Sneaker Teacher

Assess My Mess

2012-01-30T21:03:00.000-08:00

Just kidding...there's no mess...in fact I am so proud of all my kiddos and how much they've learned since the beginning of school.

But, Friday is our report card day, so this week is all about making sure I have every item assessed and that all 1:1 assessments are current.

Anyone else have a hard time fitting in time to work with kids ONE at a time!?

Luckily, I have been using 30 minutes each Friday all year for assessment time while the kiddos work on one particular sound sorting activity, which means that it has not been as much of a scramble to get all of my assessments done. I still have a few kiddos that I need to check in with in both classes to make sure their info is current, but I think that is perfectly doable in the next few days.

Tomorrow I have a group assessment planned and for some reason both classes are ROCKSTARS at group assessments this year. I gave them each a "secret office" space to sit in when we do group assessments because I want to make sure they can't possibly copy off of anyone else. When I tell them we have a "secret office job" they actually cheer. I usually follow it with a quick fun activity that they can earn and so far they have a really good track record of being very quiet and on task during those assessment times. Tomorrow I am going to have them write the alphabet, write numbers 1-20 and draw the 7 basic shapes (square, circle, oval, triangle, rectangle, trapezoid, and hexagon). Since when are trapezoids and hexagons considered simple shapes?! I always feel like it's easier to grade objectively when I actually have a product to look at rather than just going on memory from what students do in class. With 38 kids and preggo brain, I need hard copies to look at in order to really evaluate their work and compare what kids should receive the various marks.

We have 3 marks we can give and I am not a huge fan of the wording...

+ consistently demonstrates
V has made acceptable progress
O more time needed

I usually think of the V as "developing" but I feel like the wording that is on our report card sounds more negative. Especially when kids are on the cusp of mastering a particular skill. If a child knows all but two sounds it's hard to say they have made acceptable progress because it sounds like "eh, they are doing okay..." when in reality they are SO close. Yet, I don't feel like I can give them a plus quite yet.

I assessed kids on their pattern recognition, building, and labeling today and most kids got +'s in all three. Yay! I so much prefer to assess something like that 1:1 rather than in a whole group because I feel like I can have more time to process the extent to which a kiddo really gets or doesn't grasp something. If only there were more time to work 1:1 with kids!!

I am hoping to have good attendance for the rest of the week so I can get a math test done and the other assessments that I still have. Then comes the hard part of filling out the behavior section on the report card. Always the hardest part for me because I waffle back and forth between thinking I am being too hard and too easy on kids. At least this year I have kept weekly data on how many sticks kiddos have kept/lost which will help in determining some of those criteria.

I am hopeful that I can enter a little bit of data each day for the report cards so that on Friday I can just relax. We are allowed to sign out and do grades from home, so if my reports are already done, then I basically have a day off to work on my dissertation stuff. I have a draft of my survey ready which I am really happy about and I think I am making good progress towards having a draft ready by Valentine's Day! Woo hoo!

Is it report card time for you? What is your grading system like?

Making the Rounds

2012-01-24T18:40:00.000-08:00

Yesterday morning all of the teachers on my Kinder teams had subs so we could participate in a group observation deal along with our principal and the facilitator/trainer who has been leading our seminars on culturally responsive instruction. As many of you know, I am working on my doctorate and culturally responsive instruction plays a big part in all that I read and think about. I am really happy to be part of the trainings with my awesome team and yesterday turned out to be a pretty good experience overall.

We were very stressed and skeptical until about Friday because we had been told that we would be doing this group observation, yet we didn't have any info on the schedule or who would be subbing or how it would all work out. Luckily, we each got our own sub for the whole morning and either Thursday or Friday of last week we got the schedule outlining when our particular lesson would be occurring. We only had to do a 15 minute "lesson" so it was more like a single activity with the kids, but we basically had to come into the class after our students had started the morning with a sub, teach for 15 minutes while the others watched, then book it out of our room to watch the next teacher do her lesson.... interesting.

No, really...it actually was quite an interesting experience.

We met in the morning with all of the peeps involved and each of us got to share what our lesson would be and what our goals were. As part of the training we were asked to select 3-5 children of color as our focus kids. We have been working hard to collect "below the line" information about these kiddos and paying particular attention to how they are doing in our classrooms, how engaged they are in activities, and what activities they really enjoy. Our lessons yesterday were meant to focus on really making sure these particular students were engaged. Typically, it's pretty hard to teach, think about everything going on in the classroom, problem solve, listen to all the stories kiddos want to share, and have an eagle eye for how each child is responding to what is going on and your instruction. So, the point of yesterday was to have 4 extra pairs of eyes on our focus children to help give us feedback on what they were doing during our lessons.

My lesson contained two parts and I thought both went pretty well. The first is a game we play to review our letter sounds. Normally I just flip through the cards that go with our program and say "what sound" for each one. The kids answer chorally and sometimes various kids don't participate or merely echo what they hear other children saying. Our team started playing a game with the kiddos where each child gets a letter card and the kids mingle, find a partner, tell their partner what sound their letter makes, listen to their partner, then trade cards and repeat. We have them use the frame "my letter says ___" for each pairing. This activity gives the kiddos a chance to be up on their feet moving around rather than sitting and just saying sounds like robots. It also builds in support for kids who don't know their sounds as well because their partner tells them a sound before they have to then share it with someone else. As long as they start with a sound they know, they have support from each partner before sharing their new sound with someone else.

The second activity consisted of our stretch and read practice from our phonics program. Usually I write words that contain our current sound on the board and we sound them out and read them fast together. The program places zero emphasis on reading the words in context or talking about what they mean. Yet, kids are bursting with shout outs each time we sound out a word because it's their natural desire to make sense of what they read. They want to say something about the words rather than just move on. I used to get frustrated and think that all the calling out reflected a lack of control in my teaching, but I decided to go with it instead of against it. I now give the kiddos time to turn to their neighbor and talk about each word. Yesterday I specifically used words that I could pair with prompts in order to make the words relevant to the kids. Each time we read a word, I gave them a prompt and asked them to share with a neighbor. For example....the word was "shop" and I asked them to tell their neighbor where they shop for food. Each time the kids were given the go ahead to talk the room was bursting with voices and it was great to get feedback from my teammates regarding what certain kids were saying and how on task they were. I use a bell as the signal that it is time to stop and the kiddos were really good about getting quiet when they heard the bell and getting ready for the next word.

It was kind of nerve wracking to have 4 people in my room watching at once. Plus my sub. Plus a parent in the hallway waiting for us to start an Art Literacy lesson after the observation. But all in all I thought it went well and I am really happy that it will count as my second principal observation of the year! It was also fun to see my friends' classes because I don't really know their kiddos and I never get to see them teach. Once we had all taken our turn teaching, we met again as a big team (with our principal and the facilitator) and debriefed our lessons. We were told it was not meant to be evaluative rather than the observers were focusing on kids and helping us become more aware of how engaged they were.

Our principal was very positive after the facilitator left and said we did a great job and that she is really happy we are her Kindergarten team. Yay for us! We really have been working hard with this training and I am glad that it shows. We have another training day on Thursday and the observations were supposed to be on Friday, but due to some scheduling conflicts we had to change our date to yesterday. I am glad it is over and behind us now!

Speaking of being observed...this afternoon I had a visit from the district Director of Curriculum and Instruction. He just strolled into my room all casual and talked with some of my kiddos about what they were working on. Usually he would come with the principal and he doesn't visit the building all that often so it was a bit of a surprise that he just showed up by himself. My kiddos were hard at work practicing being really quiet during their table activity so he got to see a great little snippet of our day and I was relieved about that. He approached one little guy and asked him about what word he was making and my student pointed to the wall where I have the letter and word of the week posted. Having our objectives posted is big in my district so I was very proud of that little guy for making me look good and pointing out that it was perfectly clear what word he was working on because it's the word of the week! Hehe.

Now it's time for me to work on my dissertation proposal. I am having new-found inspiration to try and get myself on track to have my dissertation finished by the end of this summer. I figure if I make great use of my time while I am on maternity leave and cuddling with my new little bundle of Sneaker joy that it just might be possible. I am picturing Baby Sneaker snuggled in the Moby Wrap while I type away at the computer. There are a few timelines that are not within my control regarding paper work that needs to be submitted to the university in order to get permission to conduct my study, but if all goes well I just might be able to pull it off. Otherwise I am hoping to finish by December, but September would be better!

Friend Makin' Monday

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Short Answers

Mac or PC? Mac all the way
Do you paint your own nails? Rarely
Beach or mountains? Beach
What’s the title of the book you’re currently reading? Angel Makers...I am reading it for book club. It's not one I would have picked on my own, but I really like it so far.
Do you dance? When no-one is watching.
CNN or Fox News? Neither
Do you ride a bicycle? Not too often. My adventures in bike riding while in Amsterdam turned me off...
Do you get a yearly flu shot? No, but this year the doc told me to since I am preggo and teach lots of little kids who are germy!
Best movie you’ve seen in 2012? I haven't seen any yet this year!
Do you prefer to workout at home or at the gym? At the gym.
Last airport you were in? Portland Airport returning from Christmas in CT with my family
Married or single? Married to a cutie
iPhone or Android? iPhone
Do you prefer to be in pictures or taking pictures? In pictures
Favorite brand of sneakers? adidas. I have many pairs ;0)
Do you like snow? Yes. I don't ski or do any snow activities, but I sure do love snow days!
Do you have/want to have kids? Have one cooking right now! Due March 31st with a baby girl.
Summer or Winter? Summer. No school and my birthday!
Do you know how to swim? Yes, if you consider doggy paddle swimming.
Do you prefer to shop in store or online? In the store. I prefer to try things on and have hated how most maternity clothes (that are reasonably priced) are available online only. I am growing every day, yet can't try things on before I buy them and have to pay to send them back! Boo!

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions! Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments!

nest

2012-01-20T21:36:00.000-08:00

I finally got to take out some of my nesting urges on my classroom. I left home at 6:30 AM this morning, stopped at Starbucks for a decaf latte, then headed to school. I was in my room by 7, which gave me time to prep for the day, gather things for next week, and do some organizing. My "office" area was previously a disaster zone and it is now looking somewhat better. I cleared away some of the clutter and utilized some of the file cabinet and storage space that I have.

There truly is no excuse for things being out and about in the room because I have a TON of cabinet space, but I feel like once things go into the cabinets I completely forget about their existence.

Not good.

Overall the space is looking better and I left today feeling pretty refreshed and organized. I was in the car by 2:50 because I had to get yet another blood draw which I had to get done before my class that started at 4:30. Considering I jetted out of there shortly after the kiddos got on the buses, I feel like things are very much in order for next week and the room is looking better than it has in awhile.

We have an interesting day on Monday which I will try to post about sometime soon. Right now though, my pj's and the most recent episode of revenge are calling my name!

Happy Friday! Happy Weekend!

snow...baby...inappropriate

2012-01-17T20:39:00.000-08:00

Bullet points are all I am up for right now...

Over the weekend we were supposed to get some snow. Hubs and I were in Seattle and we actually thought we might not make it back because it started to accumulate and the hilly roads were quite slippery. It hasn't been as bad in Portland, but it sure was snowing this morning while I was driving to work. Unfortunately it's not really cold enough for it to stick. We were all hoping for a delayed opening this morning, but alas, we just has buses on snow routes and a regular day. I had 7 kiddos absent this morning, but by the time PM Kinder rolled around, it was just raining and attendance was much better.

Today was DIBELS day. I already got my scores back and they look great. I know DIBELS are controversial because they are only one measure of students' success, but it's always nice to see that my kiddos are getting the skills I am teaching. I still need to wait for the results for the 7 kiddos who were out today and I think a few of those kiddos are still pretty low, but all in all we have some smart cookies.

Mr. Sneaker and I went to another ultrasound after work today. The doctor said everything looked great and we even got a 3-D picture which is really cool. Baby Sneaker is pretty darn cute! She is weighing in just under 3 pounds and it was nice to get some reassurance that her measurements are no longer "small."

Today one of my students told me that I should not watch the Sexy and I Know It video because it's "inappropriate." So of course I checked it out on youtube and yes, for a five year old it is totally inappropriate. Makes me wonder why she was allowed to view it in the first place...

Fingers crossed for some icy roads and a delayed opening tomorrow!! Snow dance snow dance!

Friend Makin' Monday

2012-01-09T18:13:00.000-08:00

I think it's been a LONG time since I've done a Friend Makin' Monday post and it sounds good right about now.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Getting To Know You

1) What is one of your favorite ways to spend a Saturday? Saturdays are for relaxing! I really enjoy it most when I get to just hang out with Mr. Sneaker, maybe hit the gym, and eat some good food.

2) List your top three favorite TV shows. Desperate Housewives, Top Chef, Gray's Anatomy

3) Would you rather be in pictures or take them? I like to take pictures, but I am not particularly good at it and really bad at remembering to get the camera out, so I'd say I prefer to be in them. I love when someone else catches some of my favorite moments in a great picture, especially when I am with friends and family.

4) Why do you blog? I started blogging because I like to write and talk about teaching. Then blogging became more about "meeting" other bloggers and stealing their awesome classroom ideas. It's a great forum for connecting with other teachers and learning about what their students, classrooms, and lessons are like.

5) Share five websites that you visit regularly…

facebook, yahoo, gmail, my blog (I use the links to read other blogs), What to Expect March 2012 Babies boards.

6) If you could have lunch with one person from your Twitter list who would it be? Kelly from She Wears a Red Sox Cap.

7) List a few of your favorite snacks. Chobani yogurt, cheese and crackers, apples and peanut butter, banana chips.

8 ) Do you have a pet? If so, what kind? No, Mr. Sneaker is allergic.

9) Which three material possessions would you struggle to live without? iphone, MacBook, flat iron.

10) What’s your favorite drink? Diet Coke, but I am not drinking it these days...

11) Do you enjoy cooking? Sometimes. I used to want to be a chef and really enjoyed trying out new recipes. I feel like I have gotten lazy. I prefer baking.

12) Do you have children? Yes. Coming soon....3/31!

13) What are your favorite hobbies? reading, running, dancing

14) Would you consider yourself to be shy or outgoing? I'm shy until I know someone well. I often am a listener in conversations rather than a big talker.

15) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you change? I would want to be a little more daring.

16) Who is your favorite actor/actress? I don't really have a favorite...

17) What’s the coolest thing you’ve done this week? grew a baby...it's ongoing coolness.

18) Do you live near your family or far from them? Far :0( My family all lives in CT and I am in OR.

19) List three of your talents. That's hard....writing....teaching....making sure celebrations take place!

20) What is your greatest attribute? I am loyal.

Now it’s your turn to share your answers. Don’t forget to come back here and link up in the comments!
Happy Monday!

Risky Business

2012-01-07T16:50:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I have ever actually seen that movie in its entirety, but I know it for the famous scene where Tom Cruise dances to Old Time Rock and Roll in his white shirt, underwear, and socks in celebration of being home alone when his parents go out of town.

Mr. Sneaker left town this morning and I can relate.

No, I am not dancing my big belly around in my underwear, but I am definitely taking full advantage of being home by myself. I have been ridiculously bad about cleaning, doing laundry, and keeping our space organized in the past few months. But today, the nesting urge was in full swing and I have been hustling and bustling around my apartment in an organizing frenzy. I attacked my bathroom drawer which was a horrible mess of makeup, headbands, and toiletries all tangled up with my hair dryer, flat iron, and clumps of hair. Yuck. I woke up this morning just NEEDING to fix that hot mess and now it looks bee-u-tiful! I then proceeded to organize the rest of the bathroom drawers and bins followed by laundry and kitchen cabinet organizing. Then, I showered up and started to tackle some of my dissertation proposal work. I feel like I am in a pretty good place, but I am now reviewing statistical procedures in order to process how I will analyze data in a quantitative study and that should probably slow me down a bit :0)

I feel so productive!

The apartment is clean and I am a happy camper and I am gearing up to lay down for a bit and try to do my fetal kick counts for the first time. The doc gave me a little card that I have to fill out every day to monitor how long it takes Baby Sneaker to move ten times. Should be interesting...

Gotta get it done

2012-01-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

As I sat in the waiting room for my appt. with the OB after work, I realized that I have to put in some serious effort to organize my classroom before I go on maternity leave. Despite the fact that my very good friend Jill is taking over for me (and she would never criticize my room or it's lack of pristine organization) I still have this feeling of urgency to organize the space that someone else will be taking over when I am not there.

I have my bookshelves arranged so that there is an area kind of separated off in the corner of the room by the door. I call this area my "office" and the kids aren't supposed to go over there. I don't actually do any work in there, even though that is where my desk is, rather I use it as a space to store materials that I don't want the kids to have access to. I have tons of storage space in my room (we are really lucky in that regard), yet for some reason, I have many supplies left in boxes from when I moved my supplies to my current school over a year ago. Then, when we officially moved back from Germany this past summer, my books came back and I added about 4 more boxes of books to the collection of boxes that is now taking over my "office."

Maybe it is that whole nesting thing that is starting to kick in, but I seriously feel like doing some major reorganizing and cleaning in there. The problem is, I have so many other things to do before and after school that I never get around to large scale organizing on school days. Mr. Sneaker is flying out very early tomorrow morning for a business trip, so I just may take a few hours (maybe more) to improve what's going on in that messy area.

I try to stay organized. Really I do. But, I am just not one of those teachers that has a specific place for everything who leaves everything just so before taking off in the afternoon. I just feel like I am trying to stay afloat with all the preparations and planning and meetings, and cleaning the room is not something that makes the to do list.

But, now that Jill will be in my space, I am starting to feel like it NEEDS to change. Unfortunately being close to 7 months pregnant is probably not the most ideal time to start a cleaning/organizing frenzy, yet I kind of feeling like if I have the urge, I am going to ride that wave and get it done.

Wish me luck with that.....

Also, one of my kiddos came in this morning with 2 boxes of cupcakes in a plastic bag and a note in her backpack from her mom saying today is her birthday.

::very big loud sigh::

(Please recall our birthday rules that I posted earlier this week which include NO CUPCAKES and please arrange birthday snacks with me in advance so I can make time in the schedule.....)

So, I told my little friend that cupcakes are not allowed, put them back in her backpack and wrote a note to her mom explaining that the rules went home at the beginning of the year stating that cupcakes are not allowed and that I need parents to give me notice if they will be sending in a snack. And, since she did not adhere to either of those rules, I would not serve the cupcakes. I apologized and said I won't make exceptions because let's face it, if I allow cupcakes in January, I will get cupcakes until June...

I didn't feel that bad about my choice to not serve the kids the cupcakes, but I did feel bad that this parent had already spent money on the cupcakes. I started to think about what her reaction would be when her child arrived home on her birthday with 24 uneaten cupcakes still in her backpack. So, I kind of started to feel a bit Grinchy.

I didn't serve them in class, because we definitely had a full day and there isn't time to stop and have a snack and then deal with the repercussions of kids who somehow lose the ability to listen after ingesting sugar. But, this child attends our extended day program during which the kids eat lunch. I consulted with the teacher who supervises those kiddos and after making sure there were enough cupcakes for kids in that group I decided to pass them out to the kids as they were eating their lunch. I revised my note (leaving the first part intact), but adding that I didn't want the cupcakes to go to waste so I served them to that group during lunch instead of our class.

I kind of feel like I wussed out on truly standing by my rule, but I don't want to be completely unreasonable about it. I just get really frustrated with parents who clearly don't pay attention to the rules and then get I defensive thinking that they are going to think I am being a pain by denying their child a birthday celebration in class. I was even thinking over break that I should send a reminder note home and after this week with two birthday incidents involving parents not giving me any warning about bringing cupcakes on the day of their kids' birthday, I think I definitely need to send that note home. My teammate and I talked about making our rules even clearer next year stating that birthday celebrations are conducted around our academic schedule and won't necessarily take place on a child's actual birthday and that if we are not given notice about the snack being sent to school that we will send it home because we don't have extra time to stop and have snack (especially in half day and especially sugar-filled snacks that make the kids crazy).

Ok, rant over. Next year, I'll just include a reminder on the monthly calendar that goes home so there is no excuse for not knowing the mean, grinchy, cranky birthday rules.

Back

2012-01-03T17:38:00.000-08:00

As much as it was hard to go back to work today, it was really nice to see all my little friends. They were filled with excitement over lost teeth, new clothes and Christmas gifts. I thought they would be a bit more excited over my bigger bump, but I think they were a little too caught up in their own adventures.

I always like to check in with kiddos after a long break (or even a weekend) to see what they have been up to when they weren't in school. I had a lot of kids sharing about playing video games over break...not my favorite thing to hear, but there were a few who shared about reading books, getting books they were excited about for Christmas, and some interesting trips they went on. Both classes got right back into the swing of things and did great today. My PM class was more talkative...the AM class was pretty quiet. I wanted to review expectations and procedures, but they didn't really struggle to get back to it, so I didn't spend a lot of time reviewing. I will pop in some review here and there throughout the week, but overall I think we can just jump back in. Anyone else feel like there kiddos are just so grown up and capable all of a sudden? I have some math games that I have the kids do once a week where different levels of games are kept in color coded binders and the game sheets are in numerical order. Usually (as in prior to break), after correcting a game sheet, I would find the appropriate binder, locate the spot where the current page came from, remove the next sheet, and return it to the kiddo who needed it. Today I realized all the bending involved in that whole process and I decided it was time to have the kids get their own sheets. When I first introduced these math games to my kiddos, they never would have been able to manage opening binders, removing sheets, returning completed sheets to the right spot, and closing the binders. Today, with very little help, they did a great job. I easily passed off that part of the activity management to them and it was really helpful in terms of not having to bend over so much and being able to correct their work with less chaos. It's so awesome to see the difference between their capabilities on day 1 and now. They still have a long way to go, but it just proves how rockin' us Kinder teachers are. We make it happen!

The only real hitch to the day was upsetting a parent right off the bat. Well, to be honest, she annoyed me too, but it never feels good to know that a parent is not happy with you. We start the year providing parents with clear information about rules for how we celebrate birthdays in class and what foods are not allowed. The rules are as follows...

No cupcakes, cake, or ice cream
Please give us advance notice so we can plan accordingly to fit a birthday snack into our very full schedule
Check in to ensure an accurate head count of children in the class.

So...this morning when the kiddos were doing their morning work, a parent approaches me and says today is her child's birthday and could she bring a snack in later in the morning. My reaction may not have been super nice and I am pretty sure somewhat of a large sigh came out before I told her that no, she could not bring in a snack because I need more notice. She then turned to her child and said Mrs. Sneaker said she couldn't bring in cupcakes....to which I reminded her that cupcakes are not even allowed. I could tell she was annoyed, but I explained to her that we have rules that we provide at the beginning of the year and I cannot accommodate a birthday on such short notice (especially the very first day back after two weeks off). Our day was packed, but I also have students that don't celebrate and I need to make arrangements for where they will go if the other kids are having a birthday snack. I did tell the mom that if she wanted to plan the snack for later in the week we could do it and when she picked up her kiddo after school she asked if she could bring cookies on Thursday or Friday. I feel really bad because I don't want to come off like a snot, but if I break the rule for her, I am inviting more parents to break the rule and I just don't feel like it's THAT important for kids to celebrate their birthdays in half day Kindergarten...Yes, birthdays are huge, but it's also huge to sit down and create lesson plans for an already too short day during which every minute counts and I just don't feel the need to throw that to the wayside for a parent who didn't follow the rules. She blamed it on the break, but 1. I check my email over the break and had she emailed I would have gotten it and responded and 2. I probably would have told her that the first day back is not a good day to have a disruption to the routine...am I just mean? I was actually kind of proud of myself for standing my ground and not bending because usually I am a pushover for things like that.

What would you have said to the impromptu birthday parent?

What's New

2012-01-02T14:10:00.000-08:00

I am not ready to go back to work tomorrow...anyone else with me on that? I guess I feel lucky compared to some teachers who already went back today and I am thankful that we didn't have school today, but I'm still not ready for tomorrow. Some things have changed since I was last at work (in terms of my growing belly) and it's getting a lot harder to move around. I am a bit worried about being able to do everything in the classroom that I need to do.

I've already warned my kiddos that I won't be tying shoes for much longer...I can barely tie my own and have taken to asking Mr. Sneaker to help me put on my socks and shoes and tie them. He said he can hook me up with come Velcro ones!

Pregnancy changes everything, but I've had a few realizations in the past week or so...

shopping is not fun when you struggle to remove your clothing and put it back on once you're done trying things on

"working out" has a whole new meaning when exercising consists of walking at 3 miles an hour

I am now smiling when I see the numbers on the scale go UP instead of DOWN

Mr. Sneaker is a truly amazing husband. It's not that I didn't know that before, but I am seeing it in new ways. He cleaned our whole apartment yesterday and just made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch. He helps me put on my compression stockings that I wear to prevent varicose veins as well as my socks and shoes. He helps to pull me up from sitting and laying positions because I can't quite do it on my own. And he gets the biggest smile on his face when he feels our little baby girl kick.

