trick or treat

Today was the day. Halloween. Some say it is the worst teaching day of the year. I think that the worst part of the day is the party. Teaching went really well, our field trip went really well, the students were amazing. Then the party hit. Then all of the monsters and goblins come out of hiding and the kinders go crazy. Mine actually weren't as bad as they could have been, but classroom parties are still something that I just haven't figured out a system for. It was better than last year, but still not perfect. We all survived though and at the end of the day there were still two and a half pizzas left over from our pizza party so Mrs. S. and I both went home with dinner after an exhausting day.

The most exciting thing about today was our field trip. The kinders rocked it! They remembered their words, their actions, they were all smiles, and they used their manners. The residents of the nursing home were also rockstars. They loved the little guys and cheered at the end. Everyone was excited. The performance was followed by some trick or treating on our way out of the home.

Here is our final song from the performance, "Oh, my monster." Enjoy!

oh hail

Literally. This afternoon my kinders kept on telling me that it was going to rain. In the desert, you can smell it coming. Today we had a bitter chill though, so when the rain did come, at student pick-up time, it was not liquid, but solid. At first everyone was excited because it appeared to be snow. Then it came down harder. So hard, in fact, that it hurt. We rushed all of the kiddos inside to look for their rides and signed them out from the warmth of the building.

I hope that this weather doesn't continue through the evening. While I would appreciate a late start, I really don't want it to be tomorrow. With two thirty minute practice sessions a day for our trip to the nursing home tomorrow, I really want to make sure that it happens. The kiddos are so excited about performing and riding the bus. Right now the fact that they get to trick or treat while we are there hasn't even crossed their minds. They just want to meet the special grandparents. 

Fingers crossed for a whole day of Halloween havoc tomorrow.

number sense

Numbers can be quite confusing to kindergarteners. With some numbers such as seven and eleven sounding so similar I frequently hear my little learners counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13... As you can probably imagine, this gets quite frustrating for all parties involved. It is hard to make things click. 

With this in mind, today we brainstormed different ways that we can show the numbers 11 and 12. I was quite impressed with some of the things that my students came up with. We did the number 11 together, then they did number 12 all by themselves. I have faith that they'll get it one of these days (hopefully sooner, rather than later).

overheard

Kimberly: Did you know that my sister doesn't live at home anymore?

Emily: Oh yeah, because she's big now, right?

Kimberly: No, because she got married.

Emily: Eww! I'm never doing that. I'm going to live alone with my dog. ... Or my parrot.

***

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my kinders? They are pretty incredible little people. Today when we were doing calendar time they got all excited about Halloween - but not because of the reasons you would think. They got excited because they get to go visit the "special grandparents" and sing to them. I can't wait to watch them perform and see how they interact with everyone at the nursing home. I have a feeling that it is going to be great. How could it not?

the things they say

"Oh, my gosh! Today is P.E.! I forgot my sweaty pants!"

It's Saturday, my running day. I just had to share these fantastic words from one of my students yesterday.

Happy Saturday!

around the world

It is recess and I am coming off of an Around the World high. I know that I keep bragging about how awesome my kinders are, but I need to do it again (and I am sure that it is not for the last time).

This morning my kinders were a little full of Friday energy and ended up moving into the "yellow light" as a result. This meant that our class lost five minutes of recess time. To fill that time, and the fifteen minutes before, we did sight word work. First we worked on their word lists for study at home, then we did the high frequency words that we have been working on in class. The students had them down, so we extended our small group Around the World games into a whole group Around the World.

I wasn't too sure how this would work with mixed levels, but all of the students' practice has paid off. We had high levels competing against low levels, and to my surprise and delight, the high levels didn't always win. It was fantastic. The class had tons of energy, sight words were flying, the kinders were having a learning party. It was fantastic. I think that I see more around the world in the future!

the things they say

"I wish we had all five days this week. Or six or seven, or more. I love school."

