first day

My students started today.  I feel like I have been waiting a while for them to come.  Despite the fact that it is my fourth year in my current classroom and my 6th year of teaching full time, I was still feeling the first day jitters.  Do they ever go away?

Many parents were eager to get their children into school earlier than school officially starts.  I understand that the first day of school is a big deal but I feel that if I let parents drop off students before school now, then I am setting a tone for the rest of the year.  I value and desperately need my time in the classroom in the morning at the start of the day.  Since my kids are in the classroom most of the day everyday, the time I get there before school starts is truly my time to get things done.  Some see it as me being rigid and that may be true, but I see it as setting boundaries.

Another parent told me how her kid doesn't need to be in the classroom because she is advanced.  She already knows everything.  And she is very concerned about her daughter regressing.  I assured her that regression is not our goal for anyone, including her sweet child.

One parent asked for my cell phone, fax, and zip code.  

I have mostly boys this year.  I am starting the year with a full house, which, hopefully, means that there will be less transitions and new arrivals as the year progresses.  The specialist schedule sucks and is at a different time every day.  This makes it difficult for the students to learn a routine and challenges my planning abilities.  I have explained to the principal several times about the importance of consistency and routines in early childhood and special education but it seems to be to no avail.  I have offered to sit with some other teachers who have similar concerns and rework the schedule FOR him.  I have suggested simple switches.  I have communicated my concerns many  times over only to be sadly ignored.

Each teacher was given one single package of paper.  The rest of the paper and supplies are "coming"... some time.  

While I am excited to learn about the children and develop our classroom community,  I am wary of the many challenges that exist.  The job is challenging enough of and in itself without adding additional challenges to it.  

Off to catch a little rest and relaxation before bed time.

Trepidation about the school year

Today was not a good day.  I arrived at school all eager and ready to work for several hours, only to find out that the custodian was painting the hallway outside my room and I could not get in to actually work.  The principal then recommend that I not come in tomorrow either because of the paint fumes.  He mumbled something about needing 72 hours for the fumes to dissipate.  So I can't help but wonder why not paint the basement after summer school ends or on the Friday  afternoon of a long weekend (instead of on a Thursday).  Not being able to work in increments leaves me feeling anxious, unsettled, and semi-unproductive.

I went to the office to see if I could get a class list with addresses.  I introduced myself to the new secretary.  I never start the year with a full list and it seems like I will be doing just that this year.  I have 15 students, 9 of whom have a disability and 6 who are "typically" developing.  My ratio is supposed to be 7 and 8, with the idea that the kids who are typically developing serve as models for the other students.  It is hard for the students with disabilities to find models if there are fewer "typically" developing students in the classroom with them and that partially defeats the point of the program.  Of those 15 students, 12 are boys. There are 21 students currently enrolled in Pre-K and I have 15 of them?  That means that between my two other grade level colleagues, they have 6.  Something is not right about that math to me. 

When I looked through the master list, I noticed that one of my former students who was discharged from special education at the end of last year was placed in a substantially separate classroom.  A similar thing happened last year and it was a huge fiasco at the beginning of the school year. I wrote to the principal when I got home to explain the situation and hopefully avoid a similar conflict. 

All of this is tiring and frustrating.  It makes me nervous for the start of the year.  My goal was to work in that building for five years but days like this make me question the validity of my goal.

Hoping it gets better and goes smoother from here on out.

Back to school thoughts

I have recently realized that many people have already started school.  We haven't yet, which is why there has not been too many posts here.  

Earlier this week, I spent two straight days with Nicole, one of my best friends.  She teaches in a nearby district and recently had knee surgery.  She was nervous about moving the rearranging the furniture in her classroom with the knee being not quite healed.  I have known her since college, shared many teaching experiences with her, and was eager to help.  She has helped me set up my classroom several times over and it was high time I repaid the favor.  

So, on Monday I met her at her house and we went over to her school.  Of course the doors are locked and there are still ongoing miscellaneous construction projects in and around the school so we have to use the back entrance and wind our way through the maze of a basement.  We get to her room and I am ready to work.  She was overwhelmed so I toned it down a bit.  Then it was on, we were moving and rearranging desks, removing chairs that were too small for her students,  trading out one book shelf for another and unpacking boxes.  I marveled at how much we got done and how well we worked together.  

Then it was off to my school.  It was my first time back since I left in June.  And it was my turn to be completely overwhelmed.  I took a few deep breaths and tried to quiet the voice of the frantically crying teacher inside of my head.  We started moving furniture and had a good portion of the center areas set up when the custodian came in and stated that he was not finished with my floor.  I explained that I could leave and that prior to coming, I had called the principal, who assured me that all the floors were done last week.  I was frustrated and he went around the hallway having a grown up temper tantrum.  I offered to leave but he said not to bother so we kept working.  We worked for just over an hour and I was thrilled with how much progress we made.  It is so much easier to do certain things when two people are working together on it.

Also, we have known each other for a long time and so certain things just didn't need to be explained to the other.  I could make a gesture or she could say some vague phrase about how she wanted to arrange the furniture and we were on the same wave length.  On Tuesday we started out at my school and then went to hers.  We were just as productive.  I share these thoughts here because I just love her, she is fabulous and, more importantly it is rare when you find someone who gets you personally and professionally.  When we go to each others' classrooms, we know what is important to the other and throughout the year we have that visual in our minds when we share our stories.  

