glad I’m not a first year teacher November 4, 2009

On Monday Miss Slinger called before work to say that she was not feeling well, and wouldn’t be in.  I said that was fine, and was on my way to work before I remembered that my Monday help (a special ed teacher and a Spanish speaking aide) had both emailed last week to switch to Tuesdays.  I was at work before I remembered that someone from the local university was going to be in to do a formal observation of me and my classroom (it’s part of a study I agreed to participate in).  And then five minutes later I found out that we had a mandatory staff meeting.

The staff meeting was sad — a disabled boy from an older grade died suddenly over the weekend.  I didn’t know him, but many teachers did, and the mood of the staff was somber.  When we were done discussing the impact of this loss on the staff and students, I had to go to a meeting with a teacher I would be observing the next day.  So I got back to class with only about five minutes to get ready, and there was my observer.

For some reason, this did not stress me out.  I’m usually a stress monster, but I was just amused.   And I kept a smile on my face all morning.

I smiled as the kids came in, signed in, and got to work on their journals.  The woman from the university looked surprised, but I’ve set up some really great routines in my class, and my students know exactly what to do.

I smiled as they worked in their centers, and as I rotated from center to center to talk to them about their work.  “Oh, the house corner is on fire again?  You guys know what to do.  Call 911 so the firefighters can come put it out….”

And mostly I smiled because I am no longer a first year teacher, and I have years of rich experience to draw on.  My classroom is a humming place because my years of struggle and trying to figure out what I was doing are behind me.

Sometimes it’s nice not to be young anymore!

going back to work August 6, 2009

On Tuesday I’m meeting the new afternoon teacher for the first time; it’s also going to be my first time back at school all summer.  We’re going to take a look at the room and do some planning, and then go out to lunch.  I’m a little nervous — both about meeting her, and about setting foot in that school.  When I do, it means summer is almost over, and I have to go back to my other self.

I don’t think I’m ready.

my mystery coworker July 10, 2009

There will definitely be an afternoon class this fall, and it will be in what previously had been MY classroom.  I was on vacation when she got hired, so I did not get to interview her.  I called her yesterday to introduce myself, and left a message.  I haven’t heard back yet.

I’m quite nervous about this.  We will be sharing a tiny space daily — overlapping at lunch time — and our relationship is critical to the success of the year.

Miss Slinger is nervous, too — she’ll be in both classrooms.  We’re going out on a girls’ night out soon, and can hash things over.  I hope the mystery teacher calls me soon so I can get to know her!

successes and failures June 19, 2009

At the end of the year I returned to the children’s assessment portfolios, and once again asked them questions about letters, sounds, numbers, colors, shapes, etc.  Miss Slinger did her final assessment measuring vocabulary, rhyming, and alliteration.  And then I looked at all the results and thought about them.

You know, when it’s the end of the year, you realize it’s too late to have done anything differently!

On the bright side, I rock at teaching letters and sounds.  Everyone did really well with recognizing capital and lowercase letters, and in identifying letter sounds.  I think most of my class knows at least 18 capitals, 18 lowercase, and 15 sounds.  Many of them know all 26 in each category, and even my special education students did really well.  So I feel good about sending them off to kindergarten, ready to go with learning how to read.

On the not-as-bright side, while my kids did okay with rhyming and alliteration, several of them did not meet the benchmark.  I do teach rhyming and alliteration, but not as a daily routine, the way I do with the letters.  And I have to admit, I’m kind of haphazard about fitting in my phonemic awareness stuff.

When I look back on the year, and look ahead to the new year, I definitely know what I want to improve.  I did a great job with my read-alouds and book discussions two years ago, but not as well this past year.  I’d like to teach phonemic awareness skills in a systematic, logical progression.  I’d like to teach more content with each theme — maybe even do something on the first day (what do we know about zoos?  what do we WANT to know?) and the last day (what did we learn about zoos?).  And I’m still struggling to teach science, so I’m thinking about doing it sort of indirectly, with more nature and outdoor time.

Ahh, summer vacation June 15, 2009

I have been absent from blogging for three weeks now, and I apologize to anyone who might have missed me.  The last few weeks of the year were crazy.  I was under the weather (the migraines continue) and just couldn’t bring myself to write.  Now I am back and I will have stories to tell about the end of the year.  Including the one about the preschooler who got suspended…..