Pregnancy pillows are the best invention ever!

My lesson plans are all set and I know that I will get back into the groove quickly. I know this week will entail lots of time spent reviewing procedures and routines and it will be so nice to see all those cute little faces again and hear their comments about my baby and my tummy growing. I think I am going to need a nap after school tomorrow, but hopefully it's a good first day back!

It's gonna be a BIG year

2012-01-01T10:41:00.000-08:00

This is the year that will change my life forever.

In March, we'll welcome a baby girl into our family and life will never be the same...I am nervous, excited, overwhelmed, and really happy. I will be happier when she is out and healthy and send positive thoughts to my growing belly every day in hopes that wish is realized.

I always start the year with a reflection on some of the goals I made the previous year and set some new goals. I am not so much into resolutions because I feel like I pretty much live life the way I intend to, so I don't feel a huge need to change that. But, I do feel the need to set goals to keep myself on the track that I am on.

Let's take a peek at my goals from last year...

Complete the half marathon in April! Check! I finished the race in 2 hours and 3 minutes and was super proud of myself and all my running buddies. They are still at it and have continued on to run other half marathons since, but being pregnant has put a stop to my running. I am thinking of signing up for another half in the fall as motivation to get back to running after the baby comes, but I think I need a taste of motherhood before I commit to that.

Complete Core Paper and Specialty Paper for my doctoral program-Done and Done. I completed my core presentation and defense on June 16th--a mere two days before I returned to Germany for the summer to reunite with Mr. Sneaker and make a baby. :0) Midway through the specialty paper, a committee at PSU decided that it would no longer be required, but what I wrote basically became the first 2 chapters of my dissertation proposal, so I am totally on track. I am now starting to work on my methodology section with the hopes that I can complete chapter 3 (final chapter of the proposal) before Little Miss Sneaker makes her debut in March.

Start my dissertation research- Fail. This goal was a bit premature as we realized that it truly takes 4 years to complete all the program requirements rather than 3. We were led to believe it could happen in 3, but no-one in the cohort is quite ready to actually start research yet. We are all still working on our study design and need to get through the hoop of getting our proposals approved before we can start collecting data. I am looking at data collection next fall with the hope of completing the entire dissertation and finishing by Spring 2013.

Read at least 1 book for pleasure each month (I loved this goal last year!)-Pretty sure I did this, yet I totally forgot about keeping track and writing down the titles of the books that I read. I am not trying to make excuses, but pregnancy brain has taken over and I am not nearly as organized as I used to be...hopefully I get my mojo back after the baby is born...ha! I'd really like to get back to making my way through that list of the top 100 books every young reader should read that I was working on in Germany.

Post on this blog more frequently! Since becoming pregnant I can say for sure this goal has been a fail. I feel like I have not been posting at all and I hate that, yet I can say for sure now that being pregnant has this magical way of shifting one's priorities. I am LOVING my job this year, I love my kiddos and small class sizes, and I feel like I have a great groove going in the classroom. But, I don't always feel the need to post about it when I get home...I still read the blogs in my sidebar all the time and want to be part of bloggy land, yet I find myself just wanting to take a load off when I get home and I'm somewhat uninspired to write about teaching. Everyone has a rut every once in awhile, so maybe this means that Sneaker Teacher will make some changes in the upcoming year.

This year, I don't really feel like I have too many goals besides delivering a healthy baby. That is my main focus and purpose and all other things take a backseat to that. I have no idea what is in store for me as I enter the world of motherhood, but I hope that I'll be good at it and make the most of being home with my baby for 5 months before going back to work in the fall. I am so excited to meet my little baby girl in a few months.

Professionally/School-wise my goal is to complete my dissertation proposal before Baby Sneaker comes out and to present and defend the proposal by the end of the school year. I think the summer will bring a bit of a break and then I hope to collect my data in the fall and then use winter and spring terms to analyze and complete the dissertation writing. It will be interesting to see how I can juggle being a new mommy, working on my dissertation, and teaching...

Happy New Year to everyone. Health and Happiness are my big wishes for everyone this year!

Almost a new year

2011-12-30T11:43:00.000-08:00

I never understood bloggers who just kind of fell off the face of the earth before, but I am starting to get it a little more because I have become one of them! With holiday traveling and enjoying family time, I just haven't been on the computer that much (although my mom would disagree because my phone and ipad are typically extensions of my hands). So here's the latest:

We were in CT with my family for about a week and it was wonderful. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house and then Christmas day at my brother and SIL's house and followed all the holiday festivities with a baby shower for baby Sneaker on the 26th. Because we had to travel back to OR with baby gifts in tow, I got a lot of gift cards to Babies R Us that I can use to purchase what we need. I also got lots of cute baby girl jammies, outfits, and blankets. It was so nice to see my mom's friends, relatives, and friends of mine who I haven't seen in years! My mom decorated a small Christmas tree with little pink baby girl ornaments and it was super cute. Now I have to get on those thank you cards before going back to work! Mr. Sneaker and I also went into NYC to see The Book of Mormon which was fantastic. We know one of the actors in the show, so we got to go backstage and check things out after the show. Then we met up with some of Mr. Sneaker's best friends from college in the city for drinks and dinner. I have taken to asking for juice and sparkling water when we go out and call that my pregnancy cocktail. It's just a bit more fun than plain water.

We had an ultrasound appointment yesterday and baby Sneaker did some good growing over the past two weeks. She is still measuring a bit small (about a week behind), but we are hopeful that she will catch up. I have another ultrasound appointment scheduled for the 17th because the doctor wants to continue to monitor her more frequently just to make sure her growth is adequate. Being pregnant is very scary and I am filled with worries, but everything else is looking good other than her overall size. She was breech, but flipped around, so she is now wreaking havoc on my bladder. Fingers crossed that next time we go she is bigger and more on track with her growth! I am trying not to worry too much and trying to take advantage of not working right now by relaxing and getting lots of rest.

I am starting to miss my kiddos, but I will fully enjoy these last few days of break. Once I go back I have 12 more weeks of school to make it through. My goal is to teach until spring break (Friday 3/23) and then I will be off the rest of the school year on maternity leave. I am interested to see how my teaching changes as my belly gets bigger and it becomes harder to move around. I've already told the kiddos that I won't be tying shoes much longer because I just won't be able to bend down. Fortunately, I have about 20 eager little helpers in each class that are willing to pass things out, pick things up, clean up, etc. I am usually up and down when I teach, but I have a feeling I will be doing more sitting in the coming weeks.

Usually at this time of year I am gearing up for a nice post about my resolutions and goals, but I don't know if I have it in me! We'll see....My next post will be my 700th, so I may have to put in the extra effort!

Alive and Kicking

2011-12-18T11:04:00.000-08:00

Well...to be clear...Baby Sneaker is the one kicking :0)

I am happy to say I survived round two of classroom parties this year and they went off without a hitch. I have a bit of party paranoia because when I taught first grade and did all my own party planning, a child asked, literally in the middle of the party, "when are we going to have our party?" From that, I concluded that my parties must be pretty lame. Last year, I had wonderful parents who took over all of the planning and that was awesome, but this year I am back to doing it myself.

Despite my lame parties, I kind of like planning them myself a bit better. Or, at least planning myself then enlisting parents to help orchestrate what I want...

True parties are fun with sugary snacks, games, prizes, and music.

Yet, with that fun often comes overly-excited children who forget all about listening and following directions.

That's when the parties become not so fun for me and more of a source of stress that makes me really happy when I get to put the kiddos onto the buses at the end of the day.

This time around, both parties were pretty calm. The kids had fun, but I didn't feel as stressed out.

Here's a few things I did that worked:

1. I emailed parents two weeks ago with a list of things I needed (hot chocolate mix, mini marshmallows, cookies, and parents to help during the party). Parents emailed me back and I got multiple volunteers for all things needed.

2. I planned the activity myself so I would know exactly what to expect (more about what we did later) rather than trying to recruit a parent to take on that responsibility.

3. I found a snowman themed book to read so that we could call it a "winter" party instead of a "Christmas" party so that my students who don't celebrate Christmas could still participate and be comfortable.

4. I directed parents to do what I needed while I read so that snack would be out on the table when the story was over (parents tend to sit around and watch unless specifically asked to help...go figure).

Those things worked for me this time.

Sure, a story during a party might not seem too cool, but the kids enjoyed it and they still kept their ability to listen in tact. Score!

They also really liked the game I made up even though it was a game that involved practicing their letter sounds. We have been playing a "mixer" game for several weeks now where each child gets a letter card. They find a partner, tell their partner what sound their letter makes, listen to what their partner says, then trade cards and find a new partner. They love this game. '

For the party, I printed out snowflake clip art and wrote letters in the center (each snowflake was on a half sheet of paper). We played the game in the same way as we do with our phonics letter cards, except every minute or so, I would say "freeze," prompting the kiddos to crumple up their papers into snowballs and I would count to three then we'd all toss our snowballs in the air and make it snow. We had a talk prior to starting about now throwing "snow" at each other and there were no issues. They LOVED it. We followed that up with some hot cocoa and cookies and we were good to go.

Maybe it's the costumes that come along with Halloween that make those parties more difficult, but this time around I thought both groups did really well and I even had fun during the parties. I didn't take any pictures (oops!), but I am fine with that because I will be on maternity leave at the end of the year and therefore won't be doing an end of the year slide show this year. I am not about to ask my sub to put that together for me, so it is what it is.

Mr. Sneaker and I are heading to CT for the holidays and we leave on Tuesday. I am so excited to see my family including my nieces (one of which I have not met yet) and my SIL who is also preggo.

Happy Holidays!

I am...

2011-12-05T20:30:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've done one of these, but I wanted to post today and nothing else really pressing to write about...

1. I am good at…baking, juggling work and school, being organized (usually).
2. I am happy when…I get to cuddle up on the couch with hubs and watch a movie.
3. I am working on…my dissertation proposal, but as of now I am on hiatus because I turned in my draft of the first two chapters last night and I don't want to work on it until after Christmas break!
4. I am interested in…teaching college (teaching teachers someday)
5. I am always…on time (actually that's changed since being pregnant and slower at doing everything!)
6. I am enjoying…feeling my baby girl kicking and moving around.
7. I am in…my apartment relaxing with Mr. Sneaker
8. I am reading…nothing right now. I just finished Cutting for Stone with my book club and haven't started a new novel yet.
9. I am concerned about…how bad I've gotten about cleaning and doing laundry lately.
10. I am looking forward to…Christmas in CT with my family!

paper writing and holiday spirit

2011-12-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

I spent all morning working (in bed) on my paper that is due on Monday. It's coming along really well and I feel like I made some really good progress. I realized how much I had repeated some of my main points, so I did some editing, deleting, rearranging, and feel much better. I am still writing the section on home visits, which is one of the big sections in my literature review, and hopefully I can get all the writing done today and leave all the final edits for tomorrow.

In a little bit I have an appt. for a hair cut and some highlights, so that will give me a nice break for some walking and catching up on gossip magazines while I sit in the chair. Then I think I will curl up with some blankets, some hot cocoa and the documentary I borrowed from a friend called Precious Knowledge. Have you heard of it? It's about the issues surrounding the teaching of culture studies in Arizona. I heard it was fabulous so I am intrigued and excited to take advantage of my dominance over the TV while Mr. Sneaker is away for the weekend attending various sporting events in SF.

I have such an urge to decorate for Christmas, but sadly all but one box of holiday stuff is buried deep in our storage unit and the box I do have is a random mess of nothing. I want my advent house and my stocking and my countdown to Christmas, but I guess I just have to wait until I get to my mom's house because she does. it. up Christmas style! Can't wait! 17 more days and we'll be there! In the meantime I can enjoy the big 'ol Christmas tree in the lobby of our building.

bring in da noise

2011-12-01T21:49:00.000-08:00

How do you feel about noise in the classroom?

A sign of busy and engaged kids or a sign of poor management?

I feel conflicted...

When I witness my students chatting away during their morning work or getting excited during lessons and calling out, I feel like they are engaged and feel comfortable being themselves in my classroom.

I like that.

Yet, I also feel like sometimes there is this expectation for "quiet working" that makes me feel like any time my kiddos are being a bit chatty that my classroom might appear chaotic or not "calm" and "well behaved" enough.

I visited a classroom last year and the kids were SO quiet...I got kind of jealous thinking how come I don't have that level of control in my room.

On the other hand...don't I want my kids to use language in the room, make friends, and talk to their peers? I don't want them to be mute and afraid to communicate.

I feel like there are so many times during the day when I am asking students to turn their voices off that it seems like there are just not as many times when they can talk freely or express themselves on a whim. We have been trying very hard to work on inside voices and whisper voices because I want to encourage them to talk, yet at the same time, I don't like when the noise level gets too high. I don't want silence, but I do want quiet enough for kids to be able to think and do their best work.

What do you think? Are we asking kids to be too quiet too often setting an unreasonable expectation or do you have a super quiet classroom that's serene like a yoga room?

As a school we have been focusing a lot on active engagement which means the kiddos should be talking, using language, practicing vocabulary, and not just being quiet. Yet, of course there are those times when you do truly want silence and that can be hard to come by.

Where's the balance?

saying no

2011-11-29T18:28:00.000-08:00

Do you ever feel like you stretch yourself way too thin because it's too hard to say no?

I always try to be accommodating and helpful and kind, but sometimes you just have to draw the line.

Sometimes the plate just gets a bit too full and you can't keep piling it up.

Especially when you're pregnant and your expanding belly makes doing everything take just a bit longer than it used to (like bending down...yeah I used to do that easily...now, not so much). I have made a proclamation to all my kiddos that they must learn to tie their own shoes because I simply cannot bend down and my tummy will only get bigger.

Anyway, back to saying no.

Today I said no and it felt good.

It's not really a big deal, but normally I would have said yes and then felt stressed over having just one more thing on my plate, so this time, I just said nuh-uh.

Very occasionally, I am asked by the International Reading Association to review a potential book manuscript. I think I have only ever done two, but I just got an email last night asking me to do another. They are changing their review process and they needed someone to review a manuscript by December 16th.

That is just around the corner (crazy, right? Thursday is DECEMBER 1st!)

My "deliverables" for this term are due to my advisers on Monday, so I have less than a week to get my paper in shape, which includes taking out a lot of what I already wrote and adding more that has yet to be written.

::sigh::

Mr. Sneaker will be away this weekend, so I know it will get done, but at the same time it's daunting and I know that once I press send on the email with my paper attached, I am going to need a little break from academia and reading research. I don't like to pass on opportunities to review books because they are always interesting and I think it's great experience, but I just don't see it happening in the next few weeks as my mind wanders more and more towards being with my family in CT and seeing my parents, brother, sister-in-law and nieces for the first time in a year and a half.

I don't usually say no to things and usually have a bring it on, I can handle it kind of attitude, but I think I am really embracing this whole I can't do everything and pregnancy is really slowing me down attitude. Some things just have to wait. My sanity, health, and leisure time reign supreme right now.

What did you say no to that made you feel really good?

Thanks

2011-11-28T19:53:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the comments on my post about home visits. It's really interesting that your comments really aligned with what I think teachers think about home visits, yet most of the studies are about educators who have conducted them and feel very positively about them. I am really interested in various teachers' views because I think in reality there is a lot of trepidation and concern over how to go about doing home visits, the risks involved, and how receptive parents will be. The articles I have read really speak to the importance of home visits, but it seems like the cases that are reported and the families that are discussed were all very welcoming and eager to share--which may not be the case with all families.

I feel like it's a legitimate question to ask how teachers view the practice of home visits and whether or not they would be willing to try them out as a means to better understanding particular families.

When I was a Head Start teacher, we conducted home visits and I would agree that it was a really eye opening and informative experience. I certainly learned a lot from it, yet back then I didn't have the skills to truly incorporate what I learned in the classroom like I would hope to do now. With Head Start, we were given specific days to do our home visits and there was ample time to get them finished. We were expected to visit the homes of each family, but if I remember correctly there were days when school was not in session so we could do the visits. With public school, I think that home visits would be extra workload for teachers without additional compensation, so they would be one more thing on our already very full plates. I don't think it's necessary to visit each and every family, but even visiting 5 families would be fairly time consuming, right? If we truly wanted to develop deeper relationships with families and students, it's not a wham bam kind of activity.

I feel like unless home visits become a mandated process, most teachers are not likely to do them, but I am very curious to see if that is true and what reasons teachers would cite for being either in favor or not in favor of trying it out.

Ok, enough about home visits and a little about the classroom...

Today was our first day back after the kids had a week off. They were a bit chatty, but I made sure to remind them of expectations as we went so we had a pretty good day. One thing that we did really made me happy and reminded me that yes, sometimes it is really important to put down the script and just listen to the kids. After our morning greeting (we are greeting each other with Namaste this week because our letter of the week is N and our country is Nepal) I asked each child to tell me something he/she did over the week long break. I followed up their statement with a few brief questions and it was so nice to hear all of the things they did. Several kiddos talked about getting Christmas trees and decorating, one boy went camping in the forest, one boy went to Disneyland, one girl's mom had a baby boy, and one girl got a new puppy. I never would have known these things if I hadn't taken time out of our scripted lessons to ask and it was such a nice little segment of our day. I loved it! I wish there was more time to do that each and everyday because it is really important for our kiddos to get the opportunity to share and talk about their lives.

I can't believe it's 8:00 already! I spent a long time at the doctor today. First I waited for the doc to come in, then the appt was longer than usual, then I had to wait in a loooong line for a prescription and I didn't get home until 6:30. I am debating going to the gym because I really don't want to go, but I know it's important to get exercise and I haven't been doing an awesome job at that since being preggo....

I guess if I bring my book on Funds of Knowledge I am technically killing two birds with one stone....

what I've been thinkin' about

2011-11-27T14:15:00.000-08:00

I know, I know...it's been awhile.

I seem to have issues getting my act together to post lately and I blame it entirely on not wanting to do anything but veg out once I get home from work in the evenings. I feel the need to exercise and work on my paper and blogging seems to always fall to the wayside. I feel rested after a nice trip to Cali to see my in-laws for Thanksgiving, so I am back and ready to blog.

Speaking of my paper, some big changes have been going on (both good and bad).

I have been working on my "specialty paper" as the second major milestone in my doctoral program but about 40 pages in, a committee at PSU decided that the specialty paper will no longer be a requirement for doctoral candidates. It's not as if my work has been in vain because the specialty paper functions as the first 2 chapters in the dissertation proposal, so that made me feel a bit better. Rather than having to complete the first two chapters and then present and defend that work before moving onto the next part, I can roll the work over and basically I am now working on my dissertation proposal, which adds a third chapter, the methodology section.

When I started the paper, I was focusing on how the type of reading instruction that is taking place as an outcome of No Child Left Behind (very scripted, using core reading programs etc.) puts culturally and linguistically diverse students as a disadvantage because the content included in the scripted lessons does not necessarily reflect and/or relate to their background knowledge as much as it does with White students. I was arguing the point that a scripted program is an excellent foundation, but that teachers need to have some flexibility to modify or enhance the scripted lessons in order to make reading instruction more culturally relevant. I know that teacher flexibility and expectations for fidelity vary from school to school, district to district, and state to state, but in my district, we are expected to stick to the script.

Now that I am at the stage of actually designing my own research which requires me to come up with my own research question, I am starting to go in another direction. Here is a brief overview of my thinking:

teachers need to have the flexibility to enhance scripted curricula using culturally responsive instructional strategies
culturally responsive teaching strategies involve incorporating student voice, texts that reflect students' cultures, and students' funds of knowledge
teachers' need to be familiar with students' funds of knowledge in order to appropriately modify curricula
how can teachers familiarize themselves with students funds of knowledge? Research shows that home visits are an extremely effective way for teachers to gain a better understanding of culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families by getting to know the knowledge and strengths that are present in their households

This train of thought leads me to the question I have been thinking about lately...

What do teachers think about home visits. In most cases, home visits are not a standard practice in public schools (at least where I work), so why is this the case? Are teachers opposed? Would teachers be willing to conduct home visits?

So, as I think about creating my own study, I am interested in your thoughts.

Are home visits required where you teach?

Have you ever done a home visit?

Would you be willing to do home visits?

Would it depend on whether or not you were paid/given time during the workday/how many homes you had to visit?

Although I am still really interested in the idea of changing practices to better incorporate culturally responsive teaching practices, I feel like investigating funds of knowledge and how teachers go about making the effort to better understand families is a better starting point for my work. I get really caught up in my own thinking though, so I would love some feedback from different educators to make sure I am not leaving out anything major.

doh

2011-11-17T20:02:00.000-08:00

My teaching partner told me after school that a parent from her class brought cupcakes to school for her child's birthday.

2 problems arose from this gesture.

1. We clearly state at the beginning of the year that cupcakes, cake, and ice cream are not allowed for birthday snacks. Too messy, not healthy, filled with sugar etc.

2. This parent brought 24 cupcakes without asking my teaching how many kids are in the class. She has 25 kiddos.

As much as they always have the best interest of their child at heart, sometimes parents drive me totally bananas. Thankfully this wasn't in my room because inside I would have wanted to tell the parent to take the cupcakes home because there weren't enough and they weren't allowed in the first place, but I often have a hard time being that "harsh" with parents who have no concern for following the rules that are established. Even though it would be completely justified, it's hard to call a parent out when they don't do something according to "plan."

I had a similar situation last year where a parent sent in 19 frosted cookies (because she used a class number from the beginning of the year) and by the time it was her child's birthday I had 3 or 4 more kids in the group. That day I was ready to cancel birthdays altogether, but I got over my grinch moment and decided to continue allowing kids to bring birthday snacks this year as long as they are healthy-ish and I specified that cupcakes, cake, and ice cream are not allowed.

Fortunately, most of the time although situations like that can be frustrating and test our patience and tolerance for inattentive grown-ups, we can laugh it off and realize it's not a big deal in the grand scheme of everything.

What would you have said to the parent toting 24 cupcakes for 25 kiddos? Send them back or divide and conquer?

Good Move

2011-11-14T17:09:00.000-08:00

We don't have school at all next week. Well, the kids don't. We have training days on Monday and Tuesday, but then we get Wednesday off as a nice little treat this year. We started school on Tuesday this year instead of Wednesday and had school on a state-wide teacher in-service day, so having Wednesday off was kind of owed to us. Mr. Sneaker and I get to fly to Cali on Tuesday night this year instead of Wednesday, so we get an extra night/day with the Sneaker-in-laws.

So, back to no school next week...Despite having the entire week off next week, I have had several families tell me that their children will also be missing some school this week. I get it. I have to travel for holidays, so I can see that sometimes you need some extra time, and sometimes, especially when you have pretty with-it, smart kids, it's not such a huge deal to take them out of half day Kindergarten for a few days in order to make real life holiday craziness a bit easier.

However, it just so happens that several assessments fall on this week, so the kiddos who are out will miss a Unit 1 math assessment and the second Fast Track Assessment, which will be completed Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week.

Sigh.

Kids absent for assessments is always a challenge because sometimes I just never get around to administering the assessment 1 on 1 when I originally gave it to the whole class at once. It's tough.

Somehow today my preggo brain pulled out the big guns and proactively assessed two kiddos who will be out the rest of the week in both math, writing, and Fast Track, so they are good to go and will be caught up when they return.

Fortunately both kiddos are pretty solid little learners, so having them take a math test during morning work was no biggie for them. I also had them do the writing sounds assessment while the rest of the class did it just as practice to prep for their turn later in the week.

Having the sense to do those little check-ins and assessments with them today just made me feel like I really had my ish together--and that felt good.

I can't say the same for the kiddos who are out later in the week without notice, but at least I was able to remain on the ball for these kiddos so maybe--just maybe--all of the assessments will be done by Friday afternoon.

That would be nice.

Two Weeks

2011-11-13T20:17:00.000-08:00

Wow two whole weeks since I have posted. I think that's a record. This past week I was definitely a bit preoccupied because my best friend and her husband were in town from Wednesday night until early this morning. On Thursday my bestie accompanied me to my ultrasound appointment where we found out that baby Sneaker is a GIRL.

I was totally surprised because I had this gut feeling it was a boy. Mr. Sneaker and I are very excited for our little Miss and Cristina and I did some shopping for a few cutie patootie baby outfits. I got myself a few things too--including a pale pink maternity shirt which I will be wearing to school tomorrow to let everyone know we're having a girl.

Everything has been good in the classroom, but I guess I have been a bit uninspired in the posting department. The days and weeks are just flying by and sometimes during the day I think oh I have to post about that, then the day is over and I never get to it. Bad blogger! I thought I would get caught up today, but after an hour of prenatal yoga, I came home and spent the rest of the day in bed. I was feeling fine, just enjoyed a long day of resting and hanging out with Mr. Sneaker. These are our last few months to have the luxury of lounging in bed all day on a Sunday, so we might as well enjoy it while we can!

