Week 11

This week I subbed one afternoon, on Friday. One thing to note was that this Thursday I taught a science lesson for the first time. We are learning about 3-D shapes in math and working on a Force and Motion science unit. I decided to combine the two and talk about what shapes roll versus what shapes slide. So we set up a table to be our ramp. I made a chart to record the predictions and results of this experiment. I held up a shape and asked "Who thinks it will roll? Who thinks it will slide?" These were the results we got (On the right):

This activity led to a lot of questions by the children. What if we changed the orientation of the cylinder? What if we changed the ramp's incline? What if the ramp was flat?! (They were surprised to see shapes just sit still on the table when it was flat). The cone did some funky things.

Because of our math and science units, I also got to change around our classroom environment to encourage some natural child-led investigations. I created a "Shape shack" which is an area under our loft in the classroom that holds a light table, pattern blocks, wooden blocks, unifix cubes, and books about shapes. After our science experiment, I also set up some ramps with cars, marbles, and other shapes that the children could work with. Here were the results:

Another fun activity we did this week was on Monday. The children have been working on persuasive opinion pieces. We started this out by having them answer questions like, "Would you rather be able to fly or be invisible and why? Then they would have to write their answers out. Later, it turned into writing letters to someone to try and get them to do something for you. Writing to mom to give you a later bed time or to let you have different snack choices, etc. This week, I came across a book that fit perfectly into this kind of writing. "Duck! Rabbit!" by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld. This book revolves around a picture that could either be a duck or a rabbit. There are two narrators and they fight over what they see and why.

Wonderful book! After I read it aloud, I had the children write what they saw and how they knew! Then they could draw a picture. One of the keys is to hide the title before you show them the book and before reading it to ask what they actually see. I got bunny, duck, dog, and fish! The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and some who were not usually interested in writing, were enthusiastically writing independently!

Lot's of fun. Next two weeks are solo weeks!!

Week 9

Wellll this week we entered into the unit of 3D shapes! Super fun! On Monday, my mentor teacher introduced each shape with a block and named it. We are focused on cube, rectangular prism, triangular prism, sphere, cylinder, and cone. On Monday, children explore the shape blocks and built with them. It was nice to just give them some investigation time to work with the shapes. We also had a weekly poem this week about shapes:

3D shapes are fat not flat
A cone is like a party hat
A sphere is like a bouncy ball
A prism is like a building tall
A cylinder is like a can of pop
A cone is like the dice you drop
3D shapes are here and there
3D shapes are everywhere!

On Friday the children attempted to make the different shapes out of playdough which was kind of a challenge, but fun. Some other math fun happened on St. Patrick's Day with graphing Lucky Charm marshmallows!

In writing, we have been doing persuasive pieces. They write letters to their mom or dad to ask for something like a new toy, but they need to also put down a reason or two that they should get it. One child wrote about how he wanted more options in his lunch box and he compromised by saying he would pack his own snack if he could have more choices for lunch. They get pretty creative. In literacy, I led a couple small groups working on word families. I also am starting to focus on some sight words with one boy and I created a system of flies with sight words on them that he can hit with a fly swatter :) He's quite behind in his sight word count so I wanted to make more of an effort to work with him. I tell him to find a word and he has to swat it! It's a fun game for someone who needs more interactive instruction. So far we are just focusing on some 2 letter words that we can practice vowel sounds with like it, if, in, be, me, he, etc.

This week I also experienced quite the tantrum from one of the little girls. Let's call her Princess. Her reading buddy partner came up to me to tell me something Princess was doing that wasn't appropriate and I had already noticed that Princess was not really doing her task. So I asked her, "What's your job right now?" to which she crossed her arms and in a mad voice said, "Nothing." I said, "Excuse me?" and then she got even madder and louder and yelled, "NOTHING!" So I immediately stood up and went to go talk to her, but she kept turning her body away from me and saying things like, "NO! I don't want to talk." So then I had to move her and have her partner pair with someone else. Princess would not stand up and move even after I told her she needed to so I moved her chair with her in it over to another table. Then she proceeded to cry and fit and I told her she could come over to me when she was ready to talk. My mentor teacher caught my eye across the room and was smirking because this was a child she had told me had fits in the beginning of the year and she wanted me to experience it at least once. So now I have. But it is so funny/interesting how children can escalate so fast from absolutely nothing. She was having a bad day to be fair, but it was some good experience for me to deal with the situation. I talked to her before the next transition and told her what I saw and how I felt and my mentor teacher asked her, "Do you think you made the problem bigger or smaller?" Gotta love social-emotional development.

