Mini Residency Reflection

The past week has been quite the experience; I must say that I highly enjoyed being in the classroom, in charge for full days. It was a very positive experience and I really appreciated the opportunity to go back to full days and teach. Looking back at the past week, I must say that most challenging piece, was time management and trying to fit in all of the lessons in the days that they were originally planned. I realized that the best way for me personally to manage the days activities, is by creating an outline of the days routine and filling the lessons into appropriate time slots. Once I created the outline, I had a visual that was used as a guide for completing the lessons for the week. I enjoyed the feeling of taking charge and I am grateful to find that the children see me as their teacher, because during the week they behaved the same as they normally would for Jean. I was also grateful to have multiple opportunities to reflect on how the lessons went with Jean and discuss what I would have done differently and so on and so forth. Overall, I believe the week went well and I now have a better idea of what life will be like once I take over during January-February.

Preparation

This past week Jean and I have been discussing more and more about the mini residency I will be doing coming up after Thanksgiving break and I'm thinking it's going to be a great time! The theme will be festivals of like starting that week up until winter break, which means I will have the opportunity to participate in a theme change as well as a month change, which is something I haven't been able to view much of, because the change over is usually on Mondays and some changes happen in the afternoon while I am there in the mornings. Either way, I am excited to have the opportunity to get my hands wet and really help to plan the week's activities. In light of this, I must admit that one of the challenges of this planning, is that in the kindergarten class at Chugach, they are not forced to follow any specific curricula. Although there is a kindergarten math program that is used as a guide, and the handwriting program, Jean does most of her planning primarily from looking at the GLEs and planning her lessons around that. Therefore, I will have the chance to really use my talents and knowledge as a student teacher to plan the lessons myself, with Jean's guidance, rather than follow a scripted program. We have already spent time looking through some past lessons for this theme and this past Friday I was able to teach the entire morning, which I have been doing more and more often. whoohoo! :)

First week of November

This week, I had the opportunity to lead a couple of full days worth of lessons. I have continued leading the morning routine and language arts study, but this past week I also led a lesson on map building using the story Pirate Pete by Kim Kennedy. What was especially exciting, was that I chose the story and was able to develop the routine and everything with the guidance of Jean. The lesson extended over three days and was broken into smaller pieces, as a way to introduce the story and ideas as well as revisit them. After the two main portions of lessons, I was thrilled with the results and the children's enthusiasm with the story and activity. :) Jean also said that I did well and the main thing I have to work on is projecting my voice a bit more, or using other techniques to get my message across to everyone, because sometimes I am too soft spoken. One of the most important concepts I have been learning about teaching, are all of the tiny details that are critical for the success of a lesson, such as transitions, what to have children do if they finish quickly, flow, and other details that a regular lesson plan simply cannot address without spending hours on a single lesson. The teaching process is amazing and I am boggled by all of these new experience and enjoying everything!

The first semester is just about over?!?! I can't believe this first portion of the school year is just about over....

Conferences

Although this post is late, I do want to take a few moments and describe how exciting and new it was to be assisting in this portion of teaching. At Chugach, their conferences are more student led and in kindergarten we focus on the social/emotional portion of learning, rather than discussing GLEs. In fact, there are no report cards! Prior to the conference, the children and their families were asked to fill out a questionnaire that would help us understand their views about school, friendships, and their thoughts about the academic subjects they are now being formally exposed to: reading, writing, mathematics, science, and also art. After observing the first couple of conferences, I took over leading the review of the questions and then Jean and I tagged team to learn more information or discuss in depth certain portions. As we went through them, I found it fascinating how many of the children really took the time to understand their intrapersonal selves and discover what they needed to work on and what their strengths are. They really took the time to think about their answers. Overall, it was an experience that I am happy to have gone through, as it gave me more insight into the children's thinking as well as the parents/guardians.

Week of 10/11/10

This past week has been quite eventful! I completed my last yoga class on Wednesday, which means this week I will now be only mornings and will completely be leading the handwriting lesson each morning, which is both exciting and anxious. I think that the main reason that leading the lessons has felt more stressful, is simply because my schedule has been disrupted with my yoga class and other things, so I am happy to now be only on mornings so I can really be a part of the morning routine. :)
We have now really begun the rock, soil, and sand exploration science kit and the children are absolutely enthralled with it! They have an entire wall of rock words that they developed after only a week or so of bringing in rock shares and a couple of science lessons. Even I am excited to bring in a rock to share that I have had since I was about ten years old AND it has a fossil print on it! Very exciting!
Jean and I have been making time to talk more about the 'why things are done the way they are done', so that as I am leading more lessons, I can understand the reasoning behind the lessons or even the group management techniques. We are also preparing for conferences, which are led much differently than the traditional conferences I have heard of or experienced before. (More to come later) I am quite interested to see how they go as well as be a part of this portion of education. Now that it is the second month of school, I am really starting to feel more teacherish and am becoming more aware of all of the responsibilities that come with the job. For example, I always new that there was quite a lot of prep work required of a teacher, however, I had no idea how much extra time Jean has to spend outside of regular work hours to keep the room up to date and ready to go. It's definitely something I will have to start considering and working into my own schedule as the year goes on. So much to do, so little time! :)