All of these positive experiences made me think yet again about co-teaching.  When I was in graduate school, I student taught in a classroom with co-teachers and a classroom assistant.  It was a fantastic classroom with high outcomes for all of their students and the model has inspired a deep interest in co-teaching within me.  My teaching assistant is a teaching assistant, and although she is fabulous, she is not interested in all of the teacher responsibilities like planning curriculum, collecting data, and conducting assessments.  If the opportunity presented it self to co-teach with Nicole, I would certainly take it in a heartbeat and I really don't think it would compromise our friendship.  Maybe my next job will involve some co-teaching with another teacher, just to see what that is like.

Making it count

Today I had the opportunity to attend a professional development day for early childhood educators in my district on the math curriculum that they are rolling out. Just in case anyone in the blogosphere is wondering, I have been teaching math to my students. Math that has been based on the state wide early childhood learning standards, that is developmentally appropriate for my students, challenging enough for those who need a challenge and taught as part of an integrated curriculum.

I was not engaged with the training. None of the ideas seemed new to me. The activities that we had to role play in our workshop were variations of activities I had done in the past. I tried to focus but I kept overhearing bits and pieces of the room next door. I daydreamed about the beach. I listened carefully for new, inspiring nuggets of information. A phrase from that instructor or a question from a colleague that would set off a firestorm of ideas. No such luck.

I think many of my colleagues were similarly disengaged. People were knitting. A few were texting. Many were talking quietly amongst themselves. Some were staring at the ceiling. Part of the time was devoted to clarifying some department specific logistics. Part of the time was spent on an extra long lunch. Part of the time was spent pretending to be children and doing the math activities. Part of the time was spent eavesdropping on the other training. Part of the time was spent making materials that many of us already had made in past school years. The last part of time was spent waiting for the time to be over so we could collect our certificates. Waiting for the time to be over is the worse part.

There has to be a better way to provide professional development for teachers. I want to be engaged. I want to learn. I want my thinking to be challenged and I want to feel like the time I am putting into attending these trainings is valuable and relevant to my teaching. I don't want to attend what feels like a marketing presentation, and I don't want to spend time acting like a 4 year old.

What does effective professional development look like? How do you engage teachers effectively? What factors help teachers retain information and apply it in their classrooms? As a large urban school district, what is the best way for various administrators to communicate with a large group of teachers? How can basic information be shared without taking up time during professional development activities when half of the teachers can not or do not respond to email?

Maybe when I know the answers to some of these questions I will do one of two things: write about it here on this blog, or actually give professional development on how to give effective professional development.

What's in the bottom of your bag?

After lugging home most of a classroom in late June and stashing everything in a spare room, I was finally feeling adventurous enough to tackle this situation. Its that time of year when I want to organize everything. ( The problem is not that I CAN'T organize well, it's that I often cannot maintain it.) Usually by February or March, some of the neatness and organization slips a little.

So anyway, I pulled out my school bag, a milk crate, and one small box. Here are some of the interesting and non-relevant things I found:
1 roll of quarters
1 pair of winter gloves
1 winter scarf
100 photocopied outlines of small mittens
3 out of date school supply catalogs
2 quare inches of badly used sand paper
and a whole lot of dust

So I still have a lot of organizing left to do but I started.

Plus/Delta

On a recent organizing spree, I found a few notes i jotted down at the end of the year:

Pluses

• Working with Ms. S made the year better and more enjoyable. I felt more motivated and the work environment was better
• Most of the students made measurable progress on the PALS pre-K
• Many students scored above average on the end of year vocabulary assessment
• I collaborated more with the speech therapist and reading teacher than in years past
  
• Students developed good relationships with each other. They seemed to genuinely care about each other.
• Using the bucket concept to encourage positive behavior seemed to help them understand what was expected
• Very few behavior problems this year and I think that is related to several things: 1) a consistent schedule with my prep periods thanks to administrative support 2) a para who was better suited to the job and 3) and my own growth as a teacher and being more proactive earlier on

Ok so I did not think of all of these on the last days of school. Some of them have popped into my brain relatively recently.

Deltas:

• I need to give feedback to Ms. S so that some of the problems she encountered with students can be avoided ( although I am not sure of the best way to give her feedback or suggestions)
  
• I did not stick with the bucket system as well as I would have liked to
• I would like to work harder on potty training the students
• I would like to keep better track of the IEPs and possibly actually use the folder system that I started
• I would like to plan the filed trips with my grade level colleagues at the beginning of the year and then divide up the responsibilities so that I am not doing all of that work all of the time

I am sure I will think of more things later on this month as the start of school gets closer.

Doctorate in Special Education?

I always thought a doctorate in education seemed unnecessary without plans to teach at the college or university level. It certainly would not make me a better teacher in the classroom. Pursuing a doctorate degree needs to be for me, because I want to learn more, because some particular topic has peaked my interest and I need to know more about it. One day last week, Mr. K1 teacher sent email about a talk he had went to at his company. He thought about how that idea could be applied to special education students. I was pretty intrigued. Since then, I have thought about it more and tossed around the idea of a PhD so I could further investigate.

Then I thought of my dear friend Alexandra, who writes the Brainy and Beautiful blog and a recent conversation I had with her. She raised some good questions about higher education and insisted it wasn't the only way to learn something. She pointed out that following some predetermined curriculum didn't necessarily help a person to reach their goals. She questioned the necessity of higher education degrees. I suppose that I could read countless research papers on my interest area and just absorb knowledge. Which sounds doable now, that I am on summer break. Could I keep that up when school starts and responsibilities pick up? If I did a doctorate and did some successful research, would it even make a difference to real students?

I guess for now I will toss my idea around in my head a bit more. Stay tuned!