I'm still working one on one with the child I am following who still doesn't have all of her letters. Marisa. We work with the penguin still, but I have also tried to bring in some other artsy ways of learning letters. I "wrote" letters on white paper with white Elmer's glue and let it dry. Then Marisa was able to put a sheet over the letter and shade with a crayon to "reveal" the letter! This allowed me to then ask her about letters one at a time. She loves to do artsy things like this. On Friday, I wrote letters out with white crayon and then had her water color to "reveal" them again. This wasn't as successful because I think there were too many letters per one page for her to focus on (She may have dyslexia as we found out her father is diagnosed with it). I'm glad that she was able to do some more crafty things and still get some good one on one letter instruction. She is still having a really hard time to remember that G does not make the same sound that J makes. I need some ideas for that one. Also she says H makes the "ch" sound and L makes the short e sound. The names of some letters just don't match the sounds so it's confusing for some kiddos.

Week 7

I unfortunately did not come back from my break well rested. On the contrary, I was rather sick all break and that ended up carrying through to this week. A lot of sinus pressure, cold symptoms, and fatigue Monday-Wednesday. As a result of this, I was quite unmotivated at the start of the week, finding it hard to get back into the groove of things, but I think that is all normal. I bounced back later in the week! Some exciting news before I get into how the school week went---I had my final interview for Teach for America on Tuesday! And it went really well!

Teach for America (TFA) is a non-profit organization that brings college graduates into schools to teach children who would otherwise be left without teachers. The goal of TFA is to help eliminate the educational inequity that exists in this country. There are not many qualified teachers who look into impoverished or high need areas across the country, leaving students stuck in a cycle of poor education and limited opportunities. I learned that last year (2014), Oklahoma started the school year with 800 classrooms that had no teacher on the first day of school. These classrooms solely relied on substitutes. How awful is that? So Tuesday I went in and did a 5 minute sample lesson (that was directed toward 1st graders) about teen numbers. I was nervous, but I think I pulled it off fairly well. So I will keep you updated on that!

Anyways...this week a few things took place. On Monday morning, our guidance counselor came in to talk about general safety. She hit on what you do if there's a fire, who should be giving you medication, and that you should never take candy from or get in a car with someone you don't know, even if they say they are supposed to pick you up. After the discussion, the children played a bingo game to show what they learned about safety. It was a nice little morning.

On Monday, we also began charting the weather! I came in with my mentor teacher over break to reorganize/clean the room and I made these:

Each day we look outside as a class and decide what the weather is that day. The color-coded thermometer also helps us make the connection between no recess days and COLD below 0 temperatures! The Next Generation Science Standards states that Kindergartners should be able to:

K-ESS2-1.Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time. [Clarification Statement: Examples of qualitative observations could include descriptions of the weather (such as sunny, cloudy, rainy, and warm); examples of quantitative observations could include numbers of sunny, windy, and rainy days in a month. Examples of patterns could include that it is usually cooler in the morning than in the afternoon and the number of sunny days versus cloudy days in different months.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment of quantitative observations limited to whole numbers and relative measures such as warmer/cooler.]

This gets children used to making daily observations about the world around them. It also provides the basis for noticing weather patterns throughout the year.

In math, this week, I led a number bingo game with the children. The squares held numbers 10-20. They are still learning their teen numbers and this helps with number recognition. To mix it up, I also put on ten-frames that represented teen numbers, but I noticed most kids chose not to mark those. Here is a sample:

There is one girl in our room, Marisa, who still does not know all of her numbers so I tend to spend some one on one time with her during the week. She focuses on 4 letters at a time, working on the name and sound of the letter. This week, she worked on G, T, R, and H. It is hard working with her because she has very little focus. She is constantly looking around at other children, her eyes darting from thing to thing. Needless to say, she is not very engaged in her word work. For this reason, my mentor teacher and I have been trying to work on new strategies to get her engaged. This week I made a PENGUIN! Random? Not really, the children are studying penguins and I made little paper fish with LETTERS on each one for Marisa to FEED the penguin! I introduced this new activity on Friday and she was very into it. So...success! So far...

