Awesome post about reading

Many thanks to Sarah at Confessions of an Untenured Teacher for her awesome post today on reading, found here. There you will find a great video done by the students of Ocoee Middle School. I'm pretty sure that video would motivate many of my students and maybe some of their families to read.

If you are teacher, do you read more in the summer? Do you already have your reading list or are you more of a "go with the flow" person? I myself oscillate between having a fairly lengthy list and going with the moment. Sometimes, I want to read all the of the books on my list right away and at other times, something completely random catches my eye and I am engrossed in something that had nothing to do with my list.

I am currently reading two birth related books, one nonfiction and one novel. Next on my list is "Committed" Elizabeth Gilbert. How about you? What are you currently reading?

Debunking a few myths about early childhood education

Myth #1 The younger the children, the easier it is to teach them in a classroom setting

This is a widely held belief among teachers in my building who have never attempted to teach in an early childhood classroom. I think that every level has its own unique challenges. A good teacher will make it look easy to the casual observer, but that does not mean that he or she thinks it actually is.

I work hard every single day of every week for the entire school year. I was annoyed this past week when a current second grade teacher in my building announced that she would be teaching kindergarten for the last three years before her retirement because she wanted "it to be a little easier." I wish her all the luck in the world come September when she is trying to console 22 five and six year olds who are crying because they miss their mommies. I wish her even more luck when the differences in ability at the age become apparent. Some kids will be coming from a high quality pre-K classroom (like mine) and have all of these amazing academic readiness skills while others are coming from daycare settings and still others are coming away from their parents for the first time. I wonder if in December if she will still think its easy.

Myth #2 All you do is play all day anyways

I think this contributes to myth one above. Yes a good early childhood classroom offers students opportunities to learn through play as that is how young children learn best. That does not mean that the students play from the time they enter the classroom until the dismissal bell rings 6 hours later. Our day includes breakfast and lunch, rest, small group activities, recess, story time, music and large group discussion in addition to center time.

Myth #3 Early Childhood Education doesn't really matter, we need to focus on the grades that take the state standardized test

Early Childhood education does matter. Students in our district don't come to school knowing how to be in school. They need to be taught everything from how to sit on the rug to how to line up to how to wait their turn and get adult attention appropriately. They sometimes need to be taught how to separate from their parents and their parents need to know what is and is not appropriate for a school setting versus a home setting. All of this is in addition to instilling a life long love learning and teaching all of the academic skills that later serve as the foundation for higher level skills and deeper understanding. Can you imagine a fourth grader sitting down to take the state test without being able to separate from his parents, or understand that print moves from left to right, top to bottom?

My administrator is allowing a person to take an early childhood position because he feels that her current position is too close to the age when students take the state tests. I disagree with this notion. I think that if early childhood education was truly understood and supported in my building, we could work together as a school community to give the students an excellent start. Maybe we need the very best teachers in our building to be teaching preK and kindergarten so that students start off as best they can, so that they are given the foundation they need to soar and our set on the path toward reaching their personal bests. By ignoring or devaluing or early childhood, and putting teachers who simply want to pass the time in those positions, you are hurting students chances of success later on. Success is cumulative and not necessarily based on the testing year.

Some things are just not right

My new student started this past Tuesday. He celebrated his third birthday on Saturday and was in school as soon as the bus picked him up Tuesday morning. He seems so young since more than half my class is already 5 years old. He arrived at school with nothing except for a cough that sounded like bronchitis, although I am not a doctor so I can't diagnose. He didn't even come with any diapers or wipes despite needing them. He had a rash on his stomach and a brace on his arm that I knew nothing about.

It amazes me that parents would send their barely three year old child to school without meeting or calling the teacher. It floors me that people would send a child with signficant disabilities to a school setting without even writing down the child's name on a piece of paper and providing an emergency contact number. If something was wrong, this particular child does not have the ability to communicate it. What was even more frustrating was the fact that phone number provided to the office was out of service. So when I did try to call to say that the child needed diapers and was suffering from a nasty cough, it was not productive. How can you as a parent of a very young child with disabilities just assume that your child will be fine?

There was an old lady...