I am still plugging away on my paper even though technically it's no longer a requirement for my program--that's a whole other post though. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

the parties

2011-10-31T19:34:00.000-07:00

I am very happy that my first go round of classroom parties is over. The morning class went by in a flash and the kids were really good. The party was under control and I felt silly for even worrying about things getting crazy.

The afternoon..different story.

It's funny too, because usually I feel like my PM class has better behavior than the morning group. And, this year my PM class is super small (usually 18, but two were absent today). Yet, for whatever reason, the afternoon party drained me and I was pretty happy to put all my little creatures on the bus and wave goodbye. We did almost the same activities, except the PM class got to make a pumpkin project and the AM class didn't. I realized that trying to do any activity that requires the kiddos to stop and attend to directions during a party makes the activity feel a lot more taxing and stressful. Also, four of the moms who came to help brought siblings, which in my mind makes more work and doesn't necessarily take any of the work off my plate. Luckily, I had extra materials so the 3-4 year old siblings made the pumpkin too. Then there were two toddlers whose moms basically followed them around doing damage control of all the stuff in the classroom they were trying to ~~destroy~~ touch. I love it when parents come to help, but it was clear by the different between the morning and afternoon that when parents bring additional children it just adds to the chaos a bit. I felt like the PM class didn't stop talking the entire time. They weren't bad by any means, but it was just noisy and too much for me.

Anyway, I know both classes had fun and I hope that tomorrow we get back to normal and good listening! I had one little boy who announced upon receiving his snack plate with apples and goldfish that he was allergic to the fish. I told him not to eat them to which he responded by eating every single one. I have spoken with his parents about his allergies and it's not anything that will truly make him sick, but come on buddy...seriously! I am really tempted to forego all snack situations because of how many kids have allergies. I am so afraid of feeding kids food they shouldn't be eating, but I can't keep track of all the different dairy, wheat, gluten, etc. allergies. I ask parents to supply individual snacks for events like today and one mom did, but the other child (who was chowing down on the goldfish) said he didn't have his own snack. ::sigh::

I dressed up as a black cat (lame, but I could not find a single costume at the Halloween store that didn't look seriously skimpy and inappropriate for Kindergarten). I tried to play it off that I was a friend of Pete the Cat rockin' in my school shoes and wore my cool gray high tops with plaid interior. The kids just enjoyed seeing me dressed up, so obviously it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to make them happy. They were so excited for the day regardless of what happened in class.

We had the chance to sign up to get trick or treaters tonight since we are in an apartment building and I opted not to. Mr. Sneaker is leaving for Central America later tonight, so we are hanging out, packing, and trying to get in some relaxing. Next year, when we are back in our house and have a cute baby to dress up maybe Halloween will get some of its pizazz back!

Halloween Monday

2011-10-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

So is anyone else not too thrilled that Halloween is on a Monday this year? I am hoping it doesn't set us off on a crazy week full of sugar comas and cranky kiddos.

I am going to attempt to get some instruction in on Monday even though the kids are allowed to come to school dressed in their costumes. But, during the second half of each session we are going to have a Halloween Parade and followed by a party in the classroom. I got parent volunteers to supply a healthy snack and juice, but I am stuck on the activity part. Last year, I had parents who took control of all of the parties and I didn't have to do any planning at all. They bought all the supplies, planned fun activities, and cleaned up before they left.

It was awesome.

This year, I had one mom agree to plan an activity for the AM class but no-one stepped up for the PM class. I don't really want to make it an either you do it all or we won't have a party kind of deal, yet I am tempted. I am not really too into planning it myself and my mind was totally on conferences this week and not at all thinking about Halloween. We are limited to 30 minutes for the classroom party and I'd like to do an art project or something, but I am struggling with ideas and I don't have a lot of time left to plan.

Some ideas I had....
freeze dance with Halloween music (but that doesn't take long)
musical chairs with Halloween music (but then there's always a kid who cries because he/she doesn't win)
an art project (but I have only come across ones that seem too complicated or time consuming)

Any idea for a simple art project or craft that will seem fun and exciting to Kindergartners?

Are you having a Halloween party? What are you planning?

Help!

2011-10-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

I have a student who needs a lot of practice with numbers (recognizing and knowing the names). Her parents don't speak English very well, so I want to buy her some kind of game that will allow her to press numbers and hear number words in English since they are not able to help her with her number vocabulary. Any ideas?

My first thought was to look into the Leap Frog games, but after looking them over, I am hesitant to just buy one because they aren't cheap and I really don't know how well they work. I don't want something super complicated...but a laptop type game where she could hear and practice numbers as well as letter and letter sounds would be awesome.

I would love some advice about what's out there. Even a number puzzle with some type of sound output would be great.

Advice please!!!

Made it

2011-10-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

I survived my one and only field trip of the year! The kids will go on another one in the spring, but I will be on maternity leave by then, so today was it.

We took a nice little 45-minute long bus ride to a pumpkin patch and spent the morning riding a train, riding a boat, picking out pumpkins, running through a hay maze, and then eating lunch before we headed back to school.

When we go on field trips, I have both of my classes at once, which is always stressful. I have a total of 38 kids, but 5 ended up not coming, so it was me and 33 kiddos. Luckily, we had a lot of parents who came along--27 of 'em.

Yep, you read that right....33 kids and 27 adults.

Good deal.

I don't take a group so that I can kind of go back and forth between classes since they only have one class at a time for the initial talk about the farm and the ride out to the patch. Pretty much each kid had their very own parent to stick with and only a few parents had to take on another child from the class. It was also nice to have a lot of parents because they take their kiddos home with them, so there were only 9 children left on the bus for the ride home.

I always have a fear that someone will get sick on the extremely long bus ride, but we had another successful puke free year. We did have one bee sting, but the little girl was okay and didn't have an allergic reaction. And, her mom was there, so that made me feel much better.

I successfully made it through the event without having to use the porta potty (which is hard for a preggo), but I just made sure not to drink a lot and used the real bathroom back at school.

The kids were all so excited about their pumpkins and it was a fun day.

But, I'm glad it's over.

Next up: Conferences tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday.

Book Art

2011-10-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I wrote about a book called Press Here that my kiddos LOVED. On Friday, during choice time, I was working with some children at the bingo stamper art table and we made a little discovery that bingo stampers make dots just like the dots in Press Here. We spontaneously started making our own pages with dots and directions like in the book Press Here. It was nearly the end of choice time when we started, but I have a feeling there is going to be some fighting over the dot stamp table next week. The kiddos were so into the idea of making their own Press Here books and they were coming out so cute.

We just had regular white paper, but I think I may cut some smaller paper and staple pages together to make books that they can fill in. I was doing the writing, but they were dictating what the directions would be and they LOVED it. Choice time is limited to 15 minutes once a week, but boy do I love all the creativity and enthusiasm that is filling the room during that brief time. I wish more of Kindergarten could be like that, which is why I feel that it's so important to squeeze it in once a week.

Great Books

2011-10-20T21:20:00.000-07:00

I finally joined the club and read Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes to my kiddos yesterday. I got the book along with a CD of the author reading it from the Scholastic book club this month and it was well worth that $7.00. First of all, it's kind of fun to listen to a story along with the kids instead of reading it myself because the author's version is most definitely a better telling of the story than my version. Secondly, it was just so fun to see how much the kids LOVED the book and the song and the funky beat. They started to sing along and they insisted that we read it again yesterday and then again today.

We also read a book that my teaching partner let me borrow called Press Here. Have you heard of it?

If you haven't and you teach Kindergarten run out and find it now! The kids were SO into this book I can't even describe it. It's not really a story...the pages actually contain only pictures of colored dots and instructions like rub the dot gently, tap the dot five times, or press the dot hard, but they were so excited to see what each action made the dots do on the subsequent page. When you tap the dot five times on the next page the one dot turns into five. When you press the yellow dots hard the background on the next page turns black. The text on the page is funny and really engaging and it was seriously as if the author was watching us read it and writing the text based on the kids' reactions. It was so fun. I have a feeling that I definitely need to add that book to my own collection because the kiddos will be looking for it on the shelf.

I thought the kids were obsessed with the Pigeon books last year, but I think Pete the Cat and Press Here are bringing it to a whole new level.

Speaking of a whole new level...have you heard of Candy Corn M&M's? They are orange, white, and yellow and filled with white chocolate. YUM. Sadly, they are apparently a Walmart exclusive, so I had to track them down on amazon and spend way too much for a 9 oz. bag. They arrived today and made me a very happy camper. I heart prime shipping.

Travel Tuesday

2011-10-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

This year Mrs. Bee and I decided to try a new routine during the time when some of our students are pulled out for 30 minutes of English language development lessons. We are doing a rotation that repeats every week, so the children who stay with us do a different activity each day.

Travel Tuesday consists of the kiddos rotating through table stations with their very own passport that we stamp upon completion of the activities. We started out having the kids move from one table to the next freely as they completed activities, but that made for a very hectic work time. It was too noisy and I felt pressured to stamp passports and direct kids where to go next while not having time to really sit with kids and interact with them as they worked. Maybe it was because the activities were still new, but it just didn't feel right.

I decided to have the kids stay at their tables for a certain amount of time rather than letting them switch as soon as they finished something. As a result, some kids finish before the time is up and some kids don't finish, but everyone gets a full 10 minutes at each table. We provide a list of instructions at a few of the tables (the "important" ones) so the kiddos can always repeat the activities if they have time.

At one table, the kids have to choose a book (sight word books, Bob books etc.) and they read the book using one of those green witch fingers to point to each word. Then, they use a whisper phone and read into that. Then they take a little stuffed animal from the box and read to their furry friend. Last, they read to a buddy or they read to me. I try to stay at the book table so that I can hear kids read and then I write down what book they read in their passport so I have a record.

At another table, the kiddos practice the sight word of the week. Mrs. Bee and I got very brave and made paint bags. Basically we poured Tempura paint into a gallon size plastic bag, then folded over the top and sealed it with duct tape. The kids use Qtips to write the sight word five times in the paint. These bags are great because when you smooth the paint out again, the words are erased. After writing in the paint, the kiddos use bingo stampers to fill in a bubble letter version of the sight word. Finally, if they have time, they use letter stamps to write the sight word. I have three different types of letter stamps in the box and I put the correct letters for each week's word in a separate plastic baggy for each kind of stamp (small, large and dot).

Those are the two "important" tables and then I put out one or two "choice" tables depending on which class it is. Sometimes I put out pattern blocks, science exploration trays, or a phonics game--something that the kids can do without needing help. We rotate so that each group of kids gets to do two of the stations. I stamp their passports as a way of keeping track of which stations they do each week.

Now that they have done the stations for several weeks, they know the routine and our Travel Tuesday goes much more smoothly. Especially in the PM class where I have a high school helper every day. She does the sight word table and I do the book table and that works out really well. I love that I have a chance to listen to each child read and it's fun to see the kids reading the sight word books successfully.

I feel like I am doing a better job with reinforcing the sight words this year and we finally completed our collection of Heidi's Songs CD's so we now have a song for every single sight word except for saw. This week's songs are super cute and the children have such a fun time singing the songs every day. It's nice to have a component that lets the musically inclined kiddos shine and shake it a little bit.

Wednesday is our Words on Wednesday day, so maybe I will post about that tomorrow. We have been using Words Their Way materials and making our own letter sound sorts each week.

Plate=Full

2011-10-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am "eating for two," but right now my plate is just a bit too full.

We moved this weekend.

From a two bedroom temporary housing apartment to a smaller apartment we will be in for the next 6 months. Our stuff doesn't exactly fit..nevermind having room for person #3 that arrives in March.

When I say "we" moved, I actually mean that Mr. Sneaker and his mom moved most of our stuff because I had class Friday night and all day on Saturday.

But since they were working the entire time I was in class, plus during the day on Friday, I felt compelled to help as soon as I got home from class both on Friday night and Saturday evening, which means free time has been pretty non-existent.

I was supposed to turn in a finished first draft of my specialty paper, so it has been weighing on my mind all day that I have to work on it, but I finally decided that I need to just sent what I have off to my advisers and continue working on making the draft complete this week. I met with both advisers after class yesterday and talked about the paper, so based on their feedback I already know I need to make some revisions, but I am going to let them read what I have and give me feedback before I officially make any changes.

I can't believe tomorrow is Monday and I want a nap!

Sweet

2011-10-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

On Friday I sent home a note announcing my pregnancy to my students and their families (with a bit of trepidation because Kindergarten is a unique year, especially for families who are sending their first child to school and I was worried families would be upset that I will be leaving and that the kids have to go through a transition).

Today a little girl from my PM class came in and gave me a present.

Her mom is also pregnant and she sent me a chocolate bar, decaf herbal tea, and some bath salts and said they are some things she has been enjoying and she hopes I enjoy them too.

What a thoughtful thing to do!

The kids mentioned my baby and asked if it's a girl or a boy. I asked them what they thought and the majority said girl.

November 10th should be the date we can find out... if Baby Sneaker cooperates.

P.S. 25 pages down on my paper and still trying to rock the rest out before Saturday!

Show me the number

2011-10-08T08:06:00.000-07:00

As part of our Daily Math Routine with the Expressions math program, one of the exercises we do involves me showing a giant number card and the kiddos holding up that many fingers. My PM class has really taken to showing what the program refers to as number partners.

Rather than just holding up their hand with five fingers, they've started to show me 2 fingers on one hand and 3 on the other or 4 on one hand and 1 on the other. I have been really happy to see this and I feel like it's a way that the kids who are more advanced are able to take this exercise to the next level.

So, the kiddos have been experimenting with using different fingers to show each number.

2,3,4, and 5 were really successful.

1...not so much.

You have to chuckle when you look at our your little friends and several are giving you the finger :0)

Mochi

2011-10-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

Have you ever bought Mochi ice cream from Trader Joes?

Good stuff.

My favorite is chocolate, but they also have mango and green tea flavors.

And, the greatest part is that the containers they come in are absolutely perfect for holding paint.

I saved a few last year and used them today for our painting project.

Worked like a charm :0)

Bullet Points

2011-10-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

I went to a training on culturally responsive instruction today. I felt more tired after being there all day than I do after being with 5 year olds all day! Guess I prefer the activity of the classroom...but I am so not jealous that my sub had to do star of the week snack today while I was gone.

I tried to watch Gossip Girl when I got home, but promptly fell asleep. Hopefully I fare better for Top Chef Just Desserts tonight.

I have a ginormous mountain of laundry to put away, which does not look appealing right now. Fortunately, my sluggishness in getting household chores done as of late has motivated Mr. Sneaker to volunteer taking on dish washing duty. Score!

I am going strong with my daily reading/writing for my paper. I have about 18 pages and still have a long way to go, but I am working on it every single day after work which is good.

Speaking of working on my paper....I need to get going on that.

I haven't posted on my classroom blog in over a week. I hope the parents don't think I'm a slacker!

I am SO thirsty. I feel like I have been drinking TONS of water, but I am still thirsty...and really loving orange juice. Although, I try to just drink water and then juice or something flavored only on occasion.

It is pouring rain out...welcome to fall in Portland :0)

I am cooking up a spaghetti squash with meat sauce for dinner. Yum!

I can't wait until Friday. PJ's and a movie with Mr. Sneaker are calling my name!!

Back Today

2011-10-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

I had a student who was out all last week because he was pretty sick. The day I found out he wouldn't be at school all week, I had his classmates make him cards because he had to spend some time in the hospital.

After being out for 6 days, he finally came back today and it was SO cute to see how excited the other kiddos were to see him. One girl at his table kept telling me that she thought he should get to pass things out instead of her or the other table mate.

Several kiddos told this boy how excited they were to have him back and he literally bounded to his table and just dove right back into all of our classroom activities.

It was really nice to see how connected the kids are and how much care they show for one another.

Really sweet.

I am out of the classroom for a training tomorrow, so I prepped for my sub and I feel pretty good about leaving the kiddos for the first time. I am sure they will do fine and although it's hard to be out, it's always interested to see how they do with a sub. Hopefully it will show that they have all of our routines down and can just continue the flow without me!

fastforward

2011-10-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

I am amazed at how fast the days go by. Without specials to break up the flow of the day this year, we can just seamlessly go from one activity to the next. If I'm a little off schedule, it's no big deal and before I know it, it's time to take the kids to the bus.

Half day Kindergarten is seriously short!

The kiddos are doing really well in math. Today I did some informal assessment to see which kiddos are able to put their number tiles in order and the majority did really well. I had one child in the PM class who struggles with number recognition and counting and several in the AM. When I laid out their tiles and asked them to point to each number, however, they did fairly well (some better than others), so I am hopeful that all of the practice we are doing is helping them remember.

During our daily math routine, one of the activities is to pass out number cards (one per child) and have the kids put them in order by standing in a line in number order. I remember the kids struggling with this task last year and this year they are doing great. Even the kids who are having a harder time are doing well with it.

We also do an activity where I show a number and they have to show me that many fingers. The kids are getting creative and showing me different ways to make each number. For example, typically when we show four, we show all four on one hand, fingers up and thumb tucked away. Today I saw a few kiddos showing two fingers on each hand and a few even showed three fingers on one hand and one on the other. They are getting the concept of number partners, which is something we work on later in the year. It's nice to be able to stretch math out a little more and do some things I didn't do last year because of behavior/management/crowd control issues.

I wrote sub plans after school today since I will be out Wednesday for a training. It took a long time because I always write extensive plans. Since it's the first time writing them this year, I am getting everything down so in the future, I can cut and paste the routine and procedure parts. Writing sub plans, is one of the times teaching two sessions really has its advantages. I write for half a day and then basically just include times for the PM class and write same as AM for each activity. All of my subs are great and they always do fine, but I think I tend to leave a lot more information than necessary.

I am off to bed to read. I still haven't finished my chapters for book club, which meets tomorrow and I haven't gotten in my daily quota for work on my paper. I didn't feel well at all after school, so I got in bed and tried to relax. Mr. Sneaker made dinner, cleaned up, and emptied the dishwasher so I could just chill. Love it!

Still here

2011-10-02T21:44:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a week since I last posted. I keep thinking about things I want to write and then I get home and have other things to do and I just don't do it. I made a deal with my advisers that I would have a final copy of my specialty paper completed by October 15th, so I am feeling the pressure and trying to work on that for at least an hour each day after work. So far it's going well and I have made a good amount of progress. Here is a little bit about what I have been up to and what's been going on in the classroom in bullet points.

I got a new student last week, but he is adjusting well and hasn't shifted the dynamics of the group

I am still loving my small classes and new groups. I was so impressed on Friday that they were working independently and I could grab kids that were finished to play a phonics game with them.

I have been working on getting assessments done and I was really pleased to see a few kids really connecting with the phonics lessons that we have done. A few kiddos don't know the letter names at all, but they knew the sounds that we have covered, which tells me they are tuning in and it's working for them. Yay!

I am seriously in love with my carpet. It is awesome for management, organization, and saving time. Best. Purchase. Ever.

I did choice time for the first time on Friday as it was the first week that the kiddos had to keep their sticks all week. I did it differently this year and chose 6 activities, which I put out on the tables. It went really well and felt a lot more organized than last year. I was a big meanie and took out the play kitchen that I had last year, so the activities available were all pretty academic (bingo stampers with sights words written in bubble letters, science trays with magnet activities, counting cakes, connecting cubes, stamping markers and regular markers for coloring, and a magnet/building activity). The kids were totally fine with the choices and had fun. I was so happy to not have the drama involved with everybody wanting the kitchen. Yes, I LOVE dramatic play, but we only provide 15 minutes of choice time, so the table activities are great. I am going to try to include math, science, sight words, and art each week along with something for building. Creativity can manifest itself in other ways with those choices.

I had a few parent helpers cancel this week, but I have been loving my Friday helpers who put together the kids' Friday folders for me. One less thing I have to do on Thursdays after school and a great job for classroom helpers. I am also LOVING my three high school helpers. One comes every day in the PM, which is absolutely fantastic. The other two come every other day, each for an hour. All three girls are terrific and I am finally at a point where having help is not scary because I feel like I am more organized this year--therefore organized enough to know what to have them help me with. The high schoolers are totally hands on with kids and it's wonderful to have extra hands and helpers. I had some technical challenges getting a video set up on Friday so I just passed a story to my helper and got the projector working while she was reading. What could have been stressful and chaotic was totally fine because of her help.

I am starting to attend a writing group with other members of my cohort on Thursday. We meet for two hours each week just to write. I am hopeful that I will be able to get a lot done so my draft is ready in two weeks! I am really excited about my paper and have been continuing to read about reading instruction, curriculum theories, whole language, culturally responsive instruction etc. etc. I got two new books and they are both awesome. I just wish I was a speed reader because there is so much literature I need/want to read for my paper and I am short on time.

Speaking of reading, I started a new book club and we are reading Cutting For Stone. Anyone read it? I started it, but didn't really get super pumped about it. I have to read four chapters by Tuesday and I am hoping I can get that done.

Last but not least, I had an ultrasound on Friday and everything is looking good. Baby Sneaker is looking good and the doc said we will be able to find out the gender at our next appt. I had no idea we would be able to find out this soon, but we are excited.

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

Parent Helpers

2011-09-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

I finally got myself organized enough to thoughtfully plan out what kinds of help I need from parents. Rather than just asking who wants to volunteer, I created "job descriptions" and put a sheet for weekly helpers at our supply drop night. I was asking for help on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and I was lucky enough to get volunteers to cover everything that I was asking for. I thought I was pretty clear that I really need help with these jobs every single week (and I am not just making busy work like I sometimes do when parents just want to pop in randomly).

Well, now that I am seriously counting on these parents to come in weekly, I am really disappointed when they email (sometimes with really short notice) to say they can't make it.

I get that things come up and they get sick too. And, they are volunteering, so I should appreciate whatever I get whenever I get it, but now that I got myself organized enough to set aside things I need help with, it sucks to have to then do it myself when a parent can't make it in.

Is there such a thing as a parent volunteer sub list? I wouldn't want to ask the parent to find a sub, but I am thinking it would be nice if I had a few parents I could call in the event I get stuck without the help that I need. Hmmm...something to think about.

How do you organize your parent volunteers? What do they do for you?

Weekend

2011-09-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

It's almost 4:00 on Sunday and I still have to plan math for the week. I had class on Friday evening and from 9-3:30 yesterday, so that definitely cut down on my amount of me time this weekend. They always go by too fast!

I love getting together with my cohort group and I always feel renewed and motivated when I leave them. I am setting goals for the term and aiming to have a final version of my next paper by mid-December. Ideally, I would be able to defend prior to Winter break, but I don't know how likely that is. Here's hoping! I have a lot of writing to do in order to get a first draft ready by October 15th, but once I get back into the habit of writing daily, I think that is feasible.

I am mostly planned for the week and feeling really organized, so once I get math in order, everything should be ready to go. We are finally into our "real" schedule and so far things are going very well. The kiddos are doing a nice job with everything so far and I am happy to have routine in my life again...although I do miss the lazy days of summer.

I am finally starting to get some energy back, so I participated in our jogathon with the kids on Friday and went for a run with my friend Janine this morning. Daily exercise needs to come back into my life!!! I am gearing up to make something yummy for dinner and then I have a date with Jill and Janine for The Amazing Race premier tonight (and I think Desperate Housewives starts too!). Then it will be off to bed to start a new week.

What I didn't tell you about Venice....

2011-09-20T16:54:00.000-07:00

Do you remember this picture of Mr. Sneaker and me from Venice this summer?

Well...when I shared my stories about the trip, I left a little something out.

The day we took this very romantic gondola ride...

We found out that Team Sneaker (and Mrs. Sneaker in particular) will be expanding!

That's right...

Baby on Board

Baby Sneaker will be making a grand debut sometime around spring break.

Phew!

2011-09-18T16:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all the comments on The Crying Game! I am glad to know that many other teachers react to crying the same way I do....by not giving it a lot of attention. I think we all wish we could be a little more sympathetic but it's that all too common issue of not being able to do it for one kid if you can't do it for all of the kids and the fear that if too much attention is given for crying that the crying will increase.

I actually had one very sweet student start crying because the girl across from her was crying and she felt so bad. I guess she thought I should have been helping the girl who was crying a bit more than I was, but I was really touched by how worried she was for her table mate.

I don't have much time to post today because we are on our way out the door, but stay tuned for a big Sneaker Teacher announcement this week!

Crying Game

2011-09-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

Kindergarten teachers are no strangers to crying children, especially at the very beginning of the year, but I have to ask all you other Kinder teachers...what do you do when kids cry?

When kids cry, I get very torn. I feel really bad when some of my kiddos miss mommy or daddy, but with many other children in the room, it's really really tough to give one child all of your attention in order to cheer them up.

Today I had a little girl start crying out of the blue. We were in the middle of math and after I gave directions I went over to her and asked her what was wrong. After a bit of talking I was able to gather that she was really over tired because she was allowed to stay up late last night to watch her new princess movie. She wanted to go home, she wanted her mommy, and she wanted to take a nap.

I don't blame her.

But, at the same time, if she is tired, she is not going to not be tired because I talk to her about.

