I started to post a rant on a blog I bumped into, but decided to move it here-- my rant got a bit long, and I didn't want to stir the pot all in one place!
In response to this post: Letter to Teacher about Green School Supplies
I would like to say this:
I wanted to add my two cents as a "community-centered" first grade teacher...
First, let me say that I am VERY pro-"green." My first degree is in environmental science, and I teach with the heart (and head) of an environmental educator.
Brand names = absolutely NO loyalty to any ONE company... crayons are crayons, some will debate me here- to each their own, but come on! No big diff.
Paper and notebooks: send whatever you are most comfortable with-- I always look for the paper with the highest post-consumer recycled content I can find. Honestly, a lot of it eventually ends up in the recycle anyway (many sweet, handmade odes end up in the recycling at home, GOD FORBID the kiddos take offense or doubt my adoration of their works, but they still go to the recycling plant)
Hand sanitizer: YUCK! Kids, nine times out of ten, WANT to use this crap... I teach (yes, teach) them how to wash their hands with soap and water and even if they insist upon using this disinfectant crap, we wash our hands after-- that DOES NOT guarantee that they don't immediately stick their fingers into their noses-- let's be real here, people!
As much time and thought and moral-dillema-inducing-hemming-and-hawing you've likely put into your school supply purchases, "your" supplies very quickly become "our" supplies and I DO NOT have the space, time, energy, patience to keep your child's supplies separate from the community supplies-- unless your child has some life-threatening allergy. (*In which case send more ziplocks!)
Your child's crayons will be used by children in first grade that need crayons-- they might even be (omg) children whose parents buy at Walmart, drive an over-sized SUV and vote Republican. I'm not enthused about it either, but all children in my classroom use crayons, which I am happy about. I will not guarantee that it will be your child that uses your supplies-- and really, sharing and relative equality is something that most children learn to LOVE at school. If you only want "your" children to use "their" supplies- homeschool or plop your kids in a bubble or something. They don't get to hide anything in their desks either (and not tell me or the other kids about it) because
1. They don't have a desk- welcome to the world kids, you get tables to work on and 2. It's dishonest and greedy- two things you likely don't want to encourage.
"Your" child can use "their" own crayons in "their" own home.. but then, they might have siblings, or neighbors, or friends- let it go people, they're crayons.
Ziplocks: In my classroom, I use a lot of ziplocks-
ziplocks to store homemade playdough in the fridge, to ziplock open containers of paints shut to make them more child-accessible and less of a mess. We also grow beans in ziplocks so that the kids can see EVERY part of the plant- roots, seed, shoots, etc. We send home guided reading books in ziplocks because they are waterproof, can be closed, (need I mention contain the various ingredients in the bag?), as well as hold up to a mild amount of mistreatment, and can be easily replaced.
I also use ziplocks to seal up extra class snacks in the snack cabinet so as not to lure rodents or molds or bacteria. Ziplocks hold teeth that fall out, undies that get soiled in an accident, all the parts of jewelry, toys, hair ties, clothing from the (insert annoying brought-from-home distraction tool here) that break into a million pieces when the kids play with them and they break.
Paper towels (wow, I've never asked for these) and kleenex:
Kleenex= essential. I CANNOT tell you how many of your children (yes, your child) spends a lot of the day (nearly every day) with their fingers in their nose, (not to mention other regions of their tiny bodies) and then in their mouth. When a child begins to pick their nose in my classroom, I remind them where the kleenexes are in our classroom, and when they continue, or "sneak" their boogies into their mouths, I remind them that they need to wash their hands. Kleenexes catch other things though too:
Teeth: the average first grader in my classroom loses 4-7 teeth in my classroom over the course of the year. Many of them come out with blood- which I'm sure I don't need to remind you is a biohazard, and no matter how much I love them, need to treat with universal precautions.
Snacks: When parents don't send napkins, kleenexes separate your child's snack from the germy (no mater what) table surface.
Gum/Candy: When your child shows up to school with candy or gum in their mouth, it ends up in a kleenex and goes into the trash.
Bugs: When they suddenly proclaim that there's a spider on the floor during morning meeting-- unfortunately, 8 times out of 10, it ends up squashed into a kleenex. If we have time (a lot) or another container at the ready (rarely) we try to spare the lives of our insect and arachnid friends and then release them back outside- but this is the best case scenario.
Again, your moral green choices are absolutely appreciated-- honestly! Hooray for you, I'm with you. When I have children, I will try to make equally informed and responsible choices-- but school is where your child begins to learn how to get along in the world without you. (Sorry, I know it's sad, it makes me teary as well.)
It's really important that you provide excellent resources to your child- Eco-friendly pencils and paper, lunch boxes, clothing, art supplies, sneakers, not to mention backpacks- but what's even MORE important than what is going on the outside of your child, is what is going on inside your child. Healthy food (breakfast, please!!) and the ability to make educated and respectful decisions is what will help your child be happy and healthy while they learn to be responsible global citizens of our world. If they see happy, healthy adults that care about them making responsible and educated decisions consistently every day, they'll learn how to make them as well.
Saturday, August 07, 2010
Thursday, October 15, 2009
To you, downstairs neighbor with a thing for extra-loud death metal at all hours:
You:
You are the kind of guy who bikes to work, and holds the door open for your neighbors. You're well-groomed and wear trendy dark clothes. You are slightly creepy looking, but you're normally smiling while you smoke your cigarettes outside the building, so that somehow makes you okay.
However:
You need to start saving up for some really nice BOSE, noise canceling headphones, maybe even some that are Bluetooth compatible. Because, dear downstairs neighbor, your taste in music is just really not ours'. We like you, we think, but we don't want to listen to your crappy, base-drum driven, repetitive, growling, floor-vibrating choice in music. Even the dog seems annoyed. She's moved from sleeping on the rug to sleeping on the chair, a few feet and several foam-insulated layers away from our floor, your ceiling, dear downstairs neighbor.
