Tales From the Classroom: Part Eight

 Teaching During Covid

What a nightmare! The Dream Team and I went from telling our sweet preschoolers, “ I love you! Have a great weekend.” on Friday, March 13th to not being able to have them in our classroom for the rest of that school year.

We had all heard the rumors on the news. What we didn’t understand is how it would directly impact us. After dismissing all of our students that Friday, we were all called into an emergency staff meeting. At that meeting we were all told that the Governor was meeting with the State Health Director to determine how to move forward. Sunday we got the call. Schools were being closed down!  The Dream Team and I were heartbroken! We had the best class that year!

That Monday we all met in district grade level teams to come up with a plan of how we were going to deliver content without children being in the classroom. Tall order!! While other grade levels were able to utilize Google Classroom, that didn’t work for preschool. So much of their learning is hands-on.  We came up with a plan that we would FaceTime all students on Monday.  We sent out a schedule for families to sign up for a time that worked best for them.  If they didn’t answer, the school resource officer and principal would do a wellness check on the family. Our district understood that whole families were struggling, not just our students. We had themed scavenger hunts where families posted pictures on our class Facebook page. We did read-alouds over Zoom. Some of us did Porch Visits where we’d sit on the front porch and read to our student while they cracked the door to hear. I even did a couple of Zoom Sing-Alongs!  These were a hoot!  I had three different sessions to meet the needs of my families; 10:00 am, 2:00 pm, and 7:00 pm.  What I didn’t even think about was that these children were quarantined.  They hadn’t seen each other at all!  Most of our Zoom time was spent with the students just talking to each other and sharing things they were doing during the “damn-demic.”

To keep myself busy during this time, at the suggestion of my husband, I wrote a book! I have long been an advocate of Family Engagement; working tirelessly to engage family caregivers before school ever started, activities throughout the school years, and even staying in close contact with those families after the children left my classroom. I used these time periods for my book and included another chapter on keeping families engaged during the “damn-demic.”  I went on to speak at national and international conferences about this very topic.

In addition, I was chosen by the State Commissioner of Education to meet, via Zoom, with committees who were developing a school reopening plan for the fall and what that would look like.  That was very rewarding!! I also served on the district’s reopening plan.

The Dream Team couldn’t handle being away from each other during this time, so we volunteered to come to school and put together bagged meals for our families. We kept up with our shenanigans and shared our concerns about our kids. It was truly a lifeline for the three of us!

Tales From the Classroom: Part Seven

 No "Tales From the Classroom" could ever be complete without addressing The Dream Team!

These two women made it an absolute joy to come to school every single day! That guardian angel sure knew what it was doing when it brought these two absolutely incredible women into my life!

This was when I was teaching in Nickerson, Kansas, a rural community outside of Hutchinson. The school district had just ended their Memorandum of Understanding with Head Start, which meant that I lost two paras who were paid out of Head Start federal funds.  It was a hot mess!  That is until my principal introduced me to Brandi and Katie!

These two wonderful women were from Nickerson.  They knew the families of our students.  The absolute fun and joy they brought to the classroom was contagious! Our colleagues felt it, our families felt it, and especially the children felt it!

You never knew what kind of antics we were up to next.  From adding bedazzled sneakers to the PE teacher’s bulletin board, to loving our students so fiercely, to hot dog wars. Life was always a party with these two!

When the damn-demic hit,we cried together. We missed the children so much! We missed each other, too. So we decided to come to the school one day a week to help package meals for our school’s families. That way we could see each other, some of our colleagues, and some of our families.

Enjoy our photos!

You can’t see it very

Well, but Katie’s

Unicorn had a mask,

Too!!

“Sparkle!!”                      Back to School             Damn-demic meals

“Bucket Fillers” Alvin and the Chipmunks

Hot dog wars!!

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, ladies!  I love you both so much!

Tales From the Classroom: Part Six

 Some of the little moments:

I went to do a home visit when teaching in Leavenworth. There were two LARGE iguanas just strolling across the floor! Um…No!

I was being observed by the principal.  It was in October and we had been talking about “spooky” animals; owls, bats, black cats, etc.  The students were cutting out bats to hang from the ceiling. One of my little boys made a squiggly line between the bat’s ears. When the principal asked him about it, he said, “That’s to show it’s using its echolocation.” Yeah, buddy!!

To say the least, the principal was shocked!

I was a member of Building Leadership in one of my buildings.  We had just been introduced to PLCs-Professional Learning Communities. Every time our grade level met, we had to fill out a form about what we discussed and questions that we had and turn it in to the principal.  My teaching partner and I had the feeling the sheets weren’t being read. After one meeting, I wrote on the sheet, “A margarita machine in the staff lounge would be a good solution.”  It was never addressed, confirming that our sheets were not being read.

Guest Teaching (Substituting) when my own children were younger was always an experience.  One day I was teaching in our son’s elementary classroom. You need to know that our home was “The Hangout.” I knew all of his friends…well! Well, his friends were acting like they were hanging out at our house, my son was trying so hard to behave that he ended up with a headache. From that point on, I would not teach in his classroom. He deserved the opportunity to be himself and not try to behave himself because I was in the room.

