Humble Pie

You know how you tell someone how well something is going and then the next minute it goes to crap? Welcome to my life. My last post in October...holy cow that was a long time ago...was about how I introduced "fuzzies" into my classroom. It was wonderful. My kids were all on task. I was able to meet with groups uninterrupted because I would take a fuzzy if anyone put a toe out of line. Everything was amazing and then Halloween came...

In our school we don't celebrate Halloween and it just so happens that our first quarter ends on the 30th and we have a Professional Day on Halloween. It was this 4 day week that lead to a candy filled 3 day weekend. The kids came back and were insane a little hyper, and they had lost their minds had a hard time remembering all of the rules, strategies and wonderful behaviors they had learned. We had parent teacher conferences the following week, which meant 2 half days for kids. Then we had a full week and then a two and a half day week for Thanksgiving. I think I went 3 weeks without putting on make-up...I gave up.

Now we are in December and I have had more than one mental break down...I asked nicely, I gave out fuzzies and took them away,  I screamed raised my voice, I added brain breaks, I held class meetings, I read social stories, I changed my schedule...nothing seems to be working. Then the straw that broke the camels back was this...

My kids had a sub in art and when I came to pick them up 5 kids had written on each other with markers. I was upset furious! I had to talk with parents, who were obviously upset. People kept telling me that I needed to remember they were 5 and just laugh about it. I think under other circumstances I wouldn't have been super bothered, but after having a horrible month of feeling like nothing was working I just wanted to give up.

It is now March and I am just now sitting down, rereading this post and thinking of how far I have come. The kids have no necessarily changed all that much but I have had a change of heart. One of my teammates told me, "You can't change your kids or their behavior. You can only change yourself." I have to admit at first I was very offended. Of course I can change my students behavior! They were amazing after I wrote my fuzzy post...didn't she read it? But now I understand what she meant and know she was right. I had to realize that no amount of fuzzies, yelling, or rearranging my schedule was going to change their behavior. They simply needed consistency and time. So I have learned to give them the time and consistency and they are getting better! I have also learned not to take it personally when the kids aren't falling into line perfectly...they are 5 for goodness sakes. ;o)

Fuzzies to the Rescue

So bare with me...I wrote this oh, 2 weeks ago but life has been ridiculous.

It's official...it's week 5 of school and things are finally starting to look normal. As I mentioned before, I taught 2nd and 3rd grade for 9 years before this year. It usually takes about 2 weeks for my room to be up and running. Not so in Kindergarten! Today was the first day that my Writer's Workshop actually looked close to the real thing. The past 4 weeks have just been utter chaos not up to par.

I run a tight ship. I don't like it when kids are rude, I make them say "yes ma'am" and "may I go to the bathroom". I like the volume of my room to be a gentle whisper, and the first 4 weeks it has been anything but. I keep telling myself they will get there. My friends and teammates kept telling me it takes 6 weeks and I heard them, but I'm not sure I really believed it in my heart. Tuesday of last week was the turning point.

As I said, I run a tight ship and I was having a very hard time not having an immediate consequence for good and bad behaviors. In second grade I used clips. I can hear the boos from here. When a student didn't follow directions, I would would simply point or say, "clip" and have them move their clip down the chart. It was nothing personal. I wasn't upset. That is just how it was. I was known to say, "What were the directions?...Did you follow the directions?...So are you obeying or disobeying?...that is why you need to move your clip." If I saw positive behaviors I would ask those students to move their clips up. It worked wonderfully. I was told that in kindergarten this doesn't really work well because then don't connect the moving of the clip and the behaviors. I was at a loss. I had no idea what to do with these 5 year olds who would follow directions for 1 second and then be off the walls the next. I started feeling bad for those students, and you know who I'm talking about, that are good all the time and they are always doing the right thing (criss-cross apple sauce, one finger on their lips and 2 fingers in the air, never shouting out answers, whispering during independent work, playing the centers correctly).