Some days they just make me smile. The one that said this really needed to make me smile too. He's gotten two "yellow notes" home this week, and we've only had two days of school. At the end of the day when I was exhausted from running around and teaching all day, he turned to me and said the aforementioned words with a big grin on his face. 

I love that my kinders are loving school. I love that I have such amazing students this year (even the ones that keep on pushing just a little too far). I love my job (even though it leaves me feeling exhausted when the last child is picked up for the day). I cannot imagine doing anything else.

five little jack o lantern ghost witches

Oh goodness. Next week is Halloween. The kinders are super excited. Lesson planning for next week is rough and plans this week have gone out the window. Thank goodness it is only a three day teaching week.

Next Thursday, all of the kindergarteners from my school are going to the local nursing home to provide some entertainment for the residents. That means that starting today we have roughly 7.5 hours of practice time that we were able to fit into our schedules. This means that I have crazy Halloween songs going through my head all day, we have props to make, and the kinders are going to complete some art projects to decorate the halls of the home. 

Everyone is excited about meeting the "special grandparents that live in the special home" and so in the time leading up to and immediately following our song practice sessions the kinders are amped. That means our learning takes a hit. But, they are loving it and I think that the folks that we visit will love it too. In the meantime I have jack-o-lanterns, witches, ghosts, and Frankenstein running through my head. 

As an added bonus though, this field trip will also count toward a service learning project that I need to do for grad school. Sure, it may be double dipping, but my students are being reminded of the Navajo tradition (and hopefully every other culture out there's tradition) of respecting and honoring their elders. I think that this is an important tradition to instill in our youth, and so we're talking about why we're visiting the home - it really is about more than the fact that we get to trick or treat while we're there and show off our fancy costumes.

Oh life, sometimes you work out so well!

inspiring

Today we had parent teacher conferences at my school. It was a busy day, with parents missing appointments then squeezing in later in the day so that I had a line down the hall. In the grand scheme of things though, 15 out of my 18 students' families showed up for the big day (I even completed my final conference in Spanish - always exciting for me). My other three students ended up having to go out of town for family emergencies and so I will check in with them tomorrow afternoon since they are all pick-ups.

When I was talking with my neighboring teacher during a break from the madness, she told me one of the most incredible stories ever. Below is my paraphrasing of this story.

My student's grandmother came in today for her conference and expressed how excited she was that her granddaughter was learning how to read. The grandmother had gone to school and struggled to complete the third grade. When she stopped going to school she also stopped reading.

Now that this woman's granddaughter wants to read, she is needing to learn how to read once again. She pre-reads all of the stories that she will read to her granddaughter and then walks the 1/4 mile down the road to ask her neighbor what the words are. Then she practices so that she can read her granddaughter a bedtime story. The woman expressed that she is beginning to remember the words now and that she is learning how to read again.

How amazing is it that a kindergarten student can inspire an elderly woman to take an interest in reading and re-learn this valuable skill? I feel inspired, to say the least.

productivity

This weekend has been a productive one. I was sick for the majority of the week and therefore spent all of my time at home asleep or mindlessly watching Netflix. I didn't have the energy to do anything, but all of that has changed this weekend. Thanks to a quick trip to the doctor's on Thursday and a round of antibiotics to clear up a sinus infection my green light has come back on.

This weekend has been spent catching up on the cleaning that I did not do last weekend due to not feeling well (and of course our trip to Canyon de Chelly on Saturday), writing papers for grad school, and working on a birthday present for one of my nieces.  It's nice to have some energy again and to be back at life.

Tomorrow it's back to school for some good old professional development, followed by parent teacher conferences on Tuesday. That's right, we have another three-day week here. Then we have Halloween, an early release Monday, no school on Veteran's Day, and then a week off for Thanksgiving. When will I find time to teach you ask - I am asking myself the same thing. The year is going so fast that I don't know what to do with myself, and with all of the days off coming up I am at even more of a loss. If you have any ideas, feel free to share!

crawling

I made it through all of last year without having any students get the lovely, crawling creatures that we call lice. Today, that streak ended.