I feel like I sound like the most heartless teacher, but I don't feel like I should remove my attention from all of the other kids and stop teaching because she didn't get enough sleep.

I let her cry and after a little bit she stopped.

It's so much different if a child is hurt or if a child is crying because of something another child did, but a child who is over tired because of--let's be real--her parents' poor choice...I don't feel like all of my energy and focus should go to consoling her. I truly felt bad that it was affecting her so much, but I also felt like even if I did try to console her, it would not have made a difference.

So, I am curious. What do you do? Are there other Kinder teachers out there who will also let a child cry? Please tell me I am not the only one. Maybe there is a good cheering up strategy that I am overlooking...

In other news, my new rug came today! Woo hoo! I am really excited to start working on transitioning from the morning greeting carpet to the new carpet so that we can get out learning on come Monday!

Starting the week with a bang

2011-09-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

Wow-having Back to School Night on a Monday makes me worried that I am going to be tired for the entire rest of the week. When I am with the kiddos, I don't really think about being tired because let's face it--there is no time to actually think about yourself or your own needs when you have 17 or 20 other little people in the room. But once my little gems left for the day, I realized just how exhausted I am and took off early. Since back to school was two additional hours beyond our work day, we were allowed to leave right after school yesterday and return in the evening. I didn't really have much time to leave--well actually I just kept working and working, so aside from my very short dinner run, I worked straight through.

So, I left early today instead.

I tidied up my room, put all the work that was done today into mailboxes and headed for the car. I meant to bring a few things home, but I realized when I was turning onto the freeway that I forgot them. Oh well....tomorrow is another day.

Luckily, my kiddos are doing great so far and I am feeling really good about what they are already able to do. I would like to attribute it to this being my second go round as a Kinder teacher, or to my implementation of the stick system from day one this year, but I truly think I just have a different batch of kids. Last year I had a lot of squirrely boys. This year, the boys seem pretty on task, which is great. I do have 7 ELL students in the AM class, but language needs are so different than behavioral needs. Yes, I have a few kiddos who are not exactly tuning in to my directions as much as I'd like, BUT I have already seen improvement and I am honestly very proud of how accountable I am holding them. They will get it. They just have not been in this type of environment before (so rigorously academic) so they need some time.

I have been really pleased with how well they are responding to my quiet signal this year, especially my PM class. Seriously, so far they are a dream class. 17 kids, really respectful and hard working, and super super cute to boot. I was on cloud 9 today during math because I looked around and every single child was following the directions.

We have been focusing on one number a day and today was 2. We started out with our rainbow number where the kids trace a big two with all the colors of the rainbow in order to practice number formation. This is more of an exercise in stopping, watching, listening, and waiting than actual number writing, but they did really, really well. Then I broke out the stampy markers and demonstrated stamping each one twice to make groups of two. I told the kiddos they could choose 5 stampers, they had to stamp each one twice, they had to circle the group of two, and then write 2 next to it. Lots of directions for Kinders but they totally rocked it out. As I was putting the papers in their cubbies I was looking them over and most of the kids did this without any problems. Of course a few of them got a little stamp happy, but we'll do it again tomorrow with the number three and the following day with number four, so they will have more time to practice.

After the rainbow numbers I set out the math trays that go with our math program. At the beginning of the year, we train the kids to put their number tiles in order from 1-5. We've been practicing this and most kids do it without assistance now. Since our number was two today, I asked the kids to show me two of a variety of things and they were so on point with doing exactly what I asked and waiting patiently while I checked out everyone's work. I loved it! They had little rows with two pennies, two fruit counters, two connecting cubes, and two little letters. Spot on!

I am really excited to see where these groups go this year.

Really excited.

I attempted to start our phonics program today but we are still awaiting our new rugs so I haven't been able to practice transitioning to specific carpet spots. My fingers are SUPER DUPER CROSSED that the rug arrives this week so I can add in that part of our daily routine. It was a little touch and go starting to work on some of the phonics activities (especially when the director of C&I and the principal walked in), but I think I just felt out of my element because I didn't really want to start yet, then felt guilty so decided to just try out a few parts with them.

So far so good and hopefully things continue to get even better as we settle into routines and move into our "real" schedule in the coming weeks.

Words Cannot Explain

2011-09-12T20:23:00.000-07:00

Words cannot explain how tired I am, but maybe if I tell you I just had to re-type the word words four times before I got it right that might give you a clue.

We had Back to School Night tonight (ugh on a MONDAY) and so...

I. Am. Completely. Exhausted.

I got to work at 7:15 am and besides 15 minutes of siting at lunch and a 15 minute hurried trip to Whole Foods for some dinner, which I took back and wolfed down in my classroom, I was busy and working until 7:40 pm.

Hello 12-hour workday....

This is the first time in my entire teaching career that I have had to do an actual presentation for back to school night. I really liked getting to share a lot of information with parents, but it was SO hot in my room and I want nothing more than to crawl in bed right now.

I have more to share about what is going on in the classroom, but maybe tomorrow?

Happy Face

2011-09-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

I am so glad that it's Saturday. I slept so late today (compared to how early I get up for school) and I am feeling totally content to be home and carefree for the next two days. Having four days in the first week this year really wore me out. Some schools start with only half of their Kinders at a time and then finally have the whole class on day three, but not us. We got 'em all right away and continued to get new students each day of the week (except yesterday). My AM class now has 20 and my PM has 18, but one has yet to show up, so I am thinking he may not actually join us. Those numbers are awesome and I hope they stay that way!

Yesterday one kiddo in my AM started to give me a run for my money, but I talked with the school counselor and we came up with a plan to try and get him on board for making better choices. He was acting a bit defiant, yet he does have some issues that we already know about that are most likely contributing factors, so I am trying to have a lot of patience until we can really figure him out. I know he is going to do great once we do.

My PM class is a dream so far, except the little girl who was terrified of the bus is still having some issues. Yesterday she refused to come into the classroom and was crying so hard that when she finally did come in she was so worked up she threw up. Ugh! I made it through three years of teaching without any vomit and yesterday that streak was definitely broken. Luckily, there was a parent volunteer right across the hall so I asked her watch my kiddos so I could bring this little girl to the office carrying the trash can with us the whole way. I am pretty sure I have mentioned before the extreme extent of my aversion to throw up, so it's never a fun day when somebody gets sick. I have to feel bad for her though because obviously she is pretty traumatized, yet she has been in school before and did pretty well in the classroom up until yesterday. Poor thing. I hope she is better next week. And, fortunately for us, Mrs. Bee's classroom is empty in the PM since she only teaches in the AM, so I just had the class line up and and we went into her room for our first few activities while our room was being cleaned. Mrs. B helped get a story started while I went and grabbed some of our stuff and the rest of the kiddos, although a little concerned about their friend, did a fabulous job just adapting to the situation and going with the flow. There were a lot of exclamations from me like, "look, Mrs. Bee has an alphabet rug just like we do!" and "oh, good, Mrs. Bee has glue and scissors just like we do." After about an hour we returned to our room and finished up the day. Thank goodness for an escape route in the event of puke incidents!

I stayed until 5 yesterday doing my planning for all of next week and getting everything ready. Friday is not the preferable day for that since technically we are aloud to leave when the kids get on the bus, but it felt good to get a lot done so I can start the week feeling organized. The to do lists definitely helped! A few of you commented about some cool planners by Erin Condren. I was wondering if they are only available online? I am guessing so since you can have them customized, but I didn't feel like I could see enough of what the calendars looked like to decide if it would work for me or not. And, they are quite spendy, so I wouldn't want to get it and be disappointed....I need to get my appointments and Mr. Sneaker's travel organized though! We use an online google calendar but I am just not good about using that. I want to have something that I can keep with my lesson planning materials and bring to class and staff meetings.

I am working on getting the photos of my kiddos printed up. I got an email from Snapfish that they are running a deal for 1 cent prints. You just need to use the coupon code PENNY094U and you can get up to 500 prints for only 1 cent each.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We are having some really hot weather here in Portland (I think it's supposed to be 95 today) so I am staying cool in the AC and enjoying the sunny view from my window.

TGIF (almost)

2011-09-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

Whew! I am spent! I am having a great first week with my kiddos, but I feel like I have tons to do and even though I have a decent amount of time before school, between sessions, and after school, it seems like there is always something that is left undone when I leave at the end of the day. I spent way too much time this morning trying to print out labels for the new students I have gotten since the first day in order to make sure they have their name on all the different little things that I had already labeled prior to their arrival.

I got a lot done after school today and I decided that I just need to get into the habit of school "to do" lists. I love me some to do lists and sometimes I feel like I am not as efficient as I could/should be at school, so I need to fix that. I was adding up all the time I have and it's a lot. I have been getting to school at 7, so that gives me an hour and ten minutes before school. Then I have an hour and 10 minutes in between sessions, which includes my lunch time (but I never actually sit down to take a lunch, so I consider all of that planning/prepping time). Then, I have about an hour and a half of contract time after the kids leave.

That is a lot of time, right?

When I think about that, I realize I need to change some of my work habits because I should be able to get a lot more accomplished than I have been. I also need to designate a day for planning out the following week. My first grade team used to meet every Thursday for a long time to plan everything out for the following week. Now, I find myself with an empty plan book on Friday afternoons that gets thrown into my bag to take home so I can map everything out while I watch TV on Friday evening. Our schedule is pretty routine, so it's not like our planning is hugely innovative or different from week to week, but it still takes time to figure everything out and get everything organized and prepped. Obviously waiting until Friday leaves me very little time to make sure I've got everything ready to go. I am thinking maybe Wednesday would be a preferable day, but we often have staff meetings on Wednesdays. Tuesday could work, but then my mind is all wrapped up in what will happen next week and I lose track of this week.

Can you see why I need to incorporate some to do lists?

I still have a lot to do in the morning, so I am going to head in at 7 again, but starting next week, I think I need to give myself 15 more minutes to sleep and head in a bit later. I shouldn't need that much time in the morning, so hopefully once I start being super efficient with daily lists, I will waste less time and therefore need less time prior to school.

PS I really need a new planner/calendar too. It has been on my mind to get one for weeks and I just haven't. I am not really good with keeping a calendar on my computer so I need something I can write appointments and important dates on. Any ideas of where to get a good one??

Relief

2011-09-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, I feel so much better after having successfully navigated through the first day of Kindergarten...twice. After the AM session I went into Mrs. Bee's room and told her I was so jealous that she was done for the day. I kind of forgot how deflated I feel sometimes about doing everything all over again on the first day. Once I get into real teaching and actual lessons, it's not bad to be on repeat everyday, but all the beginning of the year stuff can get old the second time around.

I. Am. Tired.

For the most part, I instantly fell in love with the majority of my students. They are so little and oh so cute. I was really impressed with how smart they are (or seem) and how most could already write their name. A few were quite shy and a few obviously need some good training in how to behave, but so far, I think both classes are going to mesh really well. I am getting one more boy in the AM which would make 19, but one boy didn't come and apparently moved, so the class actually stays at 18. Not bad. I'll take it for one more day. I haven't gotten notified that there are any additions to the PM class.

I have one little boy, out of all of my kiddos, that I am a bit concerned about because he really didn't seem to tune into what I was saying or the routines at all. He peeled the paper off about 8 crayons even after I told him not to, wasn't able to make transitions based on being called by table color or by name. I think there may be some receptive communication issues so I need to figure him out.

I had success with the behavior management system and I loved introducing it from day one (as opposed to mid-year like last year) because I think most kids caught on really well. I had to be tough and take sticks away for very small things, but I have to do that in order to bring the point home that it's good to keep all of the sticks and not good to have some taken away. This system was beyond my friend that I am worried about, but I think he will need some special accommodations, which I will have to figure out. I think he is going to need some picture cues to help him understand what he needs to do. I just need to know him a bit better before I can figure out what he is going to need.

I really felt like a ROCKSTAR when I walked through the cafeteria during First Grade lunch. Many of my friends from last year were shouting my name and waving frantically. They are so cute. There are some that I will really miss this year and I actually emailed several parents from last year's classes when I got home to say that I hope the first day in first grade went well for their kiddos.

I need to sit down and plan out tomorrow....but I need to put my feet up first. I like to take it one day at a time at the beginning of the year because not all the kids come the first day and I always need to reflect on what happened in order to plan the following day.

I hope anyone else whose first day was today had a great one!

Here are some classroom pics that I have been promising. Everything doesn't look entirely done because I haven't started my instruction with the reading and math walls because my carpet still hasn't come, but the basic areas are there....

Around the World Wall where we'll focus on learning about a different country for each letter of the alphabet. The green board on the right will display the word and letter of the week for daily review during our morning circle.

The blue wall is the Fast Track Phonics wall, which the kiddos will face when I am teaching Fast Track lessons.

Math wall that still needs some love. I might post shapes above and label them or other math vocabulary.

In front of the yellow and blue walls will be my awesome new carpet where the kids will have their own assigned carpet spots. I have never done assigned spots before, but I've also never had a rug with specific squares on it, so I am excited to try it out once it comes!

Overview of the morning greeting carpet area. This is where we'll meet in the morning and where we'll have story time. I scored two nice rocking chairs at the end of last year, so I have one for each carpet area.

First Day Jitters

2011-09-05T15:58:00.000-07:00

So you all know that I just moved (again), which means locating both my camera and my camera cord in order to upload pics of my classroom is proving to be way too challenging at the moment. I will be happy if I can keep my head on straight tomorrow. I will try to post pics soon, but I still feel like my room isn't totally ready since my awesome new carpet is not arriving in time for school....BUMMER!

For some reason, I always have extreme anxiety and worry about the start of a new school year. Perhaps it is the result of having two entirely new classes full of kids I don't know yet, but for some reason, I tend to assume to worst and worry that it will be a really hard year. Most of the kiddos I did get the chance to meet last week were very sweet and many seemed really shy, but of course there were a few--those charming few--who can totally make or break your entire year. I am trying to be rational and think about the fact that they simply are über excited to start school and don't know (yet) what is expected of them. When I clearly explain the rules and procedures, most of them should settle in and settle down just fine.

Here's hoping.

I still have really good numbers (18 in the AM and 19 in the PM), but as I said before, I don't anticipate those numbers staying the same despite my continuous finger crossing, praying, hoping, wishing, and begging. I know we'll get more kiddos registering tomorrow and as of now, our numbers are pretty even which means for every new kiddo that Mrs. Bee gets, I will get 2 (1 in the AM and 1 in the PM). I kind of wish I could just have everyone on the first day, but then again, I will be happy with these smaller numbers for as long as they last. And I will reteach routines and procedures over and over and over in these next few weeks, so any newbies won't miss out.

What's on tap for tomorrow...

a little morning work followed by an explanation of my quiet signal (red bell who I am naming Buddy Bell this year).

explanation and practice of transition to the morning meeting carpet with the good morning song as a cue.

more practice cleaning up morning work and transitioning to carpet.

morning greeting circle with some name games so I can get to know the kids. I am being brave this year and not putting name tags on them because I hate how they start peeling off after 5 minutes.

visit to the bathroom to teach bathroom expectations and etiquette along with a chance for a potty break.

story time with The Kissing Hand followed by a project based on the book.

explanation of behavior management system (which I will be altering for the first month so I can be more on top of calling out the unwanted behaviors and kids can get used to it). I will transition to the actual system in October.

review of bell, morning routine, and sticks.

maybe another story if there's time.
practice lining up (with a cute song I have) and then buses.

Hopefully all the kiddos get on the right bus so I can relax in between sessions before I do it all over again with 20 fewer minutes.

If you are starting tomorrow I hope you have a great first day. Many of you have already been back for what seems like weeks, but I hope you have a great day/week as well!

still here...

2011-09-02T21:20:00.000-07:00

I'm alive, I promise.

I haven't posted in over a week because I have been busy trying to get my classroom ready and wrapping my mind around the fact that I have students joining me in said classroom on TUESDAY.

In the past, we have had the Tuesday after Labor Day as a final prep day and the first day of school has been on Wednesday. This year, our schedule changed and we no longer have that one last day of scrambling on Tuesday. So, I did a lot of scrambling yesterday.

Finally printing my labels for folders, attendance chart, tables etc. only to see that a new student had been added. And that was after I had already reprinted several labels to account for the nicknames that I learned about when families came for our supply drop off.

Trying to get the room ready while silently cursing myself for not having anything written in my plan book for the first week.

Worrying about making sure I have the correct info for how kiddos are going to get home from school so I don't put anyone on the wrong bus or keep anyone waiting at school if they should be taking a bus.

I'm exhausted.

Not to mention we moved again today to our second temporary housing location and toured around Portland with our relocation agent trying to pick out the apartment we will move into next.

I will try to post again this weekend with some pics of my classroom and some teachery stuff but I have to get back to unpacking the numerous bags we have so our new place can feel more like a home than a hotel.

Happy Labor Day weekend! It's supposed to be 90 degrees here all weekend, so I am hoping to enjoy some sun, to sleep late, and to calm myself before the big day on Tuesday!

meet the teacher

2011-08-22T19:06:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love a good blog hop? I have seen many bloggy friends linking up to this, so I am jumping on the bandwagon!

Tell us a little something about you...

I am Mrs. Sneaker, or KT as I always sign my bloggy comments, and I currently (as of two days ago) live in Portland, OR. I spent the summer in Germany with my husband, who was working there for the past two years. I lived there with him during the 2009-2010 school year and worked at an international school as a SPED teacher, but returned to Oregon this past school year to keep my spot in my district (teaching jobs are a wee bit hard to get right now) and to continue working on my doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction. I am SO happy to be back in the US with my husband and reuniting with all my girlfriends! This will be my second year teaching Kindergarten (two half-day sessions) and I am excited for another year!

How long have you been teaching?

This will be my 7th year teaching. I started out teaching in a bilingual Head Start for migrant families when I first moved to Oregon. That year provided me lots of practice speaking in Spanish with my wonderful colleagues, so the following year I was able to snag a spot teaching first grade in the district I really wanted to work for since relocating to Oregon in 2005. I taught first grade for three years and then Mr. Sneaker and I moved to Germany where I worked first as a classroom assistant in third grade and then as a Support Services (SPED) teacher with kids in grades 3-9. I loved the opportunity to assist in so many different classrooms and watch fantastic teachers in action, but I really missed having my own classroom and my own group of kiddos. When I gave notice to my district in OR that I would be returning for the 2010-2011 school year, I was placed at a different school in Kindergarten. At first I was so sure about the assignment, but now I am hooked. Kindergarten is a special year and I am happy to be a part of it for so many kiddos.

You might not know...

Right now I am living in a hotel. Since we just moved back from Germany, Mr. Sneaker's company provides us temporary housing until we find a place. We own a home in Portland, but it is currently occupied by renters, so we have to wait until the lease is up in March to move back in. We are staying in a Residence Inn right now and will move to a different short term furnished apartment on Sept. 2nd. We'll stay there for 6 weeks and then we'll move to another apartment for the duration of our renters' lease. Lots of moving...We are living out of suitcases and awaiting our belongings which will arrive on a boat sometime in October.

What are you looking most forward to this school year?

I'm really looking forward to the consistency that this year brings--same school as last year, same grade level as last year, same team as last year. It takes a year to figure things out, especially when joining a new staff and teaching a new grade, so I am happy to be returning to something I have already done rather than starting new again (which I did the previous two school years). I have been brainstorming all summer, so I am excited to put some new ideas into action!

What do you need to improve?

One of my big goals is to more effectively recruit and organize parent volunteers. This year I plan to write up some descriptions of weekly jobs that I need help with so that I can have parents coming more routinely for specific tasks. I know that not all parents can commit to coming weekly, but for the sake of being organized enough to actually benefit from the time the parents put in, I feel like having specific jobs will be helpful. I have a hard time asking for help, so I need to be better about really clarifying (for myself) what I need help with so I can ask for it. Sometimes I get frustrated when parents come in and don't really know how to effectively help, so I want to be more proactive about "training" them to do the jobs I want done. I suffer from the "I'd rather do it myself because it's a hassle to explain what I want done to this parent who arrived in the middle of my lesson," but truly, parents who help are so wonderful and it's nice to not do everything myself!!

I also would like to get better at moving my kiddos towards working more independently. I have visions of Daily5-esque classrooms with quiet children busily working, yet there always seems to be a bit too much noise pollution in my neck of the woods. I am tired of everything being whole group so that every kid is doing the same exact thing at the same exact time and I want my kiddos to have more opportunities to think for themselves and problem solve.

What teaching supplies can you *not* live without?

Teaching Books (picture books, idea books etc.)

Post-its

Sharpies

Document Camera (!!!)

White

BLOGS! (Not really a supply but a resource I heart!)

* * * * *

Now it's your turn. Check out Blog Hoppin' and link up! Thanks for playing along!

10 Questions

2011-08-19T01:12:00.000-07:00

Today for my last post from Germany, I am copying Kelly's 10 Questions from yesterday:

What are you really good at? What are you really bad at?
I am good at writing, being thoughtful, baking, being a perpetual student, working hard, and teaching.
I am really bad at decorating, navigating/finding my way around, team sports, and being spontaneous.

Have you ever been in a car accident? What happened?
I have been in a few car accidents, but nothing serious. One time my brother and I were driving to school on the narrow back roads of CT and we slid on some ice and hit another car. Another time, I was in the car with my friend Lauren and we got rear ended. Another time, I was turning right on my way home from class in college and I rear ended the driver in front of me. To be honest, the most damage I have done is hitting stationary things....my husband will never let me live down the fact that I drove into a telephone poll when I was taking him to the train station early in the morning. Not proud of that one because I did it in my brand new car.

Why did you attend your college?
Having grown up in Connecticut, Villanova was the perfect distance in order to be "away from home" but to still be close enough that I could make it home without a lot of hassle if I needed to be home. I didn't really have a lot of guidance when selecting a college and I actually applied to 2 other schools that were strictly business schools (didn't really have it figured out that I wanted to be a teacher until after I was accepted to the Villanova Business School, so I requested to transfer to the School of Arts and Sciences a few months before school started). Looking back, there were aspects of Villanova that I didn't really love, but I honestly think it was fate that I ended up there because that is where I met Mr. Sneaker.

Describe your morning routine today.
Woke up to Mr. Sneaker's alarm around 8. Usually I go back to sleep when he leaves, but I got up this morning because he needed me to sign some tax papers. I wanted to go back to sleep after he left, but I was starving, so I made myself some scrambled eggs which I ate while checking email, facebook, and reading blogs.

Have you ever snooped through someone else’s things? Did you find anything interesting?
Right now I am staying at someone's house who is not here, so it's kind of hard not to "snoop" through his things in order to find what I need. It's not like I am looking through his closet or his desk or anything, but I have done a lot of searching in the kitchen to find utensils, plates etc. I have to say, one thing I am really looking forward to is having my own kitchen again. There is something about using someone else's stuff that I just don't care for.

What do you think happens when you die?
That is a really interesting question. I don't really think about that often. I guess it's one of those things I figure I will find out when I get there....

Are you superstitious?
In some ways, yes. I definitely fear the jinx. For example, I worry that if I ever called out of work and said I was sick when I wasn't truly sick, that I would then get sick for something important in return. I am not too worried about breaking mirrors or black cats crossing my path, but I do worry. I guess I could call myself more of a worrier than a superstitious person.

Do people think you are younger or older than you actually are?
I've never really had people comment either way. I think I look pretty much my age, but I hope I continue to look my age now as I get older. ::wink::

How did your parents’ relationship influence you?

1. I believe in the value of hard work.
2. I think family meals are important for the sake of good communication and family bonding.
3. I think marriage requires a lot of give and take, which means it requires effort and shouldn't be taken for granted.

What were the three happiest moments of your life?
This is really tough to answer.... I have to alter this a little to make it the three happiest moments of this year because I can't process my entire life right now.

1. Passing my core paper/defense
2. Reuniting with Mr. Sneaker after being apart for so long
3. Crossing the finish line of my first half marathon

Answer one of the questions in a comment!!

We fly for a long time tomorrow. Wish us luck!!

Almost There

2011-08-18T09:10:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is our last day in Germany. I think it is much more difficult to leave for Mr. Sneaker because I already left once and the best friend I made in Germany is waiting for me back in Portland, but he is leaving a lot of friends and many truly wonderfully welcoming and kind people that kept him company while I was away.

We are both looking forward to being back in Portland, but there are a few things in particular that are on my mind:

Target (particularly the dollar spot...and Michaels cause I got an email about some awesome sales)

My car

My girls who I cannot wait to hang out with!

Chobani Greek yogurt (I just can't find good yogurt here)

My classroom (it's time to put all of my summer ideas into effect)

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary, so I am dressed and waiting for Mr. Sneaker to come pick me up. We are going to his favorite steak place and I am hungry! Mr. Sneaker and I don't do anniversary gifts and this year I didn't even get him a card because they're just not the same in German, but we've got a lot of wonderful things in our life to celebrate and all that matters is that this year we are together for our special day :0)

Processing

2011-08-16T04:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't fired up my laptop since relocating to our temporary housing #1 and it's difficult to post and comment with my ipad, so I am bringing out the big guns today to bring you this post--

I woke up to an email in my inbox from my lovely team partner Mrs. Bee this morning alerting me to the fact that we had received some scheduling info from our principal via district email. I immediately checked it out and Mrs. Bee's lament was confirmed--half day Kinder classes do not have specials this year.

