You're on!!

Forgive me if I fall asleep in the middle of writing this. I got to school this morning (after having yesterday off) and immediately received an email from Ms. Lee, saying she was *really* sick, and outlining what she wanted me to do today. Simultaneously, a substitute teacher, whom we'll call Gustav, walked into the room and introduced himself.

He had a file cabinet's worth of worksheets (probably necessary when you show up without any plans or much idea of what to do), and he was very nice about the fact that I knew the routines and could handle most things, but he was being paid to be there and wanted to work with the kids too. Ummm, ok. We agreed on some times that he could have them do worksheets that he had brought. Having the entire day thrust on me was one thing, because I know that with the kids' help, I can handle it. They were super-good today, and did tell me when I was going seriously astray, and didn't abuse the opportunity to boss me around. But a sub with very different ideas, who is technically responsible for the class? Yikes.

So.... how'd it go? It was ok. We didn't team-teach. I kind of felt bad about that, but it's not like we had any time to plan anything. We were collegial. Even though Gustav's English was hard to understand (and I don't think he understood everything that was said to him), the kids were very polite and attentive- more so with him than with me. No hard feelings!

But he was definitely European old school, and that was interesting to watch. He said things like "I'm only giving these instructions one more time, and if you don't hear it, too bad," and "the most important thing is to cut neatly," and "you have fifteen minutes to do this; work on your own and make sure no one looks at your paper." This is not the way we do at PSOhYes! The irony is that he lectured me that morning about how kids what to do things that "are fun" in second grade. Worksheets? Fun? Really? Maybe because it involved coloring.... ?

At one point he tried to get them to work on a math worksheet silently, and it was just a little too hard for about half the kids in the class. I explained that they were used to working together in math, and it would probably be easiest to let them do so for that activity. He assented. He tried to get one group to do what he wanted to show them at choice time, last period- nothing doing. He almost had a mutiny until they each came to me and implored me to break out the modeling clay, which is what they had "signed up for" for choice time. Can't really argue with getting to have choices at choice time!

Although the students really were very good, we were all a bit out of sorts by the end of the day from trying to get used to each others' ways of doing things. They were tired of trying to simultaneously do what I asked and make sure I got the routines right. This made me really appreciate how well Ms. Lee knew the schedule and what she wanted them to accomplish on any given day, and how seamless her transitions are by comparison. Something to aspire to!

The part that was the hardest was that we were supposed to have a Curriculum Conference at 6 pm. This will need to be rescheduled. Ms. Lee let me know at 2 pm that she was not going to be able to do it, and good thing we had a planning period because I had to run off a note and get it in the folders to send home, and make sure Gustav understood what to tell parents at dismissal (don't come tonight!).

The sub praised my classroom management skills. That was nice. He said he knows it is very important "in this country." He was nice but kinda clueless- more a credit to the kids than to him that he could have managed them on his own.

I learned a lot today- there is a whole new level of things for me to pay closer attention to in the classroom, and to focus on in my own teaching. Transition would be an important one. And how about how long they work on a given subject or lesson? No bells at PSOhYes! It's easy to tell when they're "done" with a mini-lesson because they get wiggly, but I had to keep one eye on the clock to get them to lunch and the library, and it was pretty hard to do that piece of multitasking too.

Also, it was relatively easy to do what Ms. Lee asked me to do and focus on the surface issues of sticking to the routine, the things that the kids perceive as "the way we do things," but while we got through the day, I am not sure that today was my best teaching day, because I was focusing on getting through and being on time, and not as much on delivering the lessons.

Boy am I tired!

Here are a few nice choice-time products for your viewing pleasure:

Portrait of our class pet

Vegetables from the school garden, where we did some sketching Tuesday

A modeling-clay project

Devil's in the details

I did my second mini-lesson today, also for language arts. My first one was for writing and this one was for reading: using a book mark as a prompt to do the reader's job of thinking about settings, characters, problems and changes in the beginning, middle and end of books we read.

When I first met Ms. Lee, she told me that she's not a big elaborate planner, she prefers to have the idea, "do it and then reflect on what worked and what didn't." This is not my usual style, but I recognize she's been doing this a long time and I need to go with the flow here, and I might even learn a different way of doing this. Still, there was a bit of anxiety, since as an undergraduate the lesson-plan format of the 1990s had been drilled into us good and hard, and, well, I tend to like to write things down and plan for contingencies.