Please:
Just turn it down. Your choice in music sucks, but that wouldn't bother us if it didn't make the liquid in our glasses quiver.
Sincerely,
your normally mild-mannered upstairs neighbors, and our dog
You:
You are the kind of guy who bikes to work, and holds the door open for your neighbors. You're well-groomed and wear trendy dark clothes. You are slightly creepy looking, but you're normally smiling while you smoke your cigarettes outside the building, so that somehow makes you okay.
However:
You need to start saving up for some really nice BOSE, noise canceling headphones, maybe even some that are Bluetooth compatible. Because, dear downstairs neighbor, your taste in music is just really not ours'. We like you, we think, but we don't want to listen to your crappy, base-drum driven, repetitive, growling, floor-vibrating choice in music. Even the dog seems annoyed. She's moved from sleeping on the rug to sleeping on the chair, a few feet and several foam-insulated layers away from our floor, your ceiling, dear downstairs neighbor.
Please:
Just turn it down. Your choice in music sucks, but that wouldn't bother us if it didn't make the liquid in our glasses quiver.
Sincerely,
your normally mild-mannered upstairs neighbors, and our dog
Sunday, June 21, 2009
The happiest of days.
Our dear friends Matt and Elie have been busy with their new baby. Matt is likely drowsily celebrating his first Father's Day, likely pretty sleep deprived.
Another friend, Ruthie, has headed off to the East Coast to study up with other outstanding promising young teachers from all over the country.
Megan and Mike are preparing for their wedding and honeymoon to Costa Rica in August.
Kara and Jim are feathering their nest in anticipation of a new baby in October.
Elliot is in South Africa.
I have impressive friends. I have always known this. They seem especially impressive to me right now though, I think, with the combination of new life, being a stellar young teacher in a sea of many, absolute capability in the complexity of event planning skills, important and shining preparation for a new life, and of course, international spectacularness.
We are here in good old Saint Paul, Minnesota, having a normal summer. Mostly normal, I guess, in comparison with our peers.
I have been feeling relatively balanced in the face of two of my best friends having babies.
A few weeks ago, I helped roust a newborn from a good hard nap so that her new mom could feed her, in preparation (and preservation) of sleeping hours for the night. First, let me say, I am not good at many things. I am, however, good at waking up babies, and not in the awkward, "I'm not sure what to do with this thing" kind of way, but in a very deliberate- she might be your precious fragile joy, but I know she's not that fragile, kind of way, and I WILL wake her up, no prob. And I won't feel guilty about it either. Babies don't scare me, they just don't really interest me all that much.
I am not planning on having a baby this year, or next year, and that's okay. I have to acknowledge that I was feeling a little intimidated that I'm not ready for my own yet, but I think I'm okay with it. I have to honestly say, that I am contented to sew baby quilts, and bake cookies for care packages for a new mom, shop for baby clothes patterns and "cuddle fleece" fabric prints with dinosaurs and peace signs printed on them.
Don't get me wrong. I love babies. I love small baby things like booties and onesies. I enjoy baby's little fingers and tiny peeling toes and feet. I like how when babies cry, they cry with everything that they are, shaking to the ends of their extremities from the overwhelming emotion. I like how babies smile when they have a gas bubble. I like feeling their light weight on my thighs, while I stare at a warm and roughly equivalent tiny model of my own body. I love those things. I love babies. I love that they are not mine yet. I really do.
Someday, I will joyfully welcome the sleep deprivation and the sense of living so completely for another life. Feeding, changing, washing, dressing. The quiet content and, knowing myself well, fulfilling calm with an ebb toward nagging frustration of being in service to a life that I will help bring into the world.
For now, I am in love with my role of supporting the leading lady. Someday I'll take the spotlight, but not yet, please.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
I have officially finished my first year of teaching. Many first year teachers have horror stories to report or novels to write about their first years. I can honestly say that I didn't have enough drama to fill a novel, I'm not even sure that I have enough drama to fill a blog post... The fact that I had such a smooth year is due undoubtedly to the fact that I work with some of the most supportive people I have ever met. The staff at my school is friendly and out-going. They make non-pc jokes in the teachers' lounge and pop into my classroom before school, after school, and even during our day, to check in, say hi, and otherwise just be friendly. I have come to love my school almost as much as I have always loved my dear friends.
As as start writing the largest writing project of my life (likely), my capstone for my Masters degree, I cannot help but appreciate the "view from here." I'm not carrying any classroom baggage, I'm not worried about having a position next year, I'm not stressing out about the fact that I will be completing my "action research" in the fall while I will also be setting up a classroom and building a new community of learners. My teaching community is already solid. Thank god.
My first day of summer dawned with breakfast in bed (thank you, husband) and a to-do list longer than my dog's tail. A teacher's summer is not margarita's and barcaloungers, as my husband sometimes jokes. This summer I'm teaching an environmental science class to middle schoolers, I'm writing the first three chapters of my Masters capstone, I'm doing Responsive Classroom training, as well as ProjectWild training through the MN DNR. I hope I can get in some camping and strawberry picking as well as bread baking and friend visiting. But mostly, I already can't wait to get back to my teaching community, and I think that's rare. I'm in love with my craft.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
We are now home from our honeymoon. My alterior motive in bringing A to México, to a location that I have already visited, was that I wanted him to become a Traveler. A's family hasn't traveled much, and I have a serious itch to see the world. I think it worked because we had an awesome time with very few hitches, despite some flakiness on our parts, and on the way home on the plane, A asked, "Well, where to next?" I love my husband.
Sunday, March 08, 2009
On not becoming parents, or growing up.
We have several friends right now who are growing up. Don't worry, we've told them. It's not a secret. They are having babies. What is interesting is that they are not buying houses. I think that some historians and cultural anthropologists would find this interesting. We are 27, and none of our friends- wait - yes, not one of our buddies from college owns a house. We have other work friends who own houses, but not one of our friends who are currently gestating or supporting the gestation of a baby have a mortgage.
