F-i-n-a-l-l-y nearing the end of our beginning-of-the-year assessments, one of my Stars logged on to her Zoom appointment today for her comprehensive math baseline.
Full of addition, greater than/less than, a 100's chart, subtraction, geometry and oodles and oodles of counting, the questions can seem to go on forever.
Before I shared my screen with her, I told her "Honey, some of the questions I'm going to ask you and some of the screens I'm going to show you are things you already know, and some of them you don't know because I haven't taught them yet. If you see something you don't know or that confuses you, just say 'skip it' and we'll go to the next screen, okay?"
"Okay, Mrs. Sommerville. I'm ready" she replied.
Eleventy-billion questions later, my Star sighed "W-o-w, Mrs. Sommerville, you really haven't taught me a lot."
My first grade teaching colleagues usually wear a slightly exasperated look after the first week of school, but thankfully, they've all taught long enough (and in the same hallway as our kindergarten classes) that they know better than to cast aspersions.
After all, a kindergarten teacher's first week month (quarter?) of school is full of how-to's, modeling, practicing, reminding, and reteaching when it comes to routines and rules.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
For. A. Month. (Or longer. Oh yes, we've all had those years.)
Don't forget: curricular goals need to be included amongst all of this introductory stuff too!
I drink a LOT of coffee during the first month of school.
I sleep the sleep of the dead every single night.
I barely speak to my children or husband over the first two weeks of school because my voice is hoarse, my throat is sore, and my cheeks are in pain from constantly smiling at the end of each school day.
I am ~on~ constantly for students and their families, which means the first month of school is not the best time to make plans with friends or family. Yes, I become anti-social. It's nothing personal, truly. I love you all. Wait... I need to plan on signing "I love you."
That's more like it. Save. The. Voice.
It takes first grade teachers a week or two to get almost everyone settled. Sure, there's that one student (or three) that don't tow the line, march straight, or remember when it's time to listen instead of time to speak, but compared to the kindergarten teachers who herd cats/chickens every single day for the first month of school and continue to coax sharing, negotiating, bravery, and safety behaviors out of students for the remainder of the year, I think they've got it easy.
Or... easier.
Which is why, every August, when encountering the exasperated expressions on first grade teachers' faces that hint at the question, "Didn't you teach them *anything*?" I simply tell them, "you're welcome."
You'd think that being a teacher and a paper crafter, I'd rock at scrapbooking. After two years of producing my school's yearbook, one might guess I'd know enough tricks of online publishing templates to make putting photo albums, memory books or art journals together ~fun~.
But... no.
Give me a bulletin board though, and I can figure out all sorts of layouts and designs. Suggest a theme and I will happily find or create some trim and anchor elements that will grab my students' attention and make them excited to create and share with all who might visit our hallway.
Apparently bigger is better for me.
*****
Artistry and layering know-how aside, there are rules regarding bulletin board displays, and these rules differ by district, school, and by fire marshal. I've worked at a school that allowed teachers to cover every bit of staple board (as well as the classroom door and windows) with butcher paper before layering on trimmers, frames, and other design elements, and I've taught in a district that didn't allow any signs, mobiles or wall decor to be hung anywhere except on the one awkwardly placed bulletin board in the classroom. It was also expected that emergency procedures, standards and our daily schedule would be displayed on the board before any student artwork could be featured.
Before tacking a single item to a wall or board, ask your colleagues or principal what limitations, rules, or policies are in place.
Rules change too. When I began teaching at my current school, I would wheel the butcher paper cart down the hallway at the beginning of each school year and cover the hallway boards as well as many of the ones within my classroom. Two years later, a new fire marshal determined that hallway boards and walls could only have twenty percent-ish of their surfaces covered by student artwork and displays, a tough rule considering that elementary students tend to work in 9 X 12 or 9 X 18 construction paper scale. Complying with safety standards, gone are the days of carefully selecting the perfect background color for a year's worth of bulletin board artistry. But there's an upshot: time is precious for teachers, and for those of us who are too Type A to allow anyone else to manage our boards, a simple system or template works wonders.
Determine which boards or surfaces will house anchor elements such as the alphabet, number line, word wall, calendar (if you're not using an interactive whiteboard) year 'round. Within my classroom, I've used black butcher paper for the background of my students' word wall, but simply trimmed other long-term elements with coordinating border. I then decided where regularly rotated display areas could exist. Artwork and projects can be tacked to staple boards, but they can also be mounted onto walls, closet/cabinetry doors, or (if allowed) hung from the ceiling.
