Continuing Education

It’s one of the things we do to get more pay, and since the economy is in the tank and there are no raises in sight, more education moves one up the pay scale (at least until they figure out how to take that away too).  Anyway at the end of last year I put in for the step increase, then found out I was 3 credits short.  I had to take 3 credits and have them completed by the end of August.  So I signed up for an online class.  It finishes today, August 31st.  How’s that for cutting it close?  It’s an online class that normally runs for 5 weeks, only they condensed it into 3 weeks.  Which just happened to be the same three weeks as the end of last year, and the first week and a half of this year.  Now that’s just a dumb thing to do to yourself.  I see the light at the end of the tunnel though, three one page article critiques before midnight.  It wouldn’t have been so bad, except 50% of the grade fell on work done the same week as the first week of school.   Twenty-nine kindergartners.  Twenty-nine baby kindergartners.  Crying baby kindergartners.  They looked at the weekend last Friday with some relief.  When this morning rolled around and they realized that they were coming back to school to do the whole week over again, some of them were not happy.

It has been a tough week.

The first week of school

The week is finally over, and I even got home by 7:00 pm! On Friday…. (had to get those pesky homework folders set up and loaded for Monday).  I do homework, but it’s really not much, a reading log for the week, name practice sheets right now, one number writing practice sheet, and that’s about it.  Later on, it’s mostly practice with their sight words and a little math.  Homework goes out on Monday and comes back on Friday.

I spent a lot of MY time with my kids this first week.  I spent my entire lunch period helping them in the lunchroom (until yesterday anyway, more on that later) and part of each of my preps getting them settled with the different specialists, so they wouldn’t freak out.  It might have taken up my time, but I think it paid off in keeping them from stressing out.  In each instance, they came back to me calmer and less stressed than they otherwise would have.   Still the first week of school takes it’s toll, a number of kids had meltdowns throughout the week,  One little girl was fine the whole week, and today was just too much for her.  We had to pry her off mom this morning, and have mom leave and then she threw a fit for about a half hour before she quieted down.

They have been amazing this week.  They have really started to come together with the routines and procedures.  I’m actually teaching now.  But I’m still having a hard time adjusting to the babies at the beginning of the year though.  I was still teaching my previous class just three weeks ago, and they are first graders now, so I have to get my brain into the right place, I’m still trying to get them to do things that are too hard for them.  Like write their names……….

These little guys crack me up.  I have at least 6 out of my 29 who have to sing in the bathroom every time they go.  I had a talk with the music teacher, apparently it’s not coming from her……

There are some seriously wacky kids in my class.  I have one boy I can’t understand a word he says.  The speech teacher was coming into my room to visit one of the kids she will be working with and I asked her to listen to him.  She pulled him out into the hall and did a quick diagnostic with him and OH YEAH, he’s a candidate.  In her short 5 minutes she also thinks he might be learning disabled as well, but it’s hard to tell with kindergartners.  Most of them anyway.  I have another little boy who can’t do ANYTHING with paper, glue, pencils or scissors.  He had one paper he was supposed to cut some parts out of and glue onto the other paper, he made confetti out of both papers.  I got him a couple more and demonstrated the task, he did it again.  He’s everywhere in the room too. Can’t sit still and is into everything.

I’ve been going into the lunchroom and helping my kids get their lunches, seated, and helping them with opening their milk,ketsup, etc.  One little boy had been a bit of a whiny pain all morning.  When he got to lunch yesterday, he deliberately poured his milk on the boy next to him.  So I chewed him out, and made him move over to a vacant table to eat his lunch in “timeout”.  A mother who was in the lunchroom, saw me and complained to the principal that I had yelled at him, (I did speak sternly, but I didn’t YELL) shook him (NOT true), drug him by the arm over to the other table and “slammed” him onto the bench( again not true, but probably her perception) all for no reason.  She didn’t know what he had been doing all morning, she didn’t apparently know about the milk, and frankly, I could not care a bit whether she thought I was “mean” or not.  But I did have to explain to the principal what happened and told her to talk to some of the other staff who were present and hear their side.  Never-the-less, I was uninvited from helping in the lunchroom.  Apparently, I need more time away from my children.  Like THAT will make me cry……

The First Day of School

What’s to say.  It went pretty well.  We got nothing done really, they don’t listen, they won’t stay put, they can’t walk in a line,  they don’t answer when you say their name. Normal kindergarteners on the first day of school.

Why would you give a kid one name on their birth certificate, then spend the next 5 years calling them something else, and then not even teach them their last name?  And spelling, you can tell which parents know something about phonics  They would be the ones whose children have names spelled aproximately the way they sound. Who spells Toby this way, Toba? (not the real name, but the vowel example on the end is accurate) (correction, the vowel spelling at the end is actually with an “E” instead of an “A”, the clerk in the office did a typo, so that rant was all for nothing).  I have one little Hispanic girl who I can’t pronounce her name correctly,  I HEAR it, and my ears THINK I’m reproducing the sound accurately, but it is clear by the looks on her face  that I am not.  I can not reproduce that rolled “R” sound.  After struggling with her name, when her mom picked her up, I told her mom I was having trouble saying her name right.  The little girl had been listening to me, she told her mom, “He can’t say the “R”.

