The rewards

It is no secret, that anyone who decides to teach is not in the profession for the pay. For teacher, the rewards are not monetary, but still they are heavy in worth.

This semester has been trying for me. After spending 500+ hours gaining experience in the classroom, I have confidence in my ability and my knowledge to teach. At times during this semester, I step back and have to laugh that I am full time teaching, including all of the responsibilities but instead of getting paid for my hard work, I am paying to do it all. Paying for the late nights spent planning, paying for the late evenings preparing materials and the classroom. I found myself getting caught up in the notion that "I'm doing this for free as part of my education, even though I feel like I'm ready to do it 'for real'".

Tonight, at parent teacher conferences, I realized I'm not doing this for free. I'm still getting the rewards of teaching, and that is worth all the late nights, all the stress of juggling school, full time teaching, and a part time job. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if I've done enough? Do I deserve it all?

Earlier this week, out of no where a little girl pipes up with, "I love you Miss Emily." Every single day, I get more hugs than I can count. Every afternoon, someone has written me a piece of mail and placed it in the mailbox for me to find. Last week, I had two parents thank me for something I had done for their child.
A child who at the beginning of the school year, couldn't get through a single day of school to the point where he would sleep it away and who wouldn't talk to anyone, wouldn't play, would do nothing ... well, today he went to a workstation, did the work, and lined up IN LINE AMONG HIS PEERS.

Another student, who at the beginning of the year, could not listen, could not share, and struggled with learning and engaging in the routine - became engaged in the workstation, was determined in his play, ENCOURAGED HIS PEERS TO MAKE A PLAN, sat a circle like a perfect student, and SHARED THE BALLS with others. Being able to reflect on his accomplishments and his growth with his mother at parent teacher conferences really hit home for me. It was the eye-opener, the refresher I needed - the reminder of why I do, what I do. Seeing his mom bask in his accomplishments, become emotional when talking of his growth, and share the wonderful things she's been seeing, was worth more than any pay check - especially when knowing I shared a part in all of this.

To many, these occurrences I write of, may sound petty - some may laugh and say, "so what if the kid lined up", "so what if the kid shared the ball" ... and to them, I would say - you just don't understand. You don't understand the hard work and the deliberate and purposeful planning and conversations that have occurred about and around the students to get them to that point.  You don't understand what these children are coming from and you surely don't understand how large of an accomplishment these "petty things" are, and you certainly don't understand that that one child lining up among his peers deserved a celebration today. Because, you simply don't understand these children like I do.

Reflecting on the accomplishments on the growth of the children over the course of these two months is amazing. I can only imagine where they will be at the end of this semester, let alone the end of the year. I don't know what it was about this week - but I saw so much growth that has rekindled my fire - my need to continue to grow myself in order to continue to challenge and better these students, every single one of them. It was as if this week was a sign - coming to me, when I needed it and serving as a reminder of what really matters, the students.

I'm still in awe of the week that we had. The minor daily occurrences that were HUGE ACCOMPLISHMENTS for individuals - the satisfactions of knowing that what we are doing, IS working. You just can't get any better than that.

Week 3 Full Time Reflection

This week was a week of adjustments and a week of firsts.

It began by having an ISE day. This was the first time I have been included in a ISE day. My assumptions was always it was a day for teachers to work in their rooms and attend small professional development activities and/or meetings. Boy, was I wrong.

At least for this particular ISE day, we had NO time to work in our classrooms. We spent the first half of the day, recognizing our partners in education and cleaning out the stage in the school - as required of every teacher. The second half was filled with a Choosy Kids follow-up seminar to our grant responsibilities. By the end of the day, I was exhausted and hadn't completed the items that I had hoped or planned to do. My expectations sure did receive a reality check!

Second up that week, was a field trip. While I had attended field trips in the past, I had never been the "responsible/acting" teacher at the time. I was truly amazed at all the precautions that most be completed before attending. Such as, meeting with the nurse to gather all medications, epi pens, inhalers, etc. that needs to be available in case of an emergency. And, with little ones, the importance of getting everyone to the bathroom before boarding the bus - which takes TIME.

