They Want to Know..About us

A few days ago I was reminded of an important lesson about working with kids. As I closed down a presentation featuring pictures of my students during recent lessons, a voice cried out from the crowd of 5 year old fans. "Show us that picture! " "That Picture" was a family picture of my visit to my Dad's house at Christmas. I hadn't planned on taking a 5 minute diversion into  "my life story" because that wasn't on my lesson plan. But what happened next was indeed, a vivid example of the "teachable moment" and the importance of relationship.
As they giggled at the silver haired man I called, "my dad", questions flew. "Who's that next to him?" "Is that your mom?" Oh great, I thought. Now I have to explain that my mom died 10 years ago and that the woman next to my dad is my stepmom. There was a moment of silence and then more questions. " Do you miss her?" "How did she die?" Then came the spontaneous sharing of empathetic little souls," My grandma died too, and I miss her too." I heard and saw students comforting each other with hugs and kind comments.
 The scene reminded me of those moments in the car when my children were small and they asked much braver questions than when we sat face to face, eye to eye. In the dark room, illuminated by the light of the projector, I took the time to ease the curious minds and share with them just a little more about me. I think we all grew a step closer to understanding each other that day. And, of course, I learned more about the nature of relationship: we want to know about each other and we yearn to care.

The Teacher Dog and Pony Show

It's that time of year, or is it "always" that time of year when your door flies open and suddenly your classroom is filled with strangers, looking for evidence of your incredible teaching prowess.  As these moments often bring me considerable stress, I thought I would share my attempt at dealing with it by humor and song.  SO, here it is. The song you've been waiting for. Watch out, Weird Al!

Teacher Dog and Pony
(sung to the tune of Hokey Pokey)

You let the big suits in
You send the big suits out
You let the big suits in
And you wish you had some clout
You do the dog and pony
Cause you want to keep your job
That’s what it’s all about!


You hope your kids tune in
You watch your kids tune out
You watch the suits come in
And you want to scream and shout
You do the dog and pony
Cause you want to keep your job
That’s what it’s all about!


You do your best lesson
You try to impress them
You do your best lesson
And you hope the time goes fast
You do the dog and pony
Cause you want to keep your job
That’s what it’s all about!

So just remember then
It’s not about the show
It’s all about the kids
And it’s them who truly know
You do the dog and pony
Cause you want to be with them
That’s what it’s all about!

Preventing Learned Helplessness by Promoting Independence

It's that critical time of year when kindergartners are becoming more independent. This independence can lead to a strong sense of efficacy with an "I can do it" mentality. Sometimes, though, our actions actually sabotage a child's strides toward autonomy. 
The progress toward independence can be tentative during this time as kids become more aware of their growing bodies, abilities and those of peers. At times kids seem to sense that their parents miss their "preschool years" and their precious dependence. It's wonderful to reminisce and share their sweet memories, while also pointing out how great it is that your child is growing stronger and more capable each day.
If you feel the need to jump in and help your child conquer a challenge, please stop for a moment and think: will my help encourage my child to move on and be willing and able to attempt tasks himself? Am I encouraging and modeling that hard work can solve problems? Or will my help give my child the idea that she is not capable of doing the job herself?
The most effective way to support a child in learning a new skill is to scaffold him, support him to take on a task (or even a step of a task) just beyond what he thinks he can do. Have you ever seen the smile of mastery on the face of a child just learning to ride a bike? Yes, we give them training wheels so they can learn to balance first and get the feeling of the bike.  We run aside them cheering them on, teaching them to keep going when they get scared. We also must eventually let go and encourage them to try their hardest and be prepared for the inevitable fall. Not only must we teach them to work hard to succeed but to fail well and learn from it.  
Yes, we tend to want to protect our children, but we must not hold them back. They deserve to thrive with the right amount of autonomy and independence.

Pass the Microphone Please..