Using coordinating trim throughout the room helps to create visual borders for learning areas and displays. I've left two areas paper and border-free though, because I would like the option of using some holiday/seasonally matched trimmer if the mood strikes during the year: the board above my sink, near the painting and play dough center, and near the calendar and class library area, where literacy-related artwork can compliment the decor.
See the bare board near the window (it's partially obscured by a magnet board and set of trays at the moment)?
Here's the board above the sink. I bet you can guess what one of our first art projects will be:
I promise I'll give you a photo-tour of the layout before I'm back to work full time, but until then, let's check out the simple hallway display... and when I say it's ~simple~, I mean it's **simple**.
How can a nervous kindergartner orient himself/herself while learning how to navigate the hallways? By finding a recognizable symbol, a super star:
Our hallway is shared with kindergarten, first, and second grade classrooms, so there are bound to be many colorful and engaging displays welcoming students on the first day of school. I simply want our classroom's location to be easy to spot or describe to others if lost.
I first found a cute clip art star online and enlarged it on my SMART Board (locking the image in place helps) and traced it onto yellow butcher paper:
I printed out "Twinkle, twinkle little Stars, I wished for you and here you are" and "We are going to have a great year! Love, Mrs. Sommerville," and added the text to each star.
Smaller "kid drawn" stars with hook and loop tabs are where my students will find their names once I have my class list.
The boards are trimmed with solid white and black and white gingham, a combination that worked well last year.
It's ~very~ plain, and I understand that it might not appeal to many adults who prefer layers upon layers of scrapbooking-type magic, but its primary purpose the first week of school is to mark our area, our actual physical location for my students. Considering that one of our first big projects is self-portraiture, I also don't want to put a lot of time and energy into the hallway display just to take it all down five days later to prep it for actual student artwork. Saving time during board swap-outs is an essential teacher trick for working efficiently and keeping your weekends for yourself and your family.
*****
Need some bulletin board inspiration? Check out Pinterest!
I've been back to school for two weeks now, two weeks of half-day sessions where my class of nineteen students has been divided into a morning group of nine students and an afternoon group of ten. We're able to ease most students into new school routines when they're in the smaller groups: how to handle and put away personal belongings, giving papers to the teacher, using the lunch chart, washing hands, and using desk tools safely and at the appropriate times. Students can tour the school, and are introduced to specialists who in turn can share rules and routines that will need to be in place for effective and efficient use of time when we visit Art, Music, Science, Library and P.E. All of our learning centers can be demonstrated and explained, and we can get to know each student a bit better, academically through baseline screening/assessments and socially through one-on-one time. We begin to bond.
Even with the smaller groups, it's a huge undertaking. What most non-kindergarten teachers and parents fail to understand though is that despite this introductory time, once both groups of students are combined and attending kindergarten full day, it's a whole new ball of wax.
Why?
~ Students are four, five, or six years old. Many have had immediate attention from and constant interaction with their parents since birth, and haven't yet developed the skills, patience, or understanding of how time passes to be able to wait for their turn with the teacher. Adults will make an appointment and go on about their lives until it's time to meet. Kindergartners will not.
~ Having to compete with eighteen (or more) other students for the teacher's attention is a pain! How to get noticed and experience that instant gratification of acknowledgement? Push. Yell. Interrupt. Whine. Impatiently raise your hand so 1) you get points for following the rules but 2) get to talk to the teacher first. You know, all those things that work with moms and dads.
~ Speaking of what works at home: I asked a student demonstrating what I suspected was selective hearing exactly how many times he made his mother say his name before he answered her. The young man actually pondered, counted on his fingers, and then told me "three or four." No grin, no sass, and I suspect, no fib. My next question had to be "... and am I your mother?" No sarcasm, no authority, no threat. Just a question. He pondered again. "Uh......nooooooooo," followed by a puzzled expression that washed over his cherubic face.
That's right, you might *think* that parents or pre-school have readied your new students for sharing, taking turns, empathizing, sympathizing, being patient, and complying, but I'm here to tell you: I love kindergarten. I love kindergartners.
I do NOT love the first few weeks of our full day program.
My Stars are frustrated. They doubt me. They lash out at one another. They want my attention and they want it now, even though we're in the middle of a story, or a classmate has had an accident and needs his hand held to walk down to the nurse's office for a change of clothes. But *I* want you NOW teacher.
