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...

It Didn't Rain on our Parade

Wow! What a day yesterday was! It was our town's summer celebration, and the culmination of most of our hard work this summer. We started the day off with the parade. Remember that model of the church I talked about having to pull....Well, the people who are storing it for the church told us not to pull it if there was a chance of rain. (The rain could ruin the paint and the wood it is made from.) That morning, as my husband and I were driving into town, it was raining. I checked the radar after we got all the banners hung on the truck, and it didn't show too much rain out there, but there was still a 50% chance. It certainly looked like it could rain at any minute too. So, to make a painfully long story shorter, the president of my board and I decided not to pull the model.

Then, we didn't know where we were supposed to meet to join the parade. The coordinators had given us a special spot in the shade because of the kids - we were just supposed to join the parade in our place as it went by us. That's great, but they didn't have anyone at our place telling us where exactly to line up and when to join the parade. So....we just lined up where we were and joined when we felt like it.

The kids had a blast though. They managed to throw all of their candy out by about halfway through the parade, so my husband ducked into the dollar store (which was conveniently located on the parade rout) to grab some more. They, of course managed to throw all of that out within the next five minutes too... That was fine though - they enjoyed waving and smiling at all the people who were watching. We even got applause from a big section of people by the park!

Since we were at the beginning of the parade, we ducked out before the end and let the kids watch for a while. They were the only kids in that area, so they managed to get about a bucketful of candy each.

After the parade, we were hosting a photography booth in the park. This was all happening during the community picnic, so there were a ton of people there. We made a cutout photo booth - you know, the ones where you stick your face in the hole to appear you have a body of something else - of a cheerleader and a football player. We sold about 10 pictures (which was kind of a disappointment, but I'm blaming it on our location), but I'm not too upset about that. We made back the costs of the equipment, and that's about all I could hope for.

All in all, I'm going to call the day a success. We had a ton of people in our float, and I'm so grateful for that. I think we appeared as a strong, happy, friendly group of people. The kids were having a blast, which helps send the message that our preschool is a great place for kids. I think only good things can come from the experience - even though it was a ton of work!

Papers and a Birthday

I'm working on the papers that go along with my field experience for my new endorsement today.....YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! Five years of college is enough for me for a while. I have always wanted to get my master's degree, but I think I need to wait a little while to get some of my school-oriented motivation back. These papers are driving me insane.

In other news, tomorrow is my birthday. I'll be 23. Crazy. There are many days, after I come home from school absolutely exhausted, that I feel like I'm not old enough for the responsibilities I have. Maybe tomorrow, when I'm officially 23, I'll feel old enough for them. :P I'm not placing any bets on that. It's not that I want to be too young - it's just that I feel overwhelmed with everything, and I wonder if it's because I don't have many experiences yet.

My parents are coming up for a short visit tomorrow morning, and I think I'm going to take them to my classroom. I just want them to see where I spend so much of my time. I think they'll enjoy it too. While they never say it, I'm pretty sure they are proud of me. Hopefully sharing that part of my life with them increases that sense of pride for them.

I guess I should get back to my papers now though...(Again, can I just say - YUCK?) Only five more to go...

Blocks, Blocks, and More Blocks

Alright, so I'm feeling better now - compared to how I felt this morning. I spent the day in my classroom doing finishing touches on some parade stuff and organizing the block center. Just in general, it was a good day.

I contact-papered (Don't worry - it's totally okay to use that as a verb. I'm a teacher. I know these things.) the banners we're going to hang on our truck this weekend first. Considering the banners are 6 feet and 4 feet long, this took me quite a while. I'm glad I did it though; they'll be much stronger this way.

Then, I moved on to the fun part - organizing my block center. I use The Creative Curriculum in my classroom, and I had just re-read the chapter on blocks. I knew there were lots of things I needed to do with it, so I took care of them today.

First, I needed to move my block center. It was in the middle of one side of my classroom, but I wanted to put it in a corner. I just thought it would make it more private and inviting for kids. So I took care of that.

Then, I needed to organize my unit blocks.

Here is what they looked like before:

It was really hard for the kids to get all of the blocks on the little cart they are on in this picture. Most of the time they were overflowing and falling all over the place.

I started by tracing the different shapes of blocks on contact paper, so I could label the shelves. Like this:


Here's the finished product:

I'm so excited for this! It'll be so much easier for the kids to pick up the block center. Each block has it's own space!

Next, I worked on organizing the props. I put everything in totes and labeled the totes and the shelves.

Shelves are labeled with pictures and words. (Sorry about the bad picture - I couldn't get the blinds to shut out all of the sun)

Each tote has a label to match the shelf. This way kids know what goes into each tote and where it goes on the shelf.

Here's the whole shelf area! I love how organized and easy to clean up it is.

Here's the whole area! I'm trying to decide if I want to keep that Lego table or get rid of it. The Legos themselves are hard for the little ones to take apart and put together - their fine motor skills aren't there yet. It also takes up a lot of space. I don't know though...Decisions, decisions, decisions.

In general, though, I'm very pleased with how it looks. I think the kids will appreciate it as well. Hopefully it encourages some outstanding play experiences.

Oh, Maui! Why can't you be closer?

Man, I have been really bad about posting recently. I've got a lot on my plate. The funny thing is I'm stressed out about it and the one thing that really helps me get rid of that stress - blogging - has been difficult for me. For whatever reason, it's hard for me to give myself what I really need. It's almost as if I feel the need to punish myself. I need to change that.

What all is on my plate?

• My preschool is going to be in a parade this weekend at our town's summer celebration. I figured it would be a good way for us to get out into the community - to show people we're still around. I didn't realize how much work it was going to be. There have been so many decisions that, unfortunately, had to be made by the entire board, which means we've had about a bazillion board meetings since the end of the school year. Decisions like: Should we include the model of the church on our float? It's on a trailer that's not big enough to include the kids, what do we do? What are we going to use to decorate? Who's going to paint? Who's going to get the markers? twizzlers? labels? Oh. My. Word. I'm so ready for this parade to be over...
• Instead of hiring an assistant teacher and putting all of our students in one class, we're going to break them into two classes so I can teach them alone. I'm at peace with this decision, but now I have to decide who's going to get their second choice instead of their first choice. I don't want to lose any students. Also...I really wanted an assistant teacher. I really don't want to be on an island any more. :(
• I have six 3-5 page papers to write by July 20.
• My husband and I are moving to a house on July 23. We're excited about the move. The house is in a neutral location, and it'll be cheaper; however, if our landlady doesn't find someone to rent our apartment, we'll have to pay for the next year. That could be $4500 spent on nothing. We can afford it - we're not going to have to declare bankruptcy because of it - but I'd rather have that money to spend on something worthwhile.
• My husband and I are wanting to start a family. Because I'm the girl in this relationship, I'm starting to worry about all the things future moms worry about. What if we can't get pregnant? What if I get really sick? What if there's something wrong with the baby? What if we're not ready to take care of another human? I need to just relax. I'll work on that.

So many things....I'll survive. I just need to keep breathing. Also, a vacation would be nice. We're talking about a day trip somewhere. We'll see what happens. Getting away would be perfect. I miss Maui at times like these. Waking up to this:


every morning would be absolute heaven.