I was testing one of my student on her reading level and sight word recognition and I saw a bug crawling around at her hairline. I would point to a word and then look up, it was still there. I would read another word and look up, it was still there. We had just come in from recess and I was hoping with all my might that it was just a little fly that got caught in her hair. Unfortunately it seemed right at home. I took her to the office and sure enough, that little creepy crawly was lice. And it had a big family. Her family was called and she was picked up and I let out a sigh of relief.

Then the school nurse screened the rest of my class. Six students were sent home with notes saying that their checks had shown signs of lice. One of the student's parents are not native English speakers, so I was able to use my Spanish skills to break the news. Thankfully all of the parents that I talked to said that it was just a part of being a child and going to school. 

It's true that that is the reality, but that doesn't mean that my head didn't suddenly start itching upon hearing the news (my hair is typically braided or in a bun, so hopefully I don't have anything to worry about). While I love my kinders I do not necessarily the ease with which they seem to share everything. And now I will go home and break the news to the mister that he needs to check my hair so that I don't go crazy.

real or fantasy

Sometimes I think that kindergarteners float on a fine line between reality and fantasy. They have such vivid imaginations that sometimes it is hard to tell if something that they are sharing is real or not. Last year I had a student that worried the whole school by telling us that he could not get off of the bus at home because no one was there - that his whole family had been arrested. After sitting with him for about fifteen minutes, he got around to sharing that this had been a bad dream that he had and that his family was not in jail. I did eventually get in touch with his dad who had been worried sick when my little kinder did not get off of the bus and he hurried himself over to the school and all was good. Reality versus fantasy, it can be a valuable piece of knowledge, even at five years of age.

This week, we have been focusing on realism and fantasy in stories. My kinders seem to have picked up on this skill pretty quickly, and so today we decided to have some fun with it. Each student was paired with a classmate and they had to come up with something that was real and a way to make it fantasy or make believe. Then the pairs drew their ideas on a piece of chart paper. We may not be fantastic artists, but we had some great ideas. School buses with wings, dolphins wearing shoes, books with faces, and the list goes on. We had a great time expressing ourselves and now our classroom has a new piece of art to adorn its walls for a while.

In other news, this morning one of the fifth grade teachers approached me to say that one of her friends sent her boxes of books for the students at our school. As a result, my minders were able to go on a "field trip" this morning to her classroom and select a book to take home with them forever and ever. My kinders were in heaven and were so excited when I told them that they would be allowed to use their books during independent reading time today, even if they were too hard. They practiced reading the pictures if they chose more difficult books and were so engaged that it was a sight to be seen.

Yay for art and books!

writing

Today we wrote and I just could not resist sharing some of my students' creation. This week we are reading a story called Bear Snores On and my kinders are loving it. We decided to take our bear conversations one step further and write about what we would do if we were bears. Some of them got it, some did not. Whatever the case, we wrote happily for 30 minutes.

"I would sleep."

"I would eat fish." (I'm pretty sure no caption was needed here.)

"I'm going to take care of my cub."

"I find berries."

"I went fishing. I got lost because my mom wasn't with me."

Don't you just love it! I know I do!

progress

We have been in school for 10 weeks now and progress is being made. In preparation for parent teacher conferences I have been wrapping up quarterly progress reports on foundational skills. My students are making headway on learning their letter names and sounds. Some have made the jump from zero letters recognized in a minute to fourteen, which is really incredible when they entered school not knowing letters from numbers. Others, that entered school with basic letter knowledge are now approaching sixty letters in a minute. Progress!

While these numbers are fantastic, the thing that has really gotten me excited is seeing actual progress in my students' reading abilities. Today, I had each of my independent readers (13 of 18 in my class) read a new text to me. The story included high frequency words that we have been working on all year along with some new CVC words (words made up of consonant-vowel-consonant combinations) that were composed of letter sounds that we have been working on, such as cap. 