During the small group transition weeks, patience is easier. One-on-one time happens more often. It's easier to buy into following the rules, humoring the teacher, cutting one another some slack. Kindergarten is fun, and the kids are willing to come day after day. Parents are relieved and reassured.
And then WHAM-O, reality sets in, and we're back to square one. Parents become concerned because their children start saying they don't like kindergarten. Mrs. Sommerville is ~not~ the "bestest and nicest teacher ever," and sharing materials with that little girl that always grabs instead of asking or taking turns isn't fun. Students might compete with siblings at home, but I guarantee there are few who have to juggle eighteen other personalities, temperaments, moods and needs under their roof for seven straight hours when all they really care about are their own.
Sure, some of the kids are spoiled. Some are unexperienced and unexposed. Some are so performance-driven that they appear perfectly ready for school: they wait, use their indoor voices, say please and thank you, know how to use scissors safely, and they don't over-react when *that* kid cuts in line for the third time. After a few days of this perfection however, those sweethearts crack too, and rightfully so.
It's tough. Though it's part of the job, and I know everything, given time, will end up okay, it's draining. Difficult. Stressful.
... and even went a little dotty to match the bulletin board trimmers:
Almost there.
(Here's the link to my blog post about the basket tree that houses my puppets- unfortunately, the links I included in that post no longer work- but take a peek to get an idea of what to look for if you're still interested in tracking one down online.)
When you're ready to prepare your bulletin boards, step---away---from---the---stapler!
You've set up your students' desks, centers, and other interactive learning areas first, so now it's time to display posters, pocket charts, photos, a word wall, artful inspiration, learning objectives, a schedule, and math and literacy tools. To save time throughout the year, commit specific display areas for year 'round focus. The staple board above our sink and painting area is always for my students' artwork, while the board above my math center always features posters, work done by students, graphic organizers and other examples of math concepts. Our circle/story time area features our calendar, days of the week, seasons, weather chart, and literacy unit props, along with often-used words on our word wall and vocabulary the students like to use in their daily writing and reading written on sentence strips.
Additional student work can be hung on the cabinet doors above the students' cubbies and out in our hallway for others to enjoy.
Last year, a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom coconut tree greeted students on our art wall during the first two weeks of school:
This year, my students will see an introduction to our first curricular themes, colors and shapes:
I love how the plain white border looks like ric-rac around the black and white checked trim, and the dotted punch-out letters add just the right *POP* to the display!
To place the prints and letters, I use clear push pins so I can reposition them as necessary:
Push pins allow you to move and tweak your displays with only one hole punched through your artwork/lettering. Once you have everything in place (and if your bulletin board materials are going to stay in place for a while), go back and staple each item, and remove the pins. If you change your artwork/learning tools weekly, you may want to use pins on their own- just make sure students can't reach them- pokey things can be quite intriguing and dangerous!
(To remove staples without ripping your students' work, your trimmers or posters, use a staple remover like this, instead of the old claw/chomper looking doohickie. WalMart and other office supply businesses sell both types, but the wand staple remover doesn't do nearly as much damage as the "jaws" remover.)
I'll share more photos as my room continues to come together!
It's taken a week longer than I anticipated to get back into the blogging groove~ Dear Husband left for a year (he's a soldier with the United States Army), I've met my newest class of Super Stars and their families (several of whom are also experiencing their spouse's lengthy absence from home), and Dear Daughter and the Pre-Schooler have settled into their highly-anticipated and very busy school and activity schedules. I now have a "power hitter" in my house (DD's preferred volleyball position) and a young boy who has begun to eat me out of house and home: growth spurt time! Mother Nature decided less than a week after my husband left to send torrential rains our way, flooding a culvert behind our home which may eventually force flood waters up and into our garage. Not fun, but perfectly aligned with Murphy's Law, my buddy and pal each time Dear Husband is away.
Excessive sarcasm: one sign it's time for a run and/or a bag of peanut m-n-m's.
***** Professionally speaking, as I reflect upon the first two weeks of school, I've noticed:
* Since leaving Alaska, each school at which I've been employed seems to *~stress~* during the first few days back with students. I'm lucky to be at the same beautiful school as last year with almost all of the same colleagues and routines in place. But we have such a high turnover of students- many only attend our school for a year and then relocate completely- that the first day of school is filled with many, many, MANY wide eyes, lost and confused kiddos, and parents who are strangers to the school and anxious about their child's first day. As a result, teachers almost lose their voices as they constantly verbally redirect, steer, guide, and try to get their students into orderly and quiet lines, explain classroom routines, reiterate school rules, and answer questions.
