on a budget

With Scout's impending arrival, we have been hard at work at creating a space just for him or her. However, we're not creating a space like most might think when it comes to having a nursery. We have a budget. Not so much a monetary one, though it is nice to be frugal and work in a cost effective manner. Our budget is a spatial budget. We long ago decided that even with a growing family we will stay in our little two bedroom apartment until we leave the Gallup area. This meant that we had to figure out how to combine our gear room (yes, we had nearly a full room of gear) with a baby friendly space.

Out project began with a lot of rearranging. We moved some items from the gear room into the living room. We sold off some items that we no longer used frequently enough to merit the space (so long wine fridge). And we created. While I have been hard at work growing Scout, the mister has been hard at work manipulating materials, organizing objects, and ultimately making Scout's room what it is.

When I say we were on a spatial budget, this means we got the most out of what we already had. We have accumulated some pretty unique items over the years and we did not see the need to spend money on items that would serve the same purpose (cost effective!).  I think that ultimately, the only objects that we spent money on were ... wait, nothing really. Sure, there are a few objects that helped to spruce up the space and some money was spent on paint, but mostly, we just worked with what we had and with items that we received as gifts.

For storage we are using the hope chest that I received for my high school graduation. As a bonus, the chest is really well built so it can double as a small seating area. We purchased a small patio chair cushion (nothing like a soft water resistant surface in a baby room) for added comfort and the transformation was complete. The horseshoe moose was a purchase that we made from a local artist, but with hooks, the nice piece of art also doubles as a place to hang fun things like Scout's sun hat and bathrobe! The bamboo lamp we found at Goodwill in Maine and it has been hanging out for the last several years inside of the hope chest. With it's soft light, it will be perfect for meeting night time needs. Throw in a couple of fun books and a stuffed animal and we're good to go!

The striped "wall" next to the hope chest is dividing our baby space from our gear space.  When pulled aside one enters a world of bikes, skis, camping gear, and hiking essentials. When our bike racks are not on the car, they can be screwed onto the top shelf of our storage racks so that our bikes take up as little room as possible. Our gear is sorted into bins that can easily be thrown into the car for adventuring and with added hooks, the shelves also store regularly used clothing. When we lower the curtain, the space looks as baby friendly as can be. All that it took was a king size sheet (found on clearance) and a metal rod (and the creativity of the mister).

Across from the hope chest is Scout's sleeping space. We received a pack and play that will grow with Scout over the next several years. It has a removable bassinet that also flips over into an inclined seat for daytime use. It has rockers on the bottom and a vibrating seat to help calm our little one down when needed as well as a mobile and a sound machine. I'd say we're pretty well set. There is also a changing table for our convenience with handy storage next to it. It is a space saver and a money saver as we shouldn't need anything else for quite some time (though I'm sure that time will come sooner than either of us expect or want). 

The art work for this space is still up in the air. Currently we have well loved maps from Baxter State Park and Acadia National Park hanging up. Which one stays will be determined once we meet our little Scout - either way, he or she will be born to a name that means peace, beauty, adventure, and love to us. Then we will have a map and a delightful piece of work made by our sister-in-law, a constant reminder that adventure awaits!

The last little space in Scout's room is mostly storage. We have a bookshelf that the mister built about a year ago that now holds a mixture of books and baby needs (like diapers and clothes). We found some great baskets at Dollar Tree (where everything is actually a dollar, not like other dollar stores) that will help us to stay organized. We covered up some of our books with fabric left over from a previous home improvement project. Our blue bookshelf was once an olive green and gold rusty planter that we salvaged from a yard sale immediately upon our return from Peace Corps (who knew we'd need it three years later?). Our artwork once again takes us to Maine, which if it has not been obvious to this point, holds a very special place in our hearts. 

And there you have it - a baby space that was created for a minimal cost that utilizes the space that we have efficiently. Some may say that it looks like a room for a boy. We think it looks like a room for an adventurer. (Plus, I don't really care for pink and purple.)

savor it

2014 was a big year for us. We dove into our third year of teaching. We finished up grad school. We found out that we are expecting a new little adventure buddy in May of 2015. With all of the amazing things that have been going on, it has been easy to just let the time slip by. 

