Sharing this from another site. Before students can learn, they need to know you care. Make the connection! There's an embedded video by the great Rita Pierson that is well worth viewing!
Here I sit, on a Sunday night, with my classroom not done, an incomplete class list, and no firm schedule. Staff meetings begin Thursday. Open House is the evening of the 17th. Kindergarteners start, full day, on the 18th.
That sounds like a lot, right? Here are the positives:
I was blessed to spend big chunks of time with family, renewing and strengthening our family bonds, including a total (here and there) of SIXTEEN days with our beautiful, spunky, hilarious granddaughter. HEAVEN!
I spent a couple of days sharing ideas with some younger, energetic, teachers, which doesn't look like a lot on paper. However, planning with peers is ALWAYS energizing!
This is the start of my fifth year in this school district, in the same building.
About once a week, out teacher Bible study met to share, encourage, support, and cheer each other on!
Even though our schedule has not yet been finalized, I have plans typed out on a Word document, so that once we get a schedule, I can just copy and paste into the correct cell of my spreadsheet. That being said, plans are finished through September.
This year, I decided that I was not going to spend full days getting my classroom ready for the beginning of the year. I have been going in for a couple of hours each morning, while it's still cool enough for the dogs to be outside. I thought ahead to copies I needed for Parent Folders at Open House and got them copied over the summer. I also had copies made of some of my favorite activities to use the first few days of school. I also got ALL of the copies of take-home letters copied for our phonics program. Whew! That's a lot I didn't need to worry about! I have friends who are spending quite a bit of time at school. Sometime, I think to myself, "What am I missing?" Then I remind myself of the pre-planning I did at the end of last school year.
I am reading THE MOST FABULOUS BOOK--EVER about teaching. It is by an author I became aware of through an online book study/devotions/Bible study last summer. It's called, Unshakable: 20 ways to enjoy teaching every day...no matter what, by Angela Watson. If you are a teacher, reading this blog post, I highly recommend it. I'm only on chapter 3 and am already finding things I can change, as well as things that validate my current practices!
Two words: Essential Oils! There is a blend called "Serenity" and another called "Balance." Those are my two go-tos. Also, lavender, which is calming. I may diffuse it in my classroom, depending on what allergies I may or may not have.
Speaking of my classroom, although our class lists are incomplete, pending the transfers, over half of my class are siblings of older students in the building!! I already have strong relationships with those families!! BONUS!
So, bring on those new kiddos! I am ready!! It's going to be a GREAT school year! :)
Every summer, since I began teaching, it feel like I have been
involved in some sort of professional development, whether it be
committee work, continuing education, or work on my master's degree.
This summer, for the first time that I can remember, I am taking the
summer off! Yes! You are reading correctly! Everything has been sent
in for my teaching license renewal, so I don't NEED any professional
development. This is why I've made the decision to fall back, renew,
and re-energize by spending time with family!
The first step
was this past weekend, when I made an impromptu visit to see our son who
is three hours away. It was heavenly! The time was short because he
was in a golf tournament. Some time is better than no time and I loved
seeing him. He is always so full of fun!!
This next weekend,
I will be traveling to TX to see our oldest daughter and her family. I
will be able to watch our amazing granddaughter play softball and then
spend the following week taking her to and from Bible School, something
that has become a tradition with us! <3
The weekend after
I am in TX, our daughter, who works for Habitat for Humanity, in GA, is
coming home because she wants "to spend he quarter-of-a-century
birthday with the people who gave her life!" How awesome is that?!?
I'm going to help her drive back and spend a few days with her after her
visit with us.
On July 5th, our beautiful granddaughter is
coming to spend a week with us! I will firm up those plans while I'm in
TX. :)
The one of the last two weekends in July, our son and his girlfriend are coming here for a visit!
The first weekend in August, my husband and I will celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary!
School resumes, for teachers, on August 12th.
The end of anything is always difficult. I've watched my kindergarten babies grow from all-about-me, shy, or scared children to kind, confident, compassionate little people. The transformation in many of them over the course of a school year is mind-boggling, even after 29 years in Early Childhood Education! Once again, my heart of full with the memories of 27 beautiful, unique children.