Making Family Connections

One of the unique features about Chugach Optional, is all of the family help and volunteerism that we have in our classroom. In fact, there have been times when we have been over flowing with parent participation! In light of this, I am provided with many opportunities where I can interact and chat with families and build positive relationships with them.

While most of the families are very open to communication or have time in the morning or afternoon to talk, we do have some that for whatever reason, are harder to reach. Therefore, one of the ways I try to extend an invitation for building relationships by talking to them about the activities that are happening in the class or talking about the positive experiences their child has been engaged in. This seems to be helping open up the channels and it certainly helps when I am there in the morning during drop off, because I usually see at least one of the parents in the morning, while the afternoon varies. Overall though, I feel as though I have already built several strong connections with several of the families and others are still being worked on.

Mornings

Well I am not going to the classroom in the mornings and boy does my body have to adjust! The other kink is that for the next two Wednesdays I have my yoga class in the mornings, which means I am there in the afternoons instead. Although this throws a wrench into my sleep schedule, I do like being there in the afternoon, because I still feel that connection to the afternoon schedule that I have been helping with for the past month.
Now that we are doing a morning schedule, I have been mostly observing and always interacting with the children, and this week/beginning of next I will begin to lead the lower case letter learning, since we will be finished with the capitals on Tuesday. I look forward to this piece, because leading lessons helps to boost my confidence as well as help me reflect on my skills as a teacher. I mentioned to Jean earlier this week, that I have really taken to heart the positive learning instruction and how she encourages independent learning and thinking amongst the students. After co-teaching with Jean, I realized that at work I have been over directing the children and have taken a few steps back and put the responsibility of learning and problems solving back into their hands, rather than trying to take over and do it for them. I think that as adults sometimes we instinctively want to 'make things right' and since it's quicker for us to lay down the rules, we forget that children do not learn self control or how to think for themselves if we are constantly jumping in. Therefore, I am appreciative of this reminder and have been reminding myself to allow the children at work, as well as at Chugach, time to be responsible for their own actions and giving them that time to take control of the situation or themselves rather than telling them how it needs to be done.
Overall, it has been quite a new week with this new transition and the morning play times have provided me opportunities to observe the children as well as build lasting relationships with them and their families. More and more to come I'm sure!!

Transitions

The transitions in our classroom generally go quite smoothly. From the first day, the children overall eased from one activity to another without too much redirection or reminders. Now that we've been in school for 23 days, the group is now more aware of the daily routine and therefore knows what to expect next. When we do change things up, there are only a couple of students who might have difficulty with the switch, but nothing extreme.
I think that the transitions have moved so smoothly, because we have created a sense of community and patience, rather than demands. We respect that each child is different and give them just enough time to join the group or activity and if they are slow to join, then they face the natural consequences of missing all or part of the activity. Jean also will sing to them as a way to catch their attention to what's happening next.

Week of 9/13

This week has been going swell! I have been leading calendar time during the afternoons that I am there, as well as reading stories during story time, and today Jean has put me in charge of choosing a book to read that contains math in it. She has a large tub full of a variety books, so I will be taking some time to sift through them and choose one or two for the days that I am present. So exciting! I really like how she integrates the subjects together and appreciates the fact that all of the subjects are intertwined and children do learn best when we work with this reality rather than against it.
Our new author study is on Rosemary Wells, whom I am not familiar with, so I am looking forward to reading/listening to her stories. In some ways, I am just like the kindergartners in the classroom who are experiencing a variety of new activities. :) We baked bread last Friday, which we will do every Friday that is not an early release day, which is something else I have never done before either.
Tomorrow is the last day for collecting family photos and stories and we have received all but two photos, which is an amazing turn out! The children have been spending this first month of school getting to know each other and we them, as well as getting to know the families. Half of the families are returning to the school and the other half is new, so there's a nice balance. For my part, I spend time mingling with the parents when possible and feel comfortable chatting with all of them, although I will admit there are a few parents I don't see often whose names I am a little rusty on. I need to review my list....
Friday is an early release day, so I will be heading in during the morning, so that I can be there when the children are there and also be able to stay a bit and team plan with Jean and Caycee. I am moving into an apartment with my husband tomorrow, so I have been on cloud 9 about that and both ladies have been very supportive of this transition time in my life which I greatly appreciate. It's been a fantastic week!!!