::sigh::

With only 2 hours and 20 minutes to cram in everything we are mandated to do, it is challenging to find time for specials. Last year we started with 10 minutes each of Library, PE, and Music in our classrooms. The time flew by and it was a little cramped, especially for PE, but the kids loved that time of day and the activities were great to break up the very academic lessons that we do with them. By mid-year, we started doing 30 minutes of PE in the gym and the kids would just have PE once every 6 day rotation rather than twice. By the end of the year, we also added a 30 minute computer/library checkout session once every 6 days as well and we started bringing our kiddos to the Music room rather than having our Music teacher come to us since his room houses all the great instruments and it's literally just down the hall from us.

At the end of last year, our Librarian positions were cut, so I am guessing that the schedule change for our specials is a result of that. I am sure it will be more challenging to fit in specials now that we no longer have three different specials to attend, but we are still disappointed that specials have been entirely removed from half day Kinder.

The nature of Kindergarten has changed so much in recent years leaving the children with a very rigorous, fast-paced, academic session devoid of play time, recess, and daily snack. We are constantly rushed with our short half days and although as the teacher, I would love to gain the additional time with my kiddos, I know how much enjoyment they get from Mucic, PE, and Library, so I am sad for them. I am hoping we can arrange to have at least one PE session per rotation, but I understand that the master schedule for the entire school has undergone changes and it may not be simple to "just add us in once."

Bummer.

At least now, I have a copy of the schedule and I can start to figure out how my day will go. I still have 30 minutes of pull out ELD for some kiddos, so my day pretty much revolves around when those kids leave. The morning class is scheduled to have ELD from 9:30-10:00, which means I have 40 minutes with the kiddos once they return. Last year, there were only 10 minutes once they returned, so it was story time and then we got backpacks and headed for the bus. That was nice, so I am trying to process what activity I will save for last because it's difficult to get something productive accomplished once they return. I know this because my afternoon class had ELD last year from 1:15-1:45 and then we had ten minutes before specials followed by 20 more minutes of class time, which meant math at the end of the day was really tough to get through. Also, we frequently have issues with the children not being returned exactly on time, which makes it difficult to transition smoothly into a new activity upon their return.

Lots to think about.

I think the morning will go like this...

8:10-8:20 morning work at tables

8:20 Announcements immediately followed by good morning song and transition to morning greeting carpet.

8:20-8:30 Greeting time, review daily schedule, morning message of sorts, review of letter of the week/sight word of the week==> transition to the new carpet (fingers are crossed that our amazing new carpets will arrive in time for the first day of school!!!)

8:30-9:00 Fast Track Phonics lesson (first part at the carpet, writing part at tables)

9:00-9:30 Math- Start at the carpet for daily math routine, then go into lesson. The Daily Math routine has some movement and this year I am going to add music to it, so this can be a more active time prior to the lesson where the kiddos most likely sit.

9:30-10:00 ELD. This will be the time where I do my daily activity with the kids who remain (Math games on Monday, Travel Tuesdays, Words on Wednesdays, Thoughtful Thursdays, Flexible Fridays). Hopefully I can train the kiddos well enough so that as soon as the kids return from ELD, we can quickly clean up and transition to the last activity of the day.

10:00-10:30 Additional Reading/Sight Words. Last year in the PM class, I found it was much easier to have kids doing more hands on things during this last block as opposed to sitting and listening to a math lesson. During this time we do things like paste die cut letters to make our sight word of the week, letter looking, letter cut and paste etc.

10:30 Star of the Week

10:40 Dissmissal

I used to do star of the week at the beginning of the day after our greeting, but this year I am going to try it at the end of the day. Hopefully it doesn't feel as rushed.

The PM schedule will be different because the ELD block is closer to the end of the day leaving only 10 minutes after the kiddos return. I can do Star of the Week at that time, but only if the kiddos returning are on time. I guess I have a little bit of flexibility because the buses sit outside for 10 minutes after the bell, so it's not like we need to leave the room exactly at 2:25, but I prefer for my kiddos to get on the buses earlier than the older kids. I also have to figure out if I want to do straight Reading/Literacy and then Math or put Math in the middle to break up the phonics lesson and the sight word practice.

And, this is based on the schedule that was sent to us, which is subject to change....

What are your thoughts on half day Kindergartners not having specials? I waffle in my perspective...sometimes feeling like it's such a short day at school that they can certainly play when they are not at school, yet on the other hand, I feel like getting to know the specialists, being exposed to those classes, and walking in the hallway are all very important parts of school that might as well start in Kindergarten.

How do you configure your daily schedule? We are required to teach certain things for certain lengths of time, so I don't have a ton of say, but I do try to make sure that the kids have enough transitions and are not sitting for too long. My daily schedule works best (for me) when it is very consistent, especially since I have two different groups of kiddos with difference schedules). I can keep track better if we basically do the same thing at the same time each day. That inevitably gets interrupted, but for the most part, I try to keep things consistent.

Empty

2011-08-12T03:26:00.000-07:00

Thank you for the sweet comments on yesterday's post. I appreciate the kind words about what I post and I know that the lack of comments doesn't mean that nobody is reading or that my posts aren't interesting. I also frequently read many blogs that I don't comment on, so I need to be better about that too. Sometimes even a simple comment makes me smile, so I need to do the same for all my bloggy friends out there.

Today I am back at my now almost completely empty apartment while a new team of movers takes apart our two very large wardrobes and moves out Mr. Sneaker's friend's stuff. Mr. Sneaker had a roommate for awhile when I was in the US, and that friend has since moved to Amsterdam. He postponed the move of his stuff so that he could buy some of our stuff and include it in the move with his stuff. Does that make sense? So, his movers are here today which means I need to be here while they do their work.

All I have to say is thank goodness for internet because it would be really boring here without the ability to go online, read blogs, check facebook, send and receive emails, and watch TV. Hubs is a major fan of TV, so we have been able to access all of our favorite American shows the entire time we've lived in Germany thanks to a Tivo at his parents house, a sling box, and a sling catcher. He set it up so that I can use my computer to access the Tivo, so I watched Project Runway this morning while sitting outside on the patio. Then it got really cold and started raining so I am sitting on the floor in the empty living room. I am getting so hungry, so when I am done posting I am going to head over to the closet store to buy a frozen pizza. I don't have any plates, utensils, or napkins...but I do have an oven, so I am going to make it work (as Tim Gunn says).

Other than my laptop, I also brought along my iPhone and my iPad for this day of solace. As I mentioned in a previous post, I really like reading books on the Kindle app on my phone. Yes, it's super tiny, but I have always loved very little books. When I was a child, I had several sets of very small books that I just adored. Some were fairy tales and then there was a Babar the elephant series about the different elements (earth, water, air, fire). I also collected miniature plastic Cabbage Patch dolls and little woodsy animals that had little families of animals like foxes, owls, etc. I can't think of the name right now, but I will ask my mom--she will know. I LOVED those little creatures and I think they are still up in mom's attic. I will have to dig those out when I go home for the holidays. Ok, I had to google it....they were called Sylvanian families...So cute. I had bears, rabbits, and maybe some others too.

Do you remember these toys?

Wow, that was a tangent.

Besides playing Words with Friends, reading The Life and Death of the American School System (which is very good and I am almost done with it), and watching some TV, if I am really honest with myself, I know that today is a great day for some paper writing. I have been slacking. One a day has been hard with so many trips and with moving, so it's time to get back into that groove. How many pages can I write in the next 6 hours??? If I really tried, I bet I could do 5. I'll get back to you on how that works out. I have been reading great stuff and I finally have a decent outline, so I know there are good ideas floating around in my head--I just need to get them down on paper. It's really hard for me to just write without attention to minute details though, so I need to get over that and just get my ideas out. I can revise later. Does anyone else have a hard time separating composing from editing?? I always edit as I go and that majorly slows me down.

But, first it's time for some pizza. So I will leave you with a few questions....

What is your favorite kind of pizza? I like pizza with lots of veges on it, but I also like meat sometimes like sausage or ham. There are few things I won't eat on a pizza, but anchovies is one of them. None for me, thanks!

If you could bring three items with you to entertain you for the day in a boring place, what would they be? All I have to say is thank you to Steve Jobs for my three :0)

Did you collect anything when you were younger? I collected rocks (because my brother did), postcards (I did one of those chain letter projects in order to get postcards sent to me from people all over the world), little Cabbage Patch figures, and....I think that's it!

Wiped

2011-08-11T09:45:00.000-07:00

I am wiped from a long day watching the movers pack up our life. Now I am left with nowhere to sit but the patio furniture. Thank goodness
The new tenants in our apartment bought
The chair I am sitting on or else
I would be on the floor.

So today's post is going to be a simple question...

What needs to be different on this blog in order for people to comment/say hello/give input??

I see many blogs that receive insane amounts of comments on every single post.

I feel like I hear crickets chirp...

I am just not on the giveaway
Bandwagon nor do I make really cute teachery things for people to snag, but that's just me. It doesn't mean I don't love you guys!

So your challenge for today... Talk to me! I want to know who you are so I can check out your blogs too!

Change of Plans

2011-08-10T04:20:00.000-07:00

What was supposed to be moving day turned into everything is packed up and all of my clothes and personal belongings are moved to Mr. Sneaker's friend's house but the movers are no longer coming day.

::sigh::

We got up early to put the finishing touches on our sorting, organizing, and prepping and after a few hours of waiting for the movers, Mr. Sneaker called the company to ask of their whereabouts.

Apparently, they are coming tomorrow.

Apparently, while we were out of town, they sent an email to Mr. Sneaker at work, after which they received an immediate out of office reply email, yet they did not make any effort to try contacting us again to ensure that we got the message regarding the changed packing date.

We didn't get the message.

So, we woke up this morning and kicked it into gear...for nothing.

Mr. Sneaker has since gone off to work and I am sitting here amidst a lot of piles of our belongings in front of the TV that has decided today of all days to not work.

Fun times.

Because I now have a lot of time on my hands today I downloaded and am reading this:

good stuff
Have you read it?

Travel Reads

2011-08-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hi bloggy friends! I know I promised photos from Barcelona, but I am so exhausted today and have tons to do in order to prepare for the movers, so those will have to wait. This morning I packed the clothes I want to take with me on the plane and now my next goal is to get to work on Mr. Sneaker's closet. Since he travels a lot for work, he has some kind of snazzy airline status that allows him a few more bags, which is nice. I think he said between the two of us, we can bring 5 bags and the weight allowance is higher (75 pounds compared to 50). Since I left pretty much my whole teaching wardrobe in Portland, I think one bag for me will do it. I just have my summer stuff. I shouldn't say just as if that is not a lot because I discovered once again that I have way too much stuff. I made another bag of stuff to give away because I just can't deal with everything I have in the closet.

So...this is going to be a quick post with a few of my recent travel reads. I mentioned that I was reading an interesting book about reading instruction while putting in time on the elliptical and Kelly was interested to know what it is. I will preface by saying that when I say these books are "interesting" I am reading them for my paper, so interesting probably gets co-mingled with informative and useful.I do find them very interesting, but they might not hold your attention like The Daily Five or The First Six Weeks of School.

For starters....I bit the bullet and got this book for the plane rides. I found it for 12.99 on ibooks which was cheaper than Kindle for once. I read it in about 3 days (cheated a little and started it before we left) and I really liked it. I have to say though that despite many reviewers who said it was so sad and they cried throughout a lot of it, I didn't shed a single tear. Heart of stone.... It was different than the other books in the series, but I thought that it has a nice little ending and it was worth reading. I wasn't gonna be able to wait until it arrived at the library. Not to mention, there are typically 20-30 holds on any books I want to try and get through the digital lending library for my Kindle, so I thought it was better to read it now instead of 2014.

I also spent quite a bit of time reading this little gem on my phone. Yes, my teeny tiny iPhone was where I read most of this book. For some reason I preferred to take Kohn's commentary on tiny pages because a lot of what he said kind of ruffled my feathers. I truly think it is a great read for teachers, despite the fact that I disagree with a lot of what he said, because although his words irked me, at the same time, I found the book to be inspiring and it motivated me to rethink some aspects of my classroom. And that, my friends, was a long sentence!

Bottom line: Alfie Kohn is against behavioristic practices that reward and punish children in order to motivate them. He cites many studies that indicate when people (of all ages) are rewarded for doing something it results in decreased internal motivation to perform that task. So, he thinks that we should ditch grades, incentives, prizes etc. and focus more on Content, Collaboration, and Choices. I don't disagree that these elements are important in any classroom, but I had a very naughty little thought while I was reading this. He spoke to the fact that incentives and rewards result in short term compliance rather than life long character development of important social skills and understandings. I guess I view this differently in terms of teaching and parenting, but in terms of what happens in my classroom each year....I am sorry to say, but it IS short term. My students are with me for 10 months. So, during that 10 months, I am ok with rewards for certain behaviors (hello positive behavior support), I am in favor of praise, I am okay with giving consequences for poor behavior, and I do think that telling a child they can choose to behave and stay on the carpet and behave or they can choose to go back to their seat until they are ready to join is legit. Kohn would disagree. I am not saying that I don't give a rip what students do when they go on to the next classroom in the next grade level--not at all. BUT, summer happens, during which time routines and rules are different outside of school and then children enter a new classroom where rules might be different, discipline style might be different etc. So, I think teachers using behavior incentives, rewards, token economy systems etc. are all viable methods of keeping control in the classroom. Yes, I also want to help my students develop strong social skills and good moral character, but when I have 2 hours and 20 minutes to teach everything on my agenda, making sure that the kids behave is a big priority. When good behavior is a given (for most kids) we can do a lot more with the content and lessons. Kids just can't have choice in everything, especially in a classroom with 20+ other children. Choices have their place, yet there are also times when children need to do things that they just aren't internally motivated to do, but that doesn't mean those things aren't good for them.

Thoughts?

Finally, I dove back into this book while working at the hotel in Barcelona. The author gives a brief history of reading instruction, which might not fascinate everyone, but is really pertinent to my paper and interesting to me. He also talks about why we teach reading, what we teach when we teach reading, and how we go about teaching reading. He talks about the difference between instruction and education and speaks of these as polar opposites. In a nutshell, when we instruct, we put knowledge into our students, but when we education, we draw learning out from within.

I really liked this diagram the author included when he talked about different approaches to teaching reading. If you divide this chart on a diagonal from the top right to the bottom left, you can separate out a very skills centered approach to reading instruction from a more holistic approach (author's term). To me, I kind of think of it as Treasures on one side, The Daily Five on the other. And, as the author points out, a balanced approach is best.

Here's to being more balanced this year!

Barcelona

2011-08-07T01:47:00.000-07:00

Hola from Barcelona! We are staying at the Diagonal Zero Hotel and it's a really cool place. It scored major points for having an incredible breakfast spread. The hotel restaurant is very nice and the food included in the buffet breakfast is far superior to others we have had in our travels. There is an entire spread of fresh fruit that is already cut up (pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberries, and watermelon). Also a bowl of other whole fruits like apples and bananas. Usually the fruit options are not that great with not a lot to choose from or less than ripe choices, but it's great here. And, the fruit is just one section. There is also a spread of cheeses and meats, which is typical of a European breakfast, two sections of hot trays with eggs prepared different ways, bacon, sausages, some kind of cooked tomatoes, and Spanish tortillas. Another table has crepes with a divine chocolatey sauce. Yet another table has an assortment of breads and rolls with doughnuts and even some cakes. There is a fridge with yogurt and they even had Greek yogurt (my favorite!). YUM! And this is only breakfast people! We had some paella last night at a restaurant by the water last night that was seriously amazing. It took us about an hour to find the place and we were starving upon arrival, but it was so worth it.

We also enjoyed the hotel gym yesterday before we headed out to see a few sights and Mr. Sneaker is scheduled for a deep tissue massage later today at the hotel spa. Life is good. I am not really big on massages so I am going to hit the gym again while he gets in a little relaxation. I am reading a really interesting book about reading instruction so that makes the elliptical time go by pretty fast.

Today we are headed to a chocolate museum that tells the history of chocolate and has art pieces made of chocolate. Free samples? Yes please! Then we'll head to the Picasso Museum, which I am excited about. I am discovering that I am not huge on museums unless I have a decent amount of background knowledge on the subject matter, so Picasso should be fun and interesting. Yesterday we went to Parc Guell, which was designed by Gaudi and it was very cool. He does a lot of mosaic work in his structures and in a little shop nearby the park, I found some cool mosaic tiles with all of the letters of the alphabet. I got tiles with the letters of my last name for a sign to put outside my classroom. It will be a nice little reminder of our European adventures.

We are enjoying a variety of tapas (of course vacation food always ranks high on things to share) and I am excited to take in a few more cafes and sights today. I will post some pics when I get back so stay tuned!

Looking Back

2011-08-04T07:20:00.000-07:00

I just realized that right around this time last summer, I was getting ready to leave my husband.

Well, not like that!

I was getting ready to return to Portland for the school year, while he stayed behind in Germany.

I am so glad that is over.

Thinking back, I can remembering practically bursting into tears every time I even thought about being apart from Mr. Sneaker for 10 months. Not to mention I was getting ready to start teaching at a new school in a new grade level--Kindergarten, which added to the fear/uncertainty/worry of being away from my man.

What I didn't know was that...

Living with Janine would create a special friendship that I am very thankful for.

Being apart from Mr. Sneaker would actually bring us closer together as a couple.

Teaching Kindergarten is actually quite awesome.

I would complete my first half marathon.

and

I would fall totally in love with a dog (given my tendency to not really like dogs all that much).

Don't get me wrong...it was a hell of a crazy year with lots of husband missing, paper writing, stressing, and working what felt like all the time, but following with the theme of this summer, time felt like it was on continual fast forward (and not just the one arrow fast forward, I'm talking the super speediest three arrow fast forward!).

When I think about what I did--what Mr. Sneaker and I did--I think we must have been crazy. Yet, I don't regret it. It was such a productive year that meant the difference between moving back to Portland in a few weeks and having a classroom and a job to return to and being out of work. Had I not returned and kept my place in the district, I guarantee I would not be able to find a job upon returning because they are very scarce. It meant the difference between being DONE with my core defense/year 2 of classes and just starting those classes this fall. Can I get a woot woot for being done with those classes?! If I hadn't gone back, I never would have gotten to know and work with Mrs. Bee (and that would be tragic!).

I am so happy that this year, although once again I am preparing to move back to Portland, Mr. Sneaker is coming along this time! It requires a lot more effort on the moving front, major furniture and life possession moving compared to just packing my own clothing to bring along, but I am so excited to re-establish a life in the US with my husband. Our house is still being rented and the tenants' lease goes until April, so we will probably not move back in until the school year is out (moving mid-year just doesn't sound fun). That means we are going to get an apartment in a fun area for the meantime and enjoy a new area.

Before we choose our new place, we will have temporary housing, and we just found out that one of the choices is the building Janine moved into a few weeks ago. I couldn't be happier that she and I (and Bailey!) will get to be neighbors for a few months. Her building has a fitness center and a really nice movie room with a movie theater seats and a huge screen that you can hang out in or reserve if you want to have friends over. It also has great views from the rooftop, so Mr. Sneaker and I are excited. He already has some travel back to Germany on his schedule in early September, so I see some major girl time in with Janine and our other friend Jill in the future. I can't wait to reunite with my girlies!

I feel like my life has involved moving every 9 months to a year since I started college. The task of selling furniture has come again. The pressure to eat all the non perishables that have accumulated in our pantry is back. I told Mr. Sneaker that tonight he will have a choice of boxed mac and cheese, canned chili, or frozen pizza. But, soon enough, our little European adventure will be over, so despite the stresses of once again having to move, it's probably better just to soak it in while I still can.

P.S. We leave for Barcelona tomorrow!

keep on keepin' on

2011-08-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

It's officially starting to scare me how fast time is flying by. I was working on our itinerary for Barcelona earlier and when I looked up at the clock I realize an entire hour had gone by in what felt like no more than 5 minutes.

Jeesh!

Yesterday one of the new teachers who will be joining the staff at the international school where I used to work came over and bought a ton of our stuff as she recently moved to Germany for the new job. I sent a list of the items we wanted to sell to HR at the school to send out to new teachers and it worked out really well because this teacher needed a whole lot of stuff. She bought our guest bed, two cabinets, one set of bathroom drawers, the vacuum, hand mixer, iron, and ironing board. We are still trying to ~~get rid of~~ sell some more stuff, but aside from new teachers who just moved here, I don't know a lot of people who are in need of furniture. We get a 40 foot container to move our belongings back to the US, but we are shipping our car in that, so we only really want to bring back the furniture we originally brought with us in order for the car to fit. We are willing to part with most of the IKEA stuff we bought here, but it always sucks to sell stuff for a fraction of the price we paid...

The apartment is starting to look like a disaster zone because in order to sell cabinets, I had to empty them which makes for a lot of piles and bags of stuff sitting around not having a home. I can't stand the clutter and it's starting to stress me out. Not to mention, I can't even vacuum because I sold it. haha. The movers come next week on the 10th, so I only have to endure the clutter for a few more days (since we'll be away this weekend enjoying the sun in Spain). Once our stuff is moved out, we are moving into a different place for our last week here. One of Mr. Sneaker's friends is out of town working for the time being, so we are going to stay at his place.

I just got a new 10 punch card for the gym (which was easier than restarting my membership for just two months). I pay €50 for 10 visits to the gym which isn't awful, but since I got a brand new card on Sunday, I now have to hit the gym daily until we move to the next place because once we are there the gym is too far and I don't have a car. I am really not feeling up for a workout today, but I feel like I should go and make use of my daily punch! Hubs and I are supposed to meet up with a couple from the states who are considering making the move to Germany, so hubs will actually be home early from work today. That gives me about three hours until he is home in which time ideally I would like to workout, shower, and work on my paper. That's not gonna happen.

Ever since we got back I have been off the one a day bandwagon and haven't worked on my paper at all. Major fail! I have been reading a lot and some good ideas are floating around, but I have just been off and haven't gotten it done. I am going through a phase with the mindset--it will get done when it gets done and I want to enjoy my last few weeks in Europe. But, I know once I get back to OR I have to hit the ground running in order to get ready for school, so I am hoping that I don't fall really far behind. Right now I have six pages, so I feel like I need to at least double that before I go back. Maybe once I get back from Spain I will change my MO to 2 a day....that way I could get 22 pages before I leave in addition to the 6 or so that I already wrote--not bad. There was something really serene about only feeling obligated to write one page a day and that was helpful. Now that I am behind I feel pressured and that makes me feel stuck in a rut.

Anyway, it's time to do something because I can't be lazy all day.

Have you been to Barcelona? Any tips on fun things to see or do would be greatly appreciated!

Vay-cay

2011-07-31T11:46:00.000-07:00

Mr. Sneaker and I got back from our trip to Austria and Italy on Friday evening and we have been enjoying a very lazy weekend. I spent the day yesterday doing a lot of laundry after being away for about 10 days and I finally got in a workout after carb loading and indulging in daily gelato. It is so nice to be home and there is nothing better than falling asleep in my own bed, despite the charm of all the cute little hotels we stayed in.

We had such an amazing time touring some new cities and it was wonderful to have so much uninterrupted time with Mr. Sneaker. We are moving back to the states on August 20th, so life is about to get pretty crazy. I am so glad we had time to just have fun together. And, we'll do the same in Barcelona this weekend!

Best. Summer. Ever.

The only problem is that it is flying by way too fast. I can't believe it is almost August and school is just around the corner! I am really excited to embark on my second year as a Kindergarten teacher, but with organizing, packing, moving, paper writing, and settling in a temporary place in Portland once we return--there is just a lot on my mind!

So vacations are nice for some happy denial time.

Here's a short recap of our trip...

Destination 1: Salzburg, Austria

What we did/saw:

Eagle's Nest

Sound of Music Tour

Hohensalzburg Fortress

After enjoying the Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg, Austria, we posed for a picture with Tuc Watkins who plays Bob on Desperate Housewives. My eagle eye spotted him as soon as I got on the tour bus and hubs and I had fun sneaking peaks as we visited all the famous spots from the movie. The tour was great, but meeting Tuc was really fun. Mr. Sneaker was super cool and chatty and I was a little starstruck.

Have you ever met a celebrity? What did you say?

I am sixteen going on seventeen...

Von Trapp house

Church where Captain Von Trapp and Maria got married.

I don't actually remember the children dancing in the garden with these guys in the movie, but we had some fun posing with them and imitating their actions.

We also took in some amazing views at the Eagle's Nest.