It would be easy to continue in this manner too. Even though we will no longer have grad school taking up whatever free time we thought we had before, we will always find ways to fill our time - with adventures, with good books, with creating, with long runs - but will we be approaching each of these activities with purpose? Will we be living in the moment, or letting the moments pass us by? 

These past couple of years we have taken advantage of our location and have ended one year and begun the next by doing something that we love - running (or walking, or hobbling, depending on the time of day). We have surrounded ourselves with a community of crazy runners as we ring in the New Year as a part of Aravaipa Running's Across the Years 24-hour event. This is a great opportunity to meet other runners, have thought provoking conversations, and push yourself to the limit. During these past two years I have had the opportunity to engage with some very interesting people, and this year I was left pondering two words: savor it. 

Throughout the first 15 hours of the event I found myself chatting with a fellow runner, Cliff, whenever our paces matched up. Cliff is full of motivational wisdom, and at one point he shared the story of his first 50 mile race and being told to savor the final 1.5 miles (or so). This sounded as odd to me as I am sure it did to him when he first heard the words, but as he explained what happened during those final footfalls of the race, no two words have ever sounded sweeter. He savored those final miles and as a result, the time flew by and he was finished before he knew it, leaving the pain of so many completed miles behind and taking in the experience as opposed to suffering through it. After all, as he later pointed out, there isn't anyone forcing us to do these crazy things that we do (such as signing up for 24-hour events), so why not savor the moment?

speaking of crazy... midnight in the cold... before running my first mile of the new year

 As I continued moving through the event, I found myself returning to these words over and over again. However, I was not thinking of them with regards to the race itself, but with regards to life. How often have I been guilty of pushing through or suffering through, and not savoring the blessings that have been laid before me? As I pondered these words, I thought about the year to come, about living with intention, and about being in the moment. I thought about other wise words that have been shared with me by friends and the conversations that have arisen as the result of my pregnancy. I thought about books that I have read that portray women suffering through their pregnancies and not savoring the miracle that their body is capable of creating. After all, when you're walking around in the middle of the night you have a lot of time to think.

And so, I now find myself approaching this new year with a new outlook - savor it. What a simple mantra to bring me back to the moment. As we meander through life we can never experience the same moment twice, so why not savor each and every one. The good and the bad. The celebrations and the challenges. The ups and the downs. After all, the good wouldn't be quite as good without the bad, and we learn more about ourselves and about life when we encounter struggle. And with these thoughts (if you have managed to suffer through my ramblings up to here), I challenge you to savor it. Savor the moment, the day, the year, your life. After all, we only have one life, why not savor it?

pausing to savor the first sunrise of 2015

love

This afternoon I opened up a National Geographic catalogue that I got in the mail and turned immediately to a page that was selling Kanji birthstone necklace pendants. I spotted April's and thought, that looks familiar. And it was. The symbol for April was love.

Once upon a time I broke up with my high school sweetheart and my amazing friends in college bought me a necklace with the Kanji symbol for love on it. I loved the symbol and the simplicity of the necklace and wore it day in and day out for the next five years (with a brief respite where I wore a turtle necklace that I got on a trip to Hawaii because my sister's favorite animal is a turtle and it made me feel close to her at a time when I moved across the country). Then one day my necklace broke.

My necklace broke on January 3, 2006. I know this because it happened when I took off a hoodie before bed on the day that I began my Team Leader year of AmeriCorps*NCCC. I'm not generally a superstitious person, but I will say that I find it coincidental that the day that my Love necklace broke was the day that I met my mister. Perhaps it was the universe's way of saying that I didn't need a necklace to remind me that I was loved anymore. 

Whatever the case, the mister and I started going on runs together (probably the fastest I have ever run in my life and the slowest he ever ran willingly), going on hikes, and throwing the occasional date night in to get away from our campus. And while we may not run together very often anymore, we do still go on hikes and have an occasional date night to get away from teaching and grad school. 