Then it hit me. I read a million kindergarten blog posts over the summer for various authors. One that caught my eye was Classroom management with warm fuzzies by Mel D. I remember thinking this seems cute, and I wanted to try it with my 3 1/2 year old son. Then school started and the chaos took over! I found myself drowning. My husband and I were talking about what to do about our son's constant whining and this post came back to me. I decided that I would also try it out in my classroom. So after a crazy Monday, I went to the Dollar Store on my way home and bought 3 packs of "fuzzies". These are the craft pom pom balls Mel D uses to bribe generate excitement over good behavior in her classroom. She gives fuzzies for various things, which you can read about in her post. I decided to hand them out for the behaviors I needed help with: cleaning up quickly but safely, pushing in their chairs, remembering all their responsibilities in the morning (ordering lunch, unpacking, eating breakfast, etc), raising their hands on the carpet, staying in one spot and NOT CRAWLING ON THE FLOOR, NOT LICKING OTHER STUDENTS...I wish I were making this up, but I am totally serious!!

So with a basket of fuzzies in hand I just jumped right in Tuesday morning. I gave each student a plastic cup (I'm ghetto I know, but it was all I had), and I started handing out fuzzies every time someone remotely did the right thing. THEY LOVED IT! If students came back to the carpet by the time the clean up song was over and they had cleaned up correctly and safely they got a fuzzy. Whenever a chair didn't get pushed in I took a fuzzy. My students who would wander explore the room during mini lessons would snap to attention when I told them I would take a fuzzy if they didn't come sit back inside their square on the carpet.

The other trouble spot I had was chaos in the hallways. We could not walk in a quiet straight line to save our lives! So I would pick one of my equity sticks and whoever I pulled was my secret walker. If they followed the hallway rules (Second tile, quiet lips, only 1 finger on the wall to ground themselves) they could earn 5 FUZZIES!!!! You would have thought I offered them a million dollars! The first time there were a lot of tears when only one student got the fuzzies but most of my kids are getting the idea that only 1 person wins.

On Friday, we had a class meeting and everyone got to count the fuzzies in their cups. Everyone clapped for their friends no matter how many or how few fuzzies they got. Everyone was really proud of themselves and we even reinforced the 1-1 correspondence for counting. After everyone was recognized, we traded in our fuzzies for reward coupons. This was one of the best parts. They use their fuzzies to buy things like line leader for the day, calendar helper, computer dibs, and teacher's helper. THEY WENT CRAZY OVER THESE PIECES OF PAPER!!!! I bought the reward coupons cause I'm lazy and didn't want to make them myself. Mel D sells sets on her TpT store. All I had to do was print them out on cardstock, laminate and cut them out. I put them in one of the sectioned bead containers that she suggested and *poof* they were done.

Now I'm able to get through more of my lessons and I don't feel as stressed over their kindergarten behaviors. I was even able to switch over my room to fun fall apple and harvest themed stations! Now if only I can get this testing out of the way (mClass, Kindergarten Readiness Assessment, ESL and Measurement of Academic Progress--Primary) THEN I'll really be able to start teaching!

What do you do to manage the chaos in your classroom? You know I'm always looking for more ideas to copy!

WHAT JUST HAPPENED???

Have you ever agreed to do something thinking..."Sure, I can do that. How hard can it be?" 

This was me all excited before my 1st day.

Then you stop for a minute and look around and think, "What have I done?" That was last week for me.

This was me at the end of my first day. ;)

KINDERGARTEN IS NO JOKE!!! If you are unfamiliar with me, this is my 10th year of teaching. I started out student teaching in 5th grade because I wanted to be a middle school math teacher. Once I graduated I got a job teaching 3rd grade and thought, "Wow! I like this SO much better than 5th grade! Forget middle school!" After teaching 3rd grade for 5 years I became a focus teacher that pulled groups of kids who needed extra help in math and reading for grades K, 3, 4, and 5. Following 1 year of this I decided to go back into the classroom. I switched schools so I that I could be 3 minutes from home instead of 1 hour and took a position as a 2nd grade teacher. I loved my new school, I loved my commute, I loved 2nd grade! After 3 years, the second 2 as an inclusion teacher, I had my daughter Jayne and my husband and I decided I should stay home. Well as I mentioned in a previous post, living in Montgomery County is EXPENSIVE! We needed better health insurance, I missed talking to adults and teaching children, and we wanted to make more money so we can send our kids to private school one day...All that said, I was going to go back as an ESOL teacher. I took the ESOL Praxis and passed my test, but because of crazy contract crap policies, I couldn't get an ESOL job However, I was able to find a Kindergarten position back at the school I love 3 minutes from my house! So all is good, right? Kindergarten will be a cinch. After all this will be my 10th year of teaching. I read amazing kindergarten blogs all summer to get an idea of what to do/expect. I HAVE AN ALMOST 4 YEAR OLD FOR GOODNESS SAKES! Well I was not prepared for my first day week of school...