Destination 2: Venice

What we did/saw:

St. Mark's Square

St. Mark's Basilica

Correr Museum

Doge's Palace

Gondola Ride

Murano Island

We took a water taxi to another island called Murano where they make amazing blown glass. They had tons of little shops selling all kinds of glass creations. I got two rings and a necklace (which I am wearing in the picture). I think I have one of the rings on too, but you can't really see it.

Riding the gondola was so fun and romantic. It wasn't cheap, but well worth it and a must do when visiting Venice.

Destination 3: Verona

What we did/saw:

 Teatro Romano (from the outside)

Nutella gelato (am. a. zing!)

On the way to Bellagio, we stopped in Verona, which is the city that inspired Romeo and Juliet. We had lunch while we were there, had the best gelato of the trip and walked around a little bit. Juliet's house is one of the big tourist attractions there, but we really didn't stay long and didn't see much.

a rose by any other name...

Destination 4: Bellagio, Italy (Lake Como)

What we did:

ate

slept

ate

slept

read

Once we got to Bellagio, we pretty much did a whole lot of nothing--unless of course you count eating, sleeping, and relaxing. It was the perfect way to end our trip. The view from the room was supreme and the food was yummy!

Quality resting and reading time.

I slept a lot on the way home, but we did see some beautiful sights when we drove through Switzerland.

Now, it's time to kick my butt into gear and make up a lot of missed time on paper writing! Tomorrow is going to be intense!

Pure Bliss

2011-07-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hello bloggy friends! I am posting from the very beautiful Hotel Bellagio in Bellagio, Italy and I couldn't be happier or more relaxed. Mr. Sneaker and I spent a few days in Venice but we didn't have Internet in the room and for some reason my iPad wouldn't connect to the wifi in the lounge, so I wasn't able to post from there. We had a lovely time seeing the sights, eating delicious food, and riding water taxis and a gondola. I have tons of pics, but I will have to wait and post them when we get back this weekend.

So far we have been pretty lazy in Bellagio, but that's what vacations are for, right? I enjoy sightseeing and learning about new cultures and places, but I also like to just chill and hang out sometimes. And relaxing is good for me because I had some good classroom ideas and ideas for my paper.

I was thinking about what to do with the kiddos during ELD time this year which is when some of the kiddos are pulled out for English Language Development. We have strict rules about what we are not allowed to do during that time--basically we are not allowed to teach anything new that those children will miss, which I completely understand and agree with, but at the same time with our very short day, we want to use all the minutes we have, so that time of day is always difficult. Anything I do with the remaining kids, I wish I could do with all the kids...we are allowed to practice skills, review, etc., so last year I did a mixture of things. I had high hopes of activity stations, which started out as choice time, but then I felt like I wanted more structure during that time.

This year, I know I want to be more organized with the use of this 30 minute chunk of time. So I came up with what seems like a reasonable routine.

Math Mondays-I will have the kiddos work on the great Marcy Cook math tile games that I have. They are individualized and awesome. The kids love them and they are great for math practice.

Travel Tuesdays-going with my love of travel on this theme, I want to make each child a little passport to use as they circulate three table activities. Upon completion of each station, they will get a stamp on their weekly passport page. I am hoping to put together some activity boxes that will be easy to just set out each week. I will train the kiddos on what to do, so I will be free to circulate around. I was thinking of a reading station where I would include the leveled readers that go with out reading program and additional books as the kids get more proficient in reading. I will include some stuffed animals, whisper phones, and fun glasses, and silly fingers/pointers so the kids can practice reading to themselves, whisper read, read to a stuffed friend, and then read to me. I was thinking of having another station be the sight word station where the kiddos will make the sight word with wikki sticks, write the words in sand or salt, form the word with stamps, and maybe even some fun art supplies like pom poms or colored tiles. I am not sure what the final station will be, but probably something more art related or science related.

Words on Wednesdays-On this day I will have the kids work on picture and word sorts from Words Their Way. I will start the year with picture sorts and then move on to the initial sound sorts. I think I will start by precutting the pictures, but eventually I'd like the kids to cut, sort, and glue their sort. When they get really good, I would love to see them write how they sorted or at least tell me so I can write it.

Thoughtful Thursdays- I think this will be my favorite day of the week. We are allowed to do our Second Steps lessons during ELD, as if certain kids don't need to learn social skills, so on these days I would like to read some stories that make us think. I don't want the other kiddos to miss out, so possibly this will be a time to re-read and extend certain stories. Also, I want to focus some energy on doing kind things for others during this time. Maybe we will write letters or draw pictures for loved ones, make coupons for nice things we can do for friends or family, or brainstorm helpful things we can do around school. I would love to do some service learning with the kids this year, but I haven't thought that throuh yet.

Flexible Friday- This day will be for catching up, finishing other projects from the week, assessing, etc.

I feel like I have a lot to do in order to make this plan work, but I am so excited for it...especially the passports.

It's almost time for a yummy pizza dinner, but stay tuned for pictures later in the week!

Sneaker Teacher Loves Shoes!

2011-07-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

Quick post from Austria as I am enjoying The Sound of Music in our hotel room. Mrs. Tabb from Just Another Day in First Grade is doing a giveaway on a unit all about shoes! At the Sneaker household we are all about fun shoes, so I was in love when I saw Mrs. Tabb's cute work. She is giving the unit away for free to anyone who posts about it. Check it out! I am not able to link up directly to her site since I am on my iPad and it's giving me some issues when I try to cut and paste the link, but if you look in my blog roll you will find her! This unit looks like it will be great for working on sorting and comparing and contrasting with my kiddos.

Road Trip!

2011-07-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

Hubs and I are leaving tomorrow for a little road trip and I am super excited. I never travel without my iPad so hopefully I will put up some posts while we are away. Most likely they won't be too teachery, but I think you'll forgive me for that. I should change the name of this blog to Travel Teacher because I talk about teaching and traveling a lot more than I talk about teaching and fitness these days. Oh well, travel talk is fun!

Maybe I will post a nice darling video of myself singing a little do re mi during the Sound of Music Tour. Not really, since I do want you to come back!

I am happy to share that I have stuck to my one page per day writing goal and I actually have moved onto my sixth page in just three days. Once I start writing, it's a lot easier to fill the pages and get it done, but for some reason, it is SO hard start when I am facing a completely blank page. I sent my work so far off to a few friends from class for their feedback and it was hard to share my work when it is still so rough. The ultimate challenge would be to post it here, but that is a lot scarier than sharing it with a few people from class. I really struggled with organizing my ideas into an outline and I know at some point that will bite me, but for now I am just freely writing and letting it all spill out. When it comes time to edit, I will be more critical, but for now, I am just getting it out.

If we have internet, I will stay in the bloggy loop, but if not, I'll check ya later!

Discuss

2011-07-19T04:35:00.000-07:00

You all know Pioneer Woman, right? If you don't, I highly recommend checking out her very multifaceted blog and I highly recommend her recipe for sangria! She is pretty much a ~~Jack~~ Jane of all trades and has mad cooking skills as evidenced here. Today her blog featured a guest post from a woman by the name of Kristen Chase called Does School Help or Hurt Intellectual Growth referencing this article...

which starts off with this quote...

Here are some excerpts:

I tried to pull out some of the really catching ideas presented in the article, but if you are interested to read the whole thing (please do!) you can find the entire text here.

Thoughts?

I have mixed feelings when it comes to people who criticize the education that takes place in schools. On the one hand, as a teacher, I definitely recognize areas of our current educational system that need improvement. I am focusing my doctoral work and my current specialty paper on culturally responsive instruction and what we can do to meet the needs of culturally and linguistic learners, especially in the context of being given a scripted program as if the preselected stories and images can possibly apply to all children and their unique experiences. I frequently wish that I could simply close my door and teach my students in the manner that I know is more appropriate, yet there is another side to the coin.

When I read or hear remarks from people who speak negatively of what happens in schools, I start feeling very defensive because I know that teachers work incredibly hard to do the very best we can for our students, working with the day in and day out to help them succeed and often feeling like they belong to us and we are solely responsible for their very well being. We bust out butts in our work and we are skilled at what we do.

We do the best we can with what we have.

Yes, I want my students to be creative.

Yes, I want my students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers.

Yes, I want my students to be kind people with strong character and work ethic.

Yes, I want my students to navigate different situations and interact with each other.

And guess what... those things happen in my classroom.

Despite the mandates to use a teacher manual to teach Phonics and Math, my students are not simply robots. Sure, I would love to have more freedom to teach in different ways and yes, I do feel restrained by the requirements for a particular number of minutes on each subject and the very tightly packed schedule that we have in half day Kindergarten, but I definitely think that my students benefit my being in my classroom. They grow as people and as learners and I hate that despite who we are as individuals we have a bad rap for stifling creativity and squashing dreams.

This whole topic is exactly what fuels me in my dissertation work because I agree that we have to change and we have to do more to navigate American education in a new direction. I very much agree with the article's author about types of activities and thinking kids should be doing and I try my darndest to include those things in what we do and what I teach so that children experience education in my classroom in a way that opens them up to a world of learning and experiences.

I want more of those experiences for my students so perhaps a little of my own creative disobedience is in order, but it's difficult because it feels like going with my beliefs results in being a rule breaker....kind of like Kristen says in her post. This article was really interesting to me and I hope you read both Kristen's post on Pioneer Woman and the article. Here are the links one more time...

Kristen's Post

The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience

What are your thoughts on the article or the bits I pulled out?

What do you do with your students to encourage creativity and critical thinking?

How much freedom do you have to teach how/what you want?

Discuss!

Wax & Wane

2011-07-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

Holy 300 followers! Love it! Thanks for visiting.

***

Yesterday was very productive.

Today, not so much as evidenced by the fact that it's approaching 2:30 and I am once again still in my pjs.

I wish someone could observe me and take notes indicating how I spend all of the minutes in my day. I bet I would be ~~sickened~~ fascinated to realize how much of my time is wasted doing meaningless things rather than making good use of my time.

I did sit down to write my daily page, so I am 2 for 2 on that little self bargain and that is good.

I also booked our tickets for the Sound of Music Tour in Austria on Friday. Apparently the 4 hour tour is filled with all kinds of singing. I don't think anyone wants to hear me sing, but I can't wait! Maybe hubs should wear his lederhosen.

Seriously, how cute is Mr. Sneaker in his traditional German attire?

So I guess the day hasn't been entirely unproductive, but the whole pj thing makes me feel like Miss Lazypants. Must. Get. Dressed. Maybe I should put on the lederhosen.

Rather than boring you with more details of my already confessed laziness, let's talk behavior management. Do you use a behavior management system in your classroom? I started a system mid year and I really liked it, so I think starting it on the very first day this year will be great and will produce even better results.

Here's the deal:

I have two calendar pocket charts hanging on the wall (one for each class). Each pocket has a label with a child's name on it. Inside the pocket are three small popsicle sticks. The teacher who I got this idea from used a calculator pocket chart but I couldn't find those so I used a smaller version and just got the mini sticks to use. Each of the child's sticks has his or her name written on it in black Sharpie.

I explain the system to my class in terms of making good choices. If they make good choices all week and keep all three sticks, on Friday they get 15-20 minutes of choice time which is like telling them they get unlimited access to a candy store because they just love choice time since they otherwise don't have any play time or recess time.

If on the other hand, a child chooses something that is not okay, I ask them to remove a stick from the pocket and bring it to me. I store all the "lost" sticks on a cup that I stapled high up on the wall.

On Fridays, I do a little "ceremony" with certificates. Any child that kept all three sticks gets a little yellow certificate with their name on it that says "Yay I made good choices all week." Any child that lost all three sticks, gets a refocus note. I don't give those out during the ceremony, but I do pull the child aside during the choice time (which they didn't earn) and we talk about what happened. I made the form really simple to fill out because I wouldn't keep up with it if it was complicated. The form lists our three school rules

Be kind
Be safe
Be responsible

and I check off which rule was not followed. Then there is a spot for notes where I can write John hit another student or Sally was talking a lot while I was teaching. The form goes home in the Friday folder and there is a spot for parent signature.

Overall I found that this system really worked. Each Monday the kids start with all three sticks and if they lose any they get them back the following Monday. Having choice time was definitely a great motivation and the certificates were an extra incentive for kids to keep all of their sticks. They also got to add a sticker to a little chart next to their name each time they kept all three sticks. Most kids hated losing sticks and really refocused themselves when they lost one without me having so say much more than bring me a stick. Yes, there were several kiddos who needed additional behavior support, but for the greens and the yellows (can you picture the triangle right now?) this system really worked.

I first discovered it when I visited a friend's Kinder classroom and I was FLOORED by how well behaved her kiddos were. Absolutely. Shocked. She said she was really strict with this system at the beginning of the year and she felt mean all the time, but it really worked and the kids learned that some stuff just doesn't fly in the classroom. I am excited to try it out from the getgo, yet I feel like I don't have it in me to be a "strict" teacher.

I'm just not. Yet, I don't think that is what I aspire to be either. I want to have clear expectations and I expect good behavior, but I don't want kids to be overly worried about making a mistake or being called out for every little thing. I have seen kids lose their mojo in classrooms as a result of having a teacher that was too strict. Last year I knew that kids were happy to be in my class and loved coming to school. Those things are very important to me.

Do you consider yourself a strict teacher? How so?

I am not at all saying it's negative to be strict--in fact I admire teachers who have classroom management down pat, but I need to do it the way I am comfortable with and I am working on focusing more on the positive and making the good choices so much more desirable than the poor ones that kids don't want to misbehave.

So the stick system in addition to all the awesome new social skills books I ordered from amazon (yes, you read that right..all the new books as in I didn't pick out my favorites I ordered all $150 dollars worth of my awesome list which I will get reimbursed for ) will hopefully make for a great year of successful Kindie managing.

I wish I had pictures of the sticks, but I hope you can use your imagination. I am planning to start out and allow them three sticks per day for the first month or so of school so they can get used to what kinds of things result in lost sticks. I will probably do a daily sticker for kids who have kept all three. At the beginning of Kinder I think a week is too long and I want them to have more frequent reinforcement for making good choices.

::PS have any of you read Punished By Rewards by Alfie Kohn? My friend who I worked with at the international school said that a parent of one of her students insisted she read it because this parent did not like her token economy system in the classroom because said parent did not believe in rewards. I would like to read the book to see what it says, but I am pretty comfortable with my belief that it is okay to use extrinsic motivation for young kids, especially little Kindies. Thoughts? ::

So now tell me about how you do you get all of your little angels to make good choices and follow classroom rules and directions?

Success!

2011-07-17T06:18:00.000-07:00

Oh how good it feels to get things done. Hubs got up early today to compete in his second day of this crazy sports competition that includes basketball, volleyball, soccer, and handball. Rather than rolling over and going back to sleep after I sent him off with a cute red cooler full of snacks packed with love, I jumped right on my To Do list and have been knocking it out of the park.

I baked a loaf of banana bread with chocolate chunks ::yummy!::

I made a batch of cookie dough to put in the freezer for a BBQ we are going to on the 29th. We are getting back from our trip just a few hours before the party, so I wanted to have the dough pre-made so I can just plop some balls on a tray and put them in the oven!

I cut up some peppers and onions for our fajita dinner so I could clean the horrendous hot mess that was my kitchen and not have make another mess later.

I cleaned the whole apartment, vacuumed, and am working on load of laundry #2.

And yes, I wrote 1 page of my paper! Actually, including the chart I put in that outlines the four major curriculum theories, I wrote about a page and a half. Score!

The list still says run & read and it should say Skype date with my bestie, but I would never forget to do that! Unfortunately when I looked out the window in the midst of my cleaning frenzy, it was pouring rain. Not such a good day for a long run.....but I do reside in Oregon (unless I am spending a fabby summer in Europe!), so I know that a little rain doesn't hurt.

So....now that all that productivity is out of the way (minus the run which I will do at some point), I have Kindergarten on my brain.

More specifically...objectives.

Do you have to write out content and language objectives for your lessons?

At my school we are supposed to.

But, I don't.

::cringe::

I hate to admit that I don't because I completely believe in the important of making sure the goal of the lesson is clear, but for some reason, writing the goal out for each lesson when we are doing something different approximately every 15 minutes seems like too much.

too. much.

I have toyed with different ways to make sure that I am at least verbally stating the objective for each lesson including singing our goals to the tune of "we will rock you" each morning during our good morning circle. But, I have not yet gotten into the habit of actually writing out my daily content and language objectives.

Towards the end of the year, I started using my magnetic letters to show the kiddos what our letter and sight word of the week were and I found that helpful, so I am trying to brainstorm ways to include my lesson objectives in picture or written form this year. The good thing is that we typically study the same letter or word all week, so my fear of having to rewrite objective numerous times a day is pretty nonsensical.

I am picturing some type of dry erase board on my instructional wall where I can write our weekly objectives (at least for reading) and just keep them up all week. That would include a few sounds from Fast Track, our special letter of the week that is tied to our star of the week, and our sight word of the week. That way the kiddos could see them and know what our focus is, but I won't have to erase them in order to write other things if I use an entirely separate dry erase board. I am hoping to just buy a sheet of dry erase board from Home Depot and drill holes in it so I can just hang it on my instructional wall somewhere. Then I would use my other dry erase board that I prop on my big book stand for writing other things during my lessons.

I used to do a written morning message with my firsties and I loved it, so that is something I would of course love to incorporate with the objectives if I can somehow miraculous infuse more time into the day. There are so many things I wish I could do if only I had the time. What about choosing one sentence from a newspaper article each day and have the kids practice finding the sight word and then talking about what happened in the news.... Or, writing a sentence about something we have worked on in class or something about our daily schedule. I used to love making mistakes on purpose in my message and asking the kiddos to tell me what was wrong and how to fix it. Again, if only I had the time!

I can't wait to get back into my classroom so I can start arranging the furniture and working on my separate math and literacy walls. I am not sure what to do with math objectives because our new math program often has us doing 5 completely unrelated lessons a week, but my team did talk about rearranging some of our units so that we can kind of work on one thing at a time instead of jumping around so much. Maybe if we do that, math objectives will be easier.

In theory, writing the daily objective doesn't seem that hard, but neither does sharpening pencils and I seem to have major issues getting that done as well. It's just those little things that seem to fall through the cracks in the grand scheme of everything I need to do. Speaking of sharpening pencils, last night we had dinner with a friend of Mr. Sneaker who has a pencil sharpener company here in Germany. He gave me about 8 different kinds of little sharpeners to bring to my classroom!

Hopefully given the changes I want to make in the organization of my room and with the addition of my awesome new rug, I will be able to create special locations just for posting my daily objectives. I would love to feel that organized and I do think that it's a good thing to specifically point out to the kiddos what I want them to know or be able to show me at the end of a lesson. There is so much potential for being explicit about that and I would love to think of ways to involve the kids so they somehow interact with the written objective and get into the habit of checking for it, reading it, and making sure they get it.

Oh, how we expect so much from our little Kindies.

Do you do a morning message with your kiddos?
What kinds of things do you write?

How do your kiddos interact with it?

Break it Down

2011-07-16T15:43:00.000-07:00

I have posted several times already this summer about my guilt over not being overly productive since school let out. I have gone on two trips (with two more to come--next week is Salzburg, Venice, and Lake Como then hopefully Barcelona in early August!), gone on some great runs in the forest, read a few good books, cooked some real food for hubs, and slept late.

But, I have not written a single word of my paper.

So regardless of what else I do, not writing the paper= unproductive

I successfully defended my core paper on June 16th and because I was the 5th out of 6 people in my cohort to do that, I already felt behind on my next paper, which is called the Pre-Proposal Comprehensive Specialty Exam (Specialty Paper for short).

::Just a little catch up for those of you who are newer readers==> In early 2009, I got accepted into the doctoral program at Portland State University. Shortly after that, hubs got an offer to relocate to Germany with his company. In August 2009 hubs and I moved to Germany and I taught at an International School for the 2009-2010 school year while doing independent study with my adviser, skyping with him every other week, and skyping into class in the wee hours of the morning during spring term to get as much of the work completed as I could from afar. In early 2010, hubs and I decided that in order to stay in the program, I would return to Portland (sans Mr. Sneaker) for the 2010-2011 school year to complete my doctoral coursework and keep my position in my school district since I was only granted a one year leave of absence. So, I lived in Portland while Mr. Sneaker lived in Germany from August 15, 2010-June 18th, 2011. It was a very challenging year for many reasons (being away from hubs, teaching Kinder for the first time, being observed by my principal a lot, and spending almost all of my free time doing homework), but it flew by seemingly on fast forward and now I am back in Germany with Mr. Sneaker until August 20th when we are officially moving back to Portland where I will return to the same school I worked at last year and he will take a new position within the same company at the Portland office. whew...are you caught up?::

Anywho....All throughout this past school year I pictured the gloriousness of being able to wake up, grab a cup o joe and leisurely spend several hours a day reading the large pile of books I collected all year and writing my specialty paper. It was so hard to get my core paper done with all the other coursework and teaching work that it seemed like writing the specialty paper when I wasn't working would be a total cake walk.

I was wrong.

I am aimless without a schedule.

::confession--on Friday when hubs got home at 6:00, I was still in my pajamas...I don't think I did a single productive thing all day long...don't judge::

What I imagined to be a blissful breezy effort in scholarly writing has turned into a daily guiltfest over not yet having written a single word.

not. one. word.

I have been reading a lot on curriculum theory, which may sound boring, but is actually quite interesting and makes 30 minutes on the elliptical go by in a flash. I am loving all that John Dewey had to say and finding myself really siding with the social meliorists over the proponents of social efficiency (education for social justice over education operated like a business or a factory) and I can picture all this info somehow fitting together to make a great paper, but as of now I don't even have a word doc dedicated to said paper.

So I started to think about how I am going to figure this out--how I will get it done this summer before the craziness of school starts up again. I want to be able to move on to my dissertation and my own research this coming school year, so my specialty paper needs to be dunzo. I am starting 30 empty pages in the face and I need to somehow whip myself into a paper writing frenzy before I move back to Portland (because once I am there, life is going to be all about setting up my classroom with the help of Mrs. Bee).

So, I though to myself what if I wrote one page a day. That doesn't sound so bad.

One page a day for thirty days and I will have myself a draft.

One page on curriculum theory here. One page on culturally responsive teaching there. A page on why scripted curricula don't connect with all students and pretty soon I will have myself a paper!

When we teach kids we take big things that seem difficult or overwhelming and we break them down into reasonable steps. This paper is so daunting that I just haven't even begun and let's be honest...it's about time.

So, tomorrow I am going to write one page. Chances are if I write one page, I will probably get a good flow going and I will want to keep writing. Chances are, if I keep writing, I will get really excited about curriculum theory and how it relates to learning theory and what reading instruction looks like in our classrooms today which will inspire me to spout off ideas about how we could to use scripted curricula as a foundation for reading instruction while enhancing the lessons with culturally responsive instruction that helps all kids connect with the importance of reading in meaningful ways. Chances are while feeling inspired about what kind of reading instruction is best for culturally and linguistically diverse learners, I will keep writing more and more all the while dreaming of being the most organized, fabulous, creative, wonderful, and amazing teacher ever. Chances are, if I start feeling the best teacher ever, I will want to eat, sleep, live all things teachery and will write page after page after page until my paper is done. Chances are, if I write one page tomorrow, I will finish my paper by August 20th.

And, I am counting on you all to hold me accountable. Shoot me a comment every once in awhile. Something like, Hey Mrs. Sneaker, how is that amazing paper coming? I will be eternally grateful and maybe when I'm finished, I will do a giveaway. The winner gets a copy of my paper! (Just kidding!).

In all seriousness, this paper needs to happen. I need to get out of my aimless summer funk and just start writing.

One page a day.

30 days.

Completed paper.

Well, ok let's be honest...completed first draft which will be covered in red after being reviewed by my wonderful advisers, but hey, editing is a different ball game than writing. The act of composing when starting at a blank page is far more frightening than rearranging, deleting, adding, and spell checking. But, a completed first draft is good with me!

Wish me luck!

How do you tackle huge projects that seem overwhelming?

What are summers like for you? productive or lazy and guilt free?

Linky Party Blog Mixer

2011-07-14T23:56:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned yesterday, Yearn to Learn is hosting a blog mixer to spread the word about new teacher bloggies and give other teacher bloggies a chance to uncover some new awesomeness.

You should definitely play along! Here's how:

1. Find a blogger who is a "New Kid on the Blog".
(Someone who has blogged 2 months or less and has less than 200 followers).
2. Post a blogger in your same grade level.
3. Post a blogger in a different grade level.
4. Find a cute blog button and post it.

1. For the newbie blogger my natural choice is Mrs. Bee because she teaches Kinder at my school and she is my awesome friend. I have an issue with being pretty shy about my blog and I tend to not tell teachers I work with about it, but I shared it with Mrs. Bee this past spring and she was super supportive of it and decided to start her own. Now that I have completely sucked her into the world of blogging our relationship is even closer because of our shared obsession with all things Kinder and bloggy! Mrs. B has quickly acclimated to the world of blogging with a super cute blog, joining in on linky parties, becoming a teacher blog addict, and sharing ideas about parent involvement and classroom management.

