What a handful these kiddos are! The past 6 weeks (which flew by) have introduced me to a new world that includes constantly being surrounded by little people with wild imaginations and sharp personalities, and where recess is no longer considered just play time, but also a break for the teachers. These crazy little things have personalities that are amazing, and they surprised me everyday with something new. Overall these kids are incredible and I love them all!
The first week of class we gave each kid the assessment screener they received in March that determined their need for the K-Ready program. After doing this, we compared the results from the March test and the test we gave to look for any changes. The improvement in some was drastic. Apparently it took a piece of paper for some parents to realize just how far behind their children were. Our goal is to make sure we make up for lost time and close the gap. It's amazing how much more intellegent these kids are when you take them away from the distractions of their peers. For instance, one of the trouble makers acts out in class frequently, and refuses to listen to directions. However, he was able to identify all of his letters, count to the required 30, drew a picture way ahead of his developmental stage, and grouped and identified shapes his peers wouldn't have dreamed of. Speaking of developmental stages, this kiddo is a prime example of Nature vs. Nurture. He clearly is naturally smart, yet lacks the structure and support at home to help nurture this. It is our hope that we can bring him up to pace emotionally and behaviorally so that he does not slip through the cracks once in middle school and high school. He is completely the type of student that you hear of all too frequently, the minority boy who is completely capable of a 4.0 GPA yet is expelled early on in high school to never return to an educational setting. Someone is going to need to go the extra mile later on in his education to help this boy go places. Unfortunately we can only do so much at such a young age, which is pretty frustrating to think about. We make all of this progress at school, but all too frequently it's lost the minute they go home.
My favorite perk to teaching 4 and 5 year olds, the constant hugs. It's gotten so I don't even mind the little girls that won't sleep unless I let them sleep on my lap (which makes for a long time to fall asleep during nap time when I have to get to all five of them!) or the little girl who tries to run away in hysterics every day after recess and will only be calmed when I hold her in my arms. Conveniently she instantly falls asleep once in my arms. I love it. The other teachers have been asking what my secret is! One of the girls (well more like all of them, but one in particular!) will cling to anything that walks and talks. My mom brought me lunch one day, and this little girl went up to her and held her hand and would not let her move an inch away from her- after just meeting her. It's amazing. Love these little ones.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
Catching Up... 6/18
In my first post I said I'd keep this up as frequently as possible, time permitting. Little did I know, 4 and 5 year olds are much more exhausting than I could have imagined and could have the potential to turn my bed time into 10 pm (at the latest). After an 8.5 hour work day, all I want to do is eat, run, be around adults, and get a full 8 hours of sleep (in that order). This makes for little time doing other important things that I should be keeping up with... but I'll try to fill you in on the whirlwind of my past two weeks.
We saw our classroom for the first time on June 18th. Huegel Elementary School is shaped like a space ship and old, to say the least, making for an interesting first day trying to find which classroom was ours. We stumbled upon a teeny tiny room used for Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy, and after checking our maps several times we discovered every teacher's nightmare: teaching in a classroom the size of a closet. My class would be one of the biggest K-Ready classrooms at Huegel with thirteen kids. The classroom was only slightly larger than my bedroom at my apartment, which is pretty small. To make matters worse, the classroom was NOT ready for 4 and 5 year olds that following Monday. The OT/PT items were everywhere, and the janitor very apologetically informed us that they didn't even think this was going to be used as a classroom. Each K-Ready classroom was to be equipped with mini tables and chairs as well as a full kitchen play set, games, puzzles, a carpet, and everything else you would find in any decent Kindergarten classroom. Red flag numero uno, we had none of these. The janitors were great, and while we removed the furniture, exercise equipment, and computers from our classroom, they set out for a hunt around Huegel to find us some furniture and (hopefully) some play sets. Because Ms. Feneis is a new graduate and I obviously have never taught before, our personal supplies were limited to the paper folder games we made in training. After a while we found ourselves asking if this was a joke.
The other teachers at Huegel are amazing, and luckily some of them let us go shopping in their 'real' classrooms that they use during the school year. Here we found several games, puzzles, storage devices, and some play supplies. Slowly, 2 small carpets and furniture started appearing in our classroom. We crossed our fingers that we would have tall students as the janitors delivered chairs meant for 3rd graders to our classroom. We begged the janitors to search for a kitchen set (a Kindergarten staple!) after they notified us that there were at least 3 classrooms without one and MMSD wasn't giving us anymore. They eventually surprised us with a very old half of a kitchen set. We decided we only received this because they felt pretty sorry for us and our circumstances. The pitty cry works every time! Our classroom gradually came together and by 4 pm we were (almost) ready for Monday and 13 students to enter our little closet of a room. As hard as it was to be optimistic, we decided that with an unusually large number of kiddos qualifying for K-Ready this summer, the circumstances could have been worse. Right?