One of my students, one that struggled quite a bit at the beginning of the school year, blew me away today. He nailed his sight words and then successfully sounded out each of his new CVC words. He was a rock star. He read the story from beginning to end and was even able to tell me the main idea of the story. As I said, I was blown away. 

I love that progress is so noticeable in kindergarten. I love my job.

id

Today student picture proofs were delivered, and with them came student IDs. The kiddos loved getting their ID cards and were busy showing off their picture day hair styles to the friends at the end of the day. The room filled with compliments and good manners. It was a pretty fantastic thing to observe.

When dismissal time rolled around I walked my pick ups outside to await the arrival of their parents. One of my kinders looked around excitedly for his sister. I asked him if anything was wrong and he replied, "No, I just want to show her my driver's license. Now I can drive anywhere I want to. Even McDonalds. And, I can buy stuff from McDonalds too. I have a bank." It was pretty precious. What a great way to begin the second quarter.

success

On Friday we left town and began our Navajo adventure. We began our journey by stopping in Window Rock, AZ, the capital of the Navajo Nation. We walked through the zoo and enjoyed seeing some of the animals that live in our area - porcupines, owls, elk, mountain lions, black bears, wolves, and bobcats (to name a few). The Navajo Zoo has done a good job of providing the animals with the space and natural environment that thrive in as the park is build into one of the numerous canyons in the area.

Porcupine!

Horned Owl

After leaving the zoo we continued our journey to Chinle, AZ, the home of Canyon de Chelly. The mister checked in for the race and then we set up camp. Thanks to dual management of Canyon de Chelly, we were still able to camp near the mouth of the canyon and the start line of the race. Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation has stepped up in this time of the government shut down and has kept activity in the monument running smoothly. We were able to explore the north side of the canyon after setting up the camp, enjoying that none of the overlooks had been closed as we have heard happening in other areas managed by the National Parks Service.

After our quick tour of the north rim, we returned to the park for the pre-race meeting and an introduction to the Navajo culture by the race director, his father in law, and a resident of the canyon (at other times, a park ranger, but for now, just a resident he pointed out). The Navajo tradition of running was explained to the race participants and their families, a brief history of the canyon and its significance to the Navajo people was described, and a fair number of jokes were shared, and everyone had a great time.

We all retreated to our tents, campers or hotel rooms and prepared for race day. The mister and I ran into town to get some food and then climbed into our tent for a fantastic night of sleep in the cool fall air. When the alarm went off in the morning we were ready to roll. 

The race began with a blessing and prayer ceremony around a bonfire. The racers gathered around to keep warm and to receive a blessing to stay with them throughout their journeys into and out of the canyon. The race course went 17 miles into the canyon, ending at the top of bat trail, and then came back out of the mouth where racers were greeted with mutton stew and fresh fry bread.

Preparing for the blessing and prayer ceremony

At the starting line

The race began at roughly 7:00AM, with the rising of the sun and a great yell by all of the runners. In Navajo tradition, the Gods come out with the sun, and so the people run to greet the Gods. The great yell is a way to clear the lungs after a night of sleep and to present yourself and say, "I am here."

After the runners took off, I drove out to White House Ruins, and hiked down into the canyon where I would be able to see the mister as he came through mile 5.5. He was looking good as he ran through the water and subsequently through his clothes from the cold morning start at me. He continued his journey into the canyon and I stayed at the Ruins for a while talking to the family members of other runners and cheering as more people splashed through the muddy water at the bottom of the canyon.

The mister running at 5.5 miles

White House Ruins

After I while I climbed back out of the canyon, only to hear Shaun, the race director finish up a conversation with two of his cross country athletes - the truck for the next aid station had gotten stuck trying to go up a hill and was only about halfway to where it needed to be. He quickly made a plan with his runners and sent them running back to the truck to execute the plan for providing aid to the runners as they progressed through the canyon.