As I reflect back on my many years of teaching, I think about the lives that have touched me. Those beautiful young children who hung on my every word. So many little people that I carry with me wherever I go. I have decided that it it not I who deserve any appreciation, but the families who have shared their most precious gifts of all...their children, with me. For that I will always be grateful and appreciative.
The struggles, both my own and the children's. The laughs. The "a-ha" moments when the lightbulb comes on. These, I will carry with me. I thought I would add some highlights:
Principal: Do you know where (student) is? Me: Yes. He asked to go to the restroom. Principal: Go look (with a smile on her face). I go to the restroom and there is (student), singing at the top of his lungs, standing on the toilet, stirring the water with his belt.
This precious child, at the end of kindergarten: Student: I was kinda crazy when I first came here. Me: Yes. You were afraid and didn't understand how much fun kindergarten can be. Student: My mamma said she knew you could tame me!
The superintendent of school's daughter was in my class in one district. We were talking about communities and houses. I shared that I grew up on a farm. Her mother shared with me, at conferences, that her daughter told her I was born in a barn!
The angry, stubborn boy who would just flip out and the work we all did to help him. When our school closed and I was transferred to a different building in the district, he came to that building, too, because I was his "other mother." (He lived out-of-district at the time and his mother worked for the district). He and his family even came to see us after we moved away!
The scary, prison guard parent in a former district, who's actions led to stricter security guidelines for our building. YIKES!!
The Christmas cards I continue to get for the families of former students.
Dinner with former students, no going to college away from home, but close to me, when they are feeling homesick.
The little girl who threw her math workbook (yes, in kindergarten) across the room, stuck her tongue out at me, and stated, "I HATE math!" This same child, at the end of the year, was one of the best and brightest at math. When I reminded her of our first day with the workbooks, she said, "Yeah. About that. I don't know what I was thinking."
The countless sporting events and dance recitals.
All of the hugs from former students as they are walking down the hall.
The relationship with not just the students, but their families, as well!
So, as Teacher Appreciation Week approaches, I don't feel that it is I who should be appreciated. It is the students that I appreciate. For their years of laughter, sadness, support, stubbornness , and joy. This is why I became a teacher. This is what I live for...every day!
Sandwiched between preschool and first
grade, kindergarteners often start school at very different stages of
development depending on their exposure to preschool, home environments
and biology. For states adopting Common Core, the standards apply to
kindergarten, laying out what students should be able to do by the end
of the grade.* Kindergartners are expected to know basic phonics and
word recognition as well as read beginner texts, skills some childhood
development experts argue are developmentally inappropriate.
“There’s a wide age range for learning to read,” said Nancy Carlsson-Paige on KQED’s Forum program. Carlsson-Paige is professor emerita of education at Lesley University and co-author of the study “Reading Instruction in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and Much to Lose,” which criticizes the Common Core standards for kindergarten.
“Most five-year-old children are not really ready to learn to read,”
Carlsson-Paige said. “There are many experiences in the classroom that
are beneficial for building the foundation for learning to read that
will come later.” She favors a play-based classroom that gives students
hands-on experiences, helping them to develop the symbolic thinking
necessary to later recognize letters and numbers.
“Research shows on a national scale there’s less play and
experiential based curriculum happening over all, and much more didactic
instruction, even though we have research that shows long term there
are greater gains from play-based programs than academically focused
ones,” Carlsson-Paige said.
While Common Core aligned assessments don’t kick in until third
grade, many teachers feel pressure to make sure kids are meeting the
specified standards before they move on to first grade. That pressure
can mean more focus on academics, at the sacrifice of play time.
Kindergarten teachers try to interpret the standards and translate
them into developmentally appropriate activities. But they struggle when
kids still don’t meet Developmental Reading Assessment
benchmarks. “Teachers start to question themselves and waiver even
though they believe in doing what’s developmentally appropriate,” said
Colleen Rau, a reading intervention specialist at Aspire Berkley Maynard Academy. “So I think we really need to think about taking the pressure away and looking at student growth.”
Rau says under Common Core she’s seen positive shifts at her school
towards more thematic units and more hands-on learning, but she agrees
with Carlsson-Paige that pushing young children into skills they aren’t
developmentally ready for can have poor results. Students can develop
coping mechanisms that don’t serve them well later when they are
confronted with more advanced texts.
