…my kindergarten class is pretty good this year. Some of you may remember last year’s boot camp. Last year redefined “difficult students” and I came into this year prepared for the worst. I know that I shouldn’t let my opinion of last year’s class influence my opinion of this year’s class but you didn’t meet last year’s class.

This year however…three weeks into the school year and my pro’s list is longer than my con’s list.

The pro’s:

• They have volume control. This is huge. I can actually say 1 time to the class “use your #1 voice” and for the remainder of the work time all you hear is the low hum of 5 year olds working.
• They raise their hands before talking
• They can be trusted to go to the bathroom without me.
• I can leave the room for 5 minutes and when I come back they are in the same spots I’ve left them.
• They rest at rest time.
• They attempt to do their work before asking me for help.
• They don’t tattle (much).
• They clean up without tearing around the room and shrieking.
• It only took me a week to teach them the routine of the room.
• They remember the routine.
• When I do have to discipline the whole class by making them practice, they actually realize that if they fix the problem, the punishment is over.

The cons are few and far between. Their biggest issue is lining up. They can walk in a line just fine. They can line up in the hallway just fine but for whatever reason lining up in our classroom or the lunch room causes them to forget all common sense, forget all rules, forget their spots in line and start with the pushing and the shoving and the worrying about who gets to be first (even though we have a line leader everyday). I’m not really sure why they do this but trust me, we’ll be working on this next week.

As far as the kids go, for the most part they are great. There are only 3 that drive me crazy on a regular basis.

I have the younger sister of one of my boys from last year. And she makes her brother look like a saint. Her current favorite activities in class - starting laughing (while I’m talking) just to see how many kids she can get laughing, doing opposite of what I tell the class (for example Me: I need everyone to cross their legs, please. Her: (looks directly at me and sticks her legs straight out).), and in general making a mental list on how many ways she can irritate me in a single day.

The next kid is only going to be difficult for a few more weeks. He understands English but can barely speak it so his behavior is due to the language barrier and at 6 weeks (almost to the day) every non-English speaker I’ve had has started speaking enough English to feel confident enough to participate in the class. And we had a huge break through on Friday. He learned the phrase “what’s that?” so now, he points and asks that about 300 times a day but it’s better than him not having a clue as to what’s going on and chucking stuff across the room out of frustration. Also, next week the ESL teachers start doing pull-out work and lucky for the kindergarteners our ESL teacher speaks both English and Somali so they really like working with her.

And my third is a boy who has made it very obvious that I am clearly a serious inconvenience in his life. Some examples:

Me: A-M, please stop talking we are waiting for you.

A-M: (in a very exasperated tone) Okay. Fine. (and then the talking starts right back up again).

or

Me: A-M, you need to clean up. I already asked you once and [math, art, learning labs, journaling] is over now. You need to stop and clean up.

A-M: (eyes rolling) Uugh, okay, okay. Fine. (and continues to do what I asked him to stop).

Basically, I’m just in the way of him doing whatever he feels like doing. I’ve already told him that I was going to have to call and talk to his dad about the way he is acting and he looked right at me and said “my dad let’s me stop when I want.” Great. So now I have to fix the behavior of the parent and the kid. Well, it’s going to be a long year for him sitting in the take a break chair.

Please do not baby your children.

Thank you.

Signed,

Your Child’s Kindergarten Teacher

——

If you are curious if you fall into that category, here’s a list of the things your child should be capable of doing by the time they go to kindergarten.

1. Put on and take off their coat.

2. Zip their coat.

3. Pull up and down their own pants.

4. Button/snap their pants.

5. Eat with a spoon or fork.

6. Hang up coat/backpack on a hook.

7. Follow simple directions (i.e. put your coat on, sit down)

8. Understand what “no” means.

9. Wait their turn.

10. Some concept of sharing.

If your kids can do these things, your kindergarten teacher will be very excited.

This probably won’t be of interest to anyone but me, but I want to get it down so when I am ready to toss kids out the window in December I can look back and remember that at one point I did think they were cute. And just to warn you, I’ll be doing that annoying initials thing instead of real names just to be on the safe side.

First day started off a little crazy. There was some type of bus mix up (which means they had no idea who to pick up where) so at 7:55 I still had only 8 kids. By the end of breakfast I was up to 13. I had 8 girls and 5 boys which is fine with me. Last year I had 20 kids and only 6 were girls so this year is already looking up.

I know we are still in the “honeymoon” phase of school so I’m not going to pretend that just because today was good the rest of the year will be too but hey, a girl can hope right?

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Last weekend a friend recommended the book Education Esme. I took Lexi to the library yesterday, checked out the book and finished it in the same day. It’s a quick read, but I couldn’t put it down and I will be back at the library next week checking out the rest of her books.