I feel I was successful in getting the students prepared for the field trip, even if I did wait a little too long to begin bathroom trips. We went over expectations - both of their behavior and in what they should expect while on the field trip. To help with behavioral issues I strategically paired up the students with a student that would be "best" for them in keeping behavior in check. For one of the more "rowdy" boys, I deliberatly paired myself with him. Held his hand while boardin the bus, sat by him on the bus, and near him during the play. I truly feel that the field trip was a great time for the students, and a nice change of pace to help reinforce fire safety.

Even though, I had to go home sick on Wednesday, I feel I had a wonderful and successful circle time. In the morning, I had students make a guess as to how many marbles were in the jar. There were 14. I had guesses from 5-100. At circle, we counted them all together and found there were 14. I then had them count 14 other balls with me, and we compared what those 14 balls looked like in relation to the marbles. They all agreed that it looked like there were more other balls than marbles becuase they were bigger. Some of the students still had the misconception that there were more balls than marbles because of their size. To help bridge this gap, I then passed out the marbles to 14 students and then handed them each a ball from the other bin to physicall prove there were the same amount.  During choice time, I also found a great opportunity to extend a student's play. This student was "baking a cake" in the sand area. I turned this into a shared writing experience by having this student dictate what they were adding into their cake mix and writing it down.

On Thursday, I felt I made another successful adjustment during circle time. I saw students were become antsy towards the end, and we still had a couple more minutes until we could get ready for gym. I had planned to read the story, Bounce. I continued with my plan of reading the story, but I had them stand up and act out the story as I read (bouncing along like the characters). Integrating movement kept the students engaged and helped control their antsy behavior.
I was also quick thinking and began using the term, Inside Muscles. Students have a clear grasp on inside voices and respond well with those reminders when playing inside. We have a few students who struggle to play nicely and not as rough while inside, so we had a discussion on inside muslces. The secret sender included the term in the morning letter and then the students had to explain what they thought it meant and how they could use it.

On Thursday, during choice time, I was observed by my coordinator. The feedback was all positive and noted my abilities to redirect and provide ideas for behavior at the dramatic play area. She noted my strength in modeling behavior, asking questions, revisiting children and their work, providing praise, and integrating interests (puppets) into the transitions and behavioral reminders.

Overall, there were many adjustments that needed to be made this week. The schedule was different because of the ISE day on Monday, Field Trip on Tuesday, and then I went home sick on Wednesday and then on Thursday, had to enter in check points with my teacher in the afternoon. From all of these adjustments, I found that I am flexible and I found the benefit in having detailed lesson plans. As my teacher was able to resume responsibilty from my lesson plans on Wednesday and Thursday the substitute was able to use my plans as well.

Looking ahead into next week, I have a few questions.
I am unsure how to balance imaginative play with teacher directed play. Some students when left to their imagination it turns into a behavioral problem, too rough, using weapons, etc.

How do you moderate and extend play for those at a lower level? This goes in with the question above, some of those students struggle with taking teacher input for extending purposes.

Week 2 Full Time Reflection

With each passing week, I am learning and understanding the responsibilities and duties teacher have, it is imperative that lesson plans are thoughtful, purposeful, and meaningful, as it can make the world of difference.

This week, I found that integrating "two themes" was very difficult. We had to hit on fire safety as we are going on a fire safety field trip next week, but yet, I had planned to begin my action research and the exploration phase of our ball study. I realize now, I should have postponed the action research and ball study and focuses solely on the fire safety, as it would have been more meaningful for the students.

The main lesson learned this week:
Less is more.

So far, it appears the students are very interested in the ball study. I am so excited to continue on with more exploration next week and then getting into more focused discoveries around balls. I found students writing on their play plans that they wanted to visit the ball collection. I also found the ball collection helping students behavior. As some of the boys who struggle with staying on task, not being rowdy, etc. are so interested in the ball study that they will stay in that area during choice. It even leads to more focused learning for them, as they were eager to classify the balls, asked to write and act out a play around balls, and use them outside.

Overall, integrating the balls into the classroom has helped teach sharing and turn-taking, as students are engaged in throwing games (action research) in which they must take turns. This benefit is huge - as a main goal of preschool is socialization and social skills!

The addition of picture word cards to the mail center has been wonderful. Everyday the mailbox continues to be full of letters written by the students to their parents, teachers and other students. 

