My Own Transitions!

Just wanted to blog about myself this week because that has been the focus for me lately!  As most of you have heard, from my 30 day review, Karen felt a different school might be a better placement for me and a place where I could see mentor teachers with the same philosophy of teaching that I hold.  It was hard to make the decision because I have a great relationship with my mentor at Spring Hill and she as been letting me take over the teaching the whole half day I am there.  I enjoy the freedom of being in the room with the kids on my own and extending the activities in my own way.  However, what  I realized through conversations with Karen is that I am teaching my mentor's lessons and the structure/curriculum is not how I would like to be teaching (true).  I am sad to say goodbye, but am still going to be visiting weekly in the afternoons to keep connection and contact with the kids.  I am excited about being in a more constructivist classroom and be learning in alignment with my own teaching style!  I am a little unsure of 2nd grade because I am so comfortable in pre-K/K, but I think it will be  good learning experience for me.  I also feel a little nervous about starting anew in the middle of the semester and how I am going to fulfill my coursework on schedule.  But I am going to be open and flexible to accept things as they come and am excited to have a variety of experiences/connections.  I start on Friday in the mornings at Aquarian but am still going to be doing a couple afternoons a week at SpringHill to make the transition easier for the kids too.

Transitions

Always a hot topic, transitions!  I think that many times, teachers look to "effective transition" strategies as how to quickly get from one thing to another with ease.  But some kids are not geared towards quick transitions.  It would be wonderful if children were given toto fulfill themselves of one learning experience and then naturally move on to another.  The schedule of my classroom is more demanding that the children follow the group as a whole.  So children are given a five minute warning and then it is time for them to finish whatever it is that they are doing and line up or clean up or whatever the next instruction is.  Often, the more meticulous workers are either unable to finish or get hurried up to keep up with the group.  When the teacher assigns morning work, the children are allowed to get out the literacy tubs after they have finished all their work.  This makes it so the slower workers (either because of their attention to detail or their lack of understanding) don't get a lot of choice time with the literacy tubs.  It also makes it so that the students rush through their "work" so that they can "play".  (Don't get me started on this one.) 
My general thought on transitions and requiring that all kids have "hugs and bubbles" in the hallway is that teachers spent a lot of time and behavior management time trying to get all the kids to fulfill the expectation and it becomes a huge chore.  If transitional activities are fun, children are going to want to join in.  Also, I think there has to be sufficient time given up to the transition and children must know the routine, what to expect, etc so that the transition itself is not stressful or rushed.  We played a "game" coming from music to the room (the longest hallway "trek" of our week) to see if we could be so quiet as mice that Mrs. G (my mentor) wouldn't hear us even coming and we would surprise her.  It was fun and the children were so excited and engaged in the being "quiet" so I didn't have a struggle in the hallway fulfilling the school's hallway expectations.  I think that making transitions into a game that engaging students and interests them can turn it from a struggle to a fun learning opportunity.

Professionalism

I think that professionalism is an important aspect of our job as early childhood educators because our job is not what many would consider "professional".  I don't believe that the majority of people outside of the education world know the extent of training, knowledge, experience, and researched based theories that goes into creating a quality learning environment for young children.  Most people feel that we get paid to play with playdough! :)  Especially in early childhood, I think that is it important to treat our job professionally and in doing so, to have interactions with parents, staff members, and community members that respect the professionality (is that a word?) of our position as teachers.  This has to do with how teachers conduct themselves, a professional appearance and manner, as well as with the seriousness with which we approach the art of teaching.  Part of that professionalism is to educate others and be advocates in the community as to the importance of quality early childhood education.  This also ties into connections with other educators and community members, making a network of ECE professionals.  In my own internship, professionalism means that I respect the diverse styles of teaching even if they are different from my own.  Though all parents raise their children differently, the essentially all want the best for their kids.  Likely, though all teachers teach differently, they essentially all want their children to succeed.  Being professional, to me, means not judging but respecting differences.

Literacy Experiences

In the mornings, while waiting for school to begin, the kindergarten classes all sing together so that by the end of the week they have all learned a new song.  I am told that later in the year, they give a concert performance of all the songs they have learned.  In our class, we also do morning music and so far have done the same songs every day:  the welome song, the days of the week song, the months song, and the numerals song.  We also meet together for the children to put their "hot" or "cold" lunch cards by their names and the helper of the day does the weather and changes the date.  A lot of the morning literacy block is teacher led using the Hartcourt curriculum, intermixed with activities and worksheets for the children to do at their desks. When they are finished, they can get out the literacy tubs to use.  Each tub (three total) has about six or seven activities in it, such as magnetic letters for the whiteboard, foam letters that stick on the chalkboard, different puzzles using the alphabet, and games and cards using the alphabet. 

