What's That? A Productive Board Meeting? No Way!

We had one of the most productive board meetings of the year last night! It was phenomenal! Normally, I leave board meetings feeling like I have a million things to do and no time to do them, but last night I left feeling at peace with our goals and decisions. That's the key of it all - we actually made decisions. Usually, we fluctuate back and forth for a long time over basic decisions and our meetings have been known to last up to three hours. Last night, we were focused, we had an agenda, we made the necessary decisions, and we were out of there in an hour and a half! I was impressed.

Since registration didn't go as we had planned, we have teamed up with a marketing professor from a local college (she's a member of the congregation) to develop a marketing plan. We spent the last two months doing research - just trying to find out what the general perception of our preschool is and what the community wants us to offer. We looked over the research last night and did a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis based on what we discovered. When we finished the analysis, we created two solid objectives to be completed by next July.

Our objectives are:
1. Organize and complete at least 10 community events (field trips, charity fundraisers, public appearances, etc.) by July 31, 2012.
2. Apply for and receive a QRS rating by December 31, 2011

I think they are completely achievable objectives which will help us promote our preschool for the positive place it is.

In other news, my husband and I are getting ready to move to a house tomorrow! It's been a crazy week that way. We've been making daily trips up there to move truck-loads of stuff, so we only have to put furniture and big things in the U-haul. I have mixed feelings about the move. I'm excited because it's a house (we have a yard, laundry, a mailbox - all of those good things), it's closer to my job (same travel time for Kyle), and it's in a smaller town, but at the same time, I'm worried about how I'll be received there. I'm afraid of a negative response to my presence, but I'm taking a leap of faith and hoping those concerns aren't real.

Now to get all of this packing done...:(

Break Out the Champagne!

I FINISHED MY ENDORSEMENT!!!!!!!

I just turned in the final assignments (read: six five-page papers....yuck!) tonight! If all goes well and I pass those last two classes, I will now have three endorsements on my teaching license! I feel like every sentence tonight needs to end with an exclamation point - that's how excited I am!

Now to fill out all the lovely paperwork that goes along with asking the state to add a few words to my license...

Last First Time

Because I am a teacher - a teacher who loves reading and has a passion for instilling that love in every student who enters my classroom - and because I'm particularly emotional today, I feel the need to express what is going on in my heart today, as I prepare myself for the end of the Harry Potter era.

I grew up with Harry Potter - so much so that I feel like he is my fifth brother. People bring up the argument all the time demanding to know why I see him as such a hero. He lies, cheats, steals, disobeys authority, and many other horrible things I'm sure I'm forgetting. That's what makes him so special to me, though; he's human. Nothing about him is incredible, and he makes mistakes. He's an average/slightly above average wizard, who knows a little more about the dark arts than the others simply because of who he is. BUT he has a passion, a heart, big enough to conquer all evil. He takes on problems that are much bigger than he is, and because of this passion, because of the love and loyalty he feels for those around him, he is able to succeed. He epitomizes all the values I hope to instill in my students and my own children: friendship, loyalty, family, care, strength, endurance, bouncing back.

At midnight tonight, theaters all over will be showing the last movie in the Harry Potter saga, and I'm devastated. I know, there's nothing new in the movies - I've read the book. I've been clinging to these movies though. They kept the story alive. I know I can reread the books and watch any of the movies anytime I'd like, but there's something about the first time. There will be no more first times.

I cried when I finished the last book (which I devoured in one day - just because I couldn't stand to not know what was going to happen - now I wish I had taken some time and really cherished that last first time).

I'll probably cry tonight.

To Harry Potter! To everything he taught me and to everything he'll teach people who continue to read the books!

Making Improvements: One Day at a Time

I spent the last two days in my classroom organizing some centers and cleaning up the mess left over from Saturday's festivities. I'm pretty excited about the progress I've made. I feel like I have a much better understanding The Creative Curriculum, and that is helping me design my classroom with more clarity.

My biggest concern about my classroom last year was about how much open space I had. Now, I didn't mind this too much, but I did notice the kids seemed to wander a lot. This often lead to running and all sorts of craziness. By itself it wasn't horrible, but when other kids were trying to build tall towers or focus on a quieter activity, these crazy running bursts were distracting and often destructive.

I managed to turn my classroom into decent centers today! I've rearranged the room two times now this summer, and I think I've finally discovered an arrangement I like.