A and I have thus far successfully avoided parentship, though someday, we would like to be parents. I haven't felt any pressure to have babies, even though two of my best girl friends are currently baking a bun, as it were.
I had my very first taste of jealousy/pressure from a small group of people who I don't know, have never seen before, and will likely not run into them very quickly again. I was sitting at a lovely local coffee shop near a newly married couple (A asked me how I knew they were newly married- I told him "because they looked 12 and had wedding bands on"). They were talking to the wife's parents about a new home that they bought. After casually eavesdropping on the details of their new garage, the fence they would have to "get after" come summer, and the verbal instructions rattled off by "dad" about "gas vs. forced air heating" I had been bitten.
I want a house. Since A and I don't even know if we will be in Minnesota next year, this a completely fool-hardy drive. This does not bother me. I will waste half of today tooling Zillow and real estate websites. We can't afford anything. This doesn't bother me either.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Okay, so obviously, this isn't Aaron and I. It is however, how we felt this morning walking from our car to the grocery store. We have plunged back below zero. Aaron asked this morning,"Why do we live here again?" I told him I think it is because we were born here.
I think we're itchy to get out and about. See the country. Strike out together. Though, we often start sentences like: "When we move back to Minnesota..."
January is waiting. March will be waiting too. Waiting to see where we will end up, if we will be anywhere other than here. It's hard to hope for change when I'm happy with my present circumstances, but I am trying to hope for him.
P.S. Don't tell our dog Lily that we're thinking about moving, she likes her people right where they are, thank you very much.
I think we're itchy to get out and about. See the country. Strike out together. Though, we often start sentences like: "When we move back to Minnesota..."
January is waiting. March will be waiting too. Waiting to see where we will end up, if we will be anywhere other than here. It's hard to hope for change when I'm happy with my present circumstances, but I am trying to hope for him.
P.S. Don't tell our dog Lily that we're thinking about moving, she likes her people right where they are, thank you very much.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Good Friends
Our dear friends Matt and Elie have been in town this past week and we have enjoyed their company immensely. We wish they were closer to us and that we could share more time with them.
They are planning to add to their family in June with a new baby. I already have plans for baby bibs and booties and sleepers and everything else teeny and adorable.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar resources
Sequencing cards
Butterfly coloring page, color by numbers
Butterfly craft
"Lively Butterflies" mini-book
Sequencing cards
Butterfly coloring page, color by numbers
Butterfly craft
"Lively Butterflies" mini-book
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Life gets so busy.
So, for the last few months, I've been working my ass off to get a job, a good one, that will pay me and even pay for my antibiotics when I get sick (which is definitely a hazard of teaching small, germy creatures... aka elementary school kids). So I'd been working so hard at getting a job, that the reality of actually securing a job is still sinking in.
I'll be teaching first grade next year. First grade Spanish-Immersion. Sweet. I'll have twenty students (awesome class size!) and a young and supportive staff, plus a principal who seems to be genuinely terrific. I will have a quite the commute-- 31 miles roundtrip, I figure, but there's a really good chance that I can carpool with fellow teachers who also live in our awesome, St. Paul neighborhood.
I'll also be getting married in the fall. Wow. That's something that's still sinking in. I'm so psyched to be declaring my legal status as being in love with such a true friend. We're planning the party of our lives. Which we're obsessively "greening" up - even recycling and re-using invitation flub-ups as we make them. It's really a cool project to work on.
I'm headed to Chicago this weekend to see my dear friend Ruthie, my old Arts High, Delta Dorm, roommate/fellow RA. I'm ecstatic to be going to visit her, see the countryside of flooded Wisconsin and leave the Twin Cities area-- it's been a while.
So, job- check, wedding- check, leisurely travel-check.
Life is so exciting.
So, for the last few months, I've been working my ass off to get a job, a good one, that will pay me and even pay for my antibiotics when I get sick (which is definitely a hazard of teaching small, germy creatures... aka elementary school kids). So I'd been working so hard at getting a job, that the reality of actually securing a job is still sinking in.
I'll be teaching first grade next year. First grade Spanish-Immersion. Sweet. I'll have twenty students (awesome class size!) and a young and supportive staff, plus a principal who seems to be genuinely terrific. I will have a quite the commute-- 31 miles roundtrip, I figure, but there's a really good chance that I can carpool with fellow teachers who also live in our awesome, St. Paul neighborhood.
I'll also be getting married in the fall. Wow. That's something that's still sinking in. I'm so psyched to be declaring my legal status as being in love with such a true friend. We're planning the party of our lives. Which we're obsessively "greening" up - even recycling and re-using invitation flub-ups as we make them. It's really a cool project to work on.
I'm headed to Chicago this weekend to see my dear friend Ruthie, my old Arts High, Delta Dorm, roommate/fellow RA. I'm ecstatic to be going to visit her, see the countryside of flooded Wisconsin and leave the Twin Cities area-- it's been a while.
So, job- check, wedding- check, leisurely travel-check.
Life is so exciting.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
So insanely tasty!
So, I've crawled back onto the weight watchers wagon these days and I have been in search of tasty, "low point" foods. Here's my newest discovery for breakfast...
Blueberry Cream Blintzes
Crepe recipe:
2 eggs
1/2 C. soy milk
1/2 C. water
1 C. flour (if you used whole wheat, it would be fewer points!)
1/4 C. white sugar
1/4 t. salt
Mix wet ingredients together first. Whisk in the four and salt until mostly smooth.
Make small crepes (like skinny pancakes) in a pan using a spray of oil before each new crepe. I used a 1/3 C. measure to measure out the batter and made 7 crepes.
Filling recipe:
1/2 C. of part-skim ricotta
1 T. of honey
(you could add a teaspoon of vanilla too)
Mix together until smooth and the batter has a light butter color to it.
