Teacher Talk Tuesday

It's the day to give advice to new teachers over at Blog Hoppin'! Since I'm pretty much a new teacher myself, I can only offer a year's worth of advice. Hopefully, it benefits someone out there! :P

Okay, first of all, take breaks! Don't feel like you have to change the entire world within the nine months you have your precious kiddos. It's easy to think about/do school all the time, but you'll go insane. Give yourself some you time!

Secondly, work hard to build strong, positive relationships with the parents and families of your kiddos. The closer you are to them, the bigger the impact you can have on your students. Families are super important, so make sure you acknowledge that in your classroom.

Thirdly, don't set yourself up on an island. Seek out your co-workers and use them! Their experience is valuable to you. Trying to do everything by yourself will drive you crazy!

Fourthly, start organized and stay organized. The second you let piles start to grow on your desk you will find yourself drowning in stuff to do. Take time at the end of every day to put everything back where it belongs.

Finally, write everything down! Kids say the funniest, most ridiculous, craziest things, and even though you want to remember them, you won't. You have too many other things to think about to remember the funny thing Johnny said at breakfast. Write them down as soon as they happen so you have an account of them. When life starts getting you down, you can pick up your Funny Things Kids Say journal and laugh and laugh and laugh, and suddenly, life won't seem so horrible.

Like I said, I don't necessarily have all that much experience in this crazy field, but hopefully what I do have to share will help some new teacher out there!

Meet the Teacher

Okay, so I might be a day late in the post, but I didn't know about the Teacher Week going on over at Blog Hoppin' until I stumbled upon it today. I figure better late than never, so I'm going to jump right in.

A little something about me...

Well, I'm in my second year of teaching, and I teach preschool in a Christian preschool. Last year was pretty awful. I spent most of it trying to rebuild the program after the previous director left unexpectedly. Thinking back on that now, it seems like a lot of responsibility for a first year teacher, but I survived, and the program has definitely grown! I got married last November to my high school sweetheart, and we moved to a new house last month. We're finally feeling "settled in" and are talking about starting a family now!

How long have I been teaching?

Well....I guess I answered that in the first question. I'm going into my second year. I was pretty fortunate to find a job my first year out of college, even if it wasn't the job I originally envisioned myself doing. I love it though, and my passion for early childhood education has really started to grow since I tangled my life with the lives of a bunch of three and four year-olds.

You might not know...

That I grew up in the middle of four brothers. Now that I'm old enough to really begin to understand the demands of being a parent, I wonder how my mom and dad managed. I have an older brother who is very dainty (he hates to get dirty!) but very smart (he's a pharmacist). My three younger brothers were always the ones who caused the most trouble. The oldest of the younger ones is in college, and last I checked with him, he dreams of managing a store of some kind (his dream changes about as often as his clothes). The two younger ones are twins and they are juniors in high school, which is something I'm still struggling to comprehend. They seem too young to be close to graduating from high school.

What am I most looking forward to this year?

I am most looking forward to actually knowing what I am doing! I did a lot of trial and error last year, which helped me understand what to do and what not to do, but, at the same time, it wasted some precious time. I'm also looking forward to being able to devote all of my time to preschool. Last year, I was working on my early childhood endorsement while taking five classes through the local area education agency and working two jobs. I didn't have much time to really devote to preschool.

What do I need to improve?

I need to be more organized! Instead of waiting until I had a stack of anecdotal notes that touches the ceiling, I need to record them every day before I leave school. I also want to be a little better about not devoting too much time to school. I rarely saw my husband last year, and I missed him. I can change that.

What teaching supplies can I not live without?

Post-It Notes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love them and use them all the time. I like that I can make one note on each post-it and then throw it away when I've taken care of it. It's very therapeutic.

I also love my label maker! It has really come in handy the last few days as I try to organize my classroom.

I feel compelled to mention the obvious - books. As a teacher, I can never have too many books!

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!

Brainstorming for Next Year

As part of our state's standards, we are required to have a family literacy night every year. While I was getting ready for my field experience this morning, I came up with an idea for our night next year.

I'd like to do a family read-a-thon. The kids could collect pledges on a per book basis, and we could use the money we raise to support a charity (not sure which one yet). The actual night would be two hours of reading as a family and participating in various activities. It would serve two purposes; one being to teach kids to give by supporting a charity and another being to teach families strategies to use as they read together at home.