And here we are, eight years later, and I still don't need a necklace to remind me that I am loved. I am reminded every day by my amazing mister. But sometimes it is nice to be reminded of where you came from and how you got to where you are.

Life is an adventure. It is not about everything always fitting neatly in a box or about following a plan to the T. It is about embracing what you encounter, living in the moment, and being willing to take on whatever comes your way because in the end every moment of every day shapes who you are and how you view life. And I choose to embrace my adventure in love and all of the amazing things that have happened in my life because of it.

the swing of things

We're back at it here in the high desert of New Mexico! Today marked the beginning of week three of teaching and I couldn't be happier (with some things, there are still those that are in need of a good overhaul, but I'll get to that later)!

In the past two years of my teaching, one area that I really struggled with was classroom management. While I happily made my way through each day, I knew that things were not their best, but I was never 100% sure what to do, or how to articulate what was going on to get help from outsiders. Well, this year I am feeling a million times better about what is going on in my classroom procedurally.

This year my school began implementing a behavior management strategy called 1-2-3 Magic. I must say, it is kind of magical. While I am still refining some of the ins and outs of the method, I am no longer putting energy into disciplining my students and explaining to them what was going on. Let's face it, they're five and they don't care. Now I can simply look at them and say 1 (or 2, or 3) and typically they'll mutter an "okay" and stop. Magic I tell you! This past Friday I didn't need to count for anyone! At the end of the day I am not musing over what went wrong, about whether or not my students hate me, or what I could have done differently (with regards to behavior). They're misbehaving, I say "one" and they typically stop.

In addition to our management magic I have some stellar routines going on. Last year I tried using chimes in my classroom as an attention getter, but I was horrible at being consistent with them. This year I ring the chimes, everyone stops what they are doing, they put their hands in their laps, and they look at me. I start counting down from 3 and by 0 they are silent and looking at me. I say rule check and they are silent and looking at me. When we use white boards if we are moving on to something else that does not require the boards they automatically sit on them and burry their markers in their laps (today I didn't even get to tell them what to do, I turned on the projector and they started cleaning their boards and sat on them right away!). So, management is coming along quite nicely. It only took me two years of bumbling around to figure this one out (at least for the time being).

Another area of struggle for me in the past has been teaching math. While there are numerous math teachers in my family, I have always struggled with finding ways to make math exciting when all we are doing is writing numbers, counting, naming shapes, etc. I think that this is coming along pretty well this year as well. I am much more cognizant of getting manipulatives into the hands of my kinders and using rhymes and story telling to keep them engaged in lessons. I think our grasp of routines has also helped with our math lessons. They know when manipulatives are tools and not toys, and they have learned that if they are playing they need to draw circles instead of using bears, cubes, or blocks. I still have some learning to do in this area, but I think we're coming along nicely!

The one area that got me today was center time. I had planned out my centers, but I had visions of my students from last year when I was doing this. I must elaborate, I had visions of my students from the END of the year last year when I was planning. Kinders at week three of school have very different abilities when compared to kinders at week 36 of school. Lesson learned, I will need to play around and finagle some, but we'll get there eventually.

All in all, I am very happy with where we are as a class this year. I cannot wait to see my kinders grow, learn, and excel this year. It is always so exciting to watch them as they grasp new skills and have aha moments. 

In addition to my new group of kinders, I have a new group of grade level teachers. So far they have made teaching so much more enjoyable! We work together very well and get along perhaps a little too well (it takes forever to lesson plan, but we have a great time doing it!)! They truly love their students and they are invested in their classrooms. We talk every day and share ideas. We are helping one another grow and become better teachers every day.

I have heard from friends that year three of teaching is the best, and at week three, I must say that I agree.

back to school

It is hard to believe that summer has come to an end (at least in teacher terms). Teachers started back on Thursday and our kiddos will show up bright eyed and bushy tailed (right?) on Monday. I personally started back about a week before it was mandated in an effort to get my classroom together. It isn't finished yet, there are some things that will require student involvement in order to get our walls filled up, others that will require teaching, and others still that simply require me to have more time. Until that time comes, take a look at my classroom as the students will see it on Monday morning (minus the changes that happened this afternoon when I stopped in for about an hour with the mister in tow).

summer [the beginning]

This summer the mister and I were blessed with five weeks of travel, family, and friends. We made it to and/or through 23 states in that time and had uncountable adventures. From New Mexico to Maine and back again, the only thing that would have made it better was more time, more hours in a day, and perhaps a few more naps (so that we could have adventured harder!). 