So cute. Moving on! For my sight word group this week, I borrowed an idea from the class next door. They used Elmer's glue to write out sight words on cardboard-like paper so then kids could take a white sheet, place it on top, shade with a crayon, and reveal the sight word underneath! I did this with my small group and they really liked it! It also left them with shaded words that they could then take home and practice. On top of that, to add an extra challenge, I brought out magnetic letters so that once they shaded and found the word, they could then build the words with the magnets on top. Here are some pictures!

This week I did two read alouds: "Beautiful Oops!" by Barney Saltzberg and "Fox in Socks," by Dr. Seuss. Oh, speaking of which, did you know that March 2nd is Dr. Seuss's birthday!? he would have been 111 :) We have begun our Dr. Seuss unit and I'm loving it. Anyway, as most of the readers probably know, Fox in Socks is quite the tongue twisting book. My mentor teacher conveniently needed to go make copies and said, "Can you read this?" which left me laughing at myself with the kids in my attempts to say sentences like "When beetles fight these battles in a bottle with their paddles and the bottle's on a poodle and the poodle's eating noodles... ...they call this a muddle puddle tweetle poodle beetle noodle bottle paddle battle." OY!

Beautiful Oops! is a GREAT book about how our artistic mistakes can be turned into new creations! I read it because we have a few artists who get quite frustrated if they mess up in their coloring or crafts. Great read and interactive!

Well, I think that's all for this week! Thanks for reading!!

Week 6

Well! This was the week before break! Yayyy! To be honest, I have to think back and remember what we did this week because I am writing this post quite late. One of the things I remember really well is the fact that I picked up math as an area of focus this week! On Thursday morning I woke up with a brilliant idea of making our own ten frame in the classroom, not filled up with dots....but with CHILDREN! Once we filled up one whole ten frame, I would tie them up with yarn to visualize a group of ten. Seriously, this idea just came to me and I felt like I needed to do it that day. So I did! And it went really well! I gave each child a number (there are 19 kids and then my mentor teacher was number 20) and placed out some felt squares in the shape of two ten frames on the floor. For those of you who do not know what a ten frame is, see picture below:

So basically I called each child up numbers 1-10 to fill up the first ten frame and then I tied the group up with yarn! Then we continued on with our teen numbers 11-20 and I kept reinforcing that we had a group of ten and then some more. How many more? 2? 10 and 2 makes what? Children were rather engaged, but I think if I were to do it again, I would maybe use manipulatives on the carpet squares and have children sit around in a circle so they could see the ten frames without being in them. I am still glad I did the interactive piece first though. I also got to use arrow cards! Arrow cards are...revolutionary:

These help children realize that the 1 at the front of a teen number means one ten. They are great tools to start teaching students about place value. The common core says that Kindergartners should be able to:

Work with numbers 11-19 to gain foundations for place value. CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.NBT.A.1 Compose and decompose numbers from 11 to 19 into ten ones and some further ones, e.g., by using objects or drawings, and record each composition or decomposition by a drawing or equation (such as 18 = 10 + 8); understand that these numbers are composed of ten ones and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones.

This week we also did a lot with our new Post Office. The children are writing letters to one another within the classroom. We have a Post Office area in our room, complete with a mailbox, 1 cent stamps, envelopes, and a letter related word wall so children can write words like "Dear," "To," "From," and "Love." They LOVE it. It gets them really excited to write and read too. This hits on our non-fiction book reading, as we shared informational texts with children about the post office. Some of the books we read include "The Post Office Book," by Gail Gibbons, "Letters from Felix," by Annette Langen, and "A Letter to Amy," by Ezra Jack Keats. In regard to informational text, Kindergartners should be able to:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.K.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

I love the idea of the Post Office and I think I will integrate something similar when I become a teacher. It really gets kids excited to write!