I’m ready for bed.  It’s 7:30.

I spent a chunk of my Saturday at school…. :(

But I did get a bunch done.  I got  the name tags done, the lunch cards done (had to glue the barcodes onto some card stock then laminate them- laminating consisting of using clear packing tape and putting two layers on each card), all the names on the cubbies, names on the glue sticks, the crayon boxes and the tables, and most of the room cleaned up so there isn’t stuff laying around.  Other than lesson plans, I think we’re ready.  Humm, lesson plans, I guess I should do something about them………

The last work day before the kids show up…….

that’s if we don’t count the weekend.  But it was the last OFFICIAL work day.  We had open house in the afternoon.  One third of my kiddos showed up (And a couple of reluctant First Graders.  I had to practically drag one poor little boy and his mother down and introduce them to his new first grade teacher……… and give him the pep talk about how he was going to LOVE First Grade).  At the end of the day I went down and talked to the office staff, I still didn’t have those nice FAT kindergarten pencils or my new crayons for Monday. 

The District cut our office staff, so the lady who pulls supplies has had to take on extra duties and as a result spent most of the day helping students register all day, and at the end of the day, she was still putting together all of the attendance folders, so, no supplies.  So I went up to her and stood by her desk and waited.  She looked at me and kind of growled, “What now?!”   I said in reply, “You are going to be SO sorry you just said that that way…. ”   I then offered to help her by pulled all of the supplies for the teachers. It never hurts to have the office ladies on your side.  We finished up after 7:00 tonight and she and I were the last ones to leave the school.  She needed the help and I needed the supplies so it worked out.

Keep the office staff and the custodians happy and you can’t go wrong.

Open house tomorrow

We will be having open house tomorrow from noon until three.  Yesterday they finally gave us our class lists, with the disclaimer that, “things change”.  This is my 19th year of teaching, I KNOW things change, just give me the list…….  Every single one of those children has known since they registered what class they were going to be in.  Why is it so hard for them to tell the teachers?  There are so many things in the room that get kids names put on them,  homework folders, glue sticks crayon boxes, cubbies,  etc.  Just give me the names, the 10% or so that don’t show…. that’s OK.  The room is 90% ready, we could start class if I didn’t get another thing done. 

I don’t know what has been so difficult this year, we still don’t have our classroom supplies, no pencils, no crayons, no paper clips, no staples.  School starts in basically two days.  The custodian brought copy paper around yesterday, I’m in good with him, he gave me an extra case to start the year off.  It pays to take care of your custodian, my kids do NOT leave a messy room for someone else to clean up.  Momma doesn’t work here is our motto.  Right along with, “If you can MAKE the mess you can CLEAN the mess.

So far, I have 17 girls, and 10 boys.  27 is not the best, but is doable, and if it’s got to be out of balance, I’d rather have too many girls than too many boys.  When you get too many boys there seem to be more behavior and discipline problems, at least that’s my experience.  Not that girls can’t be a handful.  It will be interesting to see how many show up tomorrow, last year I had about 50%.

How I almost died

 

I don’t have a current picture of my closet,  but this one shows some of the things I need.  See the brown wardrobe to the left of the filing cabinet?  OK, first off, I’ll just say it.  I did something really, really dumb today.  Besides the normal dumb stuff.  Never mind why, but I found myself standing on top of that wardrobe.  In my current closet configuration, the wardrobe is where the filing cabinet is and there is a dead space back in the corner that wasn’t being used.  In a moment, when I wasn’t really doing much thinking at all, I decided to put a rolled up carpet back in that dead space.  Apparently at the time, I thought the best way to do this was to stand on top of the wardrobe and pull the carpet up and over.  Dumb idea, the carpet got stuck a little and while trying to reposition it, OK, I was yanking on it, I managed to pull myself off balance and fall off of the wardrobe.  It all happened kind of in slow motion, and I remember thinking, “OK, so this is how you DIE…..”  But I managed to get my feet under me and landed on my feet.  I don’t seem to have hurt anything, but if I’m in pain tomorrow morning, I’ll  at least know why. 

And I’m SO not telling my principal that I got hurt falling off of a wardrobe, from six feet up in the air.  We are NOT having that conversation.  Fortunately, I probably won’t have to.  I mean, that makes teachers who stand on rolling chairs look smart……….

Spending money on my class is so much fun…..