I'm sure my board would be behind this idea. They have always supported my attempts to bring in families. I'm excited! It makes me sad, though, that I have to wait so long to put this plan in action...I don't want to wish summer away, but I am looking forward to next year. There are so many things I'd like to do differently.

In other news, my field experience has gotten better. One of the things I've learned is that the center has an excellent idea of what their care should of infants should be. They have a great daily schedule that includes early literacy skills as well as a great deal of fine and gross motor skills. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be a clear idea of who is in charge in each room. No one plans anything on a daily basis, because no one knows who's job it is.

I have been noticing a lot more adult to baby interaction, so I'm feeling much better about that. I was reading at article last night in Young Children about communicating with babies. One thing that stuck out to me was the idea of starting a conversation with the infant before handling him/her. I think we, adults, often forget that babies are humans who deserve respect; we pick them up and move them around as if they are toys. I don't think we mean to disrespect them by doing this. We just want to love them and keep them safe. The article talked about how when we do things like this, we are telling the infant that what s/he wants doesn't actually matter. We really need to talk with the infants - tell them what we're going to do with them and ask them for permission (if they are old enough to understand and respond). I just thought that was a powerful point. We wouldn't want someone to come over, pick us up, and move us somewhere us without a good reason, so why shouldn't we give babies the same respect?

I have two more days in the infant room, and then I'm moving on to preschoolers. While I love how cute and cuddly the babies are, I'm looking forward to seeing someone else handle preschoolers. I teach by myself and it can be easy to get stuck in a rut because I don't have new ideas being presented to me on a regular basis. Watching someone else will, hopefully, open new doors for me.

Spontaneous Camping Trip!

I didn't even think about school for most of this weekend! It was a very welcome break.

My husband and I took our first camping trip together. It was pretty spontaneous. He came up with the idea around 10:00 on Friday morning. Next thing I knew, we were out checking on the camping areas around the lake on his lunch break. We had to reserve our spot as soon as we found it - just to make sure no one else would take it, of course - but he also had to go back to work. I ended up setting up the tent by myself! It's not a difficult task, but I was proud of myself.

We spent the weekend sitting around the fire, hanging out at the lake, reading in the sun, and eating wonderful camp food. It was a little chilly. I think the high yesterday was somewhere around 69 degrees, and it dropped down to the low 50s during the night. Plenty of sweatshirts, blankets, and, of course, plenty of snuggling kept us warm. What a great weekend!

This is what our campsite looked like. Our tent looks tiny, but it fits our queen sized air mattress with some extra room. Also, we learned a thing or too about raccoons... Around 11:00 last night, we heard our bags of food rustling and knew it couldn't be the wind. There was a fairly decent-sized raccoon digging for some supper. He took off with our bread but dropped it by the truck. Goofy raccoon!

We made some tasty pizza pockets on the fire. Pretty simple - pita bread, pizza sauce, pepperoni and Canadian bacon, and cheese all wrapped in foil. They were fabulous. We also made the obligatory hot dogs and s'mores on the fire as well.

Hopefully, we have plenty of camping weekends in the future. It was a fabulous time.

Rivers and Lakes and Clotheslines - Oh My!

Memorial Day weekend is behind us, and I, for one, am glad for that. My husband and I had about a million things on our to do list for the weekend, and we somehow managed to do everything on that list. This was a good thing, but I am absolutely exhausted today. Over the weekend, we managed to:

• spend time with both of our families
• help my brother move into his first home
• take a four mile kayaking trip on the river
• grill - twice
• go to Mass
• visit old friends
• attend a Memorial Day ceremony at a cemetery - What an excellent way to remember that we don't get the day off of work just to celebrate warm weather and beaches! It was wonderful to spend some time thinking of, praying for, and remembering those who dedicate their lives to protecting ours.
  
• go to a graduation party
• kayak on the lake - during this particular trip, we kind of got stuck in some killer waves - scary...

I miss the days when weekends were actually relaxing.


One thing I noticed this weekend was that my mom still hangs her wash out on her clothesline. What a novel thing to do. During the last week of school, I read the story Mrs. McNosh Hangs Out Her Wash. It's a cute little story about an older lady hanging her clothes, and many other things, out on the clothesline. Before we read it, I asked the kiddos if their moms and dads hung their clothes outside. I got crickets. Not a single parent does this any more. Then again, I haven't seen all that many clotheslines around either. Kudos to my mom for saving electricity and bringing me back to my roots by hanging her clothes out on the line!