I also found that the students enjoy class projects, such as building the 3-D house for the fire poster competition. They were all so eager and wanting to help add to the house. I hope to incorporate more group projects like this in the future.  The students also LOVED the book "Stop that Ball". It was a book that my mentor teacher picked up the night before I began the unit. I did not have time to look it over before hand and I wished I would have, as I realized after reading it there were so many extension activities that could have been done - such as having them act it out in the dramatic play area, or extending the story by creating a picture with a little red  pom pom ball. I also realized through reading this book the available and new vocabulary words that were picked up by the students.

As a result, next week, I will be encouraging students to take the book with them to the dramatic play area to act it out with a red ball. I also will be beginning a word wall that is located in the writing center that will display new words learned with the picture and word so students can include them in their letters.

Overall, I feel good about this week. As mentioned above there are a few areas in which I could have improved, but I am looking forward to moving into next week. 

Questions to look into from this week:
How can you help facilitate instead of leading play writing?
What can be done for students who struggle with self-regulation and listening?

Week 1: Full Time Reflection

I was pleasantly surprised with how well the first week of full time teaching went. I found that with careful and thorough planning the days go by smoothly, except for the unexpected bumps that are sure to happen in any classroom ... which only strengthens the need for teachers to always be flexible.

 

You can read the lessons written for this week here.  

Looking back at this week, the goal was for students to investigate the changing of the seasons and specifically the changes that come with Fall. My hopes were through scientific investigation and research (looking at trees outside, having a leaf collection, and reading nonfiction literature) the students would recognize that leaves in particular, go through many changes in the Fall. As a class, we kept a KWL chart that we added to throughout the week. During the week, I overheard students saying "Look Miss Emily, this is a red leaf" or "This leaf is green and red!" I was impressed with the students ability to become scientists at my workstation and use the binoculars and magnifying glasses outside to look at leaves and then provide observations to be recorded.

I was suprised that by the end of the week, our "learned" portion was lacking on our KWL chart. Even after prompting and modeling, the students will still not providing me with anything they had learned. On a whim, I decided students could act out the cycle of leaves - I mainly decided for them to do this to get moving, as they were struggling to sit still. I found that having them "pretend you are a leaf on a summer, warm day" was effective for hearing what they had learned this week. With each prompt "pretend you are a leaf a summer, warm day, I provided a follow up question, What color would you be?"  ... I almost fell over when I heard students say GREEN, because we are eating! I quickly followed up with it's almost winter, temperatures are getting colder, pretend you are a leaf on a really windy day .. What color are you? What are you doing" and students replied with red and brown, and we are about to die and be blown off the tree!

Having the students act out the leaves, not only got them active, but proved to me that they had in fact learned the main objectives this week. Even if they weren't able to tell me in a group setting, they were able to show me and explain the knowledge! It was truly one of the most rewarding experiences of my career thus far.

For this week, I tested out new circle time seating arranagements to separate some boys that had been getting too distracted. I found the new seating arrangment is working much better, but will continue to monitor and make adjustments as needed.

To encourage positive behavior, I introduced a mail box at the writing station, in which a "secret sender" wrote letters to the entire class, and in which I wrote "thank you letters" to specific students that were caught being good throughout the day. The mail box was introduced to the students and they were encouraged to write letters to be "mailed" as well. I was shocked at the amount of letters that had to be "mailed" on Monday afternoon. The students really responded well to the mailbox and I found that it encouraged students to visit the writing station, even students who had never once visited it before! In fact, on Tuesday, we had an overwhelming amount of students write on their play plans that they wanted to write letters!
I found the students also enjoyed the leaf song that was done on Monday. I had other planned for the other days, but since they responded so positively to the one done on Monday, we did it everyday of the week instead of learning new ones!

Adjustments were made for individuals throughout the week as detailed on the lesson plans. During the week my teacher and I also made two more major adjustments to meet student needs. The first being for some boys that liked to get to rough and rowdy in the classroom. We directed their behavior instead to the dramatic play area, in which we helped them plan out a play, select a role, and act out for the audience. The second major adjustment that helped with the boys' behavior and the general atmosphere of the classroom was rearranging the furniture in the room to make the block area larger and not as crowded.