Another day, I substituted in a high school math class. Math is not my strong suite. One of the stocky football players came into the room.  He asked if I was my daughter’s mom.  I told him that I was. He told me that she told him to be nice to me or she would kick his butt.  Seriously?? She weighed all of 98 pounds, dripping wet! He said, “Yeah, but she’s scrappy!”

At the beginning of the school year, I started my preschool classes with a Pete the Cat theme.  For those of you who don’t know Pete the Cat books, there are many.  The first one applies to this story.  Pete is walking in his new, white, shoes and continuously steps in something (strawberries, blueberries, mud, water) changing the color of his shoes. It’s a great way to check for color recognition!  After reading the story, the class discussed what other things Pete might step in and what color his shoes would turn. Next I gave each student an outline of a shoe and asked them to color it and then tell me what they stepped in. One of my friends decided to color her shoe multiple colors. When I asked her what she stepped in, she proudly announced, “A pile of rainbows!”  What an imagination!!

Tales From The Classroom: Part Five

 When I was teaching in Nickerson, KS, the teacher of the three-year olds and I got permission to do seasonal Family Engagement activities with our joined classes and their families.  It was so much fun to see the adults in our students’ lives interacting with them in fun, educational, engaging activities with their children.

After relocating to Topeka, I asked my new principal if I could continue that tradition, making it a monthly event.  News of this activity reached The Topeka Education Foundation. I was encouraged by one of the members to apply for their grant.  Filling out the documentation was grueling, but I was awarded a grant to offset my cost for supplies.  The following year I did not apply, in order to give others a chance to receive monetary donations from the foundation.  A member came to me that spring, asking if they could donate to this activity anyway.

The following year, I filled out the documentation once again.  Again, I was awarded the grant!

One year, a few of the Topeka Education Foundation even came to help out with Fun Family Friday!

While having Fun Family Friday took a lot of planning and energy, it was completely worth it!  Having families of my students in the class was nothing short of amazing! The adults in the lives of my students were able to get to know one another and family members got a glimpse of life in the classroom. Most definitely a win-win experience!

Tales From the Classroom: Part Four

 One year, the superintendent’s daughter was in my kindergarten class. Talk about pressure!! As with every class, I had shared personal things as they came up in class. For example, I told the class that I had grown up on a farm.

Fall Parent-Teacher Conference time rolled around and it was time for “Tina’s” conference. He mom, our superintendent came in. To say I was nervous would be an understatement. I was wondering what kinds of questions she would have about how I teach the curriculum and what my philosophy on disciple was.  I should not have been worried. She came in, all professional-looking and intimidating as hell! She sat down in the little kindergarten chair and said, “Before we talk about my daughter, I just have one question: were you really born in a barn?” “Tina had taken me saying, “I grew up on a farm,” as “I was born in a barn.” We had a good laugh over it and her conference continued without a hitch!

Same classroom: “Jerry” was prone to breakdowns if he felt embarrassed or frustrated.  He wasn’t very good at controlling his emotions. One day, he was frustrated with adding numbers. He literally melted out of his chair and started flopping around on the floor. In one of my less professional moments, I said, “Jerry!  Stop flopping around like a fish out of water!”  My little friend, “Tina” (the superintendent’s daughter, started cracking up!  I thought, “Oh, great! She’s going to go home and tell her mom I called a student a fish out of water!”  I apologized to “Jerry” and the class, telling them I shouldn’t have said that. “Tina” said, “But Mrs. Jenkins! It’s true! I go fishing with my grandpa all the time and that’s exactly what they look like!”  Oh, boy!!

And then there was “Lee.”  “Lee’s” dad was a high school teacher at a local Christian school. His mom was a secretary there. His older sister attended the Christian school.  “Lee,” however, could not. He had been in preschool there and had a behavior problem. The head of the school told the family that he was not welcome to attend kindergarten there. And boy, was he!

After the school year was underway, we had a meeting with the family. In attendance were both parents, the principal, the guidance counselor, an interventionist, and myself.  We asked Dad what happened when “Lee” misbehaved in preschool.  Get this: He told us they would call him, he would take “Lee” to the wresting room, and spank him.  Say what??  We told him that this is public school and we wouldn’t be doing that.

I mean, here’s a kid, whose entire family is going to a school that he’s not allowed to go to, his therapist is out on maternity leave, and his meds hadn’t been refilled because he wasn’t going to therapy. All the odds were against him!  

The principal (she’s no longer a principal) told me to stand him outside the classroom when he was disruptive. He was a runner and the school was just a block off Main Street. I said I wasn’t comfortable with that. Then she told me to give him a desk by himself with tape around it and he could move all he wanted within that area. He would be defiant and step outside those boundaries all the time. He would crawl on countertops and rip things off the wall and growl.

His family got him back into therapy. He would have breakfast in my classroom. We discovered that he loved Legos. If he had a good morning, he could have lunch with the counselor and play with Legos in her office. He had someone come and spend the afternoon with him from The Guidance Center.

At the end of kindergarten, the family decided to move out of state to be closer to family.  They came back to visit.  Who did “Lee” want to see?  Me!!  He told me, on that visit, “Mrs. Jenkins. You loved me when I didn’t deserve it.”  That’s why we do this, friends! To make a difference!