Assembly:
When crepes are finished, take about 1 T. of the ricotta mixture and smooth it down the middle of the crepe. Roll the crepe up like a burrito. Place the "burrito," seam side down on a medium skillet to toast for a minute or two. Remove from heat and plate. Top the crepes with wild blueberries (mine were frozen and I microwaved them until they were steamy and had some juice). You could make extra of the ricotta mixture and use a dollop of it on top of the crepes as well.
All this tasty goodness for just 3 points a Blintz!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Oh so tasty!
(Sorry, I forgot to take a picture!)
Tonight A and I had delicious food (that I made-- no modesty here).
I made marsala chicken (that was supposed to be pan fried) and cheap asparagus from Mexico (gracias hermanos y hermanas del sur) and very tasty Uncle Ben's wild rice blend mixed with a homemade parmesan and onion risotto that I'd made for Valentine's Day. It was all so very scrumptious.
I turned the "fried chicken" into an oven fried chicken from this recipe:
ANNIE O's OVEN FRIED CHICKEN
PAM spray oil
6 chicken thighs
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
1/4 c. corn meal
1/4 c. smashed up seasoned croutons (I think they were "ranch")
1 tsp. Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1 tsp. black pepper
dash of chili flakes
Combine parmesan cheese, corn meal, smashed up croutons, seasoned salt, black pepper and chili flakes in a gallon ziplock. Dump in the chicken thighs and shake them around until they are all well coated.
Spray a cookie sheet with PAM, and lay the chicken thighs out happily (they don't like to touch each other). Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, turn and bake 10 minutes longer or until tender. Make sure they are done all the way through.
Makes about 3 servings.
I highly recommend it!
YUM!
Also, the marsala chicken was altered as well
(we're trying to be more health conscious)--
1/2 c. chicken broth
10 oz. of thinly sliced white mushrooms
1/4 c. minced onion (or scallion is better, if you have it)
(put these in the pan together and cook until there's more liquid in the pan than when you started-- about 5-6 minutes)
1/2 c. marsala wine comes next. Cook it until it evaporates a bit (about 5 minutes).
1/4 c. of soymilk goes in then,
(instead of cream! eek. we don't want to be fat forever!).
Don't worry if it's a little curdly at first, it goes away
Cook it all together about 5 more minutes until it is not too liquidy and it tastes awesome.
1 T. butter comes next, after you take it off the heat. So delicious.
Buen provecho!
(Sorry, I forgot to take a picture!)
Tonight A and I had delicious food (that I made-- no modesty here).
I made marsala chicken (that was supposed to be pan fried) and cheap asparagus from Mexico (gracias hermanos y hermanas del sur) and very tasty Uncle Ben's wild rice blend mixed with a homemade parmesan and onion risotto that I'd made for Valentine's Day. It was all so very scrumptious.
I turned the "fried chicken" into an oven fried chicken from this recipe:
ANNIE O's OVEN FRIED CHICKEN
PAM spray oil
6 chicken thighs
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
1/4 c. corn meal
1/4 c. smashed up seasoned croutons (I think they were "ranch")
1 tsp. Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1 tsp. black pepper
dash of chili flakes
Combine parmesan cheese, corn meal, smashed up croutons, seasoned salt, black pepper and chili flakes in a gallon ziplock. Dump in the chicken thighs and shake them around until they are all well coated.
Spray a cookie sheet with PAM, and lay the chicken thighs out happily (they don't like to touch each other). Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, turn and bake 10 minutes longer or until tender. Make sure they are done all the way through.
Makes about 3 servings.
I highly recommend it!
YUM!
Also, the marsala chicken was altered as well
(we're trying to be more health conscious)--
1/2 c. chicken broth
10 oz. of thinly sliced white mushrooms
1/4 c. minced onion (or scallion is better, if you have it)
(put these in the pan together and cook until there's more liquid in the pan than when you started-- about 5-6 minutes)
1/2 c. marsala wine comes next. Cook it until it evaporates a bit (about 5 minutes).
1/4 c. of soymilk goes in then,
(instead of cream! eek. we don't want to be fat forever!).
Don't worry if it's a little curdly at first, it goes away
Cook it all together about 5 more minutes until it is not too liquidy and it tastes awesome.
1 T. butter comes next, after you take it off the heat. So delicious.
Buen provecho!
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Wedding dresses!
Tried this dress on at Heartstrings Bridal today in Hopkins. Dress.
Lulakate dress. "The Ashley"
Tried this dress on at Heartstrings Bridal today in Hopkins. Dress.
Lulakate dress. "The Ashley"
Friday, December 28, 2007
This was Aaron snow plowing our driveway the day after Christmas. We've supposedly gotten more snow this year than any other year in our young 26 years of life. We love it. Now, if only we can set aside some time to go out and ski in it! This was our first day of snow "play"-- we actually had a fun time shoveling and plowing. The snow was caked on the trees and everything was hushed by the snow. It was a beautiful morning. Then, a tree fell down across the street by our house. Wow, two trees, actually.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Reflecting on my student teaching experience:
Wow, it’s finally come, the end of my student teaching semester.
How do I feel? I feel relieved. I don’t, unfortunately, feel as relieved as I was hoping that I would feel. These projects, this semester, this experience, has been just another step in my seemingly never-ending professional life. I naively thought that it would have been an ending. But now, I find that I need to jump through the right hoops in the right order to get my license, and then an interview (likely many), and then hopefully a job. After that, there will be more hoops to jump as a new employee in a district, a new teacher, and a new colleague. All along the way I will need to build new relationships, new understandings, and reflect on everything. The best part of all this, of course, is that I love it.
It feels strange to go back into the classroom that I called my own for three months. It feels uncomfortable and strange, like when I was little and lost a tooth, nudging the empty socket with my tongue where my tooth had been, and realizing that it was gone, but that a new tooth would grow, and I could already feel it poking through. I know that this class has been “lost” and that I will “grow” a new class, but I can’t feel it “poking through” quite yet, and it makes me nervous and uneasy.