Some literacy experiences examples in the classroom: 

• Mary wore her red dress book/song on tape; sing version with children's names and what they are wearing.
• "Name puzzles" with the children's names.  Match letters together to make their name.
• Handwriting practice with chalkboards and on HWT practice sheets.
• Practice zoophonics animals...kids love the movements that go with each letter sound.
• Along with introducing the letters, teacher gives tips on saying the letter (ex: tongue on roof of mouth for N)
• During the literacy block, there are activities that go along with the curriculum and the book of the day. (ex:  teacher says /j/ /am/ and kids blend phonemes to say "jam")
• Storytime after lunch...kids choice library books
• Teacher shares small easy read (at this point, pictures ony) books that go along with the curriculum and go home with children after they have read it together as a large group.  Teacher also pulls four or five students together to a desk to help them "read" the book together.
• "Popcorn" share:  Teacher starts a topic, (ex:  "I like to play ___") and each child gets a turn to share.
• Rhyme practice:  Baa Baa Black Sheep book, teachers says two words, kids stand up if they rhyme, stay seated if thy don't.
• Letter finding game with big book, using an animal plate with a space cut out. 
• Magnetic shapes to create letters through handwriting without tears; use shapes to create Mat Man to Mat Man song
• "I spy" color game; Use promethean board to do letter finding (children work at desks with pretend magnifying glasses and a worksheet of letters
• Making otter books, incorporating art, counting, and language
• Teacher says a sentence, children count the number of words in that sentence

These are some of the activities the children have engaged in while at school this past week and a half.  The Literacy element in the classroom is centered around the Hartcourt program (which is followed with fidelity) and ZooPhonics.  I am still not a fan of worksheets and teacher-directed learning, but I do like the movements that go with the alphabet sounds of ZooPhonics.  The kids have already picked up a lot of them and most of all, they have fun learning them!

Classroom Library books

One of the areas I have been able to take over is the story time...after lunch, I will pick a couple of books from the library book box (books the children have checked out and brought back from home) to read to the whole group.  The teacher also reads a book at the end of the day when the children are getting ready for bus/home.  So by the time the books have to go back to the library, everyones book wil have been shared at circle.  Some of the new fun books we have read together are: 
Yum Yum What Fun (Mara Bergman)
Jump (Scott Fischer)
I ain't gonna paint no more (Karen Beaumont)
Hope Toad (Jane Yolen)
Hide and Snake (Keith Baker)
Princess Hyacinth (Florence Parry Heide)
I Like Myself (Karen Beaumont)
Sitting Duck (Jackie Urbanovi)
DinoHockey (Lisa Wheeler)
Otis (Loren Long)

It is fun for the kids to share "their" book pick with the class and we talk about why they picked it, what we all liked about it, who might want to pick it next time, etc. 

The Nitty Gritty

This week has gone well, but it feels odd only being half-days now.  I definitely felt more involved and a more of the "teacher" when I was there all day.  The schedule also changed on Monday, so when I came in on Tuesday, everything was all switched up!  We were able to get together with the other K teachers and finish the detailed plans for the next two weeks of class...I was involved, but I can't say that I was a part of it really because the literacy curriculum is detailed by day, as is the handwriting curriculum.  The teachers used their plans from last year to inform what they were doing this year.  I was hoping for more constructivism/creativity in the curriculum planning.  I know that we must work with these curriculums, but I wished to see more creativity and enhancement in its implementation. 
We are also working a lot on the behavior management systems that the teacher has in the classroom.  A few children had yellow stoplight circles sent home with a note to parents (must be signed and sent back) and had to sit out 15 minutes of choice time (or for the 15 min of morning recess).  Another child who has more consistent behavioral issues, has been started on a daily "star chart" in which she can either earn a treasure box prize if she earns a certain amount of stars or loses choice time if she doesn't ear enough stars.  The teach also does a tally mark system between herself and the class...if they get to 50 points first, they get ice cream to celebrate.  If the teacher gets to 50 points first, the kids lose choice time that day. 
I am not used to using "system" like these...it seems very time consumming on part of the teacher and doesn't really seem to influence children's behavior in a heartfelt way.  It feels like bribing/punishing for good/bad behavior...I feel that we should be instilling a sense of belonging, community, and responsibility and teaching them how to be members of a community.  To me, rewards and punishments work against creating these values.  However, I want to be open minded and see if these systems really are effective and so I work to reinforce them in the classroom.