Having a "stock pile" of leaves really helped the lessons go smoothly, as I found that on two of the days we went outside to be "scientisits" someone had raked up all the leaves that morning! It it also helpful to have individualization already planned into the lesson, so when it comes time for that activity, you have an action plan developed to help those struggling students along and to challenge the students who need it. For example, the leaf letter hunt was very successful, but it was found that it was easier for the struggling students to have a "smaller" piles of leaves to sort through.

I recieved positive feedback from both parents and my teachers. During an observation by my coordinator, she pointed out the ability I had to take an "aha moment" of one student and apply to the rest. For example, while being a scientist, one student said her leaf didn't have a stem. I took that exclamation and was able to focus on a vocabulary teachable moment! Parents have mentioned that their students are coming home and talking about letter writing, and writing the letter to the principal and how she came to lunch and how they received their thank you notes, etc. The parents also appreciated knowing what was coming up for the following week - hard work and planning does pay off!

My teachers and observations were very positive, stating that all activities were developementally appropriate and engaging. The students responded well to each activity! Some of my personal weaknesses this week included handling "troublesome" students during circle time. I was unsure how to take care of behavioral issues while attending to the entire group and moving on?

Looking ahead into next week, I want to continue to work on my circle time flexibility - being able to adjust as to students' needs and handling behavioral issues. I want to work on making picture word cards to be added to the writing center that students can reference when writing letters, hoping it will help independency and encourage more students. I also want to research more play ideas to provide students with play scripts that would be able to act out and lead independently.

 

Puppets

Last year, in the creative expression and movement course, we learned some methods, advantages, and uses for puppets in the classroom. Growing up, I was never big into puppets and I had never developed an appreciation for puppets, so during that segment of the course, I kind of brushed it off, thinking I'll never use this ... oh how wrong I was.

Before school even began, I was introduced to puppets again through my mentor teacher using them on the home visits. I found that she was able to incorporate a story to teach the child some "rules" of the classroom and to ease their fears even before the school year began. The first few weeks of school, she was using puppets everyday at circle to help teach the classroom rules, to reinforce good manners, and to tell stories to help develop social skills.

I was honestly amazed at the students' responses to the puppets. Not only were they captivated during the stories told by the puppets, but they would request for the puppets to make more appearances.

My teacher regularly uses, Mano and Bano and Naughty Nimbo to help reinforce the classroom rules, good manners, and good behavior. And also Precious Pat and Spot to help teach social skills, and self confidence/diversity.

This past week, the students were able to make their own sock puppet which even included a birth certificate for their puppet. On the last day, the students were able to use their puppets at circle to practice appropriate social skills. It is so interesting how the using the puppets can be such an effective method to teach students social skills that could be used throughout their day to help negiotate and solve conflicts.

I became so intrigued that I made my own sock puppet, Mr. Forgetful, that I use during circle time and transitions. The students have responded positively to Mr. Forgetful, enjoying that he forgot to have two eyes, forgot to brush his teeth which resulted in yellow teeth, forgot to comb his hair, and forgot to wear his pants! Mr. Forgetful is used to help reinforce the rules and good circle time behavior, as he forgot the rules and the students have to remind him. He is also used for transitions in a variety of ways. He forgot student name's but he knew the beginning sound, so when he said the beginning sound, they were able to go line up. Or, he forgot the student's name, but knew rhyming words, etc.

I have found that using Mr. Forgetful, gets the student's attention and they enjoy the activities, often smiling and laughing at things Mr. Forgetful says and does. Using puppets has also been beneficial to address certain problems in the classroom, such as running inside, cutting line, and not playing nicely with others. Being able to address these problems, through a story and scenario with the problems is an effective method, as it provides the students with ideas and knowledge of how to handle the situation in the future, provides a discussion starter, and allows the problem to be addressed in a positive manner that is not degrading any particular students.

Within a few short weeks, my outlook and knowledge on puppets has changed drasatically. I used to never give puppets a second look or even consider making or buying one. And now, I cannot get enough. I am so excited to continue to expand my usage of puppets in the classroom.

Scientific Method

These first weeks in pre-k have proven the need for observations, reflection, research, and planning. All the essence of action research and teacher as a researcher. As I have reflected on my observations and strategies implemented in the classroom, I feel as if I have become engrained in a "teacher" scientific method.

For example ...