Who swallowed a fly. I don't know why she swallowed a fly, perhaps she will die...

Many early childhood educators know this book. Maybe there is a different version that you like better than the one above (she swallowed a fly, maybe she will cry, she swallowed a chick, it made her sick). Regardless of which version you like, this book addresses several early childhood literacy skills. First, it utilizes rhyming words and second, it can be predictable and repetitive, which allows pre-readers to chime in. I was not specifically doing any lessons or projects around this book, but it has been in the book area on and off throughout the year.

The literacy teacher that my students work with did a retelling activity around this book that resulted in a mini-flip book for the students to take home. One of the parents approached me about the book and explained that she thought it was in appropriate for her son's age. I offered to relay a message to the literacy teacher or suggested that the parent visit with that teacher during our upcoming open house. The ironic part though is that this same child owns and is allowed to watch X men and other movies of that type.

What do you think? With a proper introduction about the story being fictional and silly, is the Old lady who swallowed a fly inappropriate for four and five year old students?

Not quite the recognition I was hoping for

So there are about 200 schools in our district. Our school was on the list of the 22 nastiest buildings from a public health point of view. The schools were inspected by state health inspectors and of all them 22, stuck out as the most offensive. This information was in one of our local papers and broadcast on local network news. I did not know about this distinction and was thrown off guard the other day when a parent had asked if I had read that morning's local paper. She wouldn't elaborate as to why I should but my curiosity was ignited. I found the paper after school and was horrified 1) by the title of the article and 2) to find a large picture of my school building in color on page 5. There were of course other schools on the list, but they show a picture of ours! Lovely!

"What are the police doing here?"

This is what my students asked at the end of the day as we filed outside for dismissal. It was an interesting question. Typically a squad car is parked on the main road in front of our building. Today, in addition to that car, there was one parked literally on the black top of our school yard, right under the steps from the main entrance. Since there were no announcements or memos sent around during the school day about any potentially dangerous situations, I had no idea. I explained that the police were there to help everyone stay safe.

After I spoke with a few parents, I had two left who were either waiting to go home or go to after school. What follows are some of their thoughts and experiences about police.

Student 1: The police put people in juvie.

( Yes I asked him if he knew what juvie was, and yes, he did provide an accurate explanation, and yes, he is five years old)

Student 2: When I am in the car with my mom and we see a police car, she always asks me if I have my seat belt on. She never wears hers, only when we see the police. (I interjected here with comments about seat belts and how they keep people safe in the car) Oh yeah, my mom says she does not need no ticket.

Student 1: When the police are not looking, my mom puts the car on two wheels and makes it spins around really fast. It is awesome, like in the movies.

Student 2: So if I started kicking you really hard and doing bad stuff, what would happen, would I go to juvie?

Our lovely discussion was interrupted by Student 1 leaving with his family and Student 2 going to after school. I know so many of my students and the students in our building have negative perceptions of police officers and some of that is largely due to the negative experiences of their family members or neighbors. It troubles me though. I want them to know that police can help people, that if they were ever in trouble and needed help, they could ask a police officer. My messages about the police stand in sharp contrast to their perceptions though.

Still kind of difficult

So it was my second week back after a long absence and I find that it is still hard to get through the day. One of my coworkers apparently did not notice that I actually returned last week. One of my student's parents approached me in a confrontational manner about my absence. She started with "oh, I wasn't sure you were coming back". I responded with " Hi, it's nice to see you too." She then wanted to know what I had and why I had to be out for so long. She wanted to know if it was contagious and I assured her that my medical team would not allow me back to work if I was putting myself or others in harm's way. The conversation ended with her explaining that during my absence she called my principal to ask what I had ( hello, hippa, how are are you? Oh, hi confidentiality!) and that she was thinking of transferring her child. At this point, I really did not have to much more to say to this woman and I worked hard to tell her NOT to tell her that it was still not too late to transfer her child.

I talked with our building rep who spoke to another union person about some of my employment options for next year and how I go about implementing those options.

Some of the days were easier than others and overall, I worked hard to make it through the week. It was a long week with my students. Some of the behavior from last week seemed to have lessened a little in intensity and some had not.

5 more get ups until school break!