I am soooo tired of hearing this phrase

"He/she cutted me." NO they didn't. He or she CUT you but who cares anyways. We are all going to the same place. I wish I could get the point across that it doesn't matter one bit.

Just lovely things I am discovering about kindergarten. This week was rough but I'm not sure I could say yet that I've had a smooth week. Something eventful is always happening like GKIDS (Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills) grades being due today.

"Thank God it's Friday!"

Is it bad to start thanking God for weekends on Monday? Well strangely enough I'm actually hoping to see my kids tomorrow. I've planned a little play date at a local farm. It's a time where families, friends, siblings, and our class can get together to play and paint pumpkins. I'm hoping there will be good attendance for such short notice.

Tonight I'm heading home to hang with the family and do laundry. That's one the of few things my apartment is lacking. I have no washer and dryer but I think I can survive 8 months without them. Well, of course I have to do laundry some how. My apartment complex has washers and dryers. My mom always thought it was so funny that when I toured an apartment compex I asked how much washing and drying costs. Why pay when I could mooch off my lovely parents a little longer (thanks guys!).

Saturday after seeing my kids at the farm I plan to carve pumpkins with Abbie and watch the Georgia game. Sunday I'm hoping to go hiking! This weekend is something I can actually post pictures of.

Next week at school I have my Guided Reading Observation. That should be interesting. Guided Reading is a challenge for a new teacher. What happens is you work with small groups of children (3-5 studentds) on their reading skills while your other students work independently at literacy centers. Doesn't sound too bad right? But can you imagine a class of kindergarteners work busily and independently for 45 minutes while their teacher is not paying attention to them. Not to mention they are working on things that have to be self explanitory because you don't have time to give directions and supervise to each activity. This is when a parapro would be helpful.

I thought I could do it without a parapro because I wouldn't know what I was missing. I still WILL do it without a parapro obviously but there are times I just want to hand off a particular student to my nonexistent parapro and say "please stop the crying, please give the directions for the millionth time, please settle the dispute over the crayons, please monitor the literacy centers during reading groups, please keep so and so from painting all over the easle, please keep so and so from coloring on the bookshelf with dry erase markers, etc."

On a more enthusiastic note this upcoming week we have Characater Day. It's like a Halloween substitute. The students are allowed to dress up but their costume must be a character from a book. They must bring the book to school and it cannot be scary! I'm planning to be Cat in the Hat.... imagine. Friday at school will be fun with crafts, snacks, pumpkin carving, and goodie bags from Ms. McCulloch. I have to be a little careful because I have a student who is a Jehova's Witness and so I have to make our festivities and celebrations fall and pumpkin related rather than Halloween related. The most exciting things is my mom is hoping to come and be a guest reader!! She can stay and help with crafts and fun stuff and meet my students. She will understand all my stories after that experience.

What I have in mind....

Well I'd love to use this blog as a place to show you my students. I've been taking lots of cute pictures. Unfortunately, I am not allowed to post them online. I'm working on a legal solution for this. I'd also love to use this blog as a place to give resources to first year teachers or new kindergarten teachers. I'm not sure kindergarten is the grade for me but I'm collecting resources and making resources like a maniac. I can't imagine changing grades because I don't want to start all over with my resources. I wish I had picked a job that did not require me to do so much work at home.

I can't wait until I can just go through my files and pick out worksheets I have sorted according to content area instead of flipping through book after book and surfing the internet for ages.

I have great intentions for this blog, but for now it's all I can do to survive. I'm spending spare time finding resources and creating ones I don't have. That's never really "done", I just get by right now.

Last week was parent/teacher conferences. I survived. 15/17 parents showed up. Last week was also my first formal observation. I was also supposed to sub for a second grade teacher (who had jury duty) during the morning and proctor the ITBS for her students. Luckily, she was on call and they didn't need her. I also took a short (I'm talking 22 hours) work trip to Dayton, Ohio to observe a charter school up there that we work closely with/are based on. It was depressing to see their preschoolers doing more advanced stuff than all the kindergartners. I think a preschool at my school would be great.

Just to add to all of last weeks chaos, we're having our reading groups observed this week. I've been online for an hour or so trying to improve my literacy centers. I did not anticipate this would be so much work and require so much creativity/idea borrowing. I've also joined the committee at my school to help plan the festival for the Chinese New Year in February. It's important, seeing as every child earns Chinese for 30 minutes a day or more.

Wish me luck!

The Last Two Months...

Dear Teaching (kindergarten),

In the words of the Plain White T's, "hate is a strong word but I really really really don't like you!"

Love,
Natalie

That is most definitely how I felt in the beginning but luckily, things are getting better every day. I have not blogged because the thought of trying to describe how I was feeling and what I was thinking was so overwhelming. School was a shock to me. I guess I didn't realize how "unschooled" kindergartners were going to be. They didn't know that it wasn't ok to walk over and start eating their lunch 9am if they were hungry. Only about half of them have preschool experience. I also have a huge difference in academic levels. I have students who can only identify 6 letters of the alphabet and I have a student who can do addition and subtraction to 15.

I had quite the class at the beginning of the year. I had 19 students with a lot of behavior issues. I've had two students removed from my class and spread out to other kindergarten classes. Even with only 17 students I've still had two suspended already; one for bullying and one for kicking a chair at me.

By now we've begun falling into a routine and the students have a better understanding of our class rules. I had to change the behavior system early on, at the request of the educational specialist at the school, from the stop light system everyone else uses to a rewards system. They earn cotton balls for being "cotton ball quiet" and doing what they're asked. They are beginning to understand what they can and cannot do at school and I think I'm finally falling in love with them. We actually attempted painting on Friday and it was a success.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"Ms. McCulloch, I wish you were black like me because I really like black people."
"Ms. McCulloch, I really like your eyebrows because they are gray and I like gray."

I still struggle daily but several things have helped me. I am so grateful for these things.
1. I now lesson plan with two other teachers that are new to the school. My job is just to plan math and homework which helps cut down on the work.
2. There is a second year teacher who gives me resources, answers my questions, encourages me to have a life, and tells me to take things one step at a time. For example, don't worry about trying to start reading groups, writing workshop, and math centers all at once. Just do it one month at a time for my sake.
3. For the first two months of school I carpooled with another kindergarten teacher who has been teaching for 10 years. She gave me advice and listened patiently to my stories and my worries.

As much as I tried, I had no life for the first two months of school. I was commuting for about 2 hours every day. I moved into my new apartment on Saturday. It's 5 minutes from my school and is going to make life so much easier. Just when I think have time on my side finally, school throws more at me though. My first official observation and my first parent/teacher conferences are this week so it will be interesting! Wish me luck. Apparently things are completely different, in a good way, after December.

I think some of my frustrations come from teaching and the politics of it, some come from my 5 and 6 year old students, and some come from the school. I've been told by veterans, " If you can teach at this school and do well then you can teach anywhere." It was really comforting because I was beginning to wonder if this was a "NORMAL" experience for a first year teacher and now I think not.

When I get my couches next week I'll put up pictures of my apartment!