an insult to preschool teachers (and working mothers) everywhere October 16, 2011

I like the fashion blog She’s Still Got It, so I visit it at Cafe Mom fairly regularly.  While there this morning, I stumbled upon this article:  “6 Lies Parents Tell Themselves About Preschool,” by Amy Reiter.

Here’s what she had to say, prompted by the story of the little British boy who left his nursery school and walked home alone:

Here are six lies we tell ourselves each day before we drop our toddlers off at preschool or daycare: 1.    He’ll be totally safe: Probably, sure, but of course, we cannot know that. Anything could happen: He could run out of the building, like Alfie. He could get left behind on a field trip. There could be a fire. A teacher could have a psychopathic ex-boyfriend. Unlikely, but who knows?

2.    He won’t miss us: He will miss us, terribly, even if he’s not the type to cry about it. Perhaps especially if he’s not the type to cry about it.

3.    We won’t miss him: We will miss him, terribly, even if we’re not the type to cry about it. Perhaps especially if we’re not the type to cry about it.

4.    He’s happier at preschool than he is with us: Possible, but unlikely. Most kids prefer to be with their moms (or dads), no matter how bedraggled, sleep-deprived and short-tempered she (or he) may be on any given day. Then again, it is probably a fair rationale to remind yourself about the benefits of socialization.

5.    The teacher will treat him as if he were her own: She may be good to him, very, very good. But she’s got a whole room of kids to look after. She may not take the time to remove the crusts of his sandwich for him the way he likes it. Then again, that may not be such a bad thing. (See socialization, above.)

6.    There really is no other option: There is always another option – though giving up your day job and falling behind on your mortgage may not be a terribly appealing one. But perhaps by acknowledging that we all must make the choices that work for our lives – and that those choices inevitably involve tradeoffs – can help us forgive ourselves for making them.

Boy, was I pissed.  If you’re interested, you can scroll down to read my comment, and the comments of others.

I am preschool teacher, hear me roar.

Mrs. Mimi has a new blog July 20, 2011

It’s called Mrs. Mimi Teaches, and is going to be full of ideas to help teachers in their classrooms.  I say “going to be” because as yet, it’s pretty spare on content.  However, as Mrs. Mimi is a fellow lover of books, school supplies, and being organized, I have high hopes.

(By the way, if you haven’t checked out her original blog, or her book – both of them called “It’s Not All Flowers and Sausages”–you should.  She is snarky and hilarious.)

wanted: someone to teach afternoon class; must be persnickety like me May 24, 2011

Miss Mellow is leaving.  She will be teaching morning and afternoons at her other school, and she is happy not to have to race across town each day.  So I am happy for her.

BUT.  I get along with her so well!  We are able to share a tiny classroom.  That’s kind of a big deal.  Now I have to share my room with someone new, some unknown quantity.  In our first round of interviews, only three people signed up.  One was really good, one was kind of okay, and one didn’t interview, after being hilariously rude to the Princess (“Who is this?!  Why are you calling me?!” and “WHAT?  It’s only half-time?!  Well of course I’m not coming!  I don’t want a half-time position!”).  We offered it to the good person and she didn’t take it, because she got a better offer elsewhere.  So we posted the position again, and so far only ONE person has signed up to interview.

She’s young, and new to teaching, so maybe that’s good.  It’ll mean she isn’t set in her ways and I can mentor her and carefully mold her in my persnickety ways.

how much time do teachers actually teach? May 2, 2011

Inefficiency in education drives me nuts.  Long pointless meetings, or staff development that is inane and worthless — these things make my blood boil.  We have so many more important things to be doing.

Sometimes, however, we waste our students’ time and fritter away precious minutes when they could be learning.  When I was a teacher-coach I saw a fair number of teachers who spent a lot of classroom time doing not much of anything.  Alas, mention of time, organization, or efficiency meets some deaf ears at my school.

The Sunday New York Times had an excellent article about a smart way to assess teachers:  videotape them teaching, and record the actual amount of time they spend teaching the curriculum.

…[S]tudies found that some teachers were able to deliver as much as 14 more weeks a year of relevant instruction than their less efficient peers.

14 weeks more in a year?!  That’s powerful stuff.

There was no secret to their success: the efficient teachers hewed closely to the curriculum, maintained strict discipline and minimized non-instructional activities, like conducting unessential classroom business when they should have been focused on the curriculum.

I’m going to share this article with my principal (I suppose I should call her the Princess, since our former principal was the Prince on this blog).

You know you’re a preschool teacher when… April 29, 2011

…you reach into the box to get a new tissue, and pull out one that is partly used.

…you come home with blue fingernails because the food coloring spilled.

…you find yourself using the ‘royal we’ when you talk to your class (“We will be quiet in the hall, we won’t touch our friends, we won’t jump down the stairs, etc…..”).

…you come home from work with smears on your shoulder from the child who cried on it that morning.

Go ahead — do you all have more to add?

Sisyphus visits my preschool classroom April 6, 2011

Wow, you guys are the greatest.  I had more than twice as many hits as usual yesterday, after my “all the ways I suck” post.  I really appreciate the support, sympathy, and commiserating you offered.

No, I don’t really think I suck as  teacher.  I know I’m a good teacher.  The problem is that I will never be done, and I will never be quite good enough because I could always do better.  Some days those thoughts exhaust me.

Yesterday was one of those days when I wished I could have twelve uninterrupted hours in my classroom, all alone with just Adele on iTunes to entertain me, so I could get the whole room clean and organized, and do all my lesson planning and preparation for the next few weeks.  Scratch that; twelve hours wouldn’t be enough.  Twenty hours?

