Adventures in Remote Learning: Unmute and Tell Me Your Word

Me: Alrighty, Super Stars, who is ready to add some words to our O and N lists?


(Several hands shoot up into the air onscreen)


Me: Um, okay, ______, unmute and tell me your word.


Star: I have a letter O word.


Me: Awesome! Let me hear it.


Star: Oprah!


Me: Oprah! Yes, "Oprah" is an O word! And because it's the name of a person, we use an uppercase O at the beginning.


Star, interrupting: Uh, Mrs. Sommerville, I said "Oprah," NOT "Oprah."


Me: Ummm... what, honey?


Star: I SAID OPRAH, ****NOT**** OPRAH.


Me: Mmmmmm.... Are you talking about a person, a famous person?


Star: No, no, not a person. It's something you uh, you uh, you eat! (mumbling in the background).... I KNOW Dad, I *AM* explaining it to her!


Me: ... something you eat... do you mean OKRA?


Star: Yes! OPRAH! My dad fries it! (more mumbling in the background)


Me: Okay (writing).... o....k....r....a. Okra. Is that your word, honey?


Star: Uh, I don't know. I don't know how to spell yet.


And right in front of my Star's face a thumbs-up sign being made by an adult hand appeared on the screen.


And that, folks, is how word-list building is happening in this time of Zoom instruction and remote learning.

BOY Assessment Truths

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."

It's the twelfth day of kindergarten.

*wink*

Another Day in the Life of a Kindergarten Teacher: Humorous Notes Home to Families

I've written and sent home some awesome I-need-your-help notes to my students' families over the past twenty-four-ish years.  Always a favorite is the "appropriate restroom behavior" message.  

Here's this year's draft:

Good morning, Super Star Families,

After some instances of silliness in the large group restrooms in the first and second grade "pit" hallway by our kindergarteners last week, we're going to spend some time this week practicing safe, kind, and helpful behavior in pairs so that we can better utilize restrooms located throughout the building when needed. 

Shared boys' and girls' bathrooms certainly have their appeal: friends, even siblings can appear in them, making for happy reunions and chatter.  And the acoustics!  Echoes are FUN!  With a seeming absence of adult supervision, pumping seventeen squirts of soap into one's hands (dropping much of it onto the tile floor, making it very slippery) and/or pulling wads and wads (and wads, and w-a-d-s) of paper towels out of the dispenser is awfully tempting, and dare I say it... exciting!

Girls are being loud and giggly, especially while sneaking peeks through stall doors, while several of our boys find it exceedingly funny to, *ahem*, wiggle-waggle certain parts of their anatomy at one another (and other students from other grades) while they use the urinals.  Yes, yes, I'll understand if you want to forward this message to grandparents, aunts and uncles: kindergarten teachers DO write some very funny notes! 

Shared restrooms are high-traffic areas, and are FULL of germs and toileting messes.  As such, they're not playgrounds, meeting areas, or party zones.  With one custodian available during school hours, purposely spilled soap and wasted paper towels make restrooms dangerous and even more unhygienic.  Many children appreciate privacy when using the toilets and have a difficult time "going" when they're distracted or apprehensive about someone else peeking, climbing under (ew, on the floor) or "pretending" to try to push open the stall door. As for the "wiggle-waggles," no first, second, older grade students needing to use the restroom, or building staff investigating unusual noise want to walk in on a different kind of "flash" mob from the boys.

Thank you for speaking with your Star today and reiterating our bathroom expectations with him or her several times this week. Your reinforcement will help make it possible for us to be allowed to use restrooms in locations other than our classrooms. Hopefully, I've not caused you to blow coffee out of your nose while reading this morning.

Have a great day,

M.

Yes, I think "wiggle-waggle" is the real takeaway for my boys' families, while "ew, on the floor" will be the gem for the girls'. 

Rudolph, Rudolph, Uh... Rudolph?

My students love directed drawings and guided art lessons that introduce them to lines, colors, and different mediums, and I very much enjoy seeing how their sequencing and fine motor skills develop over the course of our year together.  I remember this particular lesson appearing several years ago at ARTventurous, a fun blog full of creativity that continues to provide plenty of inspiration for regular education and art teachers alike.  My Super Stars created their versions of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with our school's art teacher just in time to brighten up our classroom for the holidays.

But... do you see what I see?

Rudolph:

Rudolph:

Rudolph:

Chupacabra:

 Rudolph:

Yes?  No?  

(I love them all!)