Kindergarten Today

100 Days

This week marks the 100^th day of school. Ironic that our staff can’t decide if yesterday was the actual day or today, but we’re only teachers. And there is always controversy over whether we should just count the days the children are in school or those days plus our professional days that exclude them. Someone asked me yesterday, “When is the 100^th day of school?” and I diplomatically answered, “Sometime this week!” The truth is that I don’t really care. We will celebrate every day this week. We will count to 100 every day this week. We will talk about different ways to count to 100. We will talk about remembering the rules of school because we have had PLENTY of time to learn them. J What is foremost in my mind is that we now have fewer than 100 days left to accomplish the monumental task of getting these little jewels ready for first grade. One third are already skilled and confident enough and I am simply “polishing the diamond”.  Others need a little more chiseling here and there.

Budget Woes

My task for this week is to think of three ways to save money so that my school district doesn’t have to lay off teachers and/or consolidate, close etc. First of all let me just say that I applaud our administration for asking. At least we have detailed information about the situation and we are being asked for input about the solution. However, since this is about the fifth time we’ve been threatened with job cuts since I started teaching just twelve years ago, it is getting more and more difficult to think of ways to save the district some money. And I must point out that this is the fifth district that I have worked for, and I was previously in a district that actually was forced to reduce its staff by several employees.

I already buy most of my classroom supplies including staples, paper clips, pens, pencils, markers, erasers, and file folders.  I buy handwriting paper, card stock, paper plates, paper sacks, play dough, baby wipes, glitter, beads, stickers, feathers, paints, and anything else we need for projects or art.

I buy children’s books (at least 50 per year), professional journals, workbooks, and instruction books.

 I buy snacks and treats.

I buy supplies and projects for “parent gifts” for holidays.

I buy student gifts for holidays.

I pay for a subscription to an online site that provides worksheets for math and language skills.

I bought the rugs for my classroom. I bought three of the bookshelves for my classroom. I bought the toys, games, puzzles, CDs, CD player, science supplies, and storage containers. I bought the bulletin board decorations and the writing center “white boards”. I bought the calendar and the alphabet chart.

The parents in our district buy construction paper, crayons, pencils, scissors, markers, tissues, plastic bags, and glue. Of course we don’t ask them for as much as the children actually use during the year, so by March I’m buying most of those supplies as well. We are already out of tissue and crayons.

I’m not complaining. I’m just explaining the steps I’ve already taken to try to save jobs, including my own.

The only thing left for me to buy that will save the district a significant amount of money is copy paper. So I will inform my principal that my “carnival money”, raised by working at a booth at our fund-raising event in October, can be used for paper. I don’t know how much money is even in my account. I don’t remember spending any of it last year. So maybe that will help.

I’m not sure yet what my other suggestions will be.

This is a baffling issue for me. On the one hand we have heard for generations that education is a “priority” in America. We even heard during the Bush administration that “quality education” is a priority and that NO CHILD WILL BE LEFT BEHIND. I have never understood that fantasy concept.  Some children can’t even “walk” academically, so keeping them in the race with everyone else is in itself a daunting task. Doing it WITHOUT SUFFICIENT FUNDING is impossible! Each year the Department of Education expects us to do more with less money. How does that work???? With the current budget crisis we have classrooms in this country that are already overcrowded and under-supplied. How does that create a “quality education”?

And the new budget cuts seem even more insulting when we can instantly pledge $100 MILLION dollars to Haiti!! Show me where that money has been hiding!! Why didn’t we use some of it for education if we have had it sitting around waiting for a crisis? Isn’t the collapse of our education system a crisis?

Don’t send me hate mail about the difference between our country and Haiti or about the terrible devastation. Haiti was in trouble before the earthquake. Haiti had starvation, disease, and orphans before the earthquake. Where were the stars and media darlings for the 50,000 orphans that were sitting around waiting for parents before the ground shook?

Countries around the globe are in trouble and it’s wonderful that we can help them. But where will the future doctors and nurses and soldiers and missionaries and construction workers come from if we aren’t educating our own children? How will we continue to maintain an economy strong enough to help out other nations if we aren’t making wise decisions about our own nation? Who will respond to the crisis of 2030 if we are not training future leaders? There will always be wars and earthquakes and floods and famine and orphans until we go home to Jesus. The power to help others comes from a position of moral, physical, and economic strength. We are undermining ours by neglecting the education of our children.

Write about a frog.

My students have been writing sentences and little stories for quite some time. Our program emphasizes writing as one of the key components of a good language and reading curriculum. For the past two weeks we have also been using a word bank for our writing. So…yesterday I asked them to “write about a frog”. We had just read a poem about a frog. I put these words into our word bank:

frog

little

green

the

Usually my students write three sentences for any and all stories. Three is an easy number. Three sentences provide for a statement and some description. “I see the boy. He is big. He can run.” We’re not striving for literature, just a little structure, and comprehension of the fact that we can write down our thoughts.

Yesterday I threw them a curve ball. “You may write as many sentences as you want. You may write one or three or eight. But you must use every word in the word bank. Everyone hold up four fingers. You must use all four words. Cross them off of a list or underline them in your sentences, but make sure you use all four words.”

My brightest little star is up from her seat in about five minutes and hands me this.

“I see the little green frog.”

I give her a pat on the back and she goes to get a book to read.

Three more follow with the same sentence and then retrieve their journals from their cubbies or get a book.

I’m beginning to be concerned about one of my other strong readers when she gives me her paper:

“I see a frog. I see a little frog. I see a green frog. I see the frog.” LOL A little more work, but she knows what she is doing!