In the meantime, I’m cleaning house, sleeping in, reading vampire novels, and enjoying my family.

wishful thinking May 1, 2009

I find myself fantasizing about summer with disturbing frequency.

This has been a good school year, and I can tell — finally — that the children have learned a lot.  I will send them off to kindergarten, ready for success.  But I have been tired all year, and I’m starting to stumble.  I’m finding it hard to do everything I need to do, as teacher, as mentor, as mother, as wife, as friend, and I just can’t wait to sleep in and breathe once school gets out.

Mrs. Migraine, again March 18, 2009

I’m not posting much right now, as I’ve had migraines every day for a week.  I got desperate and tried acupuncture today.  I’ll go again every week for three more weeks, and I am very hopeful that it will help. 

I’ll be back to posting soon.

new blogs February 2, 2009

So yesterday I checked my blog stats and saw a referral to my blog from a blog I had never heard of.  I clicked on the link and found this. 

Was that a day-brightener or what?  It is wonderful to find that people actually read what you write, and when they like it, too — whoo hoo!

Thinking back to when I was a brand-new blogger, and how I struggled to get myself known, I thought I’d use this post to give a shout-out to some new bloggers.  (Actually, some of them might not be new, just new to me.)

Teaching to Dream

Pre-K Pages

Sun Moon Stars Rain

Miss Brave Teaches NYC

Preschool Playbook

The Perpetual Student Teacher

Teaching Kindergarten

Everyone Knows When I Have a Bad Hair Day

ChiTown Girl

Many thanks for sending people to my blog!  I hope this post helps to return the favor.

teachers have too much work to do January 23, 2009

This is nothing new to other teachers out there.  But sometimes teachers just have too much to do, and it starts to grind us down.

I had a morning free to do paperwork.  This is a gift, I know, and many school districts don’t provide this kind of time.  So I do feel lucky in that sense.

However.  I came in after doing parent conferences for both my sons, and almost immediately started feeling too exhausted to be at work.  This cold I’ve had for the past week is an evil one; I’m tired and weak and lightheaded much of the time.  So working — and concentrating — was a real effort.

Here are some of the things I have to get done by next Friday:

• finish the report on a formal observation I did
• turn in all my paperwork on the observations I’ve done
• write a lesson plan for the formal observation someone will soon be doing on me
• finish my class assessment portfolios
• write 18 report cards
• fill in all the assessment scores on the district data website (for a second time; I did it this morning and then the system crashed and nothing was saved)
• write my lesson plans for next week, when we begin patterns in math and sea animals as our main content theme
• prepare to do Text Talk lessons each day next week
• visit each 1st grade classroom during reading and then meet with each 1st grade teacher to support them in transitioning fully to a balanced literacy plan for reading
• and more, only my brain is too tired to remember

I got only a small fraction done this morning.  I don’t know how I’m going to manage next week.

conducting the preschool symphony January 9, 2009

Things I heard today:

*the music of Dan Zanes, which I played during journal time

*Ruby, telling Miss Slinger very clearly and indignantly that Boy A had touched her on her bottom.

*Miss Slinger putting my sudden thoughts into words:  “Maybe he’s the one who has been touching Princess on her bottom!”  Princess is nowhere near as articulate as Ruby; in fact, she can barely tell a coherent story.  And the boy who normally stands behind Princess and in front of Boy A has been gone all week….So maybe Boy A — who is quite restless and is always touching other kids — has been touching her on her bottom all week!  And Princess might have gotten it mixed up and told her mom it happened on the bus.  AUGH!

*Edward, struggling to count to one.  No, I am not kidding.

*”Three!  Four!!  Two!”  the class shouting out numbers after I asked them to listen to my castanet sounds and count in their heads how many clicks I made.  This turned out to be quite difficult.

*Chester telling me quite confidently the sounds for five letters of the alphabet.  He also counted to five for me, accurately, and in English.  Phew!

*The noise of the kindergarten class next door, totally running their inexperienced sub ragged.  (Miss Slinger said that when she peeked in, the sub mouthed to her the words, “this sucks!”)  Poor woman.

*The silence that fell next door when the Prince went in and restored order.

*My sneezes, which increased in frequency as the morning progressed.  I suppose stress can weaken your immune system….