The short summary of the book is that Esme is a first year teacher in a fifth grade classroom in the inner-city of Chicago. And she rocks as a teacher.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the book:

Responding to a staff member freaking out over something not worth freaking out over and missing what’s actually important:

But certain people just think it’s their job to freak out. As long as they’re freaking out, they feel busy, like they must be doing work. Getting upset is force, but no motion. Unless we are moving the children forward, we aren’t doing work. (page 52)

On making sense:

It does not make sense to say something does not make sense to someone who does not make sense, but sometimes, what else can you say? (page 60)

On being liked as a teacher:

“It’s not our job to be liked,” I reminded her. “It’s our job to help them be smart.” Secretly, I thought, Who gives a rat’s ass if they like us? Sometimes I can hardly stand them!” (page 87)

On a teacher’s day:

When someone asks me, “How was your day?” I never know what to answer. I have thirty-one days every day, a different day with each child. A good day with Ruben, a rough day with Billy…it’s too much. They talk about rewards and gratification in teaching school, and there is a share of it, but they don’t tell you it’s like joining a monastery or going to hell or sleepwalking or being afraid, afraid as you were when you were small. They don’t tell you how it feels when you get dizzy in front of a room full of children, ow what it feels like to tug at the tense bodies of children lashing, hating, fighting, spitting, scratching. They don’t tell how it feels to her “I hate you!” or how it feels to say, “That’s okay, I still love you.” They say now, in the education classes, “You have to be everything to them: counselor, mother, friend…” on and on: The List. I hear the ones who have been teaching for many years run it off with a certain pride. Well, I don’t think it’s anything to be proud of. I don’t want to play mama, I can’t play mama. They need a real mama. And they need a real teacher. (Page 160-161)

“Low-income urban students know they attend substandard, second-tier schools that lack the technology, resources and extracurricular programs commonplace in schools of more affluent communities. And yet we continue to expect these students to prioritize education when budgetary and funding inequities demonstrate that urban education is neither a local, state, or national priority.”
Will Okun, Chicago high school teacher

Just think about that for a minute….

(quote stolen directly from Tim’s blog)

People often ask me if I am going to homeschool my kids because I am a teacher. And my answer is always no. (I teach kindergarten for a reason - once she hits about 7th grade algebra, she’s on her own…)

But here’s some interesting news in the world of homeschooling. The San Fransico Chronicle ran this story (and there’s another take on it here) about how California is basically trying to decide if homeschooling should be a parent’s choice.

I’m a undecided on how I feel about this. Part of me likes the idea that homeschooling not be an option for parents. I am a strong believer in children going to school. With all of the options - private, public, charter, magnet, alternative, etc, etc, etc, - there is a school out there that will fit your child and your child’s learning style. Teachers are well trained and good at their jobs. Going to school helps kids build character, helps them learn how to interact in the “real” world, builds social skills, learn to compromise on top of learning the academics. There are instances when homeschooling is appropriate but it would not fall under a choice - when a child is too sick to attend school, for example - but then the parents are not choosing to homeschool, they are doing it out of necessity.

I also see the other side of the argument. Why does the government get to decide how parent’s raise their children? There are already laws in place saying that children need to be educated but shouldn’t how they be educated be up to each family? I see the slippery slope of the government getting to involved.

But here is a problem that I think does need to be addressed for homeschooling - the requirements. Each state has very different laws over what parents need/don’t need to do to homeschool their child(ren). I think that those laws need to be uniform. The paperwork parents need to complete should be equivalent to the paper work schools need to complete for the students. Curriculum should meet the state standards and benchmarks. Tests required for non-homeschooled kids should be administered to homeschool kids. The same number of contact hours should be required.

As they say on NPR is this story Good News, Bad News or No News?

Three or four years ago I was checking out library books for the preschool and I came across a book about a kindergarten teacher. And I’m kicking myself for not writing down the name of it. Here’s what I remember - the book actually looks like it is about a woman who plants a garden, but by the end you realize the “garden” is her class. (I know, it sounds cheesy and there are way too many books about making kids bloom and all that but this one I liked. It was well written.) Anyway, the illustrations were either watercolors or colored pencil and very simple. That’s all I remember of the book. If you’ve read it or know the title can you let me know what it is? It’s been driving me crazy. Thanks.

This past week was teacher appreciation week. For those of you not in the field of education that means a week of getting little gifts (like hand lotion) with notes attached that say things like “Parents put their children into our hands…let’s take care of those hands.” Or a book of matches for “when you need to light a fire under a student”.

In all sincerity my favorite was a “dirt” ice cream cake, complete with a spoon topped with a paper flower, from the other kindergarten. They made them themselves, delivered them to each teacher’s room with a note that said “We drive you crazy when we wiggle like worms and sometimes we treat you like dirt…but deep down inside we are as sweet as ice cream and we just wanted to thank you for helping us bloom this year.” And after reading the note, the whole class would chant “2-4-6-8, who do we appreciate? Ms. Abby, Ms. Abby, yea Ms. Abby!” Then they would move on to the next teacher.

If you haven’t told a teacher you appreciate them - go do it now. Right now. Go on…

Does anyone else think that colleges that have operators standing by to answer your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, may not be the best place to get an education?

Lexi survived her first day of high school. The child development class we went to ended up having about 8 or 9 babies show up. The girls in the class had pre-written questions that they came around and asked all the moms. They were pretty generic questions about baby development. Most of my conversations went like this:
Abby: Hi!
Shy Student: um, hi.
A: So di dyou have anything you wanted to ask me?
SS: Um, yeah. (deep breath) Howoldisyourbaby?whatisyourbaby’sdiet?howlongdotheysleep?whatisyourbabiesfavoritetoy?doesyourbabycry?

As I respond, the student frantically scribbles down answers, mumbles thanks and moves on to the next mom.

Still, it was a pretty fun morning and Lexi managed to keep a smile on her face despite missing a morning nap.