Everyone tells you the first 6 weeks of kindergarten is just establishing routines...however, then I was reading these kindergarten blogs and spending my life saving on all the products they offer on TpT it seemed to me that I should be teaching them academic things. I haven't been able to use practically anything other than decorations (and in some cases not even that which I can complain talk about another time) in these packets because they are assuming my kids can do thinks most of my class can't such as write their name, write letters or numbers, HOLD A PENCIL!!!! I'm not kidding! I have kids who have never held a pencil before, or scissors, or glue!! 

Here is a 10 minute section of time on Thursday that pretty much sums up my week. Picture a teacher who thinks she is finally getting her students to understand the morning routine: get breakfast and take to seat, put backpack into cubbie, order lunch and sit and eat breakfast. Things seemed to be running smoothly until one student spills her chocolate milk, while the teacher is cleaning it up, another one of her students who has bad anxiety throws up on the floor because he misses his mom and then went back to his seat and throws up in his lap. While the teacher abandons the spilled milk for the throw up she realized she doesn't have any plastic gloves to use when cleaning up so she simply throws some paper towels over the throw up and calls the office to see if someone can escort her sick child to the nurse. Well the office informs the teacher that the nurse isn't here, but after some haggling they agree someone will come down and get him since he is 5 and he doesn't even remember where the nurse is since it's the 4th day of school. Meanwhile, one of the special needs students has walked through the throw up and is tracking it all over the floor, the poor little girls sitting next to the sick student is trying not to look at him because he has throw up in his lap, and the lunch ladies are inquiring about why the breakfast tray and lunch order sheet isn't ready yet. At some point in all this the teacher looked around and thought, "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!?" Sadly this was not the only time during the week this thought went through my head and I'm sure it won't be the last.

As I reread what I have written so far it seems like I hate kindergarten and it is the worst place in the world...it's not. Actually it's crazy, but when I see those glimpses of "one day" it is so much more exciting than it was in 2nd and 3rd grade. I'm in love with Kindergarten and I'm not sure you will ever get me to leave. Let me leave you with some pics of this week to show you what I mean...

My students are starting to be able to work their fingers and their brains to link numbers together IN ORDER. This doesn't seem like a difficult thing to non kindergarten teachers, but first you have to make it through the exploration phase, the I hook the numbers together in any random order phase and then you finally get to the right activity and the right order and it's magical!! (Thank you Martha for this activity)

These are two of my babies that I can not get to stop moving. When I say moving I mean I have no control of any part of my body (arms, legs, mouths, etc.) In this golden Writer's Workshop moment I was able to find a place that they could go and do their best work. The top student is sitting at writing center. It's in the alcove by my front door, but it is nice and quiet and reduced a lot of distractions. My second student is sitting at a little lap desk I found at Michael's. I bought 3 when they had their Create2Educate sale. I'm in love and so are my Kinders! 

Week 3 starts Monday. Hopefully be able to post some other things that are starting to work. In the mean time, let me know what works for you. Are you in the same boat as me? Do you teach in a high, middle or low income school? What are barriers you run into?

What's On Your Walls

Here in MoCo, Maryland teachers start back on August 18th, but I like many teachers out there, have already been in my room a few times. I wish I could say that I have all my bulletin boards up, my book boxes are labeled and filled, my cubbies have names, or even that I have my alphabet up...alas...the answer to all of these is no. Every time I go into my room I'm filled with dread because I have no idea where to start...

Even though I haven't done a whole lot, here are some ideas that I plan to copy. Here's hoping they turn out ok...

Bulletin Boards: I bought some adorable fabric from JoAnn's because here in MoCo we aren't allowed to paint our bulletin boards or our walls for that matter...boo...and I need a little something to brighten the place up. I plan on using the same fabric for my curtains and a few cushions to be staged around the room.