On our last day of class before our Winter Break, I was challenged to find ways to make the day peacefully memorable for my kindergartners. Teachers were urged by our leadership to keep any and all "holiday celebrations" limited to the brief period after lunch on Friday, the very last day before break.
We had planned a quiet, low-key celebration after lunch: cookie decorating, hot cocoa drinking, gathering all of our projects and a present for our families to take home, and singing some holiday songs with other K classes in our shared "pod" area. As I reviewed the plans, I decided that something was missing: kid voice. I set aside about 20 minutes for a "karaoke" share, passing the microphone around the circle and inviting the kids to share a custom or ritual they do at this holiday time or any time of year. Even my most reluctant and shy speakers seized the opportunity to share about lighting candles, decorating trees and singing songs. Although there is always the challenge of keeping kids engaged and attentive, I think it's important to build the skill of respectful listening, especially to peers. I wish I had taken pictures of the giggles and serious moments. They were highly engaged!
As we lined up to go home, little voices chimed : " two weeks without school! I'll miss you SO much!" "Are you sure we can't come tomowwow?" In a moment of spontaneity, the kids began hugging each other, and then bounced into line for a teacher hug. 20 hugs and a few tears later, the bright eyed munchkins were on their way to two weeks of time with their families. It was a wonderful way to send them off! Happy Holidays Room 11!

Daily Self Reflection: Building Self-Efficacy in Kindergarten

After much reflection and discussion we have decided to implement a new tool in our Kindergarten class to help students reflect upon and take responsibility for their daily behavior and learning. Each student will decide how well he/she met the goals of being respectful, responsible and safe. Together we will complete and review these mini-forms at the end of each day and each child will take home the form to share with a parent!

Positive Emotions and Engagement

This week I decided to implement an idea that I thought of some time ago. Now that I have an LCD projector and document camera I have so many possibilities for presentations. Anyway, I decided to try to elicit positive emotions using humor and "awe" to help my students transition from the sometimes stressful time of recess.
As they came back from recess, I let my kids know that I was going to show them a few pictures that would make them smile, laugh or think,"wow!" I was delighted to hear their shrieks of laughter as I showed them photos ( sent to me in various emails from friends) of amazing animals in nature. As we viewed a picture of a fish being carried away by a "big" bird, I asked the kids to share what that fish would be saying if it could talk. I then asked them what the bird might be saying. Their answers were creative, sometimes silly, and definitely those of kids who were engaged in the conversation. I decided that this ritual of "after-recess" viewing, which took only 5 minutes of our day, was definitely worth it. After the photo viewing, we took a minute of "silence" where the students closed their eyes, thought of a beautiful scene/place and breathed slowly in and out. I told them that it was important to relax and focus their minds in order to get the most learning in a day.
As we moved on to the next part of our day, I noticed that the mood was upbeat and calm. A relaxed state of alertness certainly improved the learning environment. There were no tattling tales of kids hitting each other or saying they wouldn't be friends any longer. Students transitioned to the following learning activity with an excitement about learning. Mission accomplished!

Industrious Little People

Today was such a great day in our class!! As we always do on Thursdays after lunch, we set out to clean out our desks and complete any remaining work. We had begun a fun book, "Monster Colors," during literacy centers, but this book was definitely a longer project than the allotted 20 minute center time. As a special privilege, because students were following classroom expectations, :-) I allowed the kids to use markers to write the color word and to outline the different colored monsters. They understood and appreciated that outlining with markers provided a nice contrast when they filled them in with colored pencils or crayons. In the background, I played the music from the Curious George soundtrack, particularly focusing on the songs that mentioned sharing and friendship. As many of the kids recognized the songs, I enthusiastically shared how the music makes me feel calm and happy. "It makes me happy too," chimed several little voices. Kids began singing along as they worked, staying focused and on task for much longer than I had ever seen them before. As they found and completed papers in their desks, they energetically popped over to ask me a question or hand me a paper to put in their Thursday envelopes. Each and every student was committed, engaged, and fully present, doing their best to take their time and do their highest quality work. I gave them updates on how much time they had until "calendar time", yet when I announced the ending of our work time, they begged for me to reset the timer so that all of their work could be done and sent home. I smiled to myself as I put 10 more minutes on the timer. Kids were begging to work! Who would have imagined that just a few weeks ago?