Friday, December 24, 2004

Licking Christmas Lights and Launching Four-year-olds

Just a random thought...why is it that people tend to reflect on life at the END of the year? Why do we not reflect at the end of every month or week or even mid-year so that we my somehow make ourselves more effecient or "better." More frequent self-examination could lead to successful new year's resolutions, or new-month's resolutions. Couldn't it?

Anyway, enough of that tangent. I was just trying to figure that out. The past several months have actually been one massive reflection of one sort or another. What about the way I do my job could be different? Are my students learning anything? Those are often the two questions that launch me into my professional self-evaluation. Recently, I was reading through my journal as I often do. I came across my entry from the first day of school. (See The Horrors...) It was a nightmare! I felt like I was in over my head. The kids were more clueless than I had expected. They couldn't figure out how to walk in a line. They had no attention spans. They couldn't eat anything without spilling it all over the place. And so much more. I seriously thought that I wasn't going to make it through the day. And when the day did end, all I could do was cry! (No surprise there!) As I read through that I found myself laughing. And then I started to feel proud of myself. I remember after that first day of school, I went home, and I said "Why didn't that work? What do I need to change?" Over the past several months, I have found those questions to be key to my success as a teacher. Figuring out was doesn't work, being honest with myself about the failure and succcesses as well. I felt this pride because I had been able to figure out how to continue to improve myself as a teacher and the education of my students. I was also very proud of my students. They have come a LONG way in just a few short months. They now can walk in a line. They can sit on their carpet squares and listen to me for several minutes without having to do something interactive. They now put their toys on the shelves, eat without spilling too much food on the floor. They are learning to say 'please' and 'thank you.'

It's so great to watch them learn. They are so curious about the world around them. They think everything is cool. They love everyone, even the kid who is mean sometimes. And most of all, they are at the peak of their playing years. Many a day, I will just sit and watch them in their centers. My favorite is to watch the imaginative roles that they take on. They will talk about marriage, drive their "cars", bake cookies for me (if only they were real cookies), get a sick person to the hospital, and all sorts of other things. It's so wonderful.

So tonight, I think my reflection is not really a year-end reflection. Too much has happened since January 1, 2004 for me to reflect on it all. This is more of a reflection of my time "on the carpet square." My kids are funny. My kids are learning. I must be doing something right, and that is good.

SOME OF MY FAMOUS KID STORIES FOR YOU

I teach the nativity in three parts. On the day I introduced baby Jesus, one of my students yells out "He looks like a turtle."

During yet another of the nativity lessons, one girl asked, "When do we get to see baby Jesus?" Talk about tough theological questions....and she's only four!

Our school had an all school Christmas program. My kids were to come in at the beginning, be the stars for one song, and then exit and return as angels at the end. How hard could that be? During the song of which we were featured, half of my students were watching the slide show being projected behind them. Five of the others were singing beautifully, while one pulled his arm up in his sweater and started swinging it around, knocking a bunch of kids in the head! Upon our return at the end, one of my precious little ones decided to lick some Christmas lights that were wrapped around a railing that he was standing next too. Yes, I know, he could have gotten electricuted! Then, at the very end, while the principal was talking, two of my other precious children, thought it would be really cool to launch themselves off of the stage, run back up the stairs, and launch themselves off again. I was across the room and could not get to them. They are lucky!


Saturday, December 18, 2004

My Christmas Letter

May 16. The day I graduated from college. 1. The number of days I had to find an apartment. 63130. My new zip code. 67. The number of days that I have been a teacher (with students present in the classroom). 13. The number of students I have in my classroom. 356. The number of books my students and their families read in just six weeks for a charity that donates books to kids who need them (I’m very proud, if you can’t tell.) 8. The number of days until Christmas as I write this letter.

I’ve never been much of a math person, but it seemed that numbers were an easy way to describe the past year of my life. I graduated from Central College on May 16th and moved to Camp Ewalu near Strawberry Point, Iowa. At Ewalu, I coordinated the day camp program and also discovered that I’m horrible at starting fires. (Not such a great thing when your campers are hungry.)

Camp ended mid-August. I loaded up a U-Haul and moved into an apartment in St. Louis where I am currently teaching pre-kindergarten. The school I teach at is a private school that serves students from all walks of life, but intentionally seeks to partner with urban poor, immigrants, and refugees. The school was founded in 1997 which makes us a fairly new school. Currently we have 64 students, 13 of which are in my pre-kindergarten class.