All of my students eventually wrote successful sentences. I had to ask three of them to read their sentences; I asked them “is this what you would say to me?”; then I had them correct their word order.  One of my students can’t write, for reasons I won’t discuss, but he brought me his blank paper and said, “Do you want me to tell you what it says?” “Yes.” “I see the little green frog and he is playing.” “Great story!”

Testing Kindergartners

We recently finished some standardized testing and this is proof that no test created by an adult will ever truly measure the intellect and creativity of a five year old:

Test- Word Usage -Student is supposed to listen to the word spoken by the teacher and then use it in a sentence. Answers are scored by number of words used, but pay attention here to the difference not only in words used, but meaning conveyed.  By the way, our reports only show the numerical score!

    Student #1- I can play in the front yard.

    Student #2- The front is the part inside the door.

    Student #3- I like to be in the front.

    Student#4- The engine is in the front of the vehicle and when it starts it goes fast.

Test- Nonsense Words- Student sounds out three letters and then says the “word” even though it isn’t a real word.

    ful- Student correctly sounded the letters, f-u-l, then said, “Thursday”

    mik- Student correctly sounded the letters, m-i-k, then said, “mop”

    zoc- Student looks, “Well that’s a silly word. Zak! Why does it say zak?”  BTW-This is a timed, one-minute test! Lol

Test- Recognize as many random letters of the alphabet as possible, in one minute.

    Student- “That would be A, that one is F, let me see,  uh, that one is Q, no, no, it’s P, that would be R….”

Test- Initial Sound- Student looks at pictures, teacher says the name of each picture, and then teacher asks “Which picture begins with…?”

     Picture: footprints. Student response to “Which picture begins with F?”: “See when someone takes something from your house you follow these and then you catch him and make him give it back!”

    Picture: sofa. Student response to “Which picture begins with S?”: couch. (Three students said this even though I said sofa. Now obviously they heard the sound I said, but had to translate it to the word they use for the same object!)

    Picture: dime. Student response to “Which picture begins with D?”: quarter. (Four students had this response.)

 

I could go on….LOL

Best Idea

This has been a favorite in my room for three years. We use them on rainy days.

Numbers

I am now teaching the smallest class I have ever taught. I have fourteen students: ten girls and four boys.

We talk a lot about improving education. We discuss budgets and programs and technology. But from my perspective the solution to most of our education problems is right there on the attendance chart. Give me fewer children and I’ll give them a better education.

It is impossible to devote the same amount of time, energy, and patience to twenty-five children as I do to my fourteen. The most I’ve ever had in my classroom is 27 (with an aide) so I can’t begin to address the situation in classrooms with thirty children or more (and those do exist!).  But I know that simply having that many bodies in a room ideally designed for 18-20 students is an invitation for more discipline problems. I know that I can’t do the same projects, experiments, and games with a larger herd of restless bodies. I can’t give individual attention on a daily basis if I can’t even physically get to each desk within our time frame.

There is also a certain amount of observing, testing, and general paperwork that must be done for each child.  Having too many students adds to that obligation and increases the amount of “homework” I must do. If I have to do more paperwork for a larger group, then I have to cut some work and time somewhere and it is usually in project preparation. What we do in class will be simpler and perhaps less “enlightening” or “entertaining” just because I don’t have time to cut out twenty-five of whatever we need for a more complicated project.

I also believe that I am just calmer and nicer with a smaller group! I’m more focused and in tune with the needs of my students. I can listen to stories and care about hobbies and pets and toys.

So, if you are looking for solutions to your local education problems, I suggest you start with class size. It really is the foundation of a good education.

New Year, New Class

Several years ago I read an interesting book by Malcolm Gladwell called “The Tipping Point”. The tipping point is the level or point in time at which change becomes unstoppable. Think of it as the first time you realized that there were more DVDs than VHS tapes on the shelf at your local movie dealer. The “tipping point” for change was probably earlier than that, but you noticed it one day and knew that soon the VHS would be history.

There are tipping points for almost anything- good, bad, and in between. Sometimes we notice them and sometimes they go totally unnoticed. We just wake up one day and wonder what happened.

I was reminded of this phenomenon this week when my class returned from our break. I’ve written before about “group dynamics” and how the absence of one child can make or break a classroom. Well, let me tell you right now that the absence of two students has proven to be the tipping point for my class and I’m loving it!

First of all, let me just say that there wasn’t anything wrong with either of the students and I’m sorry that they had to move mid-year. In fact, both were very intelligent, charming guys and I enjoyed them. They were also two of my best readers! I would have kept either one of them and sent home a couple of the others. I’m just saying… J

However, the two together were never a good combination. And their conflicts upset a couple of my other students. They were also very vocal and each kept a group of students around them talking and distracted. One of the students often interrupted morning circle to make comments or complain about something. The other often cried during the day for a variety of reasons.

I noticed the effect of their absence Monday because it was just so much quieter and calmer in my room. I attributed some of that to fatigue and to the students’ happiness at being back with their friends. I also gave them very little work on Monday and we did a couple of fun projects- my way of easing the transition.

Yesterday we jumped back into our regular schedule, normal work load, etc. I even tried a couple of activities that had been problems before, specifically because of the actions usually associated with my two guys. Everything went the way it was supposed to, without conflicts. You can imagine how this new situation affects me. Less conflict resolution gives me more time to teach. Less conflict makes me calmer!

An added benefit was physical. With two boys gone I now have eleven girls and four boys. The boys are more isolated from each other because they are now at the four corners of the room without the other two boys in between. The only word I can think of for my remaining boys is “subdued”. Poor guys know they had better be good or the girls, especially my little “moms” will be all over them. Lol This has never happened before in my classroom. This is the first year that more than half of my enrollment has been girls.

A group of any kind is never perfect, but this group is certainly far better than it was before January. It is happier, quieter, calmer, and more focused on learning. We’re unstoppable now!!

Have a great day!