::sidenote:: I kind of think it's funny that for the first one it says a new kid on the block that has less than 200 followers. I think I blogged for two years before I got 200 followers! I have been noticing several new followers popping up recently and I am really happy new people are interested in Sneaker Teacher. I promise more talk of summer teacher prep and travel adventures to come!

2. Well, technically Mrs. B fits the bill for #1 and #2 since we both teach Kindergarten, but I am going to choose another Kinder blog too. I have to go with Look at My Happy Rainbow his was the first Kindergarten blog I ever followed (even in the days when I taught first grade and NEVER wanted to teach Kinder!). His blog is filled with stories about being a male Kinder teacher and the funny/charming/adorable/worrisome things that happen in Kindergarten. When I got reassigned to teach Kindergarten after living in Germany for a year, one of the things that got me excited about it was remembering some of his posts and stories about the unmatchable joys of teaching Kindergarten. And, after doing it for a year, I agree--It's magical! Also, I will give a shout out to Kelly. Her main blog focuses more on fitness, food, and travel. But, she also started a teaching blog called Kelly Teaches where she gives good descriptions of what she does in the classroom and why. I heart Kelly!

3. My choice for a blog about a different grade level is The Caffeinated Teacher. Sunny taught 5th grade last year and will be moving to 2nd grade this year. She has just decided to go for her National Board Certification (go girl!) and is the queen of organization, binders, and Diet Coke. I would love a chance to watch her in action for a day! She recently wrote a great post about using Words Their Way and she shares my profound love of books!

4. And last but not least...a cute button

http://misskindergartenlove.blogspot.com/

Hope you join in the linky party fun! If you do, leave a comment with your link so I can check it out!

Excited

2011-07-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's the little things in life that can make me really excited

Like eating an ice cream cone with a ginormous scoop of peanut butter and jelly ice cream and chocolate sprinkles on top (which I did today)

or getting a big hug from hubs when he gets home from work

or fitting into skinny jeans especially after devouring said ice cream

Does anyone else out there have skinny jeans? I don't mean the super tight kind of jeans that are trendy...I mean skinny jeans which are the opposite of fat pants.

jeans-the jeans you bought when you were in really good shape that you keep around and try on every once in awhile just to make sure you can still get the zipper up.

fat pants--the pants you wear when you just aren't at your fittest and you don't want to deal with a zipper struggle.

Anyone?

My skinny jeans are size 6 jeans from American Eagle that I got my junior year of college. The have huge holes in the knees and frayed hems. The summer after my HSBF dumped me, I got into really good revenge shape and they were my favorite jeans that fall. Hubs remembers seeing me for the first time that school year when I was wearing those jeans, a yellow T-shirt and sporting a nice tan. He was smitten.

Anyway, in addition to feeling pretty good that I can still get them on my body ::with just a smidge of sucking it in:: I am pretty psyched about this...

www.mpmschoolsupplies.com Fun with Phonics Carpet 8'4" X 13'4" $430.65

or possibly this...

Lakeshorelearning.com Learning Letters and Shapes Activity Carpet 9' X 12' $469

Both Mrs. Bee and I want to get new rugs for our classrooms. We both have big oval rugs that I use for my good morning greeting. There are letters around the border, so each kid technically has a letter to sit on, but even with only 22 kiddos, they didn't really have enough room. I desperately want a new rug for instruction. There are a few big reasons why...

I want a bigger rug so the kids have more room to spread out. I particularly like the first one because there are 35 little squares so potentially I could stagger the kiddos and they would have their own defined space to sit on.

I like how both of these rugs have specific spots, so I can assign carpet spots this year. I didn't do that last year because I do think kids should have the freedom to sit where they want to, yet I had a lot of kids who talked too much on the carpet and some kiddos who routinely sat by other kiddos and were a distraction to each other and the rest of the class. I think it would make transitions to the carpet easier if kids had a special spot.

Having the smaller squares to sit on makes it easier to put the kiddos in rows. I had them sit in rows when we used our math trays last year and it took a lot of time to get them organized in rows. Hopefully with one of these rugs, that would be easier to do.

I want to have two separate areas next year--one for morning meeting and a reading corner and another for reading and math instruction. Sometimes my kiddos had confusion about how to sit when I was teaching. I only wanted them on letters (in an oval) for our greeting, but often when they would transition to the carpet they would sit on letters during instruction time and clump together like a bunch of grapes. With two distinct areas, I think seating arrangements will be clearer.

The drawback to getting a new rug is that they are SO spendy. Ugh! We do get a chunk of money from the district, so I have enough to pay for one, but it just takes up such a huge portion of that money, it leaves fewer funds for books and such ::sad face::

Mrs. Bee talked to Lakeshore and they said shipping is free and they could give us a small discount with our purchase.

I called MPM School Supply earlier today and the gentleman I spoke with said if we both buy a rug, he would give us a bit of a deal and we could pay $410 for each rug instead of $430 with free shipping. Not bad! Considering I prefer the rug from that store, it is a bonus that it would save us 59 dollars over the Lakeshore one. I have to check with Mrs. B, but I think we are going to go for it! It definitely makes a difference when a company is willing to work in a little extra discount for teachers!

Does anyone have either of those rugs? Are the little areas roomy enough for little Kinder bodies?

I am getting so excited to arrange my room for the new year. We had to put everything away at the end of the year, so I am loving the idea of starting from scratch and reorganizing my different classroom areas. I have decided to take out the little play kitchen that I had last year :: mean teacher:: in order to allow more space for a little book reading/library area. The kiddos LOVED the play kitchen but we barely ever had choice time during which they could use it and feelings were always hurt when a few kids got to play there on Friday and others had to make a different choice. Kindergarten just doesn't have a lot of play time included anymore (at least at my school with a half day schedule), so I feel like having a play area like that is more of a tease...yes, it does provide a great opportunity to build social skills and learn through play, but for 15 minutes once a week, I need that prime real estate for books and reading. I want my kiddos to love being in the reading area as much as they loved playing in the kitchen.

What are you excited for?

What have you been working on for the new school year?

P.S. Yearn to Learn has posted a fun Blog Mixer Linky Party to help spread the word about new teacher blogs, make new bloggy friends, and discover great teaching ideas. I am going to link up tomorrow, so stay tuned! In the meantime, check it out!

Flags!

2011-07-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I shared that I want to incorporate some learning about different countries/cultures with our letter practice this school year. We focus on one letter per week in Kindergarten, so I thought it would be fun to choose one country that begins with each letter of the alphabet so that we can be a bit more global in our classroom and learn about different places and people. I have the kids do morning work at their tables when they first arrive, so I found flags for each country we will talk about for them to color during morning work. The cool thing about coloring flags is that it will be an exercise in really focusing on the model and coloring the flags accordingly.

I changed my original country list because I couldn't find some flags. There are a few letter duplicates because I haven't made up my mind which country I want to use and Luxembourg is for x because I didn't come across any countries that start with x, so I settled for one that had an x in the name!

I saved all of the flags in a folder on my computer, but I also uploaded them to scribd in case anyone else wants to borrow. I put them into a collection so my hope is that you would be able to just print once and get them all...fingers crossed! Please feel free to use this as you like, but if you like it please let me know what your plans are! (just curious and I love ideas!)

I caved and started watching this season of The Bachelorette today since there is nothing else on TV and I had the first 5 episodes on Tivo. I am not sure how I feel about it so far. I already know about the Bentley drama and I just kind of feel like it's super cheesy. I have gotten really into in past seasons, but I am watching her beg Bentley stay when she knew from the beginning that he was there for the wrong reasons....smoothe move.

Are you watching? Who are you rooting for? Catch me up!

Wish List

2011-07-12T05:15:00.000-07:00

It all started with an email from Amazon indicating that my free year long trial of Amazon Prime shipping is about to come to an end. ::tear:: I have until July 21st to get free next day shipping and after that, I will have to pay the fee to keep the prime shipping account in action. Because I am a student, I was able to have Prime shipping free for a year and now I can pay $39 if I want to keep the account. I guess the regular price is $79, so I am leading towards taking advantage of that deal. With all that I order from amazon, I think I will definitely get my money's worth in what I save on shipping costs.

But, since I am not sure if I will keep my Prime account, I thought I better order some of the books I want for the upcoming school year before my free shipping runs out. Mrs. Bee said I can ship anything I order to her house since I am still in Germany. I was emailing Mrs. Bee, who is my sweet friend and also teaches Kinder at my school, this morning and I got to thinking about all the amazing books I have read about on Books that Heal Kids. If you don't know about this blog, go there...now! (Actually, finish reading my post and then go there!). Roxanne has the greatest inventory of fabulous books that help teach kids valuable lessons and things about life. She summarizes the stories and gives a little blurb about why she loves the books. In order to come up with the list of what I want to order, I just popped on over to her blog and used her list of topics to search for books that will help me with particular lessons.

I did not do a good job teaching our social skills program last year (because I don't like it) so I want to make this year better--by using stories to teach about these skills and concepts rather than scripted lessons based on photo cards. These stories will help kids to relate better and let's face it, I just love any opportunity to buy more books. I was just in the basement yesterday returning some books to their boxes so they are altogether for our big move in August and I was so happy to see all my books that I will finally have in my classroom again once our shipment arrives (in October?).

So, I searched and found many books that I would love to get and I started by just putting them in my amazon cart. I am not pulling the trigger on buying them quite yet because the cost is close to $200, but at least that gives me a place where I can refer to the titles I want and possibly find more reasonable prices on used books or something like that.

Without further ado, I present to you....my wish list!

This first set shows books on skin color, culture, and diversity.

This next set is more focused on social skills, school rules, and behavior.

I think I am most excited for Rosemary Wells' new series of Kindergator books! She is devoting a whole series to social skills books and that is awesome!

I love the power of a good story and I hope that I can get my hands on at least some of these gems to use this year. Yes, the library is always an option, but I do much better when I actually own the books, and if they are truly great, then I want to have them for my own collection. We found that we definitely had to break out The Bucket Book on numerous occasions last year so I was glad to be able to just grab my copy and remind the kiddos about filling buckets rather than waiting days to get it from the library in order to remind the kiddos of said bucket filling.

What are some of your favorite books for teaching kids about social skills, behavior, or diversity?

Lovely

2011-07-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

What a view!

Our weekend in Austria was am.az.ing. We relaxed, ate wonderfully delicious food thanks to Veronica's culinary skills, swam, hiked, and I actually got a lot of reading done.

This was a text for one of my classes at some point and I re-read almost the entire thing in the past few days. I am still trying to figure out exactly what to write for my next paper, which is called my "specialty" paper. It is basically a lit review on my educational interest, so I have been trying to plan my outline and this book is a great resource in the areas of multicultural education, diversity, equity, cultural differences etc.

I have big plans for lots of reading tomorrow.

These are a few on my list.

Hubs and I have plans to do a driving trip to Lake Como, Venice, and Saltzburg in about a week and a half and a trip to Barcelona in August, so I feel like the summer is very quickly slipping away and I am going to be so mad at myself if I don't get this paper done, so it's about time I buckle down and really focus on reading, taking notes, and writing.

So tomorrow, the day should go something like this...

grocery shop

run

read

Here are some more pics from our lovely hike...

and my favorite...

ABCs Around the World

2011-07-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

I said I probably wouldn't post from Austria, but I have something on my mind. After a beautiful and challenging hike up the foothills of the Alps, I sat down with one of my textbooks called Affirming Diversity and did some reading while hubs played in the pool with the boys. I was reading chapters about multicultural education and the importance of acknowledging the big world that exists outside our classroom walls and p.communities. I started thinking about how much I liked introducing different ways to say hello during our morning greeting circle and started brainstorming what else I could do to add in some learning about other places. Since we study one letter each week in Kinder, I decided to choose one country that starts with each letter of the alphabet that we can learn a little about when we focus on that letter. I am picturing putting a pin in a map of the world, learning how people who live there greet each other and adding each greeting to the wall near our circle carpet, and learning something special about that location. This is what I am thinking...

Afghanistan
Brazil
Columbia
Denmark
Ecuador
France
Ghana
Holland
~~Italy~~ India

Japan
Korea
Laos
Mexico
Norway
Oman
Peru
Qatar
Russia
Spain
Thailand
~~Uruguay~~ United States

Venezuela
West Indies
Luxembourg (I settled for any country with an x in its name)
Yemen
Zaire

I think in order to make this happen I need to do all of the leg work this summer so the materials and info I need are already prepped. That way I can possibly give the list to parents so if they are familiar with or come from any of these countries, they can share some info with me. I know many families at my school are from Mexico so that will be a fun week. We also do a snack that goes with the letter of the week so it will be fun to think about what people in other countries might eat. I would love to learn a little about China and eat with chopsticks the week we do the /ch/ sound.

I always have lofty goals during the summer, but I am excited to try and make this happen. I love visiting all these new places I have been traveling to and I always think it's important for teachers to bring their own interests and passions into the classroom.

Please excuse the typos if there are any...I am posting from my iPad.

Weekend in Austria

2011-07-08T05:13:00.000-07:00

Mr. Sneaker and I are driving to Austria later tonight to visit some friends. We met them in Portland when Juergen was working there for a few years. They are German, but are now living in Austria. Well, technically Veronica is Argentinian, but her family moved to Germany when she was about 9 or 10, so she lived in Germany longer and she is fluent in English, German, and Spanish! They moved from Portland back to Germany a few years ago, then we moved to Germany, then they moved to Austria. Now we are going there to visit. They have two super cute sons, Luca and Hannes and I am excited to see their new(ish) house. They moved awhile back and Mr. Sneaker visited several times during my hiatus in the US, but I haven't been yet. The last time we drove through Austria on our way back from visiting Neuschwanstein, I was blown away by how gorgeous it is and I am really excited to go back! Luckily I did about a zillion loads of laundry yesterday so we can clean clothes to pack up.

Actually, I think we could go months without doing laundry and still have enough clean clothes. Yesterday I went through Mr. Sneaker's clothes because we just have to get rid of some stuff before we move back and I counted 133 T-shirts. Yes, that's right....one hundred thirty three. And, then this morning I found some more hidden in my wardrobe. Sneaky husband... So last night we did a little sorting and I told hubs it would be ridiculous to keep more than 100 T-shirts, so he and I went through them all and made a large pile to get rid of. The only problem is that there isn't a Good Will or anything here, so I have to figure out what to do with this big box of stuff so that I can get it out of here before hubs has second thoughts! ::hehe:: Hubs is actually very good about getting rid of stuff, but he just accumulates so much working in the world of sports that no matter how much we give away, there is an ever reproducing pile.

I feel like I am rambling. Is this post going anywhere?

This afternoon I am headed to meet my friend Christy for coffee, whom I haven't seen since I left last summer. (was that the correct usage of whom?). I am looking forward to catching up with her and then skyping with my bestie, Cristina, a bit later. Cristina and I are both just a little bit excited that there is a new book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series...I thought it was over, but no...there's more!

I want to download it on my iPad, but it's $16.00 and that seems like a lot for a book that I can't sell, loan, or donate to anyone else. Even the hardcover is only $13. I thought that electronic books were supposed to be less expensive...oh well...We'll see if I can wait it out for it to become cheaper. Speaking of books, I read two Emily Giffin books in the last week.

Both were good, but I preferred Love the One You're With. She is the author of Something Borrowed, which is now a movie with Kate Hudson. I also re-read her book Something Blue while I was in London. I kind of feel like it's a waste of money to buy a book that I will read in about 3 days, but I like to have something good when I travel because there is a lot of waiting around.

Now, I need to delve into some of the readings and books for my next paper! Somehow all this free time has not resulted in me working on that! I need to get it done this summer before I go back to work!

I don't think I will post this weekend, but I will be back with pics on Sunday night!

Wedding Weekend

2011-07-07T03:12:00.000-07:00

Whew. After all of the busyness over the weekend and being overtired from all of the wedding festivities, I am very proud of myself for getting up early this morning and getting to work on my mile long to do list ( I actually made one today!). I have already been grocery shopping, unpacked our suitcases and put all the clothes away/in the laundry and am working on load # 3 of laundry. There is still a ton to do and I need a quick turn around because hubs and I decided to head to Austria this weekend to visit some friends. Do we ever stay home? We are pretty much on a mission to do as much as we can before moving back to the states because when else is Austria going to be a 3 hour drive away?? Hopefully the rain holds off because last time Mr. Sneaker went to Austria he did some great hiking and I would love to give that a try.

Speaking of giving things a try, despite my best efforts to hang with the rest of the bikers in Amsterdam, I have to say that if I never ride a bike again it will be too soon. I feel like I should have worn a sign on my back saying "biker in training" or something because then perhaps the other bikers would have given me a bit more space and proceeded with a bit more caution as they whizzed past me. Some of the streets were so busy with cars, vespas, and other bikers, that I think it is quite a miracle I managed to not hit anything or anyone or injure myself. Although I really enjoyed spending time in Amsterdam, I don't know that I would ever want to live there.

The rest of the wedding festivities were super fun and I had several I can't believe this is really my life moments throughout the course of the trip. We never made it to the Anne Frank House, which is a huge bummer, but we did a lot of other really fun things and this trip was more about the wedding than sight seeing. On the 4th we went on a boat cruise around the canal with the majority of the wedding guests. We cruised around for about three hours with the champagne flowing the entire time as well as a full on BBQ from the front of the boat.

Mr. Sneaker and I both spilled on our holiday attire.

I guess we just don't do well with light colors..

The following morning we had breakfast at the hotel and relaxed until checkout. Then we headed for the bus that took us to the wedding venue. The wedding was held about 45 minutes away from where we had stayed and was on a gorgeous grassy golf course. Absolutely beautiful. We had been told that we would be staying in cabins and I was very unsure of what the accommodations would be like, but the grounds were amazing and the cabins were super cute.

We had four beds in our little cabin, but it was only the two of us staying in it.

When we first arrived, we put our stuff in our cabins and then there were some drinks and snacks to enjoy while we waited for the ceremony. At about 3:30, we headed over to the main building and J&M tied the knot. It was a beautiful ceremony, led by the bride's father, and everything was elegant, simple, and fabulous. They chose not to have a wedding party, they wrote their own love letters to each other, and wrote their own vows.

After the ceremony, we enjoyed cocktails and snacks on the patio, followed by a delish BBQ dinner, several hours of dancing, and some late night marshmallow roasting.

The groom surprised his lovely bride with an iPad and Mr. Sneaker helped get it all ready by downloading some good apps, downloading some books and getting People magazine all set up for the bride to read on the way to their honeymoon. They took off the day after the wedding and the location of the honeymoon was kept a secret until she opened her iPad and saw the location on the travel book that hubs had downloaded. He even put cute photos of the B&G as the background on the iPad.

It is so fun to tour around and visit new places, but there is nothing like climbing into my own bed when we get home. I slept so well last night and I feel energized for a day of organizing and cleaning!

Preview

2011-07-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our trip to Amsterdam and I am too tired and worn out to write a real post, so here is a sneak peak of how I spent my time there...

so. much. fun!

Amsterdammage

2011-07-04T01:59:00.000-07:00

Mr. Sneaker and I are in Amsterdam until Wednesday. Some friends of ours have lived here for about three years now and are tying the knot on Tuesday, so we are in town for their wedding and all of the festivities. We arrived on Saturday night just in time to go our separate ways for the bachelor/bachelorette outings. I have been to very few bachelorette parties in my day, but I certainly made up for that by dancing with the ladies until about 4 AM. I honestly cannot remember the last time I saw 4 AM. Needless to say both Mr. Sneaker and I were a bit tired all day yesterday. We enjoyed a nice picnic with all the wedding guests at Beatrix Park, tossed around a football, had a hula hoop competition (I came in second with 4.5 minutes of straight hula-ing), and soaked in the sun.

Amsterdam is known for being a biking city and most people bike instead of walking or driving. We rented bikes from the hotel and I have been trying to hang with all the seasoned bikers on the roads here. There is a lot of passing and swerving which makes me feel like a total train wreck, but I do my best. Last time we visited here, I was passing and bobbing and weaving with the best of them by the time our trip was near the end, so there's hope.

Last night we saw Transformers...in the very front row...in 3D. Fun times. Aside from being super close, I liked the movie. I thought it was funny/odd that the lead girl somehow managed to change from one sexy outfit to another all the time trying to help her beau Shia save the world from the Deceptacons, but whatever...I guest the typical Transformers fan would be so focused on other parts of Rosie's anatomy therefore not noticing that she had on flats in all the action scenes which somehow morphed into sexy stilettos for all of the close up shots. Overall, I do enjoy most of the movies Mr. Sneaker drags me to. And, I heart Shia Lebouf. Do you remember him from back in the day on Even Stevens on the Disney Channel? The Disney Channel really turns out a lot of stars these days....Hilary Duff, Shia, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez...not to mention the gaggle of kids from the Mickey Mouse Club that made it big.....ok that was a major tangent.

Hubs and I are hoping to hit up the Anne Frank House today, but it's already getting close to noon and we have heard it's best to get there early because the lines get really long. We missed out last time we were here, so we will have to see if we can be more successful this time around. Later we will celebrate the 4th on a boat cruise on the canal. Happy 4th to everyone!

Dumbing us Down

2011-07-01T08:09:00.000-07:00

A few months back, I downloaded this book on my iPad and have been working my way through it at random times. A little at the gym, a little while waiting for my flight to San Jose over Memorial Day weekend, and a little more today. I didn't realize it, but I was actually pretty close to the end and finished it while nestled under a nice little blanket and sipping Chai Tea on my patio this afternoon.

Per my usual poor reading comprehension, by the time I got to the end, I couldn't remember much of what I had read previously, but I enjoyed what I read today so much that I immediately went back to the table of contents and started re-reading some of the earlier chapters.

Although I don't support home schooling and non schooling to the extent that Gatto does, I do think he makes a lot of valid points about what is going wrong public schooling in the U.S. He taught for 30 years in New York's public schools and was named New York City's Teacher of the year for three consecutive years (1989-1991), so his claims are very much grounded in what he experienced in his work as a classroom teacher.

Here are some of the passages/quotes that I highlighted as I read...

As society rapidly changes, individuals will have to be able to function comfortably in a world that is always in flux. Knowledge will continue to increase at a dizzying rate. This means that a content-based curriculum, with a set body of information to be imparted to students, is entirely inappropriate as a means of preparing children for their adult roles (AMEN!)

Conversation, the ultimate means of communication, must be a central part of a sound education (oh how I cringe thinking about how many times a day I ask my students to be quiet and listen...)

When I'm at my best I plan lessons very carefully in order to produce this show of enthusiasm. But when the bell rings I insist they drop whatever it is we have been doing and proceed quickly to the next work station. They must turn on and off like a light switch (So true, especially when some of my lessons are 15 minutes long. There is never enough time and we are constantly hurrying to clean up one thing in order to squeeze in the next! And, yes, I do believe this is reflected in students' attention spans and diligence in their work)

Successful children do the thinking I assign them with a minimum of resistance and a decent show of enthusiasm. Bad kids fight this. Curiosity has no place in my work, only conformity. (::hmmm:: This statement really makes me think about what is happening in my classroom and what actions/behaviors are being valued)

In their ability to think, children schooled at home seem to be five to ten years ahead of their formally trained peers (ok, yes there are some home schooling families out there that have as many children as I do students in my class (hello Duggars), but I think adult to child ratio has a big impact on student learning and our class sizes are only getting bigger....)

Schools are intended to produce, through the application of formulas, formulaic human beings whose behavior can be predicted and controlled. (where was this quote when I needed it for my core defense section on organization!)

We need to rethink the fundamental premises of schooling and decide what it is we want all children to learn and why.

But no large-scale reform is ever going to work to repair our damaged children and our damaged society until we force open the idea of "school" to include family as the main engine of education (I think that family involvement is so important as well as honoring as best we can in the classroom what is valued by different families)

I found each one of these statements to be thought provoking, so I thought I would share them. If Sneaker Teacher has been less than teachery as of late, let's bring on some discussion and debate about the state of public education in the U.S.! (::hehe::)

(Seriously, please comment...I am in withdrawal from lack of education courses and weekly discussions with other educators who care deeply about these issues!)

One of the points that Gatto made that I definitely agree with is the idea of having all students engage in community service. I remember being really impressed when I read Black Ants and Buddhists as Mary Cowhey talked about her class assembling together at school on a snow day because they had planned to deliver pies to a shelter for Thanksgiving. Despite the horrible weather, her children were eager to carry out the kindness they had planned. I am thinking about what I might be able to do with my kiddos next year to delve into this area of kindness and giving.

When I was in 6th grade, my dad had to work on Thanksgiving (he is a firefighter and has to work one major holiday each year), and my mom, brother, and I went to serve Thanksgiving dinner at a homeless shelter with my brother's 7th grade English teacher. I will never forget that experience. When I was in college, a group of us drove to a shelter for women and children in Philadelphia every Thursday evening to do arts and crafts and games with the kids. I will never forget that experience either.