First step: Observation
Through these first few weeks, I have gained valuable observations on individuals, classroom management, classroom set-up, schedule, and the class as a whole. Some of the observations I have made include:
A: I have observed students who are upset throughout the day, missing home and who struggle to do as told at times
B: I have observed one student who struggles more than most to follow the nap time procedure
C: Other students who at times are seen being too physical or rough in the classroom
D: Some students who have issues taking turns, sharing, and playing with others

Second step: Research
As I observed these things happening, I began to wonder what I could do to help some of these issues. I began talking with my mentor teacher about the issues, researching online and reading texts to gain some strategy ideas and then shared the ideas with my teacher.
A: When talking with my teacher, she shared that in her experiences she has found providing comfort to those students who are upset works best, after some comforting then try to divert their attention to something that interests them. For the students who struggle with doing as told, she mentioned trying to give them choices, to keep the "consequence" postitive, rather than being negative and forcing them to do as told.
B: While talking with my teacher, we both agreed that the student who struggled with following nap time procedures may be struggling to understand what we were asking. My teacher mentioned a strategy that is used with austic children at times - showing them pictures of what is asked. We discussed how this student may struggle following/learning merely auditory and may benefit from visual cues. From class and research, I have found another strategy to ensure understanding is to have the child repeat the directions that had been given.
C: From my classes and additional research, I have read that incorporating movement throughout the day can help children's attention focus, and energy levels.
D: With talking with early childhood specialists and professionals, a strategy they have found to be effective, is putting students who struggle taking turns and sharing in groups with students who excel as they can serve as postive models and having these students play a board game or other game that requires them to take turns and work together


Third step: Test
As I shared some ideas and talked with my mentor teacher, we were able to try out some of our strategies to see if it would help some of the issues that were arising
A: For one child who would become extremely upset throughout the day missing her parents, we found engaging her in an activity that divereted her attention to her interest would work like magic. When the teacher would engage this child in a conversation or activity about her dog, the child would almost immediately stop crying and be able to calm down, providing this child and the other children who struggle to do as told with choices has also been successful
B: For the student who struggled to follow nap time rules, we first implemented a three strike rule, that for each warning/reminder he was given, he received a strike on the paper that was beside his mat. When he got three strikes he was given a light change (yellow or red). Before a strike was given, he is asked what the nap time procedures, where should your head be, what should you be doing, etc. to make sure he still understands and remembers what he needs to be doing
C: We are trying incorporating more vigorous morning songs in morning circle and throughout the day as a preventive measure
D: We are trying to incorporate more board games into small groups for the students who need to practice engaging in play with others and in turn taking
Fourth step: Reflect & Revise
A critical piece in trying new methods and strategies is reflecing on their effectiveness and revising if it was not effective. It is crucial that is reflection piece does not happen only one time, but continuously.
A: So far, the strategy of diverting the attention away from crying and missing the parents and onto her interests areas really seems to be helping, at the time it does not and has not been revised, but is continously monitored. We are also keeping track of interests topics and areas for this child to use when needed
B: At first, we were given this student three strikes, but after more discussion, we realized that was giving a negative connotation to the child. We have already revised this to the child having a sheet with three smilies on it and then when a warning is given a smilie is taken away, but still left with two, etc. Upon implementing this, in two days, the child's nap time behavior has greatly improved.
C: Using movement songs in the morning and throughout the day has seemed to help as there have not been as many incidences with being too physical. We have also found that turning on a movement song when a physical behavior is seen not only helps with diverting their attention away from the behavior and into the song, but in helping them "get it out of their system"
D: We are going to focus on this strategy in the next two upcoming weeks. We are also trying next week, purposefuly placing not enough materials at the workstation, to encourage sharing and asking to borrow, etc.

Fifth step: Share
As ideas and strategies become fine-tuned and successful, it is imperative to share out to others, as some of the best ideas are a result of collaboration.

The scientific method, is a reoccuring, never ending cycle. Just like the scientific method, this "teacher" version that I am currently seeing and using in my class is an on-going process. In the upcoming weeks, I will be examining the effectiveness of these strategies mentioned above and continue reseraching and revising. As well observing the overall classroom and beginning and continuing the process with new issues as they arise.