I climbed out of the canyon and drove further down the south rim and pulled into the Spider Rock overlook. I hiked down to the edge of the rim and stood with a Navajo family for a long time, cheering on the ant sized runners as the passed the base of Spider Rock. I believe that cheering from this location was one of the most enjoyable cheering experiences that I have had at a race. From the top of the canyon you cry out your support and then hear it echoed back about 10 seconds later as it makes its way into the canyon and to the runners. It was fantastic!

Spider Rock

After spotting the mister's bright red cap running back from the turn around I returned to White House Ruins. The hike is so beautiful that it was hard to resist another chance to descend into the canyon. My efforts were blessed with these views:

As I waited at the bottom of the canyon for the mister to come running back through, I kept checking my watch. Based on the times that I had seen him running earlier, his pace had fallen off. At first I had thought that perhaps I had been too slow and missed him coming back through, but I checked with the Navajo family that I had been cheering with earlier and they said that all of the runners that they had seen come through were wearing shirts, so I knew the mister was still out there. He eventually came through, but was hobbling along thanks to an old knee injury that had flared up. However, he pushed on, and eventually made it out of the canyon, rounding out the top third of runners.

The mister coming through the finish line

Receiving his hand beaded turquoise finisher's necklace from Shaun, the RD

After the runners crossed the finish line, they received hand beaded turquoise necklaces. Shaun's (the race director) grandmother made all of the necklaces, with some help from Shaun and other family members. All of the prizes were created by family members and included moccasins, star quilts, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, and photographs of the canyon. After all of the prizes were handed out there was a traditional toss out of other gifts to the runners, including magazine subscriptions, runner's vests, posters, and t-shirts. Not to be forgotten, all of the runners also received their fill of homemade mutton stew (or vegetable stew) and fry bread. Family members could also enjoy these delicious creations by giving a donation to the local cross country programs.

All in all it was a fantastic event, culturally rich and centered on the community. All of the proceeds from the race are going to the local cross country programs, and thanks to some amazing sponsors, I believe that the programs have been really blessed by this event. We cannot wait to go back next year, and I am already thinking that I want one of those finisher's necklaces too. We'll see!

As a follow up to my post prior to our trip, the federal government shutdown has not been able to shut down the Navajo Nation. In this we were truly blessed on this adventure, and look forward to exploring many more cultural landmarks throughout the nation.

to be seen

Today I get to fully embrace this fall break thing. By putting in my time yesterday, I can sit back and soak up the freedom of not having lesson planning to worry about. I am also fortunate in that I do not have any major grad school assignments looming over me this weekend. I can breathe. What a wonderful feeling!

This afternoon the mister and I are headed to Chinle and Canyon de Chelley. If you just tried clicking on that link, you'll understand why I titled this post "to be seen." Thanks to the government shut down it is to be seen what I will be able to experience in and around the canyon. One component of this trip that does look to be in my favor is that the canyon is technically Navajo land, the government shutdown cannot take away tribal lands, even if it can shut down the visitor's center.

The mister has a 55k race through the canyon tomorrow. He will have the opportunity to run where many gringos do not have the chance to go. He will be able to pass through native lands and run to the base of Spider Rock. I am so excited for him to have this opportunity and cannot wait to hear about his experiences.

In the meantime, I will soak up whatever components of the Navajo culture that I can. I will drive around the rim and see what there is to be seen, assuming that the government cannot shut down the roads that go to people's homes in the canyon. I will also enjoy the cultural celebrations and presentations that will take place this evening after race packet pick up. We've also decided to turn the next 36 hours into a Navajo cultural celebration by also stopping in Window Rock, the capital of Navajo country, to visit the historical museum and zoo on our way to the canyon.

I'll let you know what the government shutdown is doing on Navajo land tomorrow! Until then, here is a photo of the canyon that the mister took last May when we visited.

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.

really

As a new teacher, I am a part of a mentoring program. I believe that I have talked about my mentor before and how she is a fountain of information regarding kindergarten and teaching best practices. One component of the mentoring program is actually observing your mentor in program.