We began our journey on June 22, leaving home a little later than usual so that we could get Blake's for breakfast on our way out of town. We drove through the panhandle of Texas, which has the best rest stops I have ever been to, and into Oklahoma. We visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial which was unlike any other memorials that we have visited in the past. The biggest difference is that this was the first memorial that we have visited that was built to remember something that has happened in our lifetime. We may have been young at the time, but we could both recall, at the very least, media coverage of the bombing. It was a rather humbling way to begin the summer. At the same time it was inspiring to see how the community responded and how they continue to respond through events such as the Memorial Marathon each year.

We come here to remember
those who were killed, those who survived
and those changed forever.
May all who leave here know the impact of violence.
May this memorial offer comfort, strength,
peace, hope and serenity.

1 of 163 in the field of chairs

gates of time

memorial fence

children's area

After our time at the memorial we went to meet up with a host through couchsurfing. Unfortunately the timing of our meet up did not work out and so we pulled up a parking space at a nearby shopping center for the night. The good thing about sleeping in the car is that you get moving rather quickly in the mornings. There is no packing to do and therefore you can simply wake up and drive.

And drive we did, on to more adventures. Stay tuned for the details!

february

It is hard to believe that February is already here. January sure did fly, it makes me a little nervous about how quickly the rest of the school year will go. Especially since we have one half day and two days off this month. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about squeezing all of the necessary learning in, but I'll find a way.

Our February bulletin board: We love to read!

Yesterday my kiddos created "book valentines." They each chose a book that they could read and wrote the sentence, "I can read ______!" Then they drew a little picture about the story. Now we have a beautiful bulletin board to show of their awesome reading skills. 

spring

I may be jumping the gun a bit here, but it seems as if spring has come to Gallup. Last week we had afternoons in the fifties, contrasting heavily with the mornings in single digits, but that's spring in the desert. 

Spring has also come to the Hall House. With this spring semester we found ourselves exhausted by the start of a new semester of grad school and we found ourselves sifting through items that we rarely use and making trips to Goodwill to donate that which was still in good condition. (We even managed to drop off our goodies without going in to replace it all, as is our usual modus operandi.)

It has been fortunate that we had a three-day weekend following our first week back to our very busy lives. We have been allowed to mix work with fun, cleaning with relaxing, and all in all, have a pretty balanced weekend. Sure, there are chapters to read and papers to write, but we're taking things at a more relaxed pace which is nice.

For me, this is quite the change. Perhaps a good one. I generally go full force, right out of the gate. But, maybe after so many years of go, go, go, I'm figuring out how to apply my slow and steady running strategy to life. When I have a due date that is several weeks away, I don't need to be working on the assignment now. I can balance my drive to be successful in school with the joy that I find in long, lazy runs and afternoons of crafting.

Spring is here. A time of new growth, of blossoms, of sunny afternoons. For me, it may just mean a time of growth in how I approach life. Spring is good.

back to reality

Last night grad school started back up. It will be so nice when we finish up our program next year. The mister and I have once again tripled up on classes, which will mean a busy semester. However, it also means that we will not have to take classes this summer. It also means that we will have a comparably light year next year. Our capstone course will require a lot of work, for sure, but we only have nine credit hours to complete over the course of the year. We just may be able to breathe a little bit.

Reality this semester also includes the implementation of the school district's turn around plan. While my principal is retiring at the end of the week, our interim principal will only be here through April. The superintendent announced yesterday at a staff meeting that the changing of principals throughout the district will take place in April, following the culmination of state testing. This way, principals will be a part of the decision making when new hires are made for next year, when goals are submitted to the district and state for next school year, and when budgets are made. It all makes sense to me, but it will also mean a lot of change for a lot of schools at the end of the school year. I guess it also means teachers will be able to decide if they want to stay at their current school with a new principal or if they want to move elsewhere prior to next school year.