Turns out the wing-it-and-reflect model can be a pretty sensible way to do it, too (although having ten years' experience helps a lot), and Ms. Lee is also very easygoing when things don't go quite right (for instance, we had a fire drill today that ruined our science-observation lesson: Oh well! Try again tomorrow).

During my first lesson last week, which my advisor observed, I used the ELMO and Ms. Lee couldn't really help me prepare because she had never used one- she wanted to learn from me how to use it. My big gaffe that day was trying to teach from behind the projector- doesn't really work! But she didn't make a big deal about it, and now I am kind of obsessed with positioning in the classroom, mine and students'. This is probably a good thing, especially since *tomorrow* I am teaching a mini-lesson on the compass rose and how to read maps. We will become human GPS units.... not.

But anyway. My current impression of teaching is that the devil is in the details. It's not hard to decide what to do or what students should get out of a lesson: the goals, the skills, and so forth. What IS hard is knowing what questions to ask, what language they know, what sorts of questions they are used to answering, how to challenge them but not stump them, and when to use what kinds of interactive activities to keep them engaged and to help you see if they are all learning.

This may be the trickiest part. The same kids raise their hands all the time, and it's hard to keep an eye on the ones who may wander mentally, who are not naturally "oh! oh! oh! I know, pick me!" and think of things to bring them back, draw them in, on the fly. You can have some ideas for ways to do this, but if you don't know how exactly they will each respond, it's hard to have a specific plan. This is this is the craft and the art of it, I suppose.

Great big hug

Just a quick post to say that I got a huge group hug from my class today and it felt great! They almost knocked me over but it was really cool.

I was at school all 3 days this week and Ms. Lee asked the kids to thank me for all my hard work this week (which was kinda silly since I was just doing the usual, but was nice anyway).

So they all said thank you in a completely hyper, it's-Friday-and-we're-about-to-go-home way and then they rushed me, which ended with several people (including me) winding up in the closet.

A very nice ending to the week nonetheless!

The lunchroom

Survived (and even enjoyed! Shhh, don't tell) my first observation this week. Whew! Onward and upward.

At PSOhYes, student teachers are expected to do two days in the lunchroom of the three days you come to school. You do the lunch period that your own class has lunch (there are two lunch periods). Half of that time is recess and the other half is in the lunchroom; half the grade eats while the other half runs around. It's a logistical exercise for managing large groups of students; paired rows of kids coming out and going in the building simultaneously is slightly reminiscent of the Beijing Olympics displays, with the lines snaking around each other intricately. PSOhYes is pretty touchy-feely and Bank-Streety when it comes to the classroom, working with families, etc., but with the existing staff to student ratio for lunchtime, it's pretty much a crowd-control exercise, start to finish.

The teacher who manages the whole process for that period also does mini-mini lessons with the 125 or so kids: carving into their recess time with a megaphone (outside) and microphone (inside) to discuss the finer points of how we help each other have a nice lunch with as much time for playing and eating as possible. When the whistle blows, put the equipment away and line up. When your table is called, line up quickly and make sure you have all your stuff, trash, and so forth. A little social-emotional curriculum with your go-gurt.

It hadn't occurred to me that I was anything other than an extra adult set of eyes, but you do learn a lot about your kids (and about kids in general) in the lunchroom. A classmate told me that when she was working as a para, she was involved in writing IEPs at the school because she knew some kids better, and in more varied contexts, than some of the teachers, because she was with them at early drop-off and in the lunchroom.

In the lunchroom kids are not allowed to get up and roam, so they raise their hand if they need something (bathroom, water, to have you open some item in their lunch). Today Sam* raised his hand, and when I went over, he informed me that Tanya* and Brad* had traded items in their lunch. This is strongly discouraged because kids are often not mindful of their own food sensitivities, never mind other kids'. My daughter has a peanut allergy, so I am aware of this policy and why it exists.

I don't love a tattletale, but I couldn't very well overlook this once I had the information. I said, basically, look: I am not mad, I can see how this is tempting, but there are important reasons why we don't share food, and here is what they are. I asked them to trade back the food items. The whole table was listening, by this time.

Brad was fine, Sam went back to his lunch, but Tanya was completely horrified at being tattled on. I tried to wrap it up quickly and move on to another table, to try and make it seem like less of a big deal, and I saw Tanya shaking her fist at Sam. I watched her struggle with her frustration. Emotion took over her face. She dropped her head on her crossed arms and began to sob.