The small bulletin boards that I do have will have this fabric and an idea I'm copying from Little Minds at Work. Tara West in a genius and I will be copying ALOT of her guided reading techniques. They are loosely based on Jan Richardson's plan and I love me some Jan Richardson. This is what Tara came up with:

This boarder is simply made from strips of white bulletin board paper that she cut and accordion folded before stapling around her bulletin board! WHAT! Amazing!!! Bulletin board ideas, check.

Writing Center: My writing center idea is coming from the great Deedee Wills. She makes fantastic Writing Stations. They are broken up my month. Each month I will be placing a new writing center into this special place in my room. It has writing sheet that are aligned to our curriculum (lists, letters, stories) with word walls! Teaching an inclusion class and kids in general it is always helpful when you can help them get their words out. Click on the picture below and it will take you to her TpT store.

Calendar: I have taken ideas from two different bloggers. Maria Monroe from Kinder-Craze has created adorable calendar pieces for my whiteboard. They are printed, they are laminated and cut out, but alas they are not up! GRR!

I have bought her calendar numbers, months, days of the week, months of the year, weather and temperatures cards. They are all so cute I can't wait to hang them up. 

The second calendar activity I plan on copying is Miss Kindergarten's Interactive Calendar Notebooks. These seem like the perfect way to keep my kinders engaged in calendar every morning. I can't wait to try them out.

Last but not least my word wall is copied from my FAVORITE Kindergarten blogger Martha McGuire. Her back to school pack is printed, laminated and ready to go. She is amazing. The things she creates are common core aligned, ADORABLE, and engaging for kids. I can't wait to use not only her letters, shape and number posters, but all of her math galore packs and word word packs!

I will also be creating and hanging posters around my room for Martha's Ball Word program. If you haven't seen this way of getting your kids motivated to learn their Dolch Words you need to get on it. Click on the picture to find how she sets it up in her classroom. 

These are the goodies I plan on copying so far. Hopefully I'll have gotten everything done by my next post...week your fingers crossed for me. In the mean time, pass the wine and let me know some ideas you have for your classroom. *Wink*

Copying how people get organized

How do they do it? I get to school at 7am and leave school kicking and screaming at 5pm because I still have so much to do! Then after I put the kids to bed I sit on the couch and watch TV with my husband and do more work. I am always amazed and jealous of those teachers that roll up 10 minutes before the kids walk in the door and leave as soon as they can gather their belongings.

I guess I wouldn't mind if when I walked into their rooms their students were all off task, or their scores were horrible or they just gave their kids worksheets all day. I would be able to excuse it away that I am really trying to do everything possible for my kids and they are just punching a time card, but that's not the case. Their kids are on task, the room looks put together, and their kids are making progress...great progress. What am I doing wrong? 

I have decided that this is going to be a year where I need to be more efficient. I would always talk to my second graders about "cutting efficiently" or "working efficiently". We want to be quick but accurate. Easier said than done. 

I make to-do lists. I love them actually. There is something so satisfying about crossing things out. Feeling productive. Getting this done. I admit that sometimes I write things on my list after I have already finished just so I can cross something off. go to the bathroom I got tired of all the post-it notes all over my classroom, car, and school bag so I began using a spiral notebook to house all the notes in one place. I would even turn to the back of the notebook and write down things I wanted to remember to change for the next school year. (Smart idea right?!? I was so proud when I though of that cause I'm SO not original). 

The to-do lists aren't the problem. The problem is that I end up filling up the pages with more things to do before I ever get to cross anything off. Here is what my kitchen table looks like...

This is ridiculous!!! I need to find a way of streamlining my life so that when I get home from school I am actually present this year. I don't want to miss out especially since I have enjoyed all this good kid time this past year. 

So I Googled. I found a website where a lady wrote a blog called zenhabits: breathe. One of her posts was entitled, "How to Actually Execute Your To-Do List: or Why Writing It Down Doesn't Actually Get It Done." HOLY COW THIS IS FOR ME!!! If you are like me this article is for you. 