I scheduled my observation to take place yesterday afternoon (note, this is a make up blog because my internet was down yesterday and I couldn't post this then). I filled out my leave request. I had it approved. I had my sub plans set and ready. The start time for my observation rolled around, my students came back from recess, and I still did not have a sub. Mrs. S got the students situated while I ran to the office to figure out what was happening. 

"You don't get a sub." That was the response that I got. I replied that I had my approved leave. The response this time was, "I know, you don't get a sub." Frustrated, I ran back to class and conferred with Mrs. S. She told me, "Just go." It's nice to know that I have a competent assistant, but I know that there are district funds that are set aside for mentoring observations. I rushed to get mine done because it was a first quarter requirement and I wanted to make sure that the funds were available. But, no dice. No sub for me.

Mrs. S did a pretty good job of keeping the kinders under control and they made it through a bulk of the work that I had left (I always over-plan for subs). I had a great observation and picked up a couple of new tricks to throw into my bag. I used some of those today in our lesson review and they worked well. We tested what Mrs. S presented to them yesterday and 94% of my students received an 80% or higher on their assessment. I'd say we tag teamed that one pretty well.

It may not have worked as planned, but it worked. And now I can relax. My first semester of mentoring activities are done and over with and my report is written (I guess that was a perk of not having internet last night, I actually did work that needed to be done). Now I can (kind of) relax until Monday when quarter two starts up, along with a new list of mentoring activities.

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!

progress

This week marks the end of the first quarter for my kinders. Due to fall break beginning on Thursday, this means that we have two days left in the quarter to nab our final grades and to catch up on the backlog of progress monitoring on students.

For those of you that do not know, progress monitoring is just that, a check on the progress that students are making so far in the school year. The two areas that I am focusing on right now are first sound fluency (a student's ability to recognize the first sound that they hear in a word) and letter naming fluency (a student's ability to name letters of the alphabet, both capital and lower-case, out of order). Today I focused on completing check-ins with my advanced students.

These are students that tested at a level at or above that which is expected for kindergarteners at the beginning of the school year. This is a level that gauges the skills that they enter school with and identifies the areas of need for the students. Today, my advanced students mostly monitored at the level that is expected by the time we break for Christmas. This is pretty exciting for me - the strategies that I am using are working on these bright little learners. 

Tomorrow, we'll see how the students that tested at below-level back in August. Fingers crossed.

frogger

I wish that I were talking about the old Atari game. It was one of my favorites, in terms of video games. Every rendition of it that I have played since Atari went out of style just hasn't been the same. Instead, today's frogger is the result of something else that I love to do - crochet.

There is a very special little girl in my life that has a birthday coming up on Friday. While I cannot spend her special day with her, I can send her something that was made from the heart, and not just purchased from the store. This morning after going on a short hike I spent the bulk of my day crafting this little guy (and taking breaks here and there to do some grad school reading and writing). 

Happy Birthday Maddie J!

One of the things that I enjoy more and more, as I crochet and do more amigurumi projects is being able to make something up and go with it. Patterns aren't necessarily needed any more, because the base of these projects are pretty universal. I decided that since I know this little girl loves her daddy's aquarium and the little friends that live in it, I would send her a little aquatic friend. I hope that she likes it as much as I do!

fall cleaning

Fall Cleaning!

Today, during morning announcements my dreams came true. I had been presented with an outlet to get rid of old teaching materials that have been sitting in my cabinets since I inherited my classroom last July. Our clerk told us that someone was coming to school to evaluate the materials that we had and they would be donated if they were in good enough condition, otherwise they would just be purged.

I did a silent cheer in my head and used the time that my students had left during breakfast to start clearing out some materials. As the day progressed, any time that my students were working on an independent task that my assistant could oversee I was lugging boxes of old books out to the hallway. Old math resources, old reading resources, and old science resources. I kept one copy of each workbook so that I have access to alternative resources if need be, but otherwise I cleaned out nearly an entire cabinet when I compiled where each item came from.