Week 5

This week, my mentor teacher was out for two days in a row and I was basically the substitute. We technically had a substitute, but she let me lead both days. It was AWESOME. Stressful, hard, and exhausting, but awesome. It gave me a lot of confidence and I feel more comfortable about doing my leadership weeks now.

This week was pretty celebratory. Monday was our 100th day of school and Friday was our Valentine's Day celebration (plus Red's 6th birthday). In honor of the 100th day (which was celebrated on Monday but wasn't actually until Tuesday because we had an snow day), we counted a lot of things by ten. Every week we have something that the children share. This week and last they were told to bring in 100 things. This is a great way to teach counting by ones, fives, and tens. The Common Core says Kindergartners need to be able to:

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.A.1 Count to 100 by ones and by tens.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.B.4.A When counting objects, say the number names in the standard order, pairing each object with one and only one number name and each number name with one and only one object.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.CC.B.4.B Understand that the last number name said tells the number of objects counted. The number of objects is the same regardless of their arrangement or the order in which they were counted.

One kid brought in 67 Legos that I painfully had to take apart to count while he played with little Lego men he built beside me. The next day I wrote the morning message, "If Carter brought in 67 Legos, how many more would we need to have 100?" Complicated for Kindergarten, but we got there using a 100 rekenrek! A rekenrek is an abacus-like tool to help children count and group 5's and 10s. It looks like this:

I love rekenreks. They're really great. And kids love them so that's a plus. Another 100-day activity that I planned and led was making a 100 circled caterpillar. It was a good activity, but I did not plan it that well. I basically had 100 circles cut out and I pasted one--a caterpillar face--onto a large white sheet of butcher paper. The plan was that, as a whole class, we would piece together a caterpillar 100 circles long. Each child got five circles and would paste them on and write the number that it was themselves. This would give them practice in writing numbers and sequencing. It was a good plan, but having it as a whole class project at the same time was a disaster. Basically only one child at a time could come up, paste on, and write. This meant that 18 other students had to wait patiently on the rug. Kindergartners do not sit still for very long so needless to say, the class got a little crazy! It was fine, just not what I had in mind. If I could change it I would have them write their numbers back at their tables independently and then maybe bring a group of children up at a time to paste their parts on. The finished product was this:

Ta-Da! It's now up in the hall. Ultimately, I'm just happy that I was able to lead the entire class for two days relatively successfully! Oh--Also, a student figured out how to put this together :)

She knew my name has two N's, but could not find the other one. I love my kiddos.

Oh! This week we also began our Post Office unit. We have an area of our classroom that we have designated as the Post Office. Children can write letters to one another and then mail them in our cardboard mailbox. The line leader and line ender are the two kiddos responsible for sorting the mail each day and letting people know if they have mail. This is a wonderful way of getting students excited about writing and wanting to make sure their message is clear. The common core states that Kindergartners should be able to:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.K.1 Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book

Our post office writing counts as opinion pieces.

Week 4

This week I started a small sight word group! In the Common Core State Standards, Kindergarteners should be able to do the following:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.C Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do,does).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.B Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.D Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.1 (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.E Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

These are all reasons why a small word group is helpful.

I work with four children during reading time. I reviewed their scores from an assessment and I am focusing on four kids who all got about 8-9 out of 26 sight words. Apparently that score was completely expected for Kindergartners last year around the same time, but this year it is viewed as being behind. So that's fun...On Tuesday, we simply went over sight word cards and I had the group get familiar with the ones we would be working on. Two of the children were a bit unfocused (they're bouncy kids), but two were rather engaged and wanted to play with the words even after the allotted time, making "sentences."

The second day, we played word memory game, but I think I made it a little too challenging by adding too many cards to work with. I tried again Thursday and we played with fewer cards which seemed to keep them engaged during the game. Another accomplishment was that on Friday, one of the little boys in my group was listening to a picture book with me and was shouted out two sight words he spotted within words. For example, seeing the word "and" in the word "sand." Pretty neat!