Teaching pre-k is quite the ride. The first month of school was very trying for me. Getting three and four year-olds to do simple things like walking in a line aren’t really as easy as one would think. But as the kids have gotten used to school, and to me, I have found that I am doing something that I love. The kids do the cutest things, SAY the funniest things, and are in great wonder of the world around them. I find myself in some of the strangest predicaments. For example, one day I returned to my room after running a quick errand to the office only to find one child with his pants around his ankles yelling for help, while two children fought over some toys, AND yet another child was crying because he couldn’t get his shoes on. What to do first? No matter what the kids do or say, I’m discovering that I have a love for them that grows deeper with every day I spend with them.

Last night I found myself kneeling in front of a stage full of children trying to lead my class in our part of the Christmas play. My kids were singing a song about God’s love, and how He has loved us since before the beginning of time. As my kids were singing (well, some of them were singing, some of them were waving at their parents, some of them were watching the slideshow behind them..hehehe) it became a reality to me just how much we can learn about God by watching young children. One of things I love about the age that I teach is how much they love and admire the adults in their lives. Even after my kids get in trouble, they will still give me hugs, tell me they love me, or want to hold my hand. My kids exhibit unconditional love to me and each other, and they probably can’t even SAY the phrase. I think I’m learning more than I’m teaching!

My prayer for each of you as this year ends, is that you will discover or rediscover the childlike part of faith. Innocent, unconditional, whole-hearted.

God’s blessings on you,

Friday, December 17, 2004

The Ride of my Life

My work life is so interesting...at least in my mind. One minute I'm tying shoes, the next cleaning up pee-filled children, and sometimes I'm even running around the room making monkey noises. Occasionally, I'm doing all three simultaneously. Seriously though, I am a pre-kindergarten teacher. I teach 13 four and five year olds in a low-income, private, urban school. To make matters more interesting, I am a first year teacher-fresh out of college, and more times than not, I have all 13 kids to myself.

Sometimes I want to cry, but mostly I just laugh as my kids say and do very funny things. I decided to create this blog for all of my "followers" aka the people who have been reading the e-mails I've sent out for the past year or so. If you stay with me long enough, you will get to read of the joys and sorrows and even some of the grossness that comes with the job. It's quite the ride...the ride on my carpet square....the ride of my life.

Saturday, September 04, 2004

The Horrors of my first day as a real teacher

I worked frantically at the beginning of this week to get all my lessons finished and my room in working order. Wednesday night, I went over all of my kids names several times and spent some time praying for them and their families. I could barely sleep all night thinking through the next day and what I still needed to do Thursday morning. If I had known what kind of day it was going to be, I would have taken some sleeping pills to ensure a good night's rest.

8:15 the next morning came rather quickly, and before I knew it, I was staring into the blank little faces of fourteen 3 and 4 year olds. Their faces were blank because I was asking them to get in a line... I failed to remember that they were probably not going to have any idea what a line is unless they for some really odd reason walk around in a line with their families. So 80 pairs of eyes (the ENTIRE school) watched as I attempted to get my children in a line. The line lasted about 3 feet...it all fell apart when we had to go up the stairs (the school is on the second floor of the complex). At the top, we regrouped...and I put them in a line once again. The next 15 minutes were spent traveling a whole 20 yards to our classroom..stopping ever 3 or so steps to fix our line...we made it to the classroom and they found their coathooks with very little trouble.
On to the playdough..Always check materials that you may have had for a long time. The playdough turned out to be REALLY sticky (I think it was homemade). That wasn't really a problem, but then the kids all needed and wanted to wash their hands. I have a bathroom complete with a sink and one stall in my room (which is perfect). But I had to get them all in, you guessed it, a LINE in order to use the sink....of course, they all just wanted to push and shove. In the middle of all of this, one of my students (who happens to be the youth pastor's son) decided that he needed to use the restroom, but didn't close the door. Luckily I spotted him about 2 seconds before the other kids did!

Fortunately, I had no problems getting the kids to sit on their carpet squares, at least for about 3 minutes. We talked about the calendar and weather and how we should act at school all the while I had Thomas counting to 15 over and over and over. I had bought a Beta for our class pet...low maintence and easy to replace if he died. I thought it would be fun for the kids to help name him...you know, take some ownership. Well, when I asked what we should name him, one child suggested "Fishie" and yet another said "Catchfishie" (I'm not sure if this is a name or what the child was wanting to do at the moment) I suggested Harry and some others. But the real moment of truth came when one child suggested Jumpy and the rest of the children shouted in happiness...so I now have a very calm, laid back, relaxed, even shy Beta named Jumpy...what?!

