First day

It was the best first day of school ever! My kids are precious and so sweet. They respond so well to positive reinforcement and love to give hugs. They have already caught on to the quiet thumb rule and were using it when we went on our specials tour! 

The other half of the class comes tomorrow and then everyone will be there on Friday :)

My night has consisted of dyeing rice for my ball sight word discovery bottles and coloring some new voice level posters. My best friend came over to help and also ended up cutting out a few more sets of baseball words and top banana cards. I have the best best friend in the world! 

What you see in this picture is only half of what we did tonight, which is only half of what will eventually get done!

Meet the Teacher

We had Meet Your Teacher this afternoon at school.  All 17 of my new Smarties and their families showed up, some excited, some nervous, and many shy.  (Side note: can we just talk about how excited I am to only have 17 students?  Last year I started with 23.  This is going to be a nice change!)

Some students (and families) didn't believe I was their teacher- they thought I looked too young!  The struggle is real when you're 24 and look 16.

Hallway bulletin board- considering leaving it up all year and attaching smaller suitcases to clothespins to hang student work throughout the year!

Best moment of the day? 

When a little boy, whom I hadn't even met yet, walked in and came straight over to give me a huge hug!

Or maybe the best moment was when a little girl whom I hadn't even met yet (are you noticing a theme here?), gave me a beautiful picture she'd colored before coming to Meet the Teacher.

Or it could have been that so many of my students from the past 2 years went out of their way to come in and share a smile and a hug.

Loved this idea-- magnetic letters inside a flower jar!

I'm positive this will be the best year yet.  My first year was so rough I wasn't sure teaching was the right job for me.  My second year was significantly better, and I'm genuinely excited and ready for this year to begin.  I can't wait to see what kinds of gains my students will make in all areas of their lives, not just academically!

A hallway bulletin board created by one of my teammates!  So creative!

Blessings

Going to try to remember to post 3 positive things that happen most every day.

Today I thoroughly enjoyed my last day of summer:

1. The weather was absolutely perfect for a motorcycle ride with my friend, Will!

2. I finished reading Love and Logic.

3. Most importantly for today, I got to have dinner and hang out with my cousin who lives in Michigan and whom I only see once every few years. We used to spend entire summers together when we were kids, so it's always a good time when I can see her again!

Goals for the year

Well, today's the last day of my summer, and I'm thinking about the upcoming year.  There are several things I am changing up in my classroom!

Management: I'm doing it... I'm chucking the chart (Gasp)! I've been reading several blogs that encourage teachers to get rid of behavior tracking charts because they're a tool that creates fear and shame, regardless of how positive they're meant to be.  Thanks to Matt Gomez and Miss Night, I'm going to be brave and get rid of the system, and move toward a principles approach. (Check out Chuck the Chart for more information). I've been reading Love and Logic and will be using that approach this year.   

Math: Some of my fellow team members and I participated in a Kathy Richardson Accessing Math Concepts workshop this week, and I am so thrilled that I get to implement her strategies in my classroom!  We are participating in a grant that funds our work, and I can already see a difference in my perspective on how children learn early number concepts. This is going to be so beneficial for kindergarten, first, and second graders at my school. We're also going to be doing Number Talks, which I've heard about over the past few years, but have never actually done. Again, something that will be very beneficial!  

Writing workshop: have a share time more often! So many times my writers get so involved in the process of wiring that we run out of time to share our work. We need to do better about that this year. 

Reading: continuing LLI! Woo hoo!  Also, "teacher directed reading" I want to push my team to do close reads that are kindergarten appropriate based on NC standards and the 4 C's of the 21st century skills- communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity! Tara West (Little Minds at Work) has a great post all about close reading in kindergarten!!

Sight words: I bought Marsha Mcguire's Ball Words Sight Words Mastery System- and I'm really hoping it will motivate my kiddos to learn their sight words.  