A big cause for celebration this week for me, however, was watching a specific little girl remember how to write the letter R. She has been working on remembering the letter R for the past two weeks. She is quite behind in the class, as she still doesn't have some letters. She is on the track of getting special services. Her memory is really poor, as she can't remember the name of a letter that you have been working on every day for a week straight. So...with that background, this was a big deal. This week we opened the "Post Office" in the classroom, encouraging children to write notes and letters to one another that will then be delivered to their mailbox. Caught up in all the excitement, this girl, Marisa wanted to join in on the fun and write her own message to her mom and dad. She told me, "I want to write 'I hope you are having a good day mommy and daddy!'" She knows the letter I, H, O, P and "you" is on our sight word so she got to "I hop you" then the needed "are."

"What letter do you hear in the word are?" I ask
She looks at me and shrugs. "I don't know..." She says, but then goes, "Oh Wait! R!" and writes a letter R. I shout, "MARISA!!!!! YOU REMEMBERED THE LETTER R!!!! I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!" She looks up at me with this huge smile and we run over to my mentor teacher to relay the excitement. Here's the artifact:

So that was exciting! (Her b's are supposed to be d's to spell daddy. It phonetically sounds like dade. She was looking at our sight word chart which has mom and dad on it.)

One more rant before I go. We have a new para in our room as of two weeks ago so the dynamics of the classroom are shifted a bit. She is very odd and I do not think she should be in this educational role. To give an example, Ronald came in one morning and throws all his stuff on the floor. The para goes, "Oh, Ronald, let's not throw that." and my mentor teacher sends him to his table so he is out of the way while the other children get ready. He often gets rowdy and kicks or throws things when there are two many people in the cubby so this is a logical consequence. "You can get your stuff put away when the area clears out," my mentor teacher says. And THEN! The para comes over and says to him, "Aw, Ronald, I feel bad that I got you in trouble!" in this dramatically sad voice. She proceeds to sit down next to him and have this sweet buddy buddy conversation! What!? This is just one example, but she is consistently putting herself on the child's side even when they are doing something bad. She'll try to coddle and baby them and does things for them that they can do themselves. It's just frustrating and my mentor teacher is freaking out a bit about the new dynamic.

Signing off,
Miss Meghann

PS: Next week, Sonia (my mentor teacher) will be out of the classroom Monday afternoon, all day Tuesday and all day Monday! AHHHH. I am not the official sub, but I will be pretty much in charge since I know the routines now. Wish me luck!

Week 3

This is a tad late (by a week), buuuuutttt...

I just want to run through my third week before I get too behind in these postings. Last week was pretty swell, but the biggest thing of note was a situation on Friday. My mentor teacher had a 45 minute meeting in the morning, leaving me alone to lead the kids, including morning meeting. This was quite scary and yet exciting! All in all, it did go well. There were some issues along the way though, including three boys who simply refused to follow my direction during a transition. We will call them Kinley, Ronald, and Mitch.

Ronald in particular refused to clean up and got his two friends to fool around as well. Ronald danced around with some building gears between his legs, pretending it was his penis. So that was fun. I felt comfortable telling him to go to his desk. I think I feel more comfortable disciplining when my teacher is out than when she's watching me. Not that she would mind. She would reinforce it, but there's just a greater sense of freedom when I'm on my own. Aside from the penis boy (We will call him Ronald, but not sure why), the rest of the morning went rather smoothly. I led the meeting, got children to come up and highlight sight words they recognized in the message, and got them through a second transition and line up! Oh, and I took attendance! When my mentor teacher came back, she pulled out the three rowdy boys to sit them down and tell them how disappointed she was. Kinley even started crying. Ronald got the privilege of being the line leader taken away that day (This is a coveted job, as you get to take home the class stuffed animal when you get chosen as the line leader...not to mention, who doesn't remember wanting to be the first person in line?) My teacher is very good about following through with consequences and making them make sense. If you can't handle a responsibility/privilege, you WILL get it taken away.

Anyway, all three children had to look at me and tell me they were sorry after answering the teacher's question, "Did you make Miss Meghann's job easier or harder?" It's amazing how remorseful they become when they let the teacher down. I hope I will soon have that power over them too, but we will see.

In other news, a child made a snowman this week that was supposed to be me:

And for one of my read alouds, I read "Tabitha's Terrifically Tough Tooth" by Charlotte Middleton. We had two kids who had some terrifically tough, but loose teeth this week. It was relevant and a cute funny book.