Center time came next and despite the fact that we talked about what it meant to clean up, when I rang that clean up bell, the kids continued to play...although they did pause and look at me for a brief second...I moved from station to station encouraging kids to clean-up. Most did. Thomas decided that he needed to stay in the house. I would remove him and turn around to do something else, he would be right back in there. I FINALLY got the kids in a line (right) to go to recess. Recess went really well other than Thomas (you will notice that I mention him a lot). Now Thomas is real little guy...the littlest in my class, but he insists that he is big enough for the jungle gym. He gets to the top, gets scared, and yells for me to come get him down. I get him down, instruct him not to climb on it anymore, only to return 5 minutes later due to his calling out from the top of the apparatus. This cycle continues the entire recess. <

After recess is snack. The kids bring their own snack, and I supply snack for those that forget or can't supply their own. Apparently their parents didn't explain to them the difference between a snack and a lunch because before I knew it, half of the kids were eating their lunch. I was running around the room snatching food away innocent little children....they were upset, but they would have been more upset if they didn't have anything to eat for lunch. I have one child, Torey, who would eat all day if he could. I'm sure of it. The rest of the morning went smoothly...well, except for one thing...Thomas (yes, him again) came out of the bathroom with everything down around his ankles because he couldn't get his pants pulled up. In front of everyone...yep.

At 11:30, the kids get ready for lunch, and I take my four half-day kids down to meet their parents. Unfortunately they are four of the kids that listen. I missed them all afternoon. Lunch was interesting. I got the kids around the table and went child by child making sure that everything they needed was opened etc. Then I sat down and attempted to eat my own lunch MISTAKE NUMBER THREE I should just never ever try to sit down. As soon as I did about five kids needed water or to go to the bathroom or something opened. I didn't get to Thomas quickly enough so he asked Torey to help him open a little package of mustard...Thomas held the bottom while Torey tried to open the top...they got it open, but squeezed in the process and end up with mustard all over the two of them!!! I had to giggle at that one. During lunch, one of my students, John showed up. His parents had forgotten that it was the first day of school so they came at lunch time. AFter lunch was yet another recess of rescueing Thomas from the jungle gym every five minutes and then NAPTIME....yeah, I thought I might get a little breather. MISTAKE NUMBER FOUR - don't ever think that when working with 3 and 4 year olds, at least not on the first day of school. When we got back to the room after lunch, I watched in horror as my new little student John took a running start at the biggest kid in class(Kenny) and knocked him flat on his back. The result? Kenny putting John in a headlock. I separated those two and got the rest of them to lay down. I sat down in my comfy chair and just tried to breathe. BUT then I remember that there was a girl in the bathroom and she had been there a very long time...when I checked on her, I discovered another bathroom incident too disgusting to talk about...'

After rest, we had center time again during which the kids totally forgot what we had talked about center playing earlier in the day...I ended up with game pieces everywhere...the house a total disaster area....AND the Jumpy the fish loosing water. I couldn't handle my things being broken (because our school literally has no money to replace things...we don't hardly have money for the curriculum that we need) so I ended play time early and took the little tykes on a tour of the school. MISTAKE NUMBER FIVE John took out Kenny again...two of my girls ran right into the 4th grade room..while I was retrieving them, John ran into the teacher's lounge and hit buttons on our REALLY OLD AND FRAGILE copy machine.....ahhhhhh...I was loosing my mind. The principal-who is the greatest person alive right now-helped me get the kids back in a line and back down to my room. In this process, she informed me that she was expediting the aid hiring process-Praise Jesus! I somehow managed to get the kids ready for home. I had them lined up at the door and had to grab their folders off of the table. MISTAKE NUMBER SIX In the second that my back was turned, the door flew open and out flew 3 little boys....running like the wind....waaaaayyyy down the hall! Retrieved them, and took the kids in some sort of a line downstairs to meet their parents. I told Thomas's mom that he needed to listen better, and John's mom that he could not hit or wrestle at school. As my last child drove away, I looked at the 1st grade teacher and said "I don't want to be a teacher anymore." Then I went upstairs to gather my things for our meeting only to discover a plant from a very special person that sent me straight to tears...much needed tears after my day.

The last place I wanted to be was in a teacher's meeting at the end of this day, but at the beginning of the meeting, the principal decided that before we did anything, she wanted the teachers to pray for me and for the first year teacher. It was so great...I spent most of Thursday night alternatly zoning out and trying to evaluate my day. I decided that while I knew I would have to teach the children very basic things, I think I tried to introduce too many of those things in one day...especially since the structured environment was very new to them.

I replanned my Friday, and was greeted with an aid on Friday morning. The second day of teaching was AWESOME. The kids remembered quite a bit. Thomas listened better (although recess still consists of me rescueing him ever five minutes), and John only hit once. AND they walked in a line SEVERAL times. Once these kids get the routine down and understand what school is all about, I'm going to have the greatest year...I have some wonderful personalities...