... Just add go ahead and add "scientist" to the on-going list for the teacher job description.

Adjusting

The first two weeks of pre-school are all about adjusting. The students have to adjust to school and the parents have to adjust also. The first two phase in days were hard. Hard for myself, hard on the teachers, hard on the children and hard on the parents.

The first day there were some parents who stuck around, some may have because they wanted an opportunity to see their children interact in the setting and some may have because they were reluctant to leave without heir little one by their side. Surprisingly there were no tears on the first day from the students. That was until nap time, but even then all it took was some back rubbing and comforting and all was well again. This first day was a piece of cake, a piece of heaven, or maybe a dream. It was as if the students had been in the classroom for months, not days. By the afternoon, the students knew the routine, the procedures, and were following all the rules. With such a smooth first day, I knew our luck was sure to run out the next day.

As soon as students began filing in on the second day, I could tell we were in for a toughie. There were students who were glued to their parents' hips, with the look of defeat and terror spread across their face. There were students walking into the classroom with tears already in their eyes and only a few students walking in with a smile on their face. The day was filled with lots of tears from many of the students and ended with myself in tears as I watched a terrified, screaming and crying student looking at me for help out of the window of the bus as it pulled away.

Reflecting on the first week of pre-school, I find I have spent the majority of the days adjusting. Adjusting my expectations, adjusting the schedule, adjusting the classroom, and adjusting to the students. Coming from a third grade class this past spring, to a class of three and four year olds this fall was not the easiest transition. I forgot what it was like to explain directions to a four year old, I forgot how hard it is to get a three year old to understand a routine, I was not expecting the high level of difficulty for getting students to warm up to me or the classroom, and I was not ready to spend nap time rocking students to sleep, or passing out hugs and wiping tears of those who miss their mommies. By the end of the week, I feel I have done well in making those needed adjustments and in expecting the unexpected. At any given moment, I'm ready to pass out a hug and snatch a tissue to wipe a tear before it has fallen. I find myself at all times of the day, outside of the classroom, speaking in simple phrases and sentences and my imagination has been lit again.

Beginning the second week of Pre-K, I was slightly apprehensive and afraid that it would start the entire process of adjusting over again. Seeing how the students had three days of school, followed by a four-day weekend. I was pleasantly surprised that on Tuesday, many of the students still remembered the routine and were able to complete the morning tasks independently.

I feel that the students have done a better job at adjusting to school than I have in adjusting to being in a pre-k classroom. Coming from a third grade classroom last semester, it has taken come time to get back into the groove of handling the emotions and needs of a class of three and four, and now some five year olds. I found that I was a little rusty on the interactions and engagements that take place in some of the interest areas, specifically blocks and science. I was able to spend some time researching and reading up on those interest areas to gain some ideas and tips for extending the child's play, which I will dedicate another blog entry to writing about. I also find that behavior management, i.e "discipline" in older grades and "positive behavior support" in early childhood is something that I am still working on adjusting too. With talks with my mentor teacher and the paraprofessional in my room, I am continusouly learning new strategies and phrases to use to help my behavior management techniques and it is something I want to continue to research and read about as well.

Reflecting over the course of the first weeks of school, I have found that there are continously new ideas, questions, and strategies that I want to read about, learn about, and try out. I often find myself wishing I had more time in the day to read about early childhood, so that I can be (as corny as this is) "the best I can be" for the students. I have already developed a strong sense of care and love for my students and I want this semester to be as successful for them and for myself as possible. Some areas that I would like to read about, improve, and develop further include:

- Nap time: strategies for the restless students and for those who get upset
- Positive Motivational Strategies: To encourage over-all class behavior, we have a "light and smilie" system for individual behavior, but at times I wonder is that enough - especially when students do get a red light and continue to act out, what happens next?

- Criers: What strategies can be used for those students who become very upset? How do you comfort them but express "enough is enough" and keep it from being a distraction for others?


Ending out the first two weeks, I strongly believe the studetns, teachers, and the parents deserve a pat on the back for the job well done of adjusting. It is not an easy feat to face, much less accomplish. And after these first two weeks, I am proud of us all for adjusting so quickly, easily, and smoothly into the life inside pre-school. And, at the rate it's going, before too long, I will be adjusting to living life as a four year in a twenty-two year old body.