With the coming of the new semester, I was also reminded of how disjointed things in our district are. One of the programs in the district provides tuition assistance for teachers seeking TESOL endorsement. I applied for this assistance in November. Yesterday, the mister received notice of a purchase order being placed for his tuition assistance, my name was not on the list. I emailed the director of this program today and she said that she must have misplaced it. I will take copies of my application over to the office today, but she cannot make any guarantees that I will receive those funds because she lost my original paperwork. Needless to say, I went to bed a little angry last night.

My anger was calmed a little though based on the fact that I received a nice little check from Target yesterday as a result of their Field Trip Grants program. In the fall I applied and our trip to the Albuquerque Zoo is now 70% funded. Yay!

six is six

When it all comes down to it, six year olds are simply that - six years old. It does not matter where they are from, what their background is, or what language they speak. They all want to have fun, make new friends, and explore everything in front of them. 

Today my new Nepali friend joined my classroom and my above statement fits her perfectly. The day started with two of my kinders coming in and saying "We're going to have a new student!" I had not told anyone yesterday about our incoming classmate because you just never know for sure if someone is going to show up. It turns out that my newest kinder's grandparents live next door to one of my students and they had spent some time jumping around on the trampoline together. Friends were made before my classroom even came into play.

My new kinder is simply amazing. She is a sweetheart and is excited to learn. She has lived in the United States for a whole 23 days and despite any worries about culture shock, she seems to be adapting quite well. While she has a thick accent, she has a solid base in spoken English and her written understanding of the language is quite phenomenal. While she may not be reading yet, she knows a lot of her letters and some of the sounds. She knows a lot of basic three letter words though and shocked Mrs. S today during centers by writing the entire word for each image on a worksheet when all that was needed was the first letter. I think we'll be getting along quite well.

As I mentioned earlier, friends were made rather quickly so my only real concern now is keeping the chit-chatting of new best friends to a minimum and to squelch the constant hand holding among said friends (the group reached six today) as it makes forming a line and walking through the hall rather difficult. If these are my biggest concerns right now, I'll take it.

new new new new

It's a new year, with new instructional strategies, tomorrow, a new student, and at the end of the month, a new principal. Life is never boring, that is for sure.

Today we had a lot of fun with the new year during calendar time. My kinders, bright as can be began telling me what each of the following years will be. They said, "next it will be 2015!" I replied, yes, when you are in first grade, it will change to 2015 in January." I then cursed the moment that those words came out of my mouth as we spent the next several minutes with them saying, "and in second grade it will be 2016, and in third 2017, etc. etc." I've got some good ones, no questions.

We shifted our language arts centers around a little bit today, and things seemed to go well. I have moved from three centers to four. This way, groups are smaller and I have added accountability to my reading groups. Now, advanced students partner read with lower level students, assisting them with sounding out words or using context clues to determine what is happening in their stories. Their next center is reading reflection where they write in their journals about one story that they read. Right now, this consists of "I read...". As the semester progresses, I think that my more advanced students will be able to add on a little more detail.

Our anchor chart for partner reading

"I read Can Melvin Scoot. Rita Ran to Rosie" One reading reflection with a picture of happy partners reading together!

At the end of our new center rotation, we debriefed how everything went. Overall, the kinders loved it. They liked reading with partners and they really liked writing about their books and drawing pictures. As of right now, I think we have a winner. We'll see how things go when they aren't so new anymore.

Another new for today was finding out that I will have a new student starting tomorrow. From Nepal. Now, between Mrs. S and I we can take care of English, Spanish, and Navajo languages. Neither of us speak Nepali though (surprising, I know). It will be a new adventure for the new year. One that I am both excited and frightened by. I'll be challenged by the fact that this little girl does not speak English and that the traditional alphabet for Nepali is Devanagari (say what?). But, I like challenges.

Does anyone out there understand the Devanagari alphabet?