I need to keep a record of these

Jan 26 2015
6 Year Old Boy: Ms. Meghann?
Me: Yes?
Boy: You're really pretty *runs away*

Jan 27 2015
6 Year Old Girl: Ms. Meghann, are you a president?
Me: A president? No...
6 Year Old Girl: Oh...you look like one today!
Khakis and a cardigan go a long way...

January 29 2015
Boy 1: I read that book at my old school! I don't remember what it was about though cause that was a long time ago.
Boy 2: Was it in the 90's?

"I have a girlfriend and I am going to kiss her when I'm old enough. I want to kiss her right now! She's so beeeaaauuuutiful!"

"You know what the worst thing you could do ever in the world?"
Me: What?
"Get drunk."

Student Teaching: Week 2

It's Friiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiday!!!! Let's just say I am SO PUMPED for two days of rest :) Those kiddos are tiring and you don't even realize it until you're home. This week I began leading morning meeting. I wrote up my overall projection plan for my adviser on Tuesday and began implementing my plan on Thursday. Basically, I hope to bring more movement and song into the children's daily routines. I have found in the past that movement really helps children refocus throughout the day. Plus, these kids sit a lot. A projection plan is basically a general write up of my goals for the topic I am taking on. I write up my plans (What the message will be, the greeting, the share topic, song, etc.) and then relate them to the standards---specifically Common Core State Standards. There is a category called "Speaking and Listening" in the Common Core and this gets at the expectations for each grade level regarding their listening and discussion skills. For Kindergarten, some that weave right in with morning meeting are as follows:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1 Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about kindergarten topics and texts with peers and adults in small and larger groups.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1.A Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., listening to others and taking turns speaking about the topics and texts under discussion).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.1.B Continue a conversation through multiple exchanges.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.K.6 Speak audibly and express thoughts, feelings, and ideas clearly.
Awesome possum, right?

What's nice about morning meeting is that you can really blend it with a variety of subjects. You write a message that the class can follow together and that brings in some literacy skills. You can bring in a mathematical question they have to solve (See above picture). Not to mention, the greetings and share times allow practice for different social skills and self-regulation skills. I also wanted to make this my first area of focus because morning meeting is a big part of the day where you learn about the children you are with. You find out who Billy's best friend is and who shouldn't sit together and who plays video games from sun up to sun down on the weekends. Lyla's favorite animal is a unicorn and Priscilla wants to share about everything under the sun, including what her boogers look like. You really get to know the individuals. That's what's nice. Anyway, the meetings went really well and I even tried a countdown system for the class to refocus and it WORKED! It's great to see them responding to me like their teacher.

Aside from meetings, I did two read alouds that I am going to share on here too. "What do you do with an Idea?" by Kobi Yamada and "This is Not My Hat," by Jon Klassen

Both are excellent. I am particularly in love with Jon Klassen. He wrote the book, "I Want my Hat Back." They are both full of moral questions for children such as, "Is it okay to steal?" and more importantly, "Is it okay to eat your friends?" The children were enthralled. The second book focuses on the hesitation that many have when deciding whether or not to share or act on an idea. This illustrator depicts and idea as a little gold nugget with a crown on top of its head. It gets bigger and bigger, making the boy (the character who has this idea) unsure what he should do with it. He is afraid of what other people would think of his idea, but when he lets it explode into the world it changes the world (depicted by the gradual transition between grayish dull colors in the pictures and bright and lively pictures.

Alison has pee accidents quite often so my mentor teacher and I are trying to be proactive about asking her to use the bathroom. Unfortunately, she sometimes goes in without...going. Ergo, I took it upon myself to create a stoplight/go light for the bathroom. Velcro on both sides. No, it's not necessarily my idea, but I do enjoy crafting.

Student Teaching: Week 1

This week I began student teaching in a Kindergarten classroom and I...LOVE IT. The teachers, the children, the school, the craziness. I am in a whirlwind of seeing my future and observing the skills that I will need to succeed in a room full of 19 five year olds. I am exhausted, physically, and each night feel as though I have been skiing for 8 hours. My body is sore from bending down, kneeling, dancing, and overseeing the interactions between 19 little humans who are learning how to socialize while simultaneously learning what the alphabet is and what rectangles are. My mentor teacher is fantastic, with a sweet and soft voice. She has gained the love and trust of each child in there, including the one on an IEP and the one who may have been abused by a religious cult in his short 6 years of life. She has somehow managed to create a caring and trusting classroom. I look forward to finding out how.

