Yay or Nay?

Situation: your class is sitting in the hall doing a pretty good job being quiet. Another class is completely out of control and their substitute teacher is screaming nonsense and no one is listening. The noise is deafening. Do you reprimand the loud class or ignore it because they're not yours?

I flipped on a class today... did the look-of-death-finger-pointing-your-teacher-would-be-so-disappointed-with-your-behavior. I began my speaking in a firm voice but was being completely ignored so I yelled. Really loud. They froze. They became quiet, but that's not really my preferred mode of dealing with loud kids. I immediately felt guilty for a) yelling, but b) also butting into a class and a teacher that's not mine. But then I didn't feel bad because they were so completely out of control. I decided that I would want another teacher to do the same to my kids if the situation ever presented itself.

BSC

I have a newish kiddo who has infected my angelic class with evil. Oh I know this sounds incredibly harsh, but this blog is to be a therapeutic tool when I need it, and boy do I need it.

This child is smart and knows exactly how to push my buttons. Until today I have stayed in control and maintained the belief and practice that with a child like this, bad behavior is ignored and good behavior is praised. Today the child is in control. After hours of ignoring, after hours of my stress level rising, I snapped. I didn't snap at the child, but after ignoring really ridiculous behavior (pretending to chew gum, laying on the carpet, kicking my feet while I'm teaching, poking classmates, you name it, it was done) I thought I would have an ulcer. I was so tense. I gave the child a warning... "you continue this, you will leave this classroom." The child called my bluff and off we went to the Principal's office.

I'm so frustrated because no matter what I try, I'm not getting even close to the result I want. Incentives work for a day or so. Reasoning fails. Ignoring doesn't work. Positive response works for a day and then seems to be forgotten. I'm trying to keep a running log of the behavior to look for patterns, hoping that eventually I can put together a behavior plan that will actually work, but in the meantime, this child is driving me BSC.

Proud as Punch

I am so darn proud of me and even more proud of my kids. I had this idea in the shower (don't you love those?) and I tossed the idea out to my kids and they turned it into a fabulous teaching tool. We have been making a Forest of Rhymes. Throughout the day, at unscheduled times, the kids can tell me two words that rhyme. Then we sit together and write one word on the trunk of the tree and the other on the leaves. Some kids are writing their own words and recognizing that their words have different beginnings and the same ending (to quote a special friend from last year, "ta da!") Some kids can work out the beginning and ending sounds and I fill in the rest for a lovely little interactive writing lesson. Some kids are just thrilled that after several attempts they can sit with me as we sound out their words together.


Example of an attempt:
"I have a rhyming word! Bat and bubble."

"Sweetie, bat and bubble have the same sound at the beginning, but the end are different, they don't rhyme. Let's try again."


(This generally repeats itself 3 or 4 more times before the little one gives up. A handful of my kiddos just don't get rhyming yet.)


Now, if you know me, the fact that they are allowed to do this pretty much at any point during the day, is a stretch for me - a good stretch. A it's-good-to-work-on-not-being-SO-structured stretch.

Here's our masterpiece in development:

NYT Editorial

I often think the kids in my school are forgotten. No one seems to be speaking about them when talking about test scores, new initiatives, or "kids these days..." But then a good friend said she thought of me while reading this.

Squirrel Suggestions? Help!

I have started doing interactive science notebooks with my kids this year and it's going well. They keep their notebooks in their book boxes and often read them in addition to their song books and library books. I love that the science content we learn is accessible on a daily basis and not quickly forgotten.

But I am stumped and here is why:

The kids need to know that squirrels need food, water and air to live.

In their science notebooks, the teacher information is on the left side. This is where I provide a picture, or a sentence about what we have already learned through read alouds, shared writing and discussion. The student information, their interpretation of the information, is on the right side. I am desperately trying to think of a way for a 5 year old to show that a squirrel needs food, water and air to live.

Please please please give me your suggestions! I've given up looking for pictures of air and water for them to glue into their books.

Testing Rant

While I've had this information for a few days, it just sunk in today.

I HAVE TO GIVE 80, THAT'S 8-0, INDIVIDUAL TESTS BY DECEMBER 22ND.

Our math pacing guide has changed (I'm okay with change) but now we are paced to give 4 different math assessments 2nd quarter. FOUR. There's a total of seven all year and we gave 2 1st quarter. So we are cramming in FOUR leaving just one for 3rd and 4th quarter. We're also now teaching addition and subtraction 2nd quarter, where I used to leave this to 4th quarter when I felt that my kids had a stronger sense of number. Side note - if you work with 5 year olds, do you think addition and subtraction are developmentally appropriate this early on? I'd love to hear what you think.

These assessments need to be done one-on-one, the student at my table, me on my laptop recording their actions and responses, while the rest of the students are working independently at math centers*. I need to do this 80 times in 18 days while teaching.

*My kids are used to centers, they do them daily, but math is in the afternoon when their attention spans are shorter and they need a bit more direction and support than they do in the morning literacy centers. Math is also incredibly hands on so the centers tend to be noisier and busier than my literacy centers. Oh, this is also the time my wonderful assistant is on her much needed break.

Shall we try some addition?
4 unsupervised math centers + 1 lone teacher completely engrossed with a student at her table = chaos.

How about some subtraction?
80 individual tests - scheduled math block = 0 time to teach math.

When little things seem so big...

This morning as I was standing at the door greeting my little ones, I watched one of my girls walking slowly to the classroom. I greeted her with the standard, "Good morning Maria!* How are you?"

Maria looked up at me with watery doe-eyes (she really has doe-eyes) and said, "not good."

"Oh... sweetie, what's wrong?"

"It's my book. The juice exploded and it's all wet and it ripped."

"Your book from me? Or your library book?"

"My library book!" Tears began to fall...

"Oh, Maria... let's not worry too much. I will talk to Miss Booker* and we will see how we can fix it."

Sniff, sniff. "Okay."

I'm waiting to hear from Miss Booker if we can grant little Maria clemency. Her devastation seemed to be all she could handle. Poor little thing... she spent the entire morning absolutely distraught because she ruined her library book. I heart her.

*Of course names have been changed!

UPDATE: Miss Booker dismissed any financial charges for little Maria, but she ruled that she complete some "hard labor" in the libary to work off the cost of her book. LOVE IT!!!!