My final new for the day was my principal announcing that she will be retiring in two weeks. Between state/district shake ups and family commitments, she decided that it would be best to leave now before the district requires principals to commit to five to seven more years with the district in conjunction with a turn around plan that has been set up. For now, our head teacher will be completing an internship as our interim principal, which is great. As for next year, there is no telling who might be walking through those doors with the title of principal. But honestly, as long as I am allowed to teach my kinders, I'll be able to go with the flow pretty well - but I am hooked on my kinders and don't want to leave the grade level any time in the near (read years) future.

And so, I'm heading out from school early-ish today and soaking in the new. Tomorrow I'll tackle the endless pile of paperwork/planning/organizing that comes with teaching.

reset

Happy fall break! I just returned from about seven hours in my classroom. Go me!

Last night I had a great discussion with a couple of my classmates about classroom resets. This idea sparked something in me. During the last couple of weeks I have noticed that my students are starting to get snarky with one another and there have been a few tearful outbursts due to comments and actions made my some of the students. When one of my classmates brought up the idea of a reset, I was hooked. What a great time - we're on a break, the first quarter just ended, and we have a new friend in our class. All of these elements seemed to come together in my mind and my reset plan evolved. 

Today, I had intended to go into my classroom to get my planning for next week wrapped up and to close out the first quarter. While I did do those things,  I also made anchor charts for listening skills and appropriate group work behaviors. I made six-inch voice ribbons to help us keep our conversations at a reasonable level when in small groups. I built rule-reset time into my lesson plans for next week. I restocked our table supply boxes and finally managed to find inexpensive dry erase markers to restock that supply (and subsequently glued pom poms on the ends to serve as individual erasers while students are working on write and wipe pockets). Our classroom is reset. 

We will start over on Monday and rebuild our positive environment. We'll refocus our attention on all of the great learning that we have been doing and stop worrying about other students' behaviors. We will worry about ourselves only. I am going to keep affirming these statements with the belief that my vision will come to fruition over the next week and that our class will reset and continue to make incredible progress.

Of course, after getting my reset planned, I had to plan all of the academic stuff. I also organized and reset student data folders for the second quarter. Busy as a bee, but it paid off. Now my plans are in order, the materials needed for next week are all laid out. My first quarter is wrapped up so I do not need to worry about grade verification because everything is entered and I just need to sign off on final grades next week when our clerk is in the office. 

Now I can enjoy fall break to the fullest.

Oh - and it snowed today! Not a lot, but I love seeing the white stuff falling from the sky.

new

Today we ended the first quarter of school! It is really hard to believe that we have been in school for nine weeks. I cannot believe how much my kinders have learned in such a short period of time. We are reading some basic sight words, students are beginning to blend sounds together to make simple words, most of the students know nearly all of their letters and numbers, we're starting to decompose numbers 4 and 5, we can identify groups of ten and count to forty by ones and tens. We are rock stars.

And then, at recess today, I received a new student. She is a sweetheart, and tries exceptionally hard, and she shows so much promise. However, I feel that her last kindergarten teacher did not fully tap into that promise. She is itching to jump into this learning game, and I am excited to take her there. She still struggles with her letters, but can write her name. She can count. She can identify the first sounds in words. We're off to a good start. I cannot wait for the new quarter to start on Monday so that we can really build onto the basic skills that she came to me with and rocket her to the level that the majority of my students are sitting at right now.

Here's to a new quarter, a new student, new materials, and new goals. Here's to fall break as well!

goals

The entry into our classroom, newly decorated with student work

Last week my kinders were hard at work learning some basic skills to help acclimate them to the classroom and our school in general. As a part of this process, they also created drawings of their biggest goal for the year. With the exception of one or two students, they all said that they wanted to learn how to read this year. Their drawings of their goals are now hanging up right inside of our door so that they can be reminded of their goals every time they enter and/or leave the classroom.