I now know all 19 names, but for this public blog, they will be changed to keep their identities confidential. Little Curly is my favorite so far (Yes, all teachers have favorites. We just can't show it), a sensitive boy who hugs me each morning and tells me something new. Quite a few students have already looked at me with big eyes to inform me that they love me. How could I not return that sentiment?! These children are easy to love so far and yet I am still learning each individual personality. Red is the perfect, know-it-all only child who can tell you everybody's business. Who's mitten is this? Red will know. What word is this? She will know how to sound it out. Why do pinecones close up on themselves when you put them in water? She somehow knew the answer to that too.

Albert is an advanced reader and writer. One who is reading almost at a second grade level. He is an expert on bats and has gotten the high scores on the formative assessments. He raises his hand all the time and is most likely not receiving the amount of individual support that he needs to keep advancing, considering there are students who still do not know some of their letters.

Throughout the year, I am sure I will get to the whole class in mini descriptions. For now, however, I hope to reflect on my teacher's style and her classroom management skills. As I said, her sweet and quiet voice surprised me amidst all of these very well-behaved kids. She disciplines with a disappointed voice, not an angry one. What makes this work is the way the children care about her feelings, as well as the feelings of their peers. "Ronald, it's making me very sad that you're talking over me," is oddly enough to get Ronald to readjust and start listening. There need not be yelling. Her voice is firm, but not angry, just disappointed. I was a child who hated the disappointed voice too. That was enough. I just wonder if this would work for a different group of kids. I guess you find out what works.

I have to say, I am a little bummed I don't get to observe what the first 6 weeks of school was like. Those are apparently this critical weeks of building the classroom vibe, discipline, expectations, and relationships. Those are the weeks of foundation. I get to see the smooth routines of the day and those all stem from those 6 weeks. Not that my classroom is perfect, but I am in awe of the difference between these Kindergarteners and the way Preschoolers operate in the school I worked in the last 3 years. The preschoolers I know will punch each other, hurt each other, and are basically uncontrollable. There is little empathy with them. I want to see how those children could become Kindergarteners who care. I suppose some of it is developmental, but I think a lot of it is how the teachers promote logical consequences for unacceptable behavior. If you waste time during word work, you WILL make it up during choice time. If you can't handle sitting next to your friends at meeting, you WILL be moved to a new spot. This children are learning self-control and self-regulation. It is up to the teachers to set these expectations, boundaries and follow through with consequences.

A lot of people put down teachers and teaching. This weekend my housemate made fun of my textbook, "Teaching Children to Care." "So what did teachers DO without that book, Meghann!?" He laughed as though teaching young children is something so easy and so innate. Why would you need a book? But that's not all...some other quotes by him included, "So you like...don't have any homework this semester? Wow, that's nice. It must be nice to have an easy semester" EASY!? I am working 40 hours a week plus extra hours for various meetings and planning. I am waking up at 6 am every morning and don't come home until 5:30 some days. I will eventually be taking on every part of the day as the main teacher. Trust me, this is not easy.

And finally, my favorite: "Do you ever wish you taught older kids so you could actually teach them stuff?" Because apparently learning your letters and phonemes and how to read and write (not to mention all the social-emotional skills) isn't real "stuff." I've decided to just ignore those comments.

Another point I wanted to reflect on is the perspective of my mentor teaching. One day after school, I talked with her about her journey. She has been there 10 years and she told me that there was one day this week where her friend was trying to convince her to play hooky. She told me how she honestly could not relate to her friend's desire to skip out on her job. "I love my job! I have a new student teacher, I love my children, I don't want to skip. I'm excited to go to work! And I realize that that's really rare." I can relate to this. While many of my peers are often complaining about their major or are realizing in their 4th year of school that that's really not what they want to do with their lives, I am blessed to be in a field that I adore. I even loved the Tuesday staff meeting! Yeah, I may be a freak, but I'm excited to learn a lot this semester.