I started by organizing my Toys and Games center. After reading the chapter on it in The Creative Curriculum, I took everything off my shelves and put them into four piles: self-correcting toys (toys with a clear-cut way to go together), open-ended toys (toys with no right or wrong way to use them), collections (items that are open-ended and share commonalities), and cooperative toys (games children play together).

I realized I had about a million toys in that center! Way too much - no wonder the center was always a mess! I ended up choosing only 4-5 toys from each category to put back on the shelf. When I head back up there next week, I plan to label the shelves and the baskets like I did in the block center to make clean up easy for the kids.

Here's the finished center:

I'm loving that I have a table in the center this year. Last year, the kids took the toys wherever they wanted...It was a mess.

On the top of this side of the shelf are my collections. (Although, really, I think these collections belong in Discovery. It's all I have right now though.) Below are the open-ended toys - teddy bears, pegs and pegboards, links, beads, alphabet blocks, and magnetic letters. The self-help frames on the bottom right are actually self-correcting toys, but this was the only place I could fit them.

On this side of the shelf are my self-correcting toys and my cooperative games. The self-correcting toys are on the top - nesting cups, shape stackers, shape box, puzzles, and color pegboard. The cooperative games are on the bottom.

Pretty cool, huh? I'm not sure how well I'm meeting the requirements of The Creative Curriculum, but I feel better about it now than I did.

I moved to my art center after I finished Toys and Games. Last year, I planned art activities for the kids. They were normally process art projects, but I told them what supplies they could use and most of the kids were working on the same project at the same time. I want to have a more open-ended art center next year: a place where kids can go to exhibit their creativity whatever way they choose.

Here's what my art center looked like before (please don't laugh....):

Pretty awful... No wonder the kids never used it the way I wanted them to. After studying the chapter on Art in The Creative Curriculum and a quick trip to the dollar store in town, this is what my art center looks like now:
I added painting supplies (paint shirts, paintbrushes, paint, tins to put paint on, and sponges), play dough and play dough tools, collage materials, glue, markers, crayons, colored pencils, pencils, paper, and yarn.

I'm pretty excited about the possibilities here! Allowing the kids the freedom to do art at their own will - so exciting!

What I'm Reading

I've been spending a lot of time this summer trying to beef up my classroom strategies. When I started my position as a preschool teacher last year (I was hired only three weeks before school began), I had no idea what best practices looked like at this level. I took four professional development courses throughout the year, plus the classwork I've been doing to get my endorsement, and those efforts got me through last year. Now, I feel like I have the tools to turn my classroom into a fantastic place for learning.

I've especially been looking to the experts for ideas. Here's what I've been reading this summer:

The Creative Curriculum by Diane Trister Dodge, Laura J. Colker, and Cate Heroman

This is the curriculum I've been working to implement in my classroom. I speed-read most of the book before the year began last summer, but I know I missed out on a lot. This summer I have been re-reading to help reorganize my daily schedule and my classroom layout. I've moved around almost all of my interest areas and am currently working to make the areas easier for children to use. There is a newer edition than this, but this is the one I have so I'm making it work for me.

Already Ready: Nurturing Writers in Preschool and Kindergarten by Katie Wood Ray and Matt Glover

This book is phenomenal! Katie and Matt share many ideas about how early childhood teachers can help children see themselves as writers and compose picture books. It is so amazing to see the examples they provide of writing their three and four year-olds created. Of course, those picture books don't look like the ones we look through in the library, but the kids who create them have gone through the writing process and are proud of the stories they have written. I've been working through this book and coming up with many ways to change up how I talk about books with my students and how I to encourage them to spend some time in the writing center.

Literacy Beginnings: A Prekindergarten Handbook by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas

I just got this one for my birthday from my fabulous husband. (I know - I'm a nerd. This was the only thing I asked for for my birthday... What can I say? I have a passion for what I do.) I was so excited to see a book about early literacy skills from the literacy gurus, Fountas and Pinnell! There is a great book study going on over at Pre-K Pages, and I've been enjoying hearing everyone's thoughts as they read this book. Another awesome thing about this book (and keep in mind that I'm easily amused) is that it has built in tabs, which makes it easy to peruse. I'm excited to really delve into this book to see what wonderful ideas I can take from it.

And just for fun, I've been reading:

The Nanny Diaries by Emma Mclaughlin and Nicola Kraus

This book makes me laugh out loud. It's fabulously light-hearted and would make a great beach read. Now, if only I could find a beach...