Professionalism

Professionalism consists of several qualities: honesty, punctuality, flexibility, a willingness to work with others, problem solving skills, a positive attitude, patience, open communication, being aware of one's personality, morals, and such, and the list could continue on and on. As an educator, we are bound by a code of professional ethics, but I think more importantly are the ethics that we as each individual bring into the educational field. After all, it doesn't matter if a piece of paper declares teachers to have a certain disposition, because it is the individual person who will join the field and decide how to interpret the code and what it means to him/her. In addition, by being aware of our own habits, morals, ethics, and such, we can learn that not everyone we meet nor the families we work with will all agree with our own personal values and we need to be open to them even if our opinions differ. Overall, there are many qualities that can consider one a professional in his/her field and despite a universal code, there will always be those who vary from the 'norm', but that doesn't mean they are any more or less a professional. I suppose what I am trying to say is that being a professional is a human definition and therefore isn't easily defined nor described as the spectrum covers a wide area.

This past week has been quite a whirlwind of activity, both in my internship and my personal life. My afternoons with Jean in the classroom have been going great, although I will say sometimes I question my sanity as I try to work and attend internship, but then the bills arrive and suddenly my sanity takes a backseat. LOL Anyway, it's definitely taking some time to adjust the varying schedule, but I am making it through and my afternoons spent at Chugach have all been enjoyable and I learn more and more each day about the children, families, and Jean's teaching strategies. One of the major highlights of the week, was on Thursday, because Jean took the afternoon off in order to attend a science course and so it was myself and a visiting teacher, whose children attend the school AND was a teacher aide in Jean's class a few years ago, and together we moved the class through the normal afternoon routine and overall they did quite well. :) Lately, I have been taking over the calendar time portion of the day with Jean adding activities as needed to the regular routine that I've been leading. The days of the week song has already begun to keep me up at night. hahaha. :) Overall, it was a good week and I am curious to see how the children will respond next week, when we have a full five days of school, because this Friday is an early release which means they have yet to experience a full, five day week of school.

Apple Picking Half Day

Apple picking on Friday, September 3rd was awesome!!! I have never picked fruit from a tree before and the experience was one that I will always remember. When Jean first mentioned that we would pick apples in Alaska, all I could think of was: how do the trees survive in this harsh climate and short growing season? Well, it turns out that they DO survive and produce delicious apples. My favorite is the transparent yellow apples, although they look more green to me, who knew!? I described it to some of the parents as 'candy from a tree' which aroused a few chuckles. Clearly I was a child who ate my fruits and veggies. ;) Speaking of which, there were several students who munched happily away on several pieces of fruit and then we had more back at school along with a honey dipping sauce.
Looking back on the day, I remember only smiles and cheerfulness as we went through the field trip process and the timing was just long enough for the children to participate and picking and not become bored or distracted by other items in the yard. I should probably mention now that the apples were picked at a private home (with their permission), so Alaska has yet to obtain an apple orchard. I am grateful that I was able to experience the first field trip of the year with the children, Jean, Sheila, and the wonderful parent drivers who were so helpful with the entire process. One mother helped out with the trip even though her child wasn't even at the school that day. Talk about family support! : ) It was a great adventure for all of us and I think many of us went home that day wondering how we could obtain our own apple tree.

Read Aloud

Today I read Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes out loud to the group during story time after calendar, which I also now assist with. :) It went very well I thought as the children sat and listened for the entire story. This story was chosen by Jean, because we are currently doing an author study Kevin and have been reading a title by him each day. I highly enjoyed the experience and after I finished Jean and I talked about the purpose of reading the stories. In the beginning, the purpose is to familiarize the children with an author's work, as well as have them practice their listening skills for the length of a book, as well as see how the stories by the same author have connections both in picture and in text. She also described how the books she chooses during the theme units for science and such are used in a way that help the children practice the above skills as well as increasing their observation and 'making connections' skills by asking them more questions during the read alouds that encourage this higher level thinking process. Thus, story time is not just a book read out loud only for pleasure or to simply have some 'group time', rather it should be a teachable moment as well as intertwine itself into the overarching theme (right now it's building awareness and communities) and enhance or challenge their current understandings of the world around them.

Literacy Observations

Art and line- The most inspiring moment I had observing a language moment, occurred during the second day of kindergarten, when I accompanied the class to an hour of art with Eleanor. First I'd like to mention how welcoming the art room is and the fact that the lesson of the day dealt with different types of lines, which fit snugly with the line lessons pertaining to the alphabet we have been having in the regular classroom. As a group, we met together and she visually and verbally explained the differences between the different lines, including zigzag, castle, fat, thin, and so on. The children were engaged in the activity and even knew most of the line names. It was impressive and neat to see how she tied art in with the process of learning to write letters by observing line forms and names.