Hopefully my loss (and actual gain of storage space) will become somebody else's gain.

tis the season

Tarantula mating and migration. It is a reality when living in New Mexico. I'm not the biggest fan of spiders, but as long as they are outside where they belong I am generally okay with them. However, during this time of year it is not uncommon for them to be strolling through the playground or out on the nature trail behind school.

So far, this year hasn't been too bad. We've only had a couple of sightings on the playground, and I haven't heard of them being removed from the school. Last year, at a staff meeting we were all warned, "check your bags before you dig around in them, I found a tarantula in mine this weekend." Our ever-brave principal guided her find outside, but I hope to never need to do the same. I am hopeful that this warning will not come this year, but I still find myself wary when I catch something moving out of the corner of my eye.

Now that my skin is crawling, I'll say good-bye until tomorrow!

collision

Today, teaching and grad school collided. This isn't exactly an unusual thing, but today it happened in an exciting way.

For my reading class I have been assigned the task of doing a miscue analysis on one of my students. Essentially, this entails having a student read a selected text that is slightly higher than their reading level. You analyze their reading to identify strengths and weaknesses in their reading so that you can develop a plan for helping the student improve their reading.

Today, I chose my highest reader to help me with the task. While students were working on a fall craft project I pulled him out for about ten minutes to have him read to me. I chose a story that we will not encounter in our independent readers for nine more weeks and he did an amazing job. He sounded out words and blended them almost effortlessly. He made self corrections when something didn't seem right. He worked through challenging passages and made it to the end, averaging 12 words a minute. It was fantastic for a beginning reader. I was am so proud.

Now I just need to go through and re-listen to my recording of him so that I can write up my report. I have a feeling that that will not be quite as exciting for me to do, but I'll be glad to have an idea regarding how I can help him continue to excel.

Sometimes it is fantastic when two worlds collide!

dead battery

It happens to all of us. The battery dies on something. In recent years I have heard complaints of batteries dying on Kindles before someone is able to finish a book, or the battery on their phone dies before they are able to take a quick photo of something that is priceless. Today, the battery that died was mine. Well, my computer's battery died as well, but that wasn't until after my personal one did.

It take a lot of energy to teach. Last year, I think that I lived in a little bubble of confusion that kept on bouncing me along, somewhat effortlessly. It's easy to have energy when you do not fully realize the implications of your position, how to meet the goals and objectives of your position, and when you don't really understand what you are doing wrong or how you can fix it (or at least try to fix it). 

This year I am tired. I had the summer to really evaluate what it means to be a kindergarten teacher. I have a better understanding of my goals, and as a result I am pushing my students further. To do this, I am also pushing myself further. I spend time trying to develop dynamic lesson plans that fit within the district mandated curriculum. I put myself out there to try and keep my kinders engaged in a less than exciting lesson that just needs to be taught. I spend endless hours looking for new and exciting resources. I write grants. I develop hands on materials (manipulatives). I teach.

Today, I was super excited to see my kinders after being away from them yesterday. We had a fantastic morning that was focused on oral language development (a fancy way of saying that we talked a lot). We did center work. And more center work. And we celebrated National Book-It Day. Then we did more centers in math class. Then I had a meeting. Then we did our exciting smartie pants end of day wrap up (I swear, I'll actually write about this one of these days). Then my kinders left. And with them, my energy vanished. My battery died on the spot when the last student climbed into his father's truck.

Still, I went back to my classroom and had a meeting with my mentor. As a second year teacher I am a part of a mentoring program to help me to become a more effective teacher. This means more work. And of course, on top of that I have grad school work. And lesson planning. Do you get the point? I am exhausted. 

This afternoon though, my computer's battery died. This year I have taken to leaving my charger at home. Today, I found good reason to do this. When my battery died, I had to leave (well, not really, but it seemed like a good excuse).

The good news is that we have fall break next week. Four whole days of no teaching (just planning, grad school, yada, yada, yada). I am ecstatic.