The point is that teaching is one of those professions where you never really are completely ready for everything, and you’re never really done with anything.  There is ALWAYS something I could do better.  Some days, the Sisyphean aspects of my beloved career are frustrating.  Although, unlike Sisyphus, I know that the work I’m doing has a purpose, so that helps.

Angela in particular was very supportive in her comments, so you know what I did last night?  I got online and bought her book!  It hasn’t arrived yet, but I can’t wait to read it.

So here’s to you, my blog friends, and to all teachers who keep rolling that boulder up the hill.  We do know, down deep, that it is all worth it.

a great kindergarten blog March 1, 2011

I found Chalk Talk while looking for 100th day of school ideas, and have been going back to it ever since.  The author is an experienced teacher with tons of great ideas, and the skills to put them on her blog in a useful way for other teachers.

Check it out!

What shall we learn? October 24, 2010

The early childhood department of my school district has, in the last few years, worked hard to come up with end-of-the-year goals that are based on our state standards, and are supported by our assessments, , portfolios, report cards, and parent conference goal-setting forms.  Everything all works together.  They wrote up a list of goals on a single sheet, to share with parents, but I decided to enlarge them and share them with the kids.

The signs I made are posted above our meeting area board, and it’s at about this point in the year that I point them out to the children, read the goals aloud, and start referring to them daily as we work and play.  I started doing this a few years ago, while training to be a teacher coach.  I learned that accountability for students is just as important as accountability for adults, and wondered how that would translate to preschool.

I already listed the things we were learning about on our morning message, but decided to be more deliberate in telling the children what we were doing and why.  When I do a repeated interactive read-aloud, or reader’s workshop, the children learn that there is a purpose:  to love books and become great readers.  The list of goals tells the children what they should know to get ready for kindergarten.  “This is our job,” I say, and the children nod, serious and proud.

We’re still fingerpainting, playing house, and messing with shaving cream.  But we all have a shared purpose, and I think it brings us closer and takes us farther.

Open House Madness, 2010 edition August 26, 2010

When my new assistant and Miss Dickens and I were standing at the doorway to our room tonight at the end of Open House, waiting until the clock struck seven so we could close up and go home, I sighed, and said, “I would like to have a glass of wine as big as my head.”

I was worn out, people.  Worn out, I tell you!

Here’s a brief list of words and phrases to give you the essence of my day and evening: morning, messy room, clean clean clean, keyboard not working, mouse not working, second mouse not working, borrowed computer in room next door, all buses for my class totally screwed up, lunch provided by Princess for whole staff, looooong meeting about rules, realized have not been following many of those rules, resolve to do better, clean clean clean, rush rush rush, home, dinner, dress instead of jeans, back to school with fifteen minutes to spare, done with one minute to spare, open door, CROWD comes in, tiny room, lots of papers to fill out, camera, kids, babies, strollers, moms, dads, cousins, tell everyone that there is no bus home from my class for a whole week, wish Spanish was my second language, hugs from Apple and others from previous years, close door, leave building, meet new staffer who just graduated from my college, go home having made a new friend.  Wine.  Not as big as my head, but two whole glasses!

As for my new class, they seem sweet.  The only difficult child there is going to be in Miss Mellow’s class.  Ha!  The twins were there, as cute as ever, plus several really cute, shy, but awesome Latina girls, three blond boys, one extremely verbal boy who might be gifted, and….I forget who else.  Miss Mellow will have about 9 students, but I’ve got 17 officially and may have more.  Several people came in to say they are trying to get their kids in my class.

Tomorrow will be good.  It will quiet in my room, lots of stuff is already done, and maybe I can concentrate on lesson planning or reorganizing cabinets.

p.s.  Miss Dickens made art galleries for the morning and afternoon classes on the two doors leading into the kindergarten class next door, and she did a stunning, perfectionist job.  I told her how much I appreciate her persnickety attention to detail — I hate to have stuff in my room look messy.  Or off-center.  Or uneven.  Lucky for me she’s the same way.

this time, I really mean it August 5, 2010

Okay, so two years ago at this time I promised I would teach more science in my preschool.  And it didn’t really happen.  I went to a science workshop for early childhood teachers this week and thought back to figure out where I went wrong.

• I just haven’t felt comfortable or knowledgeable enough to do it.  It’s not that I don’t like science or find it interesting; I just couldn’t figure out how to add it to my classroom in a thoughtful, thorough way.
• Last year I focused my energies on learning how to do writer’s workshop in preschool.  It was a great, intellectually stimulating challenge, and it turned out, I was good at teaching writing.  My kids all started to write, and a lot of my teaching energy went to writing and reading.
• Actually, a lot of my teaching TIME went to writing and reading.  It’s really hard to fit everything into two and a half hours.  I didn’t have the time or the energy to figure out where science was going to go.
• My classroom is so tiny I couldn’t figure out where to put a science center.  Then I finally figured out a space, and couldn’t figure out what to put there!

But THIS year, I really will do it.  Our workshop, mostly based on the book Exploring Water with Young Children, with some time spent on Exploring Nature with Young Children, was pretty terrific.  (I went home and said to my husband, “so that was not a waste of my time,” which is a huge compliment when it comes to our school district and staff development.)

Miss Mellow was at the workshop, also, and we thought that maybe this year we would do a long exploration of water in the fall, and of nature in the spring.  We have a sand table which we can empty and turn into a water table, and we have ideas about where to go to get funnels, tubes, eye droppers, and turkey basters.

So we’ll see how it goes.  I look forward to launching science exploration this fall — I want my students to have a sense of wonder about the world around them, to have the opportunities to become absorbed in exploring, wondering, testing, and talking about science.