Back to school nightmares

Back to school? Already? It feels like summer just began, but our first (official) workday is next Friday and the nightmares have begun. You know what I'm talking about. The crazy, never-would-happen-in-real-life, out of control situations that could only happen in the darkest corners of a teacher's mind. 

My most recent nightmare involved my principal requiring kindergarten graduation to be on the 3rd day of school. In the nightmare his reasoning was that parents don't care when graduation is, as long as they get to see their children perform. So, my fellow teachers and I were scrambling to guide our smarties in pulling off a graduation ceremony! Since it was a nightmare, I'll leave it up to you to imagine how the ceremony went. 

Thank goodness that was nowhere close to reality! 

Have you had your first teacher nightmare yet for this school year?

#kinderblog14 Challenge, week 2: Letters to the Editor

This week's challenge has been, well, challenging!  I had a hard time even coming up with a topic to write about, partially because I tend to keep it to myself if I disagree with something.  So, this was a good challenge to nudge me out of my comfort zone.

I have seen several pins on Pinterest lately about data walls and how motivating they are for students.  When students see their peers progressing, they also want to progress, at least, that's what the OPs (original posters) say.  

I'm sorry, but I have a real problem with data walls.

First of all, let's be clear that posting names with test scores is illegal (thanks to FERPA).   Data from assessments are private student records that are only for the teacher, student, and parent to know.  No student should have any access to another student's records.

Additionally, as teachers, we know that every child is different and learns at a different pace, in a different way, at a different time.  Knowing this, why would you post a sticker/post-it note, etc. that shows exactly where each child is on the continuum of learning for a particular standard?  That does not create a safe learning environment for that child; it creates an environment in which the student feels shame and humiliation.   You may argue that no names are posted; students are represented by a certain color, number, or symbol, but it wouldn't be hard to figure out which one belonged to whom.  Even in elementary school, when my teachers assigned our classes numbers, we were all quick to figure out who was number 1, 2, etc.  Even if there was some foolproof method to ensure that no one was able to figure it all out, students would still be constantly comparing to see where they measure up.  Students who are in the low performing range experience humiliation and a downward plunge in self-esteem when they see their scores publicly compared to their peers.  

I don't know about you, but I'm devoted to fostering a positive community in my classroom where students feel safe to learn and fail.  Failure and making mistakes is part of the learning process- let's let students feel free to do that in our classrooms!  

Thankfully, data walls are not a huge focus at my school.  Does your administration require data walls at your school?  How do you handle that?  

#kinderblog14 challenge Week 1: Personal Learning Networks

Happy summer!  My summer is ending the week after next when I start teaching JumpStart, which is a 2 week program for incoming kindergartners who may be a little hesitant to start school.  We're hoping to make the transition easier for these students and parents by inviting the students to spend 3 hours each morning in a kindergarten classroom, giving them a chance to learn the rules and routines before they actually begin the year!

Like all teachers, I've been using the summer as a chance to continue my professional development- I'm enrolled in an online graduate program for Instructional Technology (one year down, one more to go!).  One of my current classes is called "Utilizing Networking and Communications Technologies for Learning" and my current assignment is about developing my PLN (Personal Learning Network). For the past couple of years, I've been okay to stalk blogs and gather insight from other teacher-bloggers, but now I'm finding that it's time to jump in and really become a participant myself.  I've been sitting back and watching #edchat on Twitter, but now it's time to add my own tweets to the mix.  I found #kinderchat and am participating in the #kinderblog14 challenge.

For school this year I have a few technology-related goals: one of them is to get a Twitter account started for my class so that we can begin becoming responsible digital citizens.  We are going to continue blogging and connecting with other classrooms around the world as well as with our own community.  I also want my students to become comfortable with the art of digital storytelling.  

So, here I am, blogging world!  What suggestions do you have for a kindergarten teacher to continue developing her personal learning network?  I've expressed my goals.  What are your's?