Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!
I'm dressed as a Star Bellied Sneech today for our Read Across America activities (oversized yellow tee with green marabou trim, a single green star heat-n-bonded to the front), and was able to make it through last night's baking adventure without taste testing too many samples of to-die-for blueberry muffins. I'm partnered for "lounge duty" so treats and daily lounge clean up duties are on the agenda each day this week.
(The Stars were **thrilled** with our guest reader, after all, she was accessorized with a sparkly tiara, sash and pretty dress!)
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Nummies I'm making for lounge treats:
peanut butter cookies (I add a cup of honey roasted peanuts to the dough before baking)
pretzel/Rolo/pecan nummies (four bags of Rolos fills two large baking sheets)
blueberry muffins
oatmeal raisin spice cookies
Fruit (strawberries and grapes) and a large box of snack sized chips will bring the sweet-factor down a few notches... b-a-l-a-n-c-e.
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This year my daily schedule has been greatly impacted by the students and families I have as well as by Dear Husband's deployment: I have to work through every possible minute while at school each day since I can't stay late nor can I come in and work on the weekends like I did when Parent Number Two was here with Dear Daughter and the Pre-Schooler.
With third quarter quickly coming to a close, it's time for my students and I to plow through our mountain of common assessments so that the kindergarten team has additional “data, data, and more data” from which to interpret and divine daily teaching modifications and score our kindergarten report cards. Maybe it's the hectic schedule, or maybe my preference for strictly observing developmentally appropriate practice holds more weight with me than does the public policy of turning kindergarten into the new first grade... but I'm .... tired. Physically tired, mentally tired... and I can't help but notice that kindergarten is now rarely the joyful learning environment it used to be. Labels, scores, diagnosis, data, interventions and concern dominate my conversations with colleagues and parents, pushing topics such as personality, quirks, apprehensions, interests, and daily a-ha moments, inquiries and silliness to the back burner.
Who my Super Stars are matters just as much, if not more so, than the tasks that they can perform. Drill and kill doesn't appeal to me, nor does expecting every child to perform every task on my timeline instead of their own. Who should enter stage right at this point but Doug Noon, sharing links that are a must-read for me and any other early childhood/kindergarten teachers who question the current state of educational "reform."
I still believe I'm a good teacher in spite of NCLB, not because of it.
Yep, tired.
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"As you partake of the world's bill of fare, that's darned good advice to follow: do a lot of spitting out the hot air, and be careful what you swallow."
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It seems my favorite Dr. Seuss quote changes from year to year which is appropriate since 1) he had so many good ones and 2) life is always changing. Professionally:
"I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!"
...and personally (Dear Husband should be back this weekend for his two week R&R):
"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."
"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."
