade room in my role as a mentor teacher.  I sat in on a math lesson, and couldn’t believe how restless and distracted the kids were.  My four year olds sit in a circle and pay attention soooo much better than these six year olds!

The lesson went okay, but the teacher and I talked about it later and agreed that classroom management is the big issue.  He said he was open to suggestions, and said that this feels like the first time that his classroom management skills aren’t doing the trick.  I’ve been in his room before and I know that he is a good teacher — but this class!  Wow!

I remember how they were last year in kindergarten — they were rolling around on the floor like puppies.  All the kindergarten teachers would talk about how that group of kids seemed so self-centered, pampered, and immature.  Now the first grade teachers are saying the same things.

So we talked about doing things in a more structured way, and using some of my organizational tricks to keep transitions at a minimum.  And then I blurted out, “when I come back on Thursday, would you like me to teach the lesson, so you can watch?” 

He said yes, of course.  So now I have to get ready to teach a first grade math lesson to a group of wiggly worms, and make it useful to their teacher, as well.  The good thing is that I had several of the kids in my class two years ago, and I know several more from all the time I spent in K last year as a mentor.

I’m kinda psyched.  I like a good challenge.

But…perhaps this wasn’t the best week to give up caffeine?

lesson planning October 17, 2008

This is a road map of some place in Italy; were I to use it, I’d get hopelessly lost, as I don’t speak Italian and know nothing of Italian geography.  Lesson planning sometimes seems like following a road map, with so many roads to follow, and so many choices to make, that one ends up frustrated and confused, lost in Italy, when one really intended to be in India, instead.

So let’s say it’s a typical Saturday, and I am at the skatepark in the parents’ lounge while my child is in skater heaven, and I’ve got my bag of lesson planning materials, as usual.  I take out my lesson plan book, and turn to a new week, and start filling in the times at the top of each column, and what we do when (journal time from 9:30 to 9:45, Gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9:45, etc.).  Then I grab the teacher’s guide for the reading curriculum that the district purchased for the pre-K teachers, and I see what I’m supposed to do each day.

Then I put on the brakes.  According to my reading curriculum, I am supposed to introduce the new theme with a poster and a song.  We read the poster to learn the song lyrics, and then we sing the song, and I have some questions to ask as well.  Then there’s a large picture card with a picture that pertains to the theme, and I am supposed to show that to the class and read the questions on the back to spark a discussion.  There’s also a book that introduces the theme.  When I’m supposed to do this isn’t clear, because when I turn the page I am on week one, day one, which means the first Monday of the theme, so when was I going to fit in all the intro stuff?  On Sunday night?  Here on Monday morning I’m supposed to read a different poster — this one with a poem on it, play a cd with the theme’s song, do some phonemic awareness activities relating to the poem, and then read a big book (not forgetting the scripted questions which are provided for me!). 

This, I suppose, is supposed to happen at our morning meeting.  After that we’ll have centers time, and I will skip the centers time suggestions, as I always do, because they are pathetic.  But wait — turn the page again and there’s MORE.  There’s a brief lesson on our social skills curriculum, with yet another dumb song, and more discussion to conduct.  There’s also a chart — shared writing — that we are supposed to do together.  Oh yeah, and we are to learn the letter of the week, using the song book with the stupid songs about each letter of the alphabet.  So I guess this stuff fits in after centers time, instead of story time?  Or in addition to it?

Wait, we’re not done.  There’s also an end of the day discussion (what did we learn today, boys and girls?) and another shared writing activity using some more chart paper.  Argh.

So let’s say I am my usual self and I confidently read through all this stuff and select only what is most important, write it into my morning meeting plan, and skip all the other pointless junk.  What I’ve selected doesn’t come first, though, because first we have to do calendar time.  I have a way of doing calendar time that works well, that I’ve honed over the years, and as of two years ago, I also have a calendar time curriculum that I’m supposed to use.  So now I have to grab that book, figure out which of the many worthwhile activities in it I’ll have time for (our particular reading curriculum is pretty mediocre, but the calendar curriculum is quite good), write that in, and then put in all the reading stuff (which poster shall I use?  which book, if any, shall I read?  phonemic awareness is really important, I can’t skip that, can I squeeze that in?).  Wait, actually, first we have to learn the new letter of the week, because then I can sing the good morning song substituting the letter of the week for the first letter of each child’s name, which makes them all giggle and is a great way of learning that letter’s sound.  So I write that in.  Then comes calendar time, then reading.