Visiting my old classroom makes me feel guilty. When I visited for the first time the other day, one of my students asked me, “Srta. Annie, where have you been?” When I answered that I had been “working,” her response was a knowing nod. I know she nodded because her father left for “work” in September and hasn’t been back since. Unfortunately, he is likely deported; I am just working on finishing a semester of graduate school. My student doesn’t yet know the difference. I am happy she doesn’t.
I miss my students, but selfishly, I miss what I got out of the successes that we had in the classroom together more than the students themselves. I miss seeing the “ah-ha” moments and working on something really hard, and over, and over, and over, until I knew that they understood what I wanted them to understand. I get a lot out of the successes of my students, and in that way, I am a strange kind of selfish.
I don’t like to complain, so I’ll only do a little of it.
My cooperating teacher sucked. She sucked in a deceptive way. To the outside person, we got along well; we had several things in common: we’re optimistic, we’re enthusiastic, we make do and move on. On closer inspection by my colleagues, my principal, and my advisor, however, it was quickly obvious that the things that were working in our classroom were organized, reinforced, and maintained by the students and myself. Her role was minimal, but that was good, because her lack of organization, irresponsibility and inability to be counted on or to follow through provided for blaring failures when she did take something on.
She was welcoming and enthusiastic in the beginning of the year but her disorganization and lack of control over her own life outside of the classroom translated into a rocky and horrible example of how to begin the year. I learned, of course, by her bad example how to do things better. It would have been more fun and less work to have learned from a great example.
This profession, teaching, seems very masochistic and addicting; it lifts you up higher than high when you do something well and the class just seems to “get it” all; it slams you against the wall when a lesson flops and the class flies out of control. It all happens within the four walls of your very own kingdom, your classroom, and no one, not even your closest, most wonderful colleagues really understand exactly how you feel. But there is great reward in doing things well, and even more reward in fixing things to make them better. There is also an incredible thrill at doing it all, mostly independently, because of your own hard work and toil. Cooperative teaching opportunities are even harder work, and even more rewarding. Because of the yanking and pushing, teaching is addictive. I’m always searching for the wonderful experiences, stumbling over the awful ones, and pushing on, in search of impossible perfection.
The best part of all this, of course, is that I love it.
Wow, it’s finally come, the end of my student teaching semester.
How do I feel? I feel relieved. I don’t, unfortunately, feel as relieved as I was hoping that I would feel. These projects, this semester, this experience, has been just another step in my seemingly never-ending professional life. I naively thought that it would have been an ending. But now, I find that I need to jump through the right hoops in the right order to get my license, and then an interview (likely many), and then hopefully a job. After that, there will be more hoops to jump as a new employee in a district, a new teacher, and a new colleague. All along the way I will need to build new relationships, new understandings, and reflect on everything. The best part of all this, of course, is that I love it.
It feels strange to go back into the classroom that I called my own for three months. It feels uncomfortable and strange, like when I was little and lost a tooth, nudging the empty socket with my tongue where my tooth had been, and realizing that it was gone, but that a new tooth would grow, and I could already feel it poking through. I know that this class has been “lost” and that I will “grow” a new class, but I can’t feel it “poking through” quite yet, and it makes me nervous and uneasy.
Visiting my old classroom makes me feel guilty. When I visited for the first time the other day, one of my students asked me, “Srta. Annie, where have you been?” When I answered that I had been “working,” her response was a knowing nod. I know she nodded because her father left for “work” in September and hasn’t been back since. Unfortunately, he is likely deported; I am just working on finishing a semester of graduate school. My student doesn’t yet know the difference. I am happy she doesn’t.
I miss my students, but selfishly, I miss what I got out of the successes that we had in the classroom together more than the students themselves. I miss seeing the “ah-ha” moments and working on something really hard, and over, and over, and over, until I knew that they understood what I wanted them to understand. I get a lot out of the successes of my students, and in that way, I am a strange kind of selfish.
I don’t like to complain, so I’ll only do a little of it.
My cooperating teacher sucked. She sucked in a deceptive way. To the outside person, we got along well; we had several things in common: we’re optimistic, we’re enthusiastic, we make do and move on. On closer inspection by my colleagues, my principal, and my advisor, however, it was quickly obvious that the things that were working in our classroom were organized, reinforced, and maintained by the students and myself. Her role was minimal, but that was good, because her lack of organization, irresponsibility and inability to be counted on or to follow through provided for blaring failures when she did take something on.
She was welcoming and enthusiastic in the beginning of the year but her disorganization and lack of control over her own life outside of the classroom translated into a rocky and horrible example of how to begin the year. I learned, of course, by her bad example how to do things better. It would have been more fun and less work to have learned from a great example.
This profession, teaching, seems very masochistic and addicting; it lifts you up higher than high when you do something well and the class just seems to “get it” all; it slams you against the wall when a lesson flops and the class flies out of control. It all happens within the four walls of your very own kingdom, your classroom, and no one, not even your closest, most wonderful colleagues really understand exactly how you feel. But there is great reward in doing things well, and even more reward in fixing things to make them better. There is also an incredible thrill at doing it all, mostly independently, because of your own hard work and toil. Cooperative teaching opportunities are even harder work, and even more rewarding. Because of the yanking and pushing, teaching is addictive. I’m always searching for the wonderful experiences, stumbling over the awful ones, and pushing on, in search of impossible perfection.
The best part of all this, of course, is that I love it.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Student Work Sample
Annie Olson
Hamline University
Fall Semester
December 6, 2007
LEARNER OUTCOMES
Student will be able to orally count in order from 0-10 (preferably in Spanish).
[MN State Mathematics Standards, Kindergarten, II. Number Sense, Computation, and Operations. A. Number Sense. Standard: Represent quantitites using whole numbers and understand relationships among whole numbers. 1. Count forward to 31, backward from 10].
Student will be able to apply one-to-one correspondence when counting objects.
Student will be able to produce the appropriate number of objects (0-10) when requested.