Older students almost certainly have prior experience in schools, and will hopefully adopt the new rules and routines sooner rather than later. Those who don't might be considered defiant, though that shouldn't be the only assumption one hundred percent of the time. As for my just turned five-year-olds, let me gently remind the populace that perfection is an unreasonable expectation for children with limited or no school experience. My students are the ones that for the past three or four years have been running, climbing, jumping, rolling, galloping, and falling asleep in the middle of the floor in their own homes and daycares. Walking over the threshold of our kindergarten wing doesn't magically transform them into straight-line-walking no-talking-hands-to-themselves students. Those are behaviors that must be learned over time with lots of practice and kind and consistent reminders.
If the nature of kindergartners gets on your nerves (and yes, some people just aren't comfortable with young children-that's why *I'm* here, remember?) just solve the problem: turn around and walk the other way. Look away. Take a deep breath. Repeat in your head "It will all work out, they'll learn. It will all work out, they'll learn." Your expectations of secondary students should be VERY different from your expectations of five year olds. Don't worry: you're not letting my students "slide." You're not teaching older students that they should comply while younger kids don't have to, and you shouldn't feel obligated to burden yourself with interfering with how I do my job as their teacher- you're certainly busy enough as is. Bless you for teaching the grades *I* wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole- you amaze me!
Over at Inside Pre-K, J.M. Holland interviewed Peter Walsh, organizational guru-extraordinaire (who also holds a master's degree with a focus on educational psychology) who explains that organization for children:
...is a learned skill like good manners or long division. From the earliest age, we need to demonstrate to our kids that we value organization. We need to show them it’s an important and integral part of the way we live our lives, and without organization, chaos develops. The words ‘organization’ and ‘organic’ come from the same root. Organic – whole, human, complete, one. This is the reason why we should commit time to organization and show our children that we value it – it’s the way to become the best we can be. By modeling the behavior we want, helping children take responsibility for their own time and spaces and by committing time to organization, we can show that we value organization and teach kids the skills they need.
Behavioral, social, and educational organization are learned skills and require time to develop, big bold emphasis MINE.
* Being the newest or newer teacher in a school has its advantages as colleagues tend to be helpful, teaching you how things run. Being a semi-newbie also has its disadvantages however, especially when it comes to colleagues trusting you to do your job, understanding and truly acknowledging you as a professional, and trusting your judgement, your expertise, and your loyalty to your school's common goals and standards: curricular standards, behavioral standards, and moral standards. This is my second year at this fine school, but it is my fourteenth teaching kindergarten. It is the fourth school district I've been hired to teach at, and I have stellar letters of recommendation, numerous collegial friendships and ties that have crossed state and international lines, and hey, to top it all off, I LIKE young children.
Trust me to do my job. Take a chance. And if you can't, at least follow the Golden Rule. We might not have five years together to grow our relationship- it's likely that we won't have ten years over which to get to know and professionally evaluate one another. I might never be considered "family." And that's okay. I don't have to know everything about your teaching career or your private lives in order to work with you, to support you, or to advocate for you. If the only professional or personal help I can provide is fresh-baked cookies each quarter/semester while staying out of your way, then I'm happy to bake and oblige. We'll disagree, and we'll agree. We'll be in the mood to share, and we'll be in the mood to hunker down on our own. I will respect and support the goals and expectations you have set for yourself and your students, even though I may not know what all of them might be.
It's *almost* done- done enough that I can enjoy the rest of my summer break with Dear Husband and Family before he deploys~
Like last year, I opted for the visual weight of the dark blue paper for my bulletin boards, put up some eye-catching coconut trees inspired by Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, arranged my centers and desks for maximum efficiency, safety, flow and fun, and even set out crayons, scissors, beginning of the year stories, and some stuffed storytime companions.
Here's the view from my desk and reading table (we're looking across the students' desks to the math board- counting coconuts 1-10- and the word wall, which is bare except for uppercase and lowercase letters):
...here's the view from the front door, looking toward the back of my room where "circle" and story time occur:
Next to the word wall toward "circle" area is our first language/literacy display board, and it's all about colors:
Some special story time friends:
...and our calendar, weather chart, and months and days:
Here's the art center, just waiting for some terrific artwork to keep the coconut tree company:
Books ready to to be enjoyed:
...and crayons and scissors (glue and pencils will be supplied by students in a few weeks)!
Super Stars, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, I'm So Glad You're in MY Room!