Then I pick up my math curriculum to look at our new theme for math and realize that my morning meeting plan will take at least thirty minutes, and that is the maximum I can expect preschoolers to sit still on the carpet, and I have no time left for all the math I want to do.  Because my math curriculum is pretty great.  Now I flip my handy-dandy mechanical pencil around and do some judicious erasing, and fit in some math.  So now I’m done with morning meeting for Monday, but that leaves not only the morning meetings for Tuesday through Friday, but also centers time each day (what will we offer at art and writing and math that fits with our themes?), and story time each day, and also our group activity time on the days when we don’t go to Gym.

And really, that isn’t all there is to think about.  I have the Core Knowledge preschool curriculum and I love the part about what preschoolers should learn and know at the end of each month, so I try to consider that and figure out where I can fit some of that in.  And for every theme I do I have a bulging file folder full of ideas and activities and art projects and worksheets that I have brought along with me to the skatepark, so I have to go through that and consider what I want to use.  Plus I have a lot of really great curriculum guides for teachers about themes, phonemic awareness, circle time, science (yikes, can’t forget science!), writing, morning message, guided reading, brain games, and so on.  So I have to go through all those and try to figure out what of all that stuff I want to use.

At this point my brain is getting really fried but there’s also our portfolio assessments to think about.  My students still don’t all know their colors, so is there a way to add colors into the current theme?  Some children are having trouble counting to five, so is there an activity I could plan for the math table during centers time to help those children?  Also, one little boy knows every letter and every sound, so is there some beginning reading I could do with him one-on-one at centers time?

And — oh, yeah — there’s the whole question of the standards.  What I really need to do is look at the early childhood standards for my state and make sure that we are covering the standards, and making progress so that by the end of the year, every child knows everything he or she is expected to know.  So now I have to grab my standards and read them again to be sure I’m on the right track.

Sigh.

I don’t mean to say that I can’t do it.  I can — and I do, every week.  But for those of you reading this who are not teachers, it’s one heck of a lot harder than it looks.

Diary of a preschool teacher May 6, 2008

As a part of Joel at So You Want to Teach?’s Blog Revolution Project, I am tasked to write a post in the form of a list.  Try as I might, I could not think of a title that involved a list.  I like the ‘diary of a preschool teacher’ title, anyway, and think it could be a regular feature.  Anyway, with a nod to Joel, here is the subtitle of today’s post:

5 THINGS THAT HAPPENED TODAY IN MY CLASSROOM:

1. I taught my kids how to wash their hands.  These are preschoolers, remember, so I do see children licking their hands and wiping their noses without benefit of a tissue.  Washing hands is a big deal to me.  Today A. came out of the bathroom too quickly to have washed his hands, and prevaricated when I said, “Did you wash your hands?”  I said, “Can I smell them?” and when he said no, sent him to wash.  Then, in morning meeting, I acted out how to wash hands (get hands wet, get one squirt of soap, do NOT wash it off immediately but instead rub your hands together and make bubbles, rinse, dry) and they were fascinated.  All morning long kids kept coming up to me saying proudly, “smell my hands!” and I got to smell lots of tiny, soap-scented hands.
2. We had a visitor.  We always have a visitor.  At least she wasn’t here to see me, and I didn’t have to perform my trained monkey routine.  She was from the autism program, here to observe Miss L. to weigh in on her placement for next year.  Everyone knows Miss L. is not autistic, but Ali is trying to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s in her attempt to get our girl into a regular ed kindergarten with an aide.  It was interesting watching the autism evaluator interact with Miss L., who was very friendly and chatted away.  She was able to identify different facial expressions that the evaluator made (“that’s mad….that’s confused….now you’re happy”) and she even asked the evaluator questions about herself.  Not autistic, clearly.  Now if we could only figure out what she IS.
3. We discovered that it was M.’s birthday on Friday and we missed it!  Don’t know how I managed to do that, but since M. is barely verbal most days, it is understandable that she never mentioned it.  Today she got her birthday crown and we all sang to her and she was happy.
4. We learned a song about frogs.
5. We started learning about numbers again.  I discovered that O. can name the numeral 8!  Whoo hoo!  He also knows 1, 2, and 4.  But he still can’t rote count “one two three four five”.  He gets stuck at four.  I’ve got Z., who can count well past 100, and then I have my special needs darlings who are working on the first five numbers.  Well, we’ll just have to keep working.