[MN State Mathematics Standards, Kindergarten, II. Number Sense, Computation, and Operations. A. Number Sense. Standard: Represent quantitites using whole numbers and understand relationships among whole numbers. 2. Count the number of objuects in a set and identify the quantity.]
Student will distinguish the difference between the numbers 0-10 as written numerals.
TEACHING CONTEXT
Wellstone elementary is situated on the riverfront in downtown St. Paul in an eight floored building. School demographics are approximately 41 percent African American students and 40 percent Hispanic students with the remaining 19 percent fairly evenly distributed between Asian, American Indian, and caucasian students. As of 2006, our school had 95 percent of its student population receiving free or reduce priced lunch.
Our classroom, room 203, hosts two dual-immersion classrooms. When both classes (kindergarten and first grade) are in our space, we have fifty two students, two teachers and an eductional assistant.
I believe that if society is taught in schools, teachers should take the opportunity to help teach our students how to take part in forming a better society- a society where roles of all kinds are split more equally between people. I can model that in my classroom by attempting to keep equality and fairness at the front of my mind. Student roles and ability to help our classroom family should be modeled, taught and scaffolded. During my student teaching, my belief about roles and responsibilities has been strengthened. Students love to help out and they like to be responsible for something and do a good job at it.
I believe that every child can learn, and it will be my responsibility as a teacher to decode how each of my students learn best. I believe in the importance of recognizing and teaching to the multiple intelligences. I want to reach all my students by frequently using different types of activities, centered around multiple intelligences and different learning styles. During my student teaching I found that if I don't use different activities tailored to the multiple intelligences, my students (especially my bodily-kinesthetic leaners) would drive me crazy.
I know that the education that students leave my classroom with – not only academic facts, but their abilities to understand themselves, relate to others, problem solve, and live in the broader world – will affect them for their whole lives.
My students, as I have observed, represent several of the multiple intelligences. Many of my students seem to be bodily-kinesthetic learners. Most of my students are wiggly. They NEED to move at least every fifteen minutes and usually more often than that. These students benefit from partner clapping exercises where we count and dance the numbers in order. Several of my students are very musically inteligent. They hum and sing our counting chants and songs while they are working at their tables, they remember and can recount numbers without recognizing them because of the sing song patterns that we use to count with. Most of the rest of my students seem to be verbal-linguistic learners. This could be, however, that their rote understanding of the world is still emerging and their learning styles will likely change as they mature. In my kindergarten class I have students who are five and six years old. Some of my students are more advanced in their development, physically, emotionally, and as learners. Some of them come from homes where education is very important, and their parents have spent time with them, teaching them numbers, colors, letters, e.t.c. My students love stories. They love fantastical characters like Spiderman and beautiful female characters like Cinderella.
PRE-ASSESSMENT
When students came to Wellstone Elementary's Welcome Night, Miss Nelson and I individually tested each student on basic numerical knowledge. These tests required students to verbally count as high as they could, recognize and name written numerals out of order and represent numbers with manipulatives such as blocks. This test allowed us to gain an accurate understanding of where our students were starting from. This test showed us a realistic picture of what our students already knew and what they did not yet know. This test helped us find a starting point from which to begin teaching. (Please see attached testing templates.) This test was not one of my own design, and had I the chance to organize the class into groups for the next semester, or the next year, I would do things differently, (please refer to the reflection section of this paper).
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
I reviewed students' in-class verbal mathematical reasoning in small group work, their participation in whole group activities, as well as written work that was turned into me. These, in combination with the formative formal/post-testing, helped me identify students who needed extra instruction. Day to day classwork built on itself as much as the Everyday Math curriculum would allow me to, and at times, I was probably more flexible in my teaching than the curriculum would have liked me to be because I wanted to see the majority of my class progressing at about the same rate, with the same successes. If I observed, for example, that the majority of my students were not using one to one correspondence when counting objects with a partner, I re-grouped the class to re-teach, and then extended the lesson into the “theme time” or “snack time” of the day. We often reviewed lessons from the previous day before working on that day's lesson, which was not built into the spiral curriculum of Everyday Math as much as I wish it had been.
FINAL ASSESSMENT
I used the exact same test that we had used for our pre-testing to accurately measure exactly how far my students had come in their mathematical understanding. Students were not explicitly informed of their scores or the results of their tests, but from this test, and from informal assessments of their classroom work, I identified a small set of students who needed additional individual practice and instruction. At this point, I decided that this small group had still not achieved the outcomes that I wanted them to. Specifically, they were still not recognizing the numerals 0-10 out of order. So, my final assessment also served as another formative assessment. I took this small group of students and re-taught the numerals using Touch Math. After re-teaching in small group, I pulled them out one-by-one during class work time to tutor them on the numerals. I also placed a Touch Math number strip at each of their desk spaces. After a week of this, I re-tested the students on their numeral recognition and at that point, the majority of the students recognized every numeral from 0-10 out of order.
DATA AND SELECTED WORK SAMPLES
I chose three students' work to represent the continum of mathematical understanding that was represented in my classroom.
The first student came into my classroom recognizing all the numerals 0-10 out of order, he could count to 100 in Spanish, and he/she could represent the numbers three, nine, five, and eight quickly and easily using manipulatives. This student was alone in the class in his advanced mathematical abilities and understanding. The student demonstrated complete understanding of one to one correspondence and he/she finished his/her work quickly and effectively. An example of this student's work is the number nine page. This student even demostrates his/her counting abilities on the page, by numbering the objects that he saw and drawing circles around the correct number of objects.
The next student came into my classroom recognizing three of eleven numerals 0-10. He/she could count to seven in Spanish, and he/she could represent three, nine, five, and eight effectively using manipulatives. This student was an average student in my class. The example of this student's work in the number seven page. He/she writes some of his/her numbers illegibly, does not completely understand how many seven is, as demonstrated from one correctly displayed group of seven and two mistaken “boxes.” However, he/she did not exhibit this lack of understanding until the number seven. He/she had understood the numbers up until that point.