Gatto stresses the importance of community and I really appreciated reading his perspective on education because, although I may not be able to change education on the grand scale, there are things I can do when I work with my students, that get at the heart of what Gatto thinks public schooling is lacking.

One more thing to add to the 2011-2012 school year to do list. My idealistic summer self always has hopes of a school year to out do all other school years, so why not add a little of John Gatto into the mix...

Whew, are we in need of something light and fluffy after that?

Anyone seen Bad Teacher?

Thoughts?

I heard someone say she was tired of media that puts teachers in a bad light, but I would still like to see it. It's got to be good for a few laughs and anything I can hear in English instead of German sounds great to me!!

Rock the Vote

2011-06-30T05:15:00.000-07:00

I recently got an email saying that Sneaker Teacher was nominated for the Really Good Classroom Blog Contest. I have no idea how that happened and I think my blog pales in comparison to many of the other teacher blogs out there, but hey, I'll take it!

I am going to attempt to put this little banner up and it will link to the site where you can vote if you are so inclined. Hopefully I can get it to work.

I always struggle with the balance between focusing only on all things teachery and educational and other things that are going on. Sneaker Teacher tends to drift a bit and focuses a little bit more on my life in general, which happens to revolve a lot around school, teaching, learning etc., but I kind of just continue on and it is what it is. I definitely want to get back to posting more often, but when summer comes and I am not teaching, the focus tends to shift more away from teaching and wander to other areas of life.

Here are a few of today's favorites...

Are these not the cutest cake pops you have ever seen? My good friend and roomie this past school year has a Boston named Bailey, and I am not a huge fan of dogs, but I HEART Bailey. These pops remind me of my cute little cuddle buddy and I am in awe of the creative talent that so many people have for making adorable pops! These were posted on Bakerella's site, but she didn't make them. My cake pops always taste great, but they are pretty plain in comparison...

my iPad

I love playing Words with Friends with various friends, especially Mr. Sneaker (although he keeps beating me!). I am also really loving the highlight and bookmark functions on my Kindle app. I am reading a book about curriculum theory for my next big paper and I love how I can highlight important parts even though I am reading a digital book. I still have a deep love for "real" books, but I have to say that having an inventory of books on this one small device is fabulous! It would make traveling a lot lighter if all of my books were on this little gem!

My View

Although I haven't been out and about a ton in my little town in Germany aside from grocery shopping, a few trips to the gym, and a dinner with my friend, I love looking out the doors to our balcony and seeing the sun shining and lovely view. Unfortunately, it's too sunny to read out there and my iPad got so hot, it was hard to actually hold it.

Even though I have been reading for my paper, which technically counts as work, I am feeling lazy and ineffective. I am thinking about cooking up something fabulous for dinner which will make me feel a bit more productive!

Updates

2011-06-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

And once again I managed to completed disappear from the blogosphere.... here are some highlights of what has been going on...

Sunday was my birthday, so Mr. Sneaker and I took a little trip to London. I love that going to London is just a short flight from Germany rather than a huge international debacle. We arrived Thursday night and spent all day Friday touring around and seeing the sights. We saw the Crown Jewels, went on the Yeoman Warder tour, saw the Tower Bridge and the London Bridge, the London Eye, and got in a little bit of shopping at Uniqlo. We stayed at a hotel on a street that was lined with Gucci, Prada, Burberry, and all the top names, but I prefer window shopping when it comes to the insane prices and crazy fashion that go along with those types of stores. It's fun to be immersed in that kind of atmosphere, but I recognize that I am clearly not part of that fancy schmancy world.

On Saturday, we were very posh and went to Wimbledon. I am not big into tennis, despite Mr. Sneaker's love for it, but watching the matches in person, at Wimbledon nonetheless, was awesome. We saw three matches and for once in my life I was actually hoping the last one would go into a fifth set because I was seriously adoring Marcos Baghdatis and wanted him to pull ahead. We also go to see Roger Federer. I heart Rog!

I enjoyed some strawberries and cream, which apparently is the appropriate snack to enjoy when one goes to Wimbledon.

On Sunday, my very sweet husband trekked down the street and around the corner to Starbucks and brought me back a lovely little soy latte to start my day. We slept in, had coffee, then headed to Camden Market to meet up with a friend of Mr. Sneaker's mom. She lives in London and showed us around St. Paul's Cathedral after a lovely birthday lunch at a restaurant called Gilgamesh, which was beautiful. There wasn't much a lunch crowd, but apparently the place gets pretty hopping at night. Not to mention, it had one of the most beautiful bathrooms I have ever seen! We spent some more time shopping on my bday and Mr. Sneaker bought me a new dress and sandals which I literally changed into at the store and wore out because it was SO hot. We were expecting cool weather and rain and it was in the 80's and quite scorching, especially on the tube where so many people were jam-packed together in one big hot sweaty blob.

Later that day, we met up with a girl that I used to babysit and her mom. Nothing like visiting with a child you used to babysit who just graduated college to make you feel old! She had spent a semester studying in London this past year and happened to be there at the same time we were. I had asked her for some suggestions on what to do and she gave me some good ones....

Including...the Chocolate Bar at Herrods. A menu of everything chocolate = heaven!

That would be a trio of hot chocolate shots in front of me that were to. die. for.

I got the Venezuelan, the Italian, and the Trinidad. All three were amazing, but if I had to choose a favorite, it would be the Italian...dark chocolate with vanilla ice cream. It was so thick and creamy...delish!

We walked around Harrods, but the experience was more like walking in a museum than a place where you would actually shop. The store was HUGE and had every kind of item known to man. We saw some insane diamonds, some huge plush toys, and I posed for a pic with a ginormous British teddy.

We got home late Monday night and I actually had quite a productive day yesterday. I gymmed it up, did a lot of laundry, and read a lot. I started the book The Confession, by John Grisham and I finished it today. It was really good and I couldn't put it down. I also read Something Blue for the second time, which was really cool to read while in London because the main character Darcy goes to stay with a friend in London after her engagement falls apart and so many of the streets, shops, and cities I saw were mentioned. Something Blue comes after the book Something Borrowed which was just made into a movie. I definitely don't see Kate Hudson playing the role of Darcy, yet I am interested to see the movie anyway. I don't think I ever read Something Borrowed, but I guess it's more about how Darcy's best friend fell in love with her fiancee Dex and then Something Blue is mostly about her finding out and what happens after.

I will try to be a better blogger because this post was altogether too long and I am hoping you stuck around for the whole thing!

Still Alive!

2011-06-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

When I was living/working in Germany during the 2009-2010 school year, I was the queen of to do lists. I think I literally made an itemized to do list every single day and relished the moment when I could cross the items off in permanent black Sharpie. Despite being über busy this past school year in Portland, the proverbial to do list somehow dropped off my radar. I remember drastically increasing the size of my to do list paper during fall term, going from a 5 X 5 inch lined Post It, to a full piece of 81/2 X 11 inch notebook paper. During class I wrote down the long list of assignments that I needed to complete over the weekend and somehow I managed to get everything done as needed. As I moved into winter term and then spring term however; for some reason I stopped making those lists.

It wasn't that my workload had decreased; in fact I think it was an all time high at the end of the school year (or at least my stress level was). I guess I was just too busy and flying a little bit too much by the seat of my pants to really focus on creating a list of everything I needed to get done.

Since arriving in Germany on Sunday I have been completely and gloriously unproductive. Yesterday I slept until 2:30 pm. Yep, that's right.... two-thirty. Due to the teeny tiny 9 hour time difference between Portland and Germany, it is a bit difficult adjust and it definitely takes a few days, but I slept almost the entire flight here (thank you Ambien!) and I took a nap on Sunday, and I went to bed at a normal time with Mr. Sneaker and slept the entire night. There really was no good reason to sleep half the day away, yet it just kind of happened. Sadly, I don't really have much to make me jump out of bed in the morning. Once Mr. Sneaker goes off to work to do sporty things, I am left to chill sans company in my little German apartment.

Yes, there is a lot of organizing that has to be done as a result of hubs living on his own for 10 months.

Yes, I have lots to read and write for my next very big paper.

Yes, I have ample free time to work out, go for long walks, and get in the best ever shape.

Yet, I have found myself doing a whole lot of nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I deserve it.

After busting my butt all year doing full time school and a full time job with five year olds, I think a lot of relaxing is definitely in order.

The problem is, I think I thrive being busy.

Is that sick?

I just think I do better when I have a lot going on and I have a regular schedule.

It just works for me.

Sure I complain when I am super busy that I would give anything to just sit around and read, and drink coffee, and sleep late. I love to do that.

But, at the same time, there is a certain emptiness in not having an important agenda.

So, it is back to the to do lists I go....

Even if my to do list consists of things like...

grocery shop
workout
read article and take notes
do laundry

at least I will feel a little sense of accomplishment in crossing out each of those seemingly unimportant items. I need to get a little routine back in my life...soon!

I had visions of spending at least 2 hours daily reading and writing for my next paper and that has not happened at all. Not to mention, I decided that moving back to Germany where Cola Light (which is just not the same) replaces Diet Coke, that it would be the perfect time to stop drinking soda. And I threw in coffee as well so I am having some pretty bad withdrawal headaches. I know I am way too hard on myself for being lazy for all of two days, but after a year like I just had inactivity seems like a horrible waste of time. I have to work out a happy medium so that I get time to relax, but also get in some good work time so I feel productive on the paper writing front.

I will try to be a better blogger and post more frequently. Last week went by so fast and before I knew it, I was on a plane on the way back to Mr. Sneaker who is still very cute I might add :0)

Stay tuned for more European adventures!

Thrilled

2011-06-16T15:05:00.001-07:00

I passed!

It was very challenging and I got asked some tough questions...but I did it!

So glad that is over with :0)

the time has come...

2011-06-16T07:46:00.001-07:00

It's core defense day!

at noon, it will all be over...stay tuned for more!

Surviver

2011-06-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

I survived my first year as a Kindergarten teacher!

I can still remember receiving the letter from my school district indicating that my new placement upon returning from Germany would be Kindergarten at a different school than I had previously worked.

I was less than enthusiastic to say the least.

As a first grade teacher, I always thought that Kindergarten students were just so needy. I was not interested.

But, after teaching two groups of little cherubs all year, I have to say that not only did I survive my first year as a Kindergarten teacher, but I loved it!

Loved

It

I had many challenging days and many moments of frustration, but it was so worth it. I was definitely very choked up today reading Miss Bindergarten Celebrates the Last Day of Kindergarten and watching the end of the year slide show. My AM kiddos were actually pretty subdued (at least until PE) and I think they were very unsure about experiencing the last day of Kindergarten. I got lots of hugs as they left to get on the buses. My PM class was a bit more excited about the last day.

It feels surreal that the year is over. It's hard to believe and as I have said many times, this year feels like it went by on fast forward. It is also weird that it was only the last day for 1/2 Kinder and everyone else still has school tomorrow until noon.

I immediately starting organizing and recycling after the kiddos left and I am pretty sure grades are 100% done. I am still waiting on grades from the specialists, but I am donezo. I am excited to have a day and a half to just fix up my room and organize everything!

I just have that one little hurdle to get over tomorrow and I will be the happiest girl in the world. Ok, I will be happier Sunday when I am in the arms of my hubby, but tomorrow is going to feel pretty good. Hubby officially has a job back in Portland starting later in the summer, so we are really excited for many things.

Happy Summer!

So Close

2011-06-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

Today I took both of my classes on a fishing field trip. Yes, that's 41 kiddos out and about with fishing poles and nets.

I was kind of dreading the hour long bus ride both ways, but it actually wasn't that bad.

I had tons of parent help, which always makes field trips much better.

The kiddos were so excited to catch fish, so it was great to see their enthusiasm and their uninhibited enjoyment of nature, worms, fish, and the yuckiness of cleaning their catch.

We got a little delayed due to one of our buses hitting a parked car in the parking lot at school before we got on. But, that was the worst part of the day, so I consider myself pretty lucky.

No serious injuries, no lost children, no illness. Just fun.

It is really funny to see all the kiddos who usually have the most energy and are the most challenging in class completely asleep on the bus ride home. They sure were tuckered out. Thankfully I had parent chaperones for most of my more difficult boys. It was great to have their support.

Since it's a bit tough to stay organized with both of my classes in the classroom at once, I put on a little slide show that I made with photos from the year. It was the perfect way to keep the kiddos occupied during morning check in before we left on the buses. I wanted to show just part of it and save the rest for the last day, but we ended up watching the whole thing since we couldn't get on the road when we had planned. I think I am going to show it again tomorrow because 1. I didn't really get to sit and enjoy it since I was busy this morning and 2. I still need to do a little bit of assessing tomorrow so I need something to keep the kiddos busy. They were so excited to see themselves and their classmates in the photos, so I think they will enjoy watching it again in a quieter setting without all the field trip energy pulsing through the room.

I am almost done with report cards, with the exception of some random things I need to assess tomorrow with certain kiddos. I am happy that reports are almost entirely under my belt so that once school is over tomorrow, I can just focus on getting 100% ready for my core defense on Thursday morning.

Tomorrow is the last day of school! ::big smiles::

(but also some sadness that some of the sweetest kiddos I have ever taught will be leaving me...)

Almost There

2011-06-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's hard to believe that next Sunday at this time, I will be fast asleep in Germany right next to my very cute husband! This year has flown by and I am in disbelief that the school year is almost over. I am officially done with classes and homework until next fall (pretty psyched about that!) and I am only taking one course per term next year and that class only meets once a month (one weekend per month I should say), so it is quite the big relief to leave behind the year of 13-14 credits each term while also working full time and missing hubs.

I have three days left with the kiddos before it's officially summer break. Monday is a regular day, Tuesday we are going on a fishing field trip, and Wednesday is the last day. I brought their journals home this weekend and am trying to get report cards mostly completed so this week I can focus on just enjoying the kids, getting through my core defense, and then just cleaning and organizing in my classroom Thursday afternoon and Friday. I have my room at home almost entirely packed up and put in storage with the exception of the two bags I am taking with me to Germany and some other stuff I need for the week, so I am feeling pretty ready to go. I honestly do not have anything planned for my kiddos, so I need to put a little something together so there is some structure in the classroom up until the end. I know we have several post fishing trip activities planned, but I need some stuff on the agenda for tomorrow so I can do some final assessments, listen to kiddos read, and make sure everything is in order in terms of wrapping up the year. I am pretty much done with teacher led stuff and will probably have them make some father's day cards, work in their journals, and wrap their father's day gifts. It's always fun to involve them in some end of the year clean up/organizing as well.

I got a manicure and a haircut this weekend. I took one last load to my storage unit. I celebrated a birthday with my dear friend Jilly. I am in the middle of baking a cake for some cake pops. And, I am learning what it feels like to have free time again.

5 more days in PDX before a fabulous summer in Europe enjoying my tiny German apartment, walking everywhere and not using a car, running the trails in the woods near where we live, sleeping late, and most importantly feeling married again!

can.not.wait!!!!

Disappearing Act

2011-06-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

I disappeared again....

I had such a nice little blogging streak going, but then four days in a row of class happened, a little celebration shopping happened after the last class of the weekend, and a busy Sunday ensued.

Here's a recap:

Wednesday: Last Proseminar class of the year! Done and done!

Thursday: Tore out of my classroom at three to get to campus in time to practice my core presentation before my actual class. Left my classroom in total disarray and left for the weekend without a single thing written on my lesson plans for next week. Did my practice presentation for some friends, had class until 7:45, went to my other weekend class that happened to be scheduled the exact same weekend as my writing class until 9, hung out with some friends from class until 10:15, stopped at the grocery store on the way home to get a snack to bring to class the following day, got totally lost in choosing father's day cards, got home at 11:15, stayed up until 1 creating slides for my presentation on Saturday.

Saturday: Went to class from 9-2. Decided to treat myself and went to the outlets. Bought some baby gifts and a new Coach bag (which was totally on sale by the way!), caught up on some TV namely Glee and How I Met Your Mother. And, I have to say I was pretty disappointed by the finale of Glee. Considering they were in New York at Nationals, I was totally uninspired by the music and fastforwarded through several of the solos. This girl does not have time to waste. I was so tired after being up so late so many nights this week that I took a sleeping pill and crashed early.

Sunday: This morning I skipped my weekly Sunday run and slept in! It was so nice to wake up without an alarm. I went with my roomie to see her new place, got Starbucks, hit up the adidas store, then came home and immediately went back out to do errands. I got some storage boxes at BBB, came home and started packing and organizing since I am moving back to Germany in TWO weeks. I only have one more weekend in PDX.... I got pretty organized, but I just have a lot of stuff, so there is still lots of work to be done. Finally at about 5, I went to school and tried to get stuff ready for the week. Unfortunately my first nightmare happened while I was there working alone and both of the copiers got jammed. Not good for productivity considering we are supposed to have our office staff deal with that stuff so I was afraid to really try to fix the jam because it would be very likely for me to break it in the attempt to make it better. Actually, setting the alarm off is really my biggest fear, but I already did that earlier this year, so since that was already off the table, jamming the copiers is the runner up. My roomie and I watched a movie and I spent the whole time cutting out the things I laminated and alphabetizing kiddos' letter books so they will be ready to go home this week.

This week is our last full week of school, but I am taking Thursday off for an appt, so really it's only a four day week and then we have three days next week. I tried making a cool slideshow with pics from the year for my kiddos but it didn't really work and I was too tired to try harder.

Now, it's time for bed because I was a walking Zombie all last week from not getting enough z's!

dunzo

2011-06-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

Paper

is

in

41 pages representing two years of hard work, endless hours of homework, weekends that passed me by as I sat in class, evenings overshadowed by highlighting and post its, and year number three of my marriage spent away from my hubs as I worked hard to catch up with my colleagues who were not off living in Germany last year.

It is 11 pm and I feel like partying! Who's with me?

The hard part is over...

yet it's not.

I still have to present and defend this baby of mine in front of my advisers and anyone else who wishes to subject themselves to what will probably be a very nervous person talking about scripted core reading programs and culturally and linguistically diverse students.

But, for now, I have a little bit of reprieve until my defense date [June 16]. Am I going to enjoy that?

Hell yeah!

Am I temporarily ignoring the fact that I still have a book review to write that is due on Friday and I haven't even finished the book. Oh, yes.

But, right now, this is my moment to just sit back and smile...soaking in the relief that comes with turning that paper over to my three committee members who now have the next two weeks to pore over it and prepare some tough questions to fire my way on 6/16.

Mrs. Sneaker is having sweet dreams tonight people!

Can I get a....

2011-05-31T16:57:00.000-07:00

Woot woot!

18 days people.

18 days until I am in Germany with my cute husband sipping lattes and reading like it's my job because I literally want to make relaxation my job this summer as I have pretty much forgotten what it feels like (with the exception of sitting in the steam room this past weekend after working out in California).

Pure bliss...

I feel like so much is going on in the next 18 days and I am going to be 12 kinds of busy. (totally stole that line from Babbling Abby...love her!)

I feel like I am in a race to complete my core paper and now that I can see the finish line I am just in an all out sprint to eek out every last drop of mental energy that I have left. I stayed up until about 1 AM doing work last night, then promptly got back out of bed after getting in so I could plan math for this week. Then, upon returning to my bed, I was awake for what felt like the entire night unable to sleep because visions of core papers were inundating my brain. So much for good night's sleep. Needless to say I am really tired today and wish that it was feasible to get in bed and go to sleep at 5:00. But, alas, I need to keep trucking away on my paper so that a really truly honest to goodness final copy actually materializes!

Fairy godmother....magic wand...where are you?

My mind is so focused on this giant culmination of all my hard work over the course of the past two years, I feel like I am in denial that it is almost the end of the school year. In two weeks, my kiddos will be leaving me and that just sounds bizarre. Not to mention that we have a field trip that I need to prep for, I have to assess, alphabetize and bind 43 alphabet books, make thank you gifts for parent volunteers, make sure I have taught every little thing I need to teach this year, and clean/organize/sort through my classroom and put the rest of my personal belongings back in storage before heading to Germany. Just writing this is making me even more tired.

Time for some food and maybe a teeny tiny nap before I get cracking on my paper once again. I think champagne is in order when I finally click send on the email to turn it in because it feels like a celebration!

California Love

2011-05-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

Just keep writing....just keep writing...

I am currently in sunny California with my in-laws enjoying a break from the rain and a little writing/relaxation retreat. Yesterday I did a little shopping with my MIL and found a dress for the wedding that Mr. Sneaker and I will be attending in Amsterdam in July. Have you ever attended a wedding with a dress code in the form of a color scheme for the guests? We are being asked to wear beige, creme, and khaki tones for this wedding, so we were on a hunt for a dress that I can wear because out of all the many dresses that I currently own, none of them fit that description. Luckily Banana Republic had exactly what I needed with amazingly cute bronze heels to boot! After shopping, we met up with Mr. Sneaker's bf, his wife and their adorable baby who is Mr. Sneaker's godson for lunch, and I got my MIL totally hooked on Words with Friends. I am such a good teacher, she is currently kicking my butt! Then, I worked out at their club, relaxed in the steam room, and saw a rainbow! I heart California :0)

This morning we went over to Santa Clara University, where my FIL teaches and I did a few practice rounds of my core presentation for them. I cut down my presentation to approximately the right amount of time, but I am still working on getting it to come out right! Grr. Is it June 19th yet? I have been writing/typing/editing away since we got home because my final draft is due June 2nd and that is fast approaching. I am trying to make all the changes that my adviser recommended and then I need to do some final editing, check my references, read it over a gazillion times etc. etc., so I can be sure it is as good as it is going to get before I turn it in. Yikes! A paper that was two years in the making--craziness! Fortunately aside from practicing it until I have it down cold, the presentation is pretty much done, so between June 2nd when I turn the paper in and June 16th when I do my actual presentation, I won't have too much to worry about (besides teaching, saying goodbye to by soon to be firsties, and packing up my stuff).

I am so happy that tomorrow is a holiday and I can sleep in one more day!

Oh Hello....

2011-05-26T23:06:00.000-07:00

I have noticed some new followers popping up this week.

Welcome to my world of Kindergarten, fitness, crazy busy schedules, and traveling.

For those of you who are new to Sneaker Teacher, let me catch you up...

I am coming up on the end of an entire school year spent away from my husband who is currently residing in Germany. We have been married almost 4 years, he spoils me, and I am whooping his butt on Words with Friends :0)

I lived in Germany last year and will be returning/reuniting with hubs in 23 days!!!

(that statement definitely deserves three exclamation points)

In bloggyland I am Mrs. Sneaker

(a nickname very appropriate given the massive amounts of sneakers I have in various colors of the rainbow!), but I sign my bloggy comments KT because those are my initials and my name IRL is Katie. My mom always told me when I was growing up that I needed to marry someone with a last name that started with a T so I could be KT...Katie...KT...get it?

I have been teaching for 6 years including this year

1 year bilingual Head Start

3 years first grade

1 year SPED in Germany

1 year Kinder with two half day classes

Even though I lived in Germany for a year, I don't speak much German.

I can hold my own en español though.

I am currently finishing up my second year as a doctoral student (hence the crazy busy schedule bit and the living apart from my husband for the school year bit)

I heart reality TV, Starbucks lattes, chocolate, pedicures, books, sleeping, and my very cute husband.

If you are visiting for the first time or are a relatively new follower, leave me a comment so I can check out your blog too!

Apps

2011-05-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

This week I downloaded a few apps on my iPad and tried them out with a few of my kiddos who just need a little extra TLC. I invited one kiddo in this morning before the official arrival time to play on my iPad and plan to do the same every day until school is out. I also brought Paddy (my iPad) to lunch and let another kiddo play a game with me when he was finished eating. I am all about free apps (and sometimes I am willing to shell out 99 cents) so I thought I would share some of the ones I like. Sometimes the free ones only give you a part of the game, so you end up having to buy the "real" version, but they are typically less than 3 dollars each....

And yes, it is sick that I video taped my iPad using my iPhone :0)

It's a whole new generation of BOB!

I love how kiddos can hear the sounds and hear them blended into words!

app name: BB Magic Lite-FREE

(I don't recommend the lite version because there isn't much to it)

This is the game my friends played today. It is great for vocabulary building and phoneme segmentation. Both boys really liked it and they really did a great job using the technology.

app name: Word Magic

This is a fun one for kids who are working on fine motor and writing their letters. It makes one sound if they are on the dotted lines and makes a squeaky sound when they go off. As you can see in the video, I was able to model what happens when you don't stay on the line as I tried to hold my phone in one hand and trace with my right hand (I am not a righty, so it was not easy!)

app name: ABC Tracer

There is a free "lite" version, but it didn't include the whole alphabet, so I paid for the real one, but it was on sale.

I also downloaded:

PBS Kids

Sight Words Lite (again doesn't have a lot to it)

ABC Phonics

KidsMathFun

Kindergarten

Count Magic

Math Series (fill in the missing number game)

I haven't played with all of them yet, but so far the ones I have played or used with kids have worked well!