Tomorrow is Eid ul-Fitr. It’s the celebration that breaks the fast which took place during Ramadaan, which when you are a teacher at a school that is 100% Muslim you get two days off of school.

This year it fell on Tuesday and Wednesday which means that we had school today, we’re off Tuesday and Wednesday and we go back Thursday. It’s a little odd having a weekend, then one day of work, then a weekend, then two days of work, then a weekend.

Today was really not worth having. Most families celebrate the holiday by getting together and going some place fun (a popular place around here is Camp Snoopy or Chuck E. Cheese), eating a huge pile of good food and presents. Lots of presents. So today was like trying to teach on Christmas Eve. Not the most productive of days.

…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.

Here’s my classroom the Wednesday before school started. At this point I’d already been working about 8 hours moving furniture and getting things set up.

And here’s what it looks like after 3 days of students being in school:

Yes, I do have “under construction” tape over all my shelves. The kids know that they can’t use those toys until they have learned how to play with them appropriately. It will take until about mid-September for all the tape to come off.

Kindergarteners:

1. “Can I off my jacket?” (Can I take off my jacket?)
2. “He has a bleed.” (He’s got a cut/scrape/bruise/any random minor injury.)
3. “I like your hair cut” (I like your hair style)
4. “Why me no?” (Why are you saying no to me?)
5. “Then you’ll get dead.” (Then you’ll get hurt - it’s amazing how many of my kids have family members who “die” over the weekend, when really they just needed a band-aide)
6. “The table lost it.” (I put it on the table and now I can’t find it

Ms. Abby:

1. Hands are not for hitting.
2. If it’s not food, it does not go in your mouth.
3. 1-2-3-4 No more.
4. 5-4-3-2-1-zero voices.
5. If I can hear you, you’re too loud.
6. When my voice is on, your voice is off.
7. I’ll wait.
8. Are you tatteling? If he’s not bleeding, crying or throwing up, you can fix the problem yourself.
9. Did you try before you asked me? Go back and try.
10. Ms. Abby is not a trash can. (For some reason they feel the need to hand me every piece of trash they find on the ground)

And as an added bonus:

The most ridiculous conversation I’ve had in 3 years of teaching kindergarten:

Me: “F, Why is your underwear in the middle of the floor?”

F: “Because it fell out of my pocket.”

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?

Read the rest of this entry »

For the teachers at least. Our schedule isn’t too bad next week. We have work days Monday through Thursday. Parent night is Thursday (which means we don’t have to come in until noon but don’t get to leave until 8). Friday is also a day off (because we had to come in last Monday) but I’ll probably go in anyway because there’s a lot to do to get ready for the first weeks of school (mostly it’s just hanging bulletin boards and rearranging furniture)

I think I have all my supplies for this year. I didn’t have too much that I needed so I got to spend my allowance on things that I’ve wanted but have put off getting for the items in the “need” column. This will be my third year of teaching kindergarten and I feel like I’ve hit my stride. I’m not making countless “to do” lists or over-thinking my lesson plans for the first week.

I’ve got my class list so I can start making name tags and those little craft sticks with everyone’s name to make sure everyone gets a turn. And the twenty other things that get labeled with everyone’s name (homework folders, journals, cubbies, pencils, coat hooks, circle spot…).

Once that’s all done, all that’s left is to wait for the students to show up, see how their personalities are, toss my plans out the window and re-write them to fit this particular group.

I’ve got 9 girls and 9 boys. Things are already looking up for this year.

Great Adventure Club (GAC) started today at church. This year, I don’t have to run it. I’m just teaching the preschool group and so far, it’s been fun. There are 12 kids in my group from 2 1/2 - 4 yrs. old and like every other group of kids I’ve taught I have double the number of boys to girls. It’s fun teaching preschool again, but I’m glad it’s only for 4 days.

This was overheard as a class was leaving for recess, as they passed the office the teacher told one student to go to the office.

Student: “But I’m SORRY!”

Teacher: “Sorry doesn’t cut it when you tried to staple your friend. Go to the office.”

Friday was the big field trip. Despite the luming rain clouds, we loaded about 60 extremely excited kindergarten and 2nd graders onto a bus and drove them a half hour to the coolest playground ever. We pulled up in front of the play area and were greeted with orange construction fencing and a “play area closed” sign. The very friendly park ranger informed us that 1. the play area was closed for repair (even though the website said open April - November) and 2. they require a reservation for school groups (also not posted on the website). He told us they had been trying to get that information up for a long time. He then gave us directions to another play area close by that would be big enough for our group. We drove there. It was not. Not even close. Plus, there were no bathrooms. The kids did enjoy the novelty of it while we called the bus driver and told him to come back and pick us up. I have no idea why he left in the first place. He came and got us and we drove back to school to use the bathrooms. (This is after several phone calls to the school secretary having her look up parks in the area for us.) After the bathroom break we got back on the bus and drove to a small park that I knew had some cool climbing ropes. It’s a bunch of cables and cargo nets that look like spider webs to climb around in. The kids had a blast. They told everyone that we took them on two field trips in one day and that the second field trip was to the Spider-Man park. Not to mention they got to eat their lunches outside. Good thing they had no idea that we were completely making the day up as we went along. At least the rain held out until the last 10 minutes of our time at the park.

When I started student teaching the first place I worked had a policy of not making the kids apologize to each other. I remember being at work and after stopping some type of argument I said you need to tell so-and-so you are sorry. The classroom teacher came flying around the corner and told me they don’t make the kids say sorry but failed to tell what to do instead. About a month or so later, I found out. The kids had to say “I was wrong for (fill in the blank with hitting you, taking your stuff, calling you a name, etc).” And I got on board with this instantly. And it’s carried over into my parenting and my teaching.

I never make anyone apologize. An apology has to come from the heart and so when a teacher or parent says “Say you are sorry.” the kid will say it but not mean it. Plus, they may not be sorry. But they were wrong. A 3 year old may not be the least bit sorry for taking a friend’s toy. But they were wrong for taking it without asking. If a child wants to say sorry after they have said they were wrong, go right ahead because I’m not forcing the apology.

I also like making them say they were wrong because as kids get a little older I also make them correct the problem in a way appropriate to their age. In my class it goes something like this:

Kid A: I was wrong for dumping over your puzzle.
Kid B: Please don’t do it again.
Kid A: Instead of dumping your puzzle I should have asked you to move it or found a different place to play.
Kid B: Can you help me fix the puzzle?
Kid A: Okay.

It does take a lot of coaching to get a dialogue like that but it’s completely possible and my kids do it on a regular basis (at our school we call it Walking the Peace Path).

In a culture where the word sorry carries very little weight anymore, I think saying you were wrong is a more meaningful alternative.