Right, especially when it’s MY money.  Our district was giving each teacher $200.00 debit cards to spend on their classes.  That went away with the economy this past year.  I don’t know how much I’ve spent this year, I know I spent a bunch at the National kindergarten Conference.  Yesterday between my wife and I,  we spent close to $500.00 and most of that was for my class.  The thing that bothered me the most while in the Lakeshore store (I think it’s criminal to have one of those within 10 miles of your house…..) was overhearing another teacher say, “Well, at least I still have a job.” (as she’s spending her OWN money for materials to DO that job)  There’s just something wrong with that picture, and it’s not just the bad economy.   They expect us to do miracles, and put us down and demean us when the test scores aren’t the way they want them, but they won’t pay us what the job is really worth.  (our district is WAY down the list in how much is spent per teacher for salaries, and it’s not just salaries, per pupil spending isn’t the highest either, not even close) One of the kindergarten teachers at my school commented that if they thought we were being paid too much, she would be happy to just be paid for each kid what it costs per kid for daycare.  For that matter, besides the daycare, we have to actually TEACH, they could at least require the same child/adult ratios as they do in daycare, at least in kindergarten. I’m projected at over 30 kids in my all day kindergarten class this year.

I complain because it’s wrong.  But for my wife and myself, we will spend what we need to have the things that will make our jobs easier, or more satisfying.  I’m not going to spend hours upon hours (usually of my own time) making literacy centers for my class, when I  can go out and buy literacy centers. Right now, my time is worth more to me than some money.  We are in a financial position to do so though.  The brand new, single teacher, teaching next door to me, isn’t.  I almost feel bad for her.  I get all the things I want to teach my class, she has to make do with what the district will provide.  It’s adequate, but not nearly as fun.  At least not for me. 

My principal the other day wanted to know why I needed her signature on two sets of reportcards.  Her position was that I should have got her signature on the first set, then photocopied that set for the second set (one for the parents, one for the cum. folder).  I don’t know why she was complaining anyway, we use a signature stamp for her signature, and I wasn’t even asking her to do it.  I told her I didn’t do copy machines.  She looked at me like she didn’t understand how that could be.  I asked her if I could use the office copy machine to run off all my papers.  She said, “NO.”  I said, “Well, then I don’t make copies on copy machines at this school.”    We have 4 other copy machines scattered throughout the school.  But on any given day, at least three of them are broken.  Why would I want to go on that scavenger hunt every day?  If it’s not broken, then there is a line, and the copies are going to be crappy.  They are all old and worn out machines.

So, I have a scanner, I scan all the sheets I need to make copies of.  I keep the files in nice little organised folders on my laptop, (mine, not the schools) and I use the printer in my room to run off all my copies.  It’s a pretty heavy duty laser printer.  If it breaks, they will fix it.  I don’t pay for toner.  And on the off chance that that printer develops a problem, I have my own laser printer that I got on sale at Office Max for a very good deal, as a backup.  I print EVERYTHING this way.

A couple of weeks ago….

This is “Reading the Room”.  It was good for the first few times they did it, then it got to be too much “fun”, you know, walking around in groups, talking more than reading.  So I changed it up, and gave them clipboards and told them to “Write the Room”.  They could only write words they could actually read, and I would spot check them on the words they wrote.  It became a nice assessment on what they could actually read.

A couple of weeks ago, this one kid came up to me after “Writing the Room” for awhile and said, “Can I just read a book?  I’m EXHAUSTED (insert appropriate drama) from writing the room.”

And I said, “Why of course you can, honey.”   See, I’m not sure they all get it that the end goal of all these other things we do is for them to be able to READ BOOKS.

They Are Gone

I hate to say goodbye.  I mean these kids have become such a part of my life, it’s hard to let go.  I want to take them all home.  One of the only things that makes it a little easier is to see them interact with their parents, and knowing that they love and are loved by their families.  Most of them. 

They sang their song, had lots of pictures taken,  got tummy aches from all the snacks they brought and ate.  It was generally a nice day.  Don’t tell anyone I said that, I might get stuck doing it again next year.  There was a period of time between the end of our promotion/party and the official end of the school day.  Some parents wanted to take their kids and go (which the Principal allowed if they signed them out) and kids didn’t want to leave, so  we had this weird dynamic of everyone just hanging around not knowing what to do.  We couldn’t really start the food part of the party with so many people there, because it would have created this horrendous mess, and I wasn’t sure if we had enough stuff for that many people.  So we did a lot of picture posing and finally most everyone trickled out.  About a third of the kids left early.  The rest stayed the whole time.  If I was organized… wait, that would never happen. 

Finally all the goodbyes were said, and all the children were gone.  Then the fun began.  One and a half paid days to tear the room down and set it back up for the beginning of the year.  Which takes place in two weeks.  I got a good start on all the stuff on the check list.  I could go in this weekend, but it would be without air conditioning.  Not nice.  We’ve been told that we are persona non grata at school during the week off because the office staff will be busy, and the custodial staff will be busy, and neither one wants us bugging them or in their way.  No class lists until two days before school starts.  After 19 years of teaching I’ve learned not to fret it.  Schools going to start when it starts, room ready or not.  Teacher ready or not.

And it will be OK.