The last student example is a student who came into my classroom recognizing three numerals 0-10 and naming some of the numbers letters. He/she could count to 12 in Spanish and could only represent the number three with manipulatives (out of three, nine, five and eight). This student was a lower achieving student in my classroom, and was one of the students who qualified for my lower set of students who received additional instruction in Touch Math. His/her work is represented by the number four page. He/she immediately started to struggle with representing groups of numbers. His penmanship and writing of the numbers was clear, but his one to one correspondence and understanding of quantitiy was lacking.
ANALYSIS OF DATA
As you can observe from the preceeding page, every student in my class improved their overall score on the final assessment. Eight of my students could identify every numeral from 0-10 correctly out of order compared with one student who could identify them in September before school started. Almost every students' ability to recognize numerals 0-10 drastically improved with many of the majority of them improving their scores by more than fifty percent. Unfortunately, one studbent could identify fewer numerals. Only three students still demonstrated that they were still struggling significantly, and these scores unfortunately do not represent their acheivments after instruction in Touch Math. Most of my students (17 of 28) could represent the numbers three, nine, five, and eight using manipulatives by the final assessment. Most of those who could not represent all of the numbers could represent at least two more numbers than they had been able to represent before school started. Three students were still unable to show two of the four numbers. All but one of my students could successfully count from 0-10 in Spanish. All of my students could count higher than they were able to at the beginning of the year. Only one student in my class was still unable to count to ten.
DATA PRIVACY
My students' privacy is important to me. I took every necessary step to protect and conceal the identity of my students. I have removed names from student work and identified my students in non-alphabetical order by number rather than name in any representation of my class as a whole.
REFLECTION
The test that I used for pre-assessment and final assessement was not one of my own design, it was a test that has been in place for many years, and the entire kindergarten team at my school uses it. Were I to re-design this tool (and thusly, what I did with it and how I used it) I would change the testing page only slightly. I don't think that it is necessary to place a nine and six next to each other on the test (please see included testing template). I think that this serves to confuse, and almost trick the students into self-doubt. When testing even the most bright of students, each of them in turn hesitated at that point. I would change my use of the information that I gained from the test quite drastically. My cooperating teacher did not use the information gained in the pre-assessment to inform her instruction. I would rank the information gained from the pre-assessment and use it in order to better form groups of mixed ability, as well as to form groups of similar ability, so that I could challenge the students at the level that they are on more appropriately. Doing this, higher achieving students would be less likely to be under-challenged and bored, while at the same time lower achieving students would not feel as overwhelmed or threatened. I would take the class ranking of mathematical score and “fold” the class in half, placing the one half of the medium students with higher achieving students and the lower students with the other half of the medium achieving students, and I would mix up these groups frequently.
Annie Olson
Hamline University
Fall Semester
December 6, 2007
LEARNER OUTCOMES
Student will be able to orally count in order from 0-10 (preferably in Spanish).
[MN State Mathematics Standards, Kindergarten, II. Number Sense, Computation, and Operations. A. Number Sense. Standard: Represent quantitites using whole numbers and understand relationships among whole numbers. 1. Count forward to 31, backward from 10].
Student will be able to apply one-to-one correspondence when counting objects.
Student will be able to produce the appropriate number of objects (0-10) when requested.
[MN State Mathematics Standards, Kindergarten, II. Number Sense, Computation, and Operations. A. Number Sense. Standard: Represent quantitites using whole numbers and understand relationships among whole numbers. 2. Count the number of objuects in a set and identify the quantity.]
Student will distinguish the difference between the numbers 0-10 as written numerals.
TEACHING CONTEXT
Wellstone elementary is situated on the riverfront in downtown St. Paul in an eight floored building. School demographics are approximately 41 percent African American students and 40 percent Hispanic students with the remaining 19 percent fairly evenly distributed between Asian, American Indian, and caucasian students. As of 2006, our school had 95 percent of its student population receiving free or reduce priced lunch.
Our classroom, room 203, hosts two dual-immersion classrooms. When both classes (kindergarten and first grade) are in our space, we have fifty two students, two teachers and an eductional assistant.
I believe that if society is taught in schools, teachers should take the opportunity to help teach our students how to take part in forming a better society- a society where roles of all kinds are split more equally between people. I can model that in my classroom by attempting to keep equality and fairness at the front of my mind. Student roles and ability to help our classroom family should be modeled, taught and scaffolded. During my student teaching, my belief about roles and responsibilities has been strengthened. Students love to help out and they like to be responsible for something and do a good job at it.
I believe that every child can learn, and it will be my responsibility as a teacher to decode how each of my students learn best. I believe in the importance of recognizing and teaching to the multiple intelligences. I want to reach all my students by frequently using different types of activities, centered around multiple intelligences and different learning styles. During my student teaching I found that if I don't use different activities tailored to the multiple intelligences, my students (especially my bodily-kinesthetic leaners) would drive me crazy.
I know that the education that students leave my classroom with – not only academic facts, but their abilities to understand themselves, relate to others, problem solve, and live in the broader world – will affect them for their whole lives.
My students, as I have observed, represent several of the multiple intelligences. Many of my students seem to be bodily-kinesthetic learners. Most of my students are wiggly. They NEED to move at least every fifteen minutes and usually more often than that. These students benefit from partner clapping exercises where we count and dance the numbers in order. Several of my students are very musically inteligent. They hum and sing our counting chants and songs while they are working at their tables, they remember and can recount numbers without recognizing them because of the sing song patterns that we use to count with. Most of the rest of my students seem to be verbal-linguistic learners. This could be, however, that their rote understanding of the world is still emerging and their learning styles will likely change as they mature. In my kindergarten class I have students who are five and six years old. Some of my students are more advanced in their development, physically, emotionally, and as learners. Some of them come from homes where education is very important, and their parents have spent time with them, teaching them numbers, colors, letters, e.t.c. My students love stories. They love fantastical characters like Spiderman and beautiful female characters like Cinderella.