Our class work wall also includes a name list so that we can practice reading our friends' names and a poster documenting how well everyone was able to write their own names at the end of the first week of school. I love having the bright colors on the wall and displaying the work of my students. My kinders are slowly transforming the classroom and I love it!

i survived

the first week of school! And, it wasn't even an act of survival. My kinders are awesome this year. I ended the week with 16 on my roster, and roughly 90% of them have been through a minimum of one year of pre-school. Some of them have two to three years of pre-school experience. It is so evident in how they behave in the classroom.

My little learners can follow directions (at least as well as I expect four and five year olds to follow directions - and yes, I do have four year olds in my class). They enjoy drawing and coloring and most can even color inside of the lines. A majority of them can write their names and know a bulk of their letters. Most can count (beyond ten) and write their numbers. These kiddos are sharp. I know that I have mentioned this before, but they are just blowing me away.

Here's a glance at this week in review:

Monday

We got to know each other, practiced some procedures, read stories, jumped into reading by ourselves, reviewed letters, numbers, the calendar, and went to PE class.

Tuesday

We met a friend new to our class, did our baseline assessment for language arts, worked on writing Aa and Bb, practiced our numbers, read number stories, and went to music class.

Wednesday

We reviewed our classroom rules and procedures, practiced reading to ourselves again, listened to stories, learned about characters, drew pictures of what we think school is all about, did our baseline assessment for math,  reviewed the calendar, and went to library.

Thursday

We met another friend new to our class, reviewed characters, authors, illustrators, titles, title pages, reading to ourselves, the letters A - E, writing our names, learned the words I, am, practiced writing our numbers 1 - 5, and went to PE class.

Friday

We reviewed everything from this week. We wrote our names, reviewed the elements of stories and our sight words, drew pictures of characters, reviewed our letters, had a fire drill, prepared for next weeks math lesson by cutting out flash cards, went to music class,  practiced our silent reading, and drew pictures of our goals for the year.

I feel like I have taught more this week than I did all of last year. These kiddos are incredible. Next week we will jump into our standard schedule of 30 minutes reading intervention, 25 minutes of morning meeting, 100 minutes of core reading, 15 minutes of recess, 50 minutes of language development and sustained silent reading, 40 minutes for lunch and recess, 60 minutes of math, 30 minutes of Navajo Language & Culture (or academic enrichment for those that do not go), 40 minutes of specials, and 30 minutes of math intervention. It's going to be jam packed full of learning, but I think we'll fall into the routine pretty quickly. 

Happy Friday! The weekend is here (does that mean I need to lesson plan?)!

i am

excited! I really am. Today we learned the sight words I and am. And then, then, my kinders proceeded to read two whole books on their own! Granted, the books mainly consisted of the words I am followed by a decodable word that was accompanied by a picture, but they read! Two books! We also managed to sit and read to ourselves for ten whole minutes today. A huge jump from the two minutes that we started with on Monday. As I said, I am excited!

like christmas

Last spring the teachers at my school were told that they had less than 24 hours to spend $100 on classroom supplies. Any time a teacher is told that they have money to spend on their classroom is reason for celebration. However, with the end of school year craziness, state testing, field days, moving up ceremonies, etc. etc. etc., these supplies were ordered and then moved to a little back corner in our minds and covered with cobwebs. Today however, those cobwebs were cleared away. At the end of the day an announcement was made for us to go and pick up those magical supplies. It was really a little like Christmas. 

I went down to our secondary book storage room and was handed my materials. I now have three centers ready to go for literacy development. Two of the center kits will be used to bring my little learners that are below level up to level. One of the kits will be used to push the brighter kiddos in my class to the next level so that they are ready to blow their first grade teacher's socks of next year. I am beyond excited. I came back to my room and began cutting cellophane wrappers off, pulling cardboard protectors out of spiral bindings, and assembling pieces. Yes, I realize that it is still the first week of school and some of the materials will not be used for some time, but, as I mentioned, I am excited. I love learning tools and I cannot wait to use them in my classroom!

Also, I finished my baseline assessments today, so I have even more reason to celebrate. I can now begin to go about a normal daily routine. I also found out that I will not need to proctor some of the assessments that kindergarteners are required to complete, so I will not be pulled out of my classroom for endless hours during the coming weeks. I think that that deserves a whoop for joy!