That weekend I decided to try my skills at garage saling, and conveniently, on my run I noticed an awesome garage sale with what looked to be age appropriate items a few blocks up from my apartment. I had heard that teachers buy most of their supplies out of pocket (MMSD teachers have a yearly budget of $125, a little ridiculous.) but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I discovered that garage sales would probably be my best friend for the rest of my life as I found tons of toys, puzzles, an awesome toy Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner which actually makes the vacuuming noise (I tried it on my carpet in my apartment and much to my disappointment, it doesn't really work), a mini lawn mower (unfortunately this doesn't work either...), a small table, and a red plastic fire chief hat (a staple of course). I'd like to mention I got this all for the small amount of $35. I've always been a bargain shopper! The only other garage sale I've been to as an adult I snagged an awesome 12 piece knife set for $3 and a full dish set for $20. It's a mix of talent and skill. I decided my classroom was set after I had pretty much cleared out the entire garage sale. For this the ladies loved me and even let me go home, get my wallet, and make several trips back to my apartment. My mom was also thrilled, as this now meant she had to make room to store these 'supplies' until I someday have my own classroom.
Things were slowly starting to look up for my 13 students and their closet of a classroom they would be spending 8 hours a day in, 5 days a week for the next 6 weeks. If all else fails I guess they got a cool vacuum out of the deal?
We saw our classroom for the first time on June 18th. Huegel Elementary School is shaped like a space ship and old, to say the least, making for an interesting first day trying to find which classroom was ours. We stumbled upon a teeny tiny room used for Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy, and after checking our maps several times we discovered every teacher's nightmare: teaching in a classroom the size of a closet. My class would be one of the biggest K-Ready classrooms at Huegel with thirteen kids. The classroom was only slightly larger than my bedroom at my apartment, which is pretty small. To make matters worse, the classroom was NOT ready for 4 and 5 year olds that following Monday. The OT/PT items were everywhere, and the janitor very apologetically informed us that they didn't even think this was going to be used as a classroom. Each K-Ready classroom was to be equipped with mini tables and chairs as well as a full kitchen play set, games, puzzles, a carpet, and everything else you would find in any decent Kindergarten classroom. Red flag numero uno, we had none of these. The janitors were great, and while we removed the furniture, exercise equipment, and computers from our classroom, they set out for a hunt around Huegel to find us some furniture and (hopefully) some play sets. Because Ms. Feneis is a new graduate and I obviously have never taught before, our personal supplies were limited to the paper folder games we made in training. After a while we found ourselves asking if this was a joke.
The other teachers at Huegel are amazing, and luckily some of them let us go shopping in their 'real' classrooms that they use during the school year. Here we found several games, puzzles, storage devices, and some play supplies. Slowly, 2 small carpets and furniture started appearing in our classroom. We crossed our fingers that we would have tall students as the janitors delivered chairs meant for 3rd graders to our classroom. We begged the janitors to search for a kitchen set (a Kindergarten staple!) after they notified us that there were at least 3 classrooms without one and MMSD wasn't giving us anymore. They eventually surprised us with a very old half of a kitchen set. We decided we only received this because they felt pretty sorry for us and our circumstances. The pitty cry works every time! Our classroom gradually came together and by 4 pm we were (almost) ready for Monday and 13 students to enter our little closet of a room. As hard as it was to be optimistic, we decided that with an unusually large number of kiddos qualifying for K-Ready this summer, the circumstances could have been worse. Right?
That weekend I decided to try my skills at garage saling, and conveniently, on my run I noticed an awesome garage sale with what looked to be age appropriate items a few blocks up from my apartment. I had heard that teachers buy most of their supplies out of pocket (MMSD teachers have a yearly budget of $125, a little ridiculous.) but I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I discovered that garage sales would probably be my best friend for the rest of my life as I found tons of toys, puzzles, an awesome toy Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner which actually makes the vacuuming noise (I tried it on my carpet in my apartment and much to my disappointment, it doesn't really work), a mini lawn mower (unfortunately this doesn't work either...), a small table, and a red plastic fire chief hat (a staple of course). I'd like to mention I got this all for the small amount of $35. I've always been a bargain shopper! The only other garage sale I've been to as an adult I snagged an awesome 12 piece knife set for $3 and a full dish set for $20. It's a mix of talent and skill. I decided my classroom was set after I had pretty much cleared out the entire garage sale. For this the ladies loved me and even let me go home, get my wallet, and make several trips back to my apartment. My mom was also thrilled, as this now meant she had to make room to store these 'supplies' until I someday have my own classroom.
Things were slowly starting to look up for my 13 students and their closet of a classroom they would be spending 8 hours a day in, 5 days a week for the next 6 weeks. If all else fails I guess they got a cool vacuum out of the deal?
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