“The lightbulb goes on for students at different times,” Rau said,
“But if we make students feel pressure so that they shut down, then that
light bulb is not going to be as likely to come on and they aren’t
going to develop the confidence that they need to become successful
readers later.”
There are plenty of children who do learn to read in kindergarten or
even before, so for many parents the argument that young children aren’t
developmentally ready to read rings false. But not all learners are the
same, and what’s true for one child won’t necessarily be true for the
child sitting next to her. Young children learn differently from older
children, adolescents and adults, Carlsson-Paige said. Early childhood
educators have documented the progression of increasingly complex
symbolic thinking that leads to understanding letters make sounds and
sounds make words.
“If you present children with information that’s too disparate from
what they know then they give up or feel confused, or cry, or get turned
off,” Carlsson-Paige said. “Part of the art of teaching is to
understand where a child is in developing concepts and then be able to
present information in ways that are new and interesting, but will cause
a little bit of struggle on the part of the child to try to understand
them.” AN IMPLEMENTATION PROBLEM
Advocates for the kindergarten Common Core standards agree that
kindergarteners should not be sitting still all day doing reading
drills. But they are clear that the standards in no way require that
sort of teaching and were written with help and input from early
childhood educators around the country. They are meant to offer
challenging opportunities to advanced learners while supporting learners
who may be coming into kindergarten with very little literacy exposure.
“What we set out in the Common Core are those skills and concepts
that will help students learn to read in first and second grade,” said
Susan Pimentel, lead writer of the English Language Arts Common Core
standards. She says early childhood educators were adamant that the
language “with prompting and support” be used throughout the
kindergarten standards in recognition that young learners will be new to
school and won’t be left to answer dozens of questions on their own.
“So much of the concern is about the implementation,” Pimentel said.
And while she agrees that educators need to be vigilant about pointing
out poor implementation and working to fix it, the problem is not new.
Education standards have always been implemented in a variety of ways.
“What we’re talking about is teachers who have maybe not been trained
and some attention on that would be important,” she said.
Other advocates of the Common Core standards see them as an important
step towards education equity. “The strongest argument in favor of
reading by the end of kindergarten and Common Core’s vision for early
literacy is simply to ensure that children—especially the disadvantaged
among them—don’t get sucked into the vortex of academic distress
associated with early reading failure,” writes Robert Pondiscio, senior fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.
Many children start kindergarten able to identify short words or
aware of the difference between lowercase and uppercase letters, two of
the kindergarten standards. Pondiscio and others believe it is
completely appropriate to begin introducing these ideas in kindergarten,
albeit in fun play-based ways.
“If teachers are turning their kindergarten classrooms into joyless
grinding mills and claiming they are forced to do so under Common Core
(as the report’s authors allege), something has clearly gone wrong,”
Pondiscio writes. “Common Core demands no such thing, and research as
well as good sense supports exposing children to early reading concepts
through games and songs.”
Another literacy researcher says the critique that the standards are
developmentally inappropriate may be a misinterpretation of what the
standards require. For example, one standard says children should be
able to read emergent texts with purpose and understanding.
“The emergent-reader text is first modeled by the teacher for the
students, then joyfully read over and over with the students until
eventually the easy book is independently read by the students with
great joy and confidence,” writes J. Richard Gentry,
author of “Raising Confident Readers: How to Teach Your Child to Read
and Write — From Baby to Age 7,” and a former professor and elementary
school teacher. Gentry says this process emulates “lap reading” which
some children get with their parents at home and which helps students
gain confidence in their reading.
All of these educators agree that it can be difficult to teach the
kindergarten standards in developmentally appropriate ways when teachers
are worried about how kids will do on standardized tests. While
Carlsson-Paige and others believe the standards are inappropriate and
should be thrown out, Pondiscio, Gentry and Pimentel are among those who
believe the standards are important to make sure reading gaps don’t
start young. They favor the idea that implementation is the real problem
and that more energy should be put into helping early childhood
educators interpret the standards and integrate them into class in fun,
approachable and developmentally appropriate ways.
*An earlier version of this story suggested that Common Core was
the first time academic standards were set for kindergarteners. We
regret any confusion.