PRE-ASSESSMENT
When students came to Wellstone Elementary's Welcome Night, Miss Nelson and I individually tested each student on basic numerical knowledge. These tests required students to verbally count as high as they could, recognize and name written numerals out of order and represent numbers with manipulatives such as blocks. This test allowed us to gain an accurate understanding of where our students were starting from. This test showed us a realistic picture of what our students already knew and what they did not yet know. This test helped us find a starting point from which to begin teaching. (Please see attached testing templates.) This test was not one of my own design, and had I the chance to organize the class into groups for the next semester, or the next year, I would do things differently, (please refer to the reflection section of this paper).
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
I reviewed students' in-class verbal mathematical reasoning in small group work, their participation in whole group activities, as well as written work that was turned into me. These, in combination with the formative formal/post-testing, helped me identify students who needed extra instruction. Day to day classwork built on itself as much as the Everyday Math curriculum would allow me to, and at times, I was probably more flexible in my teaching than the curriculum would have liked me to be because I wanted to see the majority of my class progressing at about the same rate, with the same successes. If I observed, for example, that the majority of my students were not using one to one correspondence when counting objects with a partner, I re-grouped the class to re-teach, and then extended the lesson into the “theme time” or “snack time” of the day. We often reviewed lessons from the previous day before working on that day's lesson, which was not built into the spiral curriculum of Everyday Math as much as I wish it had been.
FINAL ASSESSMENT
I used the exact same test that we had used for our pre-testing to accurately measure exactly how far my students had come in their mathematical understanding. Students were not explicitly informed of their scores or the results of their tests, but from this test, and from informal assessments of their classroom work, I identified a small set of students who needed additional individual practice and instruction. At this point, I decided that this small group had still not achieved the outcomes that I wanted them to. Specifically, they were still not recognizing the numerals 0-10 out of order. So, my final assessment also served as another formative assessment. I took this small group of students and re-taught the numerals using Touch Math. After re-teaching in small group, I pulled them out one-by-one during class work time to tutor them on the numerals. I also placed a Touch Math number strip at each of their desk spaces. After a week of this, I re-tested the students on their numeral recognition and at that point, the majority of the students recognized every numeral from 0-10 out of order.
DATA AND SELECTED WORK SAMPLES
I chose three students' work to represent the continum of mathematical understanding that was represented in my classroom.
The first student came into my classroom recognizing all the numerals 0-10 out of order, he could count to 100 in Spanish, and he/she could represent the numbers three, nine, five, and eight quickly and easily using manipulatives. This student was alone in the class in his advanced mathematical abilities and understanding. The student demonstrated complete understanding of one to one correspondence and he/she finished his/her work quickly and effectively. An example of this student's work is the number nine page. This student even demostrates his/her counting abilities on the page, by numbering the objects that he saw and drawing circles around the correct number of objects.
The next student came into my classroom recognizing three of eleven numerals 0-10. He/she could count to seven in Spanish, and he/she could represent three, nine, five, and eight effectively using manipulatives. This student was an average student in my class. The example of this student's work in the number seven page. He/she writes some of his/her numbers illegibly, does not completely understand how many seven is, as demonstrated from one correctly displayed group of seven and two mistaken “boxes.” However, he/she did not exhibit this lack of understanding until the number seven. He/she had understood the numbers up until that point.
The last student example is a student who came into my classroom recognizing three numerals 0-10 and naming some of the numbers letters. He/she could count to 12 in Spanish and could only represent the number three with manipulatives (out of three, nine, five and eight). This student was a lower achieving student in my classroom, and was one of the students who qualified for my lower set of students who received additional instruction in Touch Math. His/her work is represented by the number four page. He/she immediately started to struggle with representing groups of numbers. His penmanship and writing of the numbers was clear, but his one to one correspondence and understanding of quantitiy was lacking.
ANALYSIS OF DATA
As you can observe from the preceeding page, every student in my class improved their overall score on the final assessment. Eight of my students could identify every numeral from 0-10 correctly out of order compared with one student who could identify them in September before school started. Almost every students' ability to recognize numerals 0-10 drastically improved with many of the majority of them improving their scores by more than fifty percent. Unfortunately, one studbent could identify fewer numerals. Only three students still demonstrated that they were still struggling significantly, and these scores unfortunately do not represent their acheivments after instruction in Touch Math. Most of my students (17 of 28) could represent the numbers three, nine, five, and eight using manipulatives by the final assessment. Most of those who could not represent all of the numbers could represent at least two more numbers than they had been able to represent before school started. Three students were still unable to show two of the four numbers. All but one of my students could successfully count from 0-10 in Spanish. All of my students could count higher than they were able to at the beginning of the year. Only one student in my class was still unable to count to ten.
DATA PRIVACY
My students' privacy is important to me. I took every necessary step to protect and conceal the identity of my students. I have removed names from student work and identified my students in non-alphabetical order by number rather than name in any representation of my class as a whole.
REFLECTION
The test that I used for pre-assessment and final assessement was not one of my own design, it was a test that has been in place for many years, and the entire kindergarten team at my school uses it. Were I to re-design this tool (and thusly, what I did with it and how I used it) I would change the testing page only slightly. I don't think that it is necessary to place a nine and six next to each other on the test (please see included testing template). I think that this serves to confuse, and almost trick the students into self-doubt. When testing even the most bright of students, each of them in turn hesitated at that point. I would change my use of the information that I gained from the test quite drastically. My cooperating teacher did not use the information gained in the pre-assessment to inform her instruction. I would rank the information gained from the pre-assessment and use it in order to better form groups of mixed ability, as well as to form groups of similar ability, so that I could challenge the students at the level that they are on more appropriately. Doing this, higher achieving students would be less likely to be under-challenged and bored, while at the same time lower achieving students would not feel as overwhelmed or threatened. I would take the class ranking of mathematical score and “fold” the class in half, placing the one half of the medium students with higher achieving students and the lower students with the other half of the medium achieving students, and I would mix up these groups frequently.
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