Writing folders- Another great literacy activity are the children's writing folders. Each afternoon they have an opportunity to 'write' a story or as it has been the first couple of weeks, draw a picture. Although, some of the children from the beginning have included letters as well as words using invented spelling as well as sounding out the words phonetically. This past week, I had the privilege of assisting several children in their quest to write out a story or sentence to go along with their picture. It is fun to watch them as they try out the letter formations and scrunch their foreheads in thought as they think about the letter sounds and match them to the written form. Whenever they struggled, I referred them to the posted alphabet on the wall, as way to familiarize them with the letters and a way to job their memory. I would also choose other words that began with the letter sound they were trying to think of as a hint for them. Once they did figure out the correct letter or finished a word/sentence/phrase, the look of accomplishment on their grinning faces makes it all worthwhile. I can't wait to see how their stories grow and I need to remember to ask Jean when we start incorporating the author's chair as well.

Welcome Board

Sorry for the delay; the display was up before the first day of school, I've just been trying to figure out how to upload pictures on the blog. Anyway, here they are and the poem on the right is one that I made up myself and I must say I am quite proud of it. :)

Literacy List

- Two strings of the Alphabet are found in the room.
- There are a minimum of four shelves/bookcases.
- Beneath the letters of the alphabet, we are posting the children's names based on the first letter of their name.
- They each have their own story journal to write/draw in throughout the year and time is set aside just for that.
- They each have a Handwriting without Tears workbook.
-They have ample opportunities to write their name or practice recognizing their letters.
- There is a calendar space complete with the days of the week, month, and so forth.
- There is a 'secretary' station and a shelf filled with a variety of writing materials.

The First Day of School!! (And Week)

The first day of school, I was nervous and excited; the night before I kept wondering what the families would really be like, and would the children like me, what would the schedule be like, and so on and so forth my thoughts bounced around in my head. The next morning, I was up and ready to go and once the doors of the school opened and the new kindergartners arrived, it was a whirlwind of teaching or reminding parents of the classroom morning routine and it was intense, but in a good way. I admit, I had a hard time remembering all of the parents/guardians names from the interviews the week prior and while that was slightly embarrassing, I am proud to say that I was able to retain all of the childrens' names. Once the parents headed out to the new family tea and surprisingly only one teary goodbye, Jean, Sheila, and I set about getting to know the children individually and encouraging new play experiences by helping them into Caycee's classroom as well as introducing them to new friends. We also started pull outs that morning and thus the submergence of establishing the routine and social etiquette began. Actually, the entire week whizzed by and over all, I must say things went pretty smoothly, with a few bumps along the way, but after a brief team meeting, we have a game plan on how to handle any further situations that may arise. That's the great part about being in Jean's room, she's not afraid to speak up when a behavior is inappropriate and I appreciate being included in the team planning and decision making process. The atmosphere is awesome! :)

Today Jean and I are officially finished with the kindergarten interviews and just in time too, since they will all be arriving promptly at 8:10am. I cannot wait! I also had the privilege of leading some of the interviews and although I was nervous to begin with, after the first one, I thought they flowed pretty well. There were a few children during my sessions that had a hard time focusing on the tasks, but other than that they went smoothly. I can always count on standardized tests to make me feel more at ease. (Just kidding). I do understand the importance of 'knowing where a child is' when they first begin kindergarten, but seriously, how many teachers are able to sit around and mark off a check list? Aren't they supposed to be teaching?

Anyway, we have quite the mix of personalities with our group and I am excited to get to know each one and their families more and more throughout the school year. I am not quite used to having such a high volume of family involvement, but all of the parents/guardians have been extremely friendly and welcoming, so I am not too worried. :) It's all about open communication and that's something that I hope to promote during my time at Chugach.

The next step in my journey, will be the first day of kindergarten tomorrow!!!

Kindergarten preparation

My first week and half at Chugach Optional has been amazing! Never having been there before, I wasn't entirely certain what to expect and what I have found is very inspiring for one who understands and respects the way children learn and develop. The school is highly based on parent participation and open communication between staff and the families; as for their teaching philosophy, my mentor, Jean, is still able to promote the power of play within her classroom, when most schools have cut play in kindergarten. I was very surprised at the care and time that the teachers must put into their classroom prior to school starting and I now have a great appreciation for all of the hard work and planning that goes into the room preparation; I never realized how many pencils needed to be sharpened before school! During the preparation, I had the privilege of offering my own ideas as well as watching Jean work her magic as she set up a positive learning environment that was both warm and welcoming. The process is still ongoing and we still have a few things to organize before school starts on Tuesday, but for the most part we are ready for the little ones. :)