Even with all of this excitement I will admit that this first week of school is leaving me exhausted. I was struggling well before 7PM last night and that was only after two days. I feel a little better today, but man, these kinders are zapping my energy! I am full of it when they are in the classroom, but as soon as the last one says goodbye at the end of the day it feels like my battery has suddenly died. I'll get used to it though (of course, next week grad school starts back up so I'll have a whole other kind of adjusting to do), it'll just take some time for me to reestablish that sense of balance.

baseline

The dreaded baseline assessment

Last year I did not know any better. This year I do, but wish that I did not. I spent a bulk of my day today administering baseline assessments for language arts. Having 15 kindergarten students sit through a 40 question test is not exactly fun. You get to read the same question over and over again and hope that someone circles an answer. You have students shouting out answers because they do not understand the concept of keeping their thoughts to themselves. You have to figure out how to navigate a group of different abilities so that those who need it have the extra time to process questions, and those that are quick as whips do not get bored by waiting for their peers to answer something that took them less than a second to do. It's a task, and it is exhausting.

But, this dreaded task comes with some perks. I missed out on these last year. By taking the time to assess my students' abilities during this first week of school I am prepared to begin interventions early on and I know which students I need to make sure I challenge so that they do not spend their time causing trouble. A lot of this information is evident through simple observation, but this way I know what exactly I need to work on with the students. This should help them to all learn at a rate that is applicable to them and that addresses their individual needs. Will this take a lot of time? Sure, but I teach so that the students can succeed; therefore, I'll take the time to help them in whatever way possible.

As I mentioned, I spent most of the day doing the language arts assessment. That means I still have one more to go. Tomorrow I'll address math (which is thankfully 25 questions shorter so I should be able to do some teaching that is actually engaging during the day) and then there are a myriad of other assessments that will come up over the next couple of weeks: DIBELS, PPVT, Discovery Ed. If those terms are making your head spin, consider it a good thing. Even though I know what the acronyms stand for, the tests that they represent are time consuming, tedious, and in a lot of ways annoying. However, they all have the same perks as those listed above. My head will be spinning for the next couple of weeks, but my students will benefit, so I'll deal with it.

fabulous first day

My little learners sporting their first day hats!

Today was the day! If I was excited when I sat down to write yesterday, I am even more so today. I have a fantastic group of kinders and I cannot wait to see what this year brings us. They followed rules really well for a group of five year olds and they did a great job of explaining some of our basic classroom rules as new students trickled in throughout the day. They're a quick bunch, I'm going to need to stay on my toes this year to keep ahead of their learning curve.

I mostly went with the flow today, following my gut instead of the obligatory lesson plan that I had filled out. We learned our silent signal and bathroom signal. We learned how to line up and walk through the halls. We toured the school, we practiced coloring, gluing and writing our names. We made first day of kindergarten hats. Most of the students can count past ten and they can all sing the alphabet song. They listened well during story time and they managed to stay (mostly) focused for about three minutes of independent reading time. These kiddos are on fire!

With all of this in mind, I am trying to reflect upon how this year differed from last year. The ways are really endless. I greeted each student and parent as they entered the classroom. I had a sign-in sheet prepared so that parents could tell me how students would be leaving school. I had materials ready for them to use as they finished breakfast. I kept them busy until dismissal (and I was prepared to keep on keeping on if my assistant didn't remind me that they had to leave). In other words, this year differed mostly because I have a year of experience now. I know that things are not going to go as planned, and I have a plan for that too. Mainly, I breathe, smile, laugh with the students when it is appropriate and discipline them when necessary.

Happy first day everyone!

ready or not

My classroom

Tomorrow is the big day. I spent a couple of hours in my classroom today enjoying the calm before the storm and getting some little odds and ends put together that don't necessarily seem like a big deal, but can be. I double checked the class roster and found that one more kinder had been added to my class since Friday afternoon. I made sure that I had extra materials ready for others that are added tomorrow morning. I crossed my ts and dotted my is and made a couple of anchor charts in the meantime. Ready or not, here it comes. The first day of kindergarten!