I was pleased to see her friends rally around her and give her hugs. She was somewhat mollified, but still upset. So I went over to her again once her friends had offered support and gone back to their lunches.

"Tanya, you are not in trouble. I am not mad, and I really, really understand how tempting it is. I really do. It was a mistake, but not a big deal. I know how unfair it feels to you," I said, without naming names and calling Sam out.

She nodded, tears spilling out of her eyes. I told her I was going to forget about it and she should too, and helped her dry her eyes.

She told me that afternoon that she was still really angry, but she was trying to let her feelings "fly away." Go Tanya.

A minor, silly incident, but I feel like I know these kids just a little bit better, having been there with them. Hopefully, next week in the lunchroom, it will just be food jars and defective juice box straws.

*All names are made-up

Work and Play

We are really getting down to work now. We are starting Writer's Notebooks, drafting our first publishing project as of tomorrow, and getting everyone re-assessed during Reading Workshop. Some issues with our two new students who came from other schools in both language and math. The other two new kids (one from another classroom, one from a G&T program) are fitting in well, but the whole class is showing me their true colors now. I know who is congenitally chatty, who needs constant hand-holding, who NEVER brings their folder from home or puts their work in the right place. Sigh. Scales fallen from eyes. They are still adorable, but it's warts and all, now.

Still, I am really pleased to see how much fun they still get to have as second graders. We had choice time today and they'll have it again tomorrow. This is a classroom of art lovers- aside from building with the PVC tubes (see last post) and blocks, everyone else (17 of 25) was doing painting, drawing, or modeling clay. As with last week, this week the kids who chose blocks made a little corral for Cutie-B, the class turtle. Here you can see the construction and one student showing him the stop sign (can Cutie read?).

They also had a lot of fun working on the classroom rules this week. They had done some posters last year which were still up, and they revisited and revised them, and then made new posters, working in groups. Ms. Lee suggested that they could do pop-ups, a kind of 3-D diorama by folding the bottom of the poster paper and making a 3-D illustration out of construction paper. I wasn't sure they could handle the complex cutting and spatial aspects, but they did really well. I had a hard time choosing just two out of the many great projects!!

Contrast this project with the amount of resistance we had to a math assessment which we also had them do today. They were like different kids. If they did math worksheet-type work all day (even Bank Street-style word problems), this class would be the whiniest group of work-avoiding foot-draggers on earth, no lie. It's wonderful to see how well they work together, how creative and focused they are, when they are at play!

Stage is set!

Stage built by a second grade student with PVC-pipe building elements

Today was a great First Day of School. We had a new admit over the days I was not there, for a total of four new students and a class of 25. Everyone came to school, and Ms. Lee hugged all of her returning students as well as a few that were not her students but they love her anyway. Her students adore her, it's clear, and are thrilled to have her again for another year.

I met almost all the parents today, and to a person they were welcoming and enthusiastic (they were hugging each other too!), and said how lucky I was to be working in this class, with this teacher. It was, I will say, very nice to have a classroom full of kids who knew the teacher, knew each other, and knew the drill- not that that kept them in their seats, but it made things easier for sure. Of the new students, some in the class had gone to kindergarten or even pre-K with two of them, so they were known as well. That left two completely new kids that we discussed during our planning time- how did their skills seem? How did they do socially? How will they fit into the class?

Ms. Lee is very intuitive- she seems to like to do and then reflect, rather than plan and execute. That's not my style, but she has a fairly low-key energy that's intuitive and nicely-paced, mellow. The kids can tell she's happy to be there with them. We did some community-building activities that were very interactive, and then a little math, a little individual reading, a read-aloud, and some math before lunch.

The kids are so cute- even though they have never seen me at this school before, they still assume I know everything. "Karen, are we having recess today?" "Sorry, this is my first day and I'm not really sure!" Ha. That really threw them off. But I did some reading with a few of them and they seemed to like me ok.

This is a photo of a construction that one of our new students did during choice time. It's a stage- the peaked part is the proscenium and the tall pieces to either side are the lights. I wonder what her parents do? It's an interesting use of them and she worked on it for quite a while. The other kids who played with these mostly made 3D constructions with the joining corners.

Apparently this set came from a science-leadership student teacher who designed these for the NY Hall of Science and left a set. Very cool addition to blocks, etc., although a bit heavy- the tall pieces are about 18 inches long.

I didn't get to set up the ELMO this week and it's still not set up, but I am determined. Next week!!