According to the article, I would be categorized under the "I get started but get distracted"...is it just me or the longer one teaches the shorter their attention span becomes? I digress...So here are the nuggets I'm going to copy for the rest of this summer and into the school year:

1. Small Tasks: Only work for 15-20 minutes on a task and then move on.
2. Single Task: DON'T DO MULTIPLE TASKS AT THE SAME TIME!! This is so hard for me. I am like that dog in Disney's Up who is talking and shouts "squirrel!" 
3. Unplug: Close all task windows except for the one you are on. NO SOCIAL MEDIA...I get lost in a Facebook/Instagram/Pinterest vortex, as my husband calls it, and realize I have been lost for an hour.
4. Clear your desk: or in this case my dining room table! This is key for me, "Distractions can come from visual clutter." HOLY COW that's exactly how it starts. I see something that needs to be done. Oh this will be really quick I say (kind of like me sitting down to jot down a few notes for this post and I have been here for 45 minutes) This also made me think of my classroom. If I'm distracted what about my kids?!? (I think I just found my next post subject...) FOCUS SARAH!!! See what I mean?
5. Focus: enough said I think I just proved this point.
6. Take breaks: This is where I get tripped up because I feel like if I stop I will never get started again or I will start something new. So here is what I'm going to try: a timer. I'm going to treat myself like one of my students that needs a brain break and I'm going to set a timer. When it goes off I will get back to work.

Do you have the same problem I do with getting your to-do list done? Leave a comment and let my know strategies I can copy to be more efficient.

Kindergarten or bust!!

Ok so here goes...I'm a 30 something, mother of 2, wife, and teacher in Maryland. I recently took a year off after teaching for 9 years in low income schools at various grade levels to stay at home with my kids. 

I don't know what it's like where you live and teach, but here in Montgomery County Maryland if both parents aren't working, you will run out of funds faster than you can say, "Holy crap we are broke!" So after a lot of discussions and happy hours with my besties who are still teaching, my husband and I realized we need the benefits and I still have a small itch to be a teacher. Ok it's more like a full body, I can't stop myself rash!! This was made very apparent when I was offered a position as a kindergarten teacher and immediately got off the phone and started Pinteresting ideas for my classroom at the dinner table. 

I have known for about 2 months that I will be teaching kindergarten, and I have spent about 30 seconds less than that planning my first year. I spend every waking moment reading kindergarten blogs, reading books by "The Sisters", buying EVERYTHING that is offered on Teachers Pay Teachers, and printing, laminating, and organizing all my new finds. Now I know you know nothing about me and when I say I have bought everything you think ok, she bought a few things...she has laminated a few stations...

Each of these bins contains amazing math stations and Daily 5 word work activities. All of these beauties I have gotten off Teachers Pay Teachers from an AMAZING kindergarten blogger, Martha McGuire. If you are not following this woman yet, you are stupid. She is amazing and she has changed my life. I first saw something of hers on Pinterest.  I began staying up til all hours of the morning reading and rereading her blog from the beginning (she started in 2012). I had never seen such adorable activities and ideas of how to teach the same boring concepts for an entire year, but make them come alive for the kids. I was/am truly obsessed. I began talking about her so much, my sister coined her my "best friend." Everything she makes I want to buy, as evidenced by my first TPT purchase of over a hundred dollars of only things she has made for the first quarter (back to school, apples, farms, harvest, etc), downloading every free product she offers, buying the exact same bins she has with the labels, and signing up for Stitch-fix. I want to be this woman. I want to start the year off and WOW the pants off everyone. 

Am I the only one who thinks this way? I want people to walk into my classroom and say, "Wow, she is so organized." "Wow, her students are the best behaved." "Wow, her reading and math data is amazing." "Look at that bulletin board!" It is for this reason I spend every waking moment trying to learn everything I can about how to be better. 

Let me be very clear...my classroom is never the most organized. My students are never the best behaved. My math and reading data is never the best, but a girl can dream can't she? 

This is my goal for this year and my reason behind this blog. I am one of those people who is SO not creative...but I'm a really good COPY CAT. I like to find things that other people have done and try them out. In a planning meeting I never come up with really good original ideas, but I DO take other peoples ideas and run with them. So this year, I plan on taking the ideas of greater kindergarten teachers and trying them out in my classroom. I would love for you to join me in my journey.