Sad to see it end.

This semester has been a whirlwind! I've loved it, I've cursed it, I've moaned, I've smiled, but all around it has been a fantastic experience. I am going to be heartbroken when I leave my Kindergarteners. I have loved every moment of my time with them. Even the frustrating ones. It has been a challenge learning how to slow down my thinking and meet the needs of students who come in to school on SO many different levels, but it has made me a better teacher.

I think the best part about my placement has been learning in a responsive classroom environment. I have gotten some excellent training about techniques to use and my teacher language has improved 100 times from where I started in September. It seems natural to use phrases like: "Who can remind me...", "What is a safe way to do...", "Show me what ... looks like." These were not phrases that were not natural to me three months ago. Thank goodness for blogs like the Responsive Classroom website blog. It has helped me with numerous ideas.

I am anxious about next semester. I'm not as comfortable with 6th graders as I am with the little ones. Will they accept my crazy dancing and bad puns? Will they respect me? Will the responsive classroom techniques work on them?

In some ways, I think that responsive classroom teaching will be easier in 6th grade because the students will be used to it. It is not their first time encountering it. They've had it throughout their years at Lynbrook. Maybe because of that they'll actually respond better than my Kindergarteners who look at me like I have a third eye when I say "Look at all the colors in that picture!" I know they're thinking "Yeah. And?"

Either way, it will just be part 2 of my Kinderventures and I'm looking forward to the challenge. I will miss the smiling faces of my Kindergarteners immensely, and I'll be very sad when I leave, but I know that this next step will help to prepare me to deal with the extreme limits of my degree.

A New Addiction

I have a problem.

They say that the first step is admitting it.

I am addicted to buying children's books. Phew! It feels good to get that out there.

It started last year with an innocent assignment in our Literacy class. Read 10 children's books and demonstrate how they could be used in the classroom, the assignment instructed. So I started going to used book sales, Borders, and yard sales. My book pile started to grow.

"I'm building my library." I thought to myself as I shamelessly purchased more books than I could carry at a time. Then my sister got a job working for Macmillan publishing. Packages of 15 books at a time would arrive and each one was like Christmas morning. She realized her mistake quickly when I started sending email requests of book lists that would challenge The Strand's inventory list.

Then Fall came, and with it our internship. I was introduced to the glorious world of Scholastic books. Books for around $3 you say, I'll take 20.

Suddenly, my room was out of control.

I spent the weekend buying crates and organizing, but I still fear I may one day be buried under the piles, not to be found for weeks. I rarely emerge from my room anyway (I have too many books to read) so no one would notice until it is too late.

I've decided it's time...I'm looking for a 12-step program.

But, in the meantime...

For whom the hyperlink tolls...

In an effort to:
1. Complete an assignment

and

2. help my fellow cohortians and teachers,

I have provided a link to an INCREDIBLY useful tool that I've used in my classroom this semester.

The book is called Teaching Children to Care: Management in the Responsive Classroom by Ruth Sidney Charney.

This book is helpful for anyone who has trouble, or wants to know more about effective classroom management.



Hope it helps!!

Blogging and New Literacies by Diane Penrod

It's funny that we needed to read this article this week, because my sister came into town and I was able to discuss blogging with her. My sister is an author. She is in the midst of getting her first novel published (clearly just to show me up!). Her pursuits and the frustrations of getting published are chronicled on her blog which has garnered many followers. Her writing, stories, edits, and revisions are in large part due to many of the comments received on her blog. I think this exemplifies much of what the article was saying.

Blogs can be extremely useful in allowing students/humans to get to an important idea and explore it in a way that is meaningful and often productive for them and for the readers. Because there are readers, bloggers do tend to take more time proofreading and evaluating their posts knowing that the blogosphere can be a harsh and unforgiving world for those that don't take the time to edit.

Blogs also encourage the student who may not want to be face to face with their readers. Students will often times be more willing to explore their creativity, angst, or challenging topics if they know they will not have to face their readers directly. The article, "Blogging and New Literacies" explores this idea, asserting that this can be helpful for students with disablilities. Blogging allows these students the freedom to be judged like anyone else in the blogosphere rather than being judged for their disability. I think the anonimity provides a huge amount of shelter for these students and is important in developing successful and creative writers who are tapped in to their inner feelings.