Today was: Really Good... like yesterday

Well, I got my wish: it is COLD and WINDY again... just like it should be at the end of October in San Francisco.

Another really good day, despite the fact that the kids seemed unusually antsy ALL DAY [Miles said that Halloween is to blame]. You know, I'm beginning to believe in this "power of positive suggestion" stuff. I tried telling myself this morning, "Today will also be really good day", and, sure enough, it happened.

Math went well. Today's math lesson was about extending patterns so I had the kids sit in a circle and then showed them a clap-tap pattern. After I thought that they had it down [they're smart kids, so it didn't take long], I started the pattern going around the circle by clapping, and then I had the kid sitting next to me tap his shoulders, and then the girl next to him clapped, and then the girl next to her tapped her own shoulders, etc. around the circle. Extending patterns. Next, we did another simple ABAB pattern around the circle, this time with "spooky Halloween sounds" [as I sold it]. You know, I thought we had a classroom full of hams, but, it was torture getting these kids to get into making monster and screeching black cat sounds. Jeesh. We moved on to a working through a couple of mathbook pages together [again, these kids are bright] and I looked at the clock - we still had 10 minutes until recess. We were still sitting in a circle, so I tried a "spooky Halloween sounds" ABCABC pattern on them - I solicited ideas for the sounds and got "BOO!", "WOOOO!" and, bless his heart, this one cute kid in class suggested "a pumpkin". I asked, "What sound do you think a spooky pumpkin would make?" He drew a circle in the air with this fingers. So, the pattern being passed/extended around the circle of kids ended up being BOOO!-WOOO!-[draw circle in the air]. Tomorrow, we're having a Pattern Fashion Show where the kids will get to stamp colored [red, yellow, blue, green] bear patterns onto articles of clothing [necktie, bowtie, hair bow, suspenders, wristband, headband] cut out of white paper. Why doesn't everyone want to be a Kindergarten teacher??

During Read Aloud time on the rug today, I looked over and saw that one of the girls in class had a bloody nose. I ran and got a tissue and got her to walk with me to a chair where she could then sit and tip her head back. When the first tissue was saturated [it was a gusher], she reached over to drop the tissue in the trashcan that I brought nearby and the girl with autism ran over, shoved [and I mean SHOVED] the girl with the bloody nose aside, and sat down in the chair so that she could be next to me. I'm adding another tick in the "She's Getting Too Attached to Me" column.

After school today, one of the most active parents in the class mentioned that she would like to help out with the Halloween party in class on Friday. She said [and I quote]: "Oh, this is a busy time around our house. We've got family and friends coming from all over. We're part of a witch community, you know, so this is one of our High Holy Days." O-k.

So, I don't have to go into school on Fridays, but I'm going to go this Friday afternoon so that I can be a part of the Halloween festivities. The only thing is that Miles is insisting that I dress up. I don't like Halloween, and I REALLY don't like dressing up for Halloween. You might think that a guy who wants to be a Kindergarten teacher would LOVE dressing up on Halloween. Yeah, you MIGHT think so, but not in my case. The school has publicized that they want kids to come dressed as "What I Want to Be When I Grow Up", because they don't want ninjas and "Scream" killers and superheroes, but, how would I dress up as a teacher? Really, the whole idea smacks of reinforcing stereotypes, if you ask me. What on Earth am I going to wear?! I thought about just slapping some bunny ears on my head [coincidentally, we have a pair hanging on our wall...] and calling it a day, but I don't think that I could come up with a reason for why I would want to be a bunny when I grow up.

Today was: Really Good

Good day. Good day. Like the other good days in the past, things just seemed to click all day, and I felt in good form [physically, and mentally] all day. Actually, when I woke up this morning I thought to myself, "Today is going to be a really good day." Self-fulfilling prophecy, power of positive suggestion, or coincidence?

I did Math time again today. My plan went off pretty much without a hitch. We're talking about patterns, so I first did a simple clap-pat pattern, and attached an "A" with the clap, and a "B" with the pat. That way, they could connect the general pattern "name" of ABABAB with a concrete representation of the pattern. Then, to push it even further, I took red and blue "linker cubes" and attached them to form a "red-blue-red-blue" train - also representing the ABABAB pattern. Finally, I had them go to their tables, where I had trays of linker cubes set out, and they had to make pattern trains with the cubes that represented the pattern that I "peformed" on the spot. One that I did was "clap-clap-hop clap-clap-hop" [AABAABAAB pattern], and they then made patterns with their cubes like "red-red-blue red-red-blue". After doing this, I called them back to the rug and showed them their options for Math Center time. The BIG favorite was making Pattern Placemats with some COOL pictures of skeletons, pumpkins, witches, etc. Man, these kids LOVE Halloween. [Somewhere along the line, I grew to really not like Halloween. I suppose that it would've happened sooner or later, though - Miles said that he used to LOVE Halloween until he started teaching Kindergarten.] SO, when I said to the kids, "Ok, go pick a center!" A HUGE mass of kids ran toward the Art table where Miles was setting up the Pattern Placemat center. His eyes got wide and he yelled out, "WHOA! I need you all to go back to the rug! We can't have you all running to this center!" Naturally, I felt like a goof, and called all of the kids back to the rug, letting them know that only 4 kids could be at each center, and then let them choose by calling "table groups" [there's the Rockets, the Planets, the Moons, the Suns, and the Clouds - don't know how he came up with these names...] one at a time. Ooops. Teach and learn.

I'm supposed to do a Mainstreaming Report for my student teaching program. This involves filling out a form about a student in the class who has been identified as having "special needs" and gets the assistance of a specialist a couple of times a week. Plus, I'm supposed to watch the student for 2 days in the classroom, documenting what I see, and then watch the specialist working with the student two times. Not a big deal, right? Well, I chose the girl with autism and realized LAST WEEK that I was supposed to have this report done LAST WEEK. I tried to take some time out today to write some notes while "watching from the wings", but, it didn't last very long. And, this is my problem with this program that I'm in: Just Let Me Do My Thing. There really isn't any time to sit [with notebook and pencil in hand!] and watch the Reading specialist work with the girl with autism. There are 19 other kids who require my attention and assistance. I find it REALLY difficult to look over and see a kid with their hand raised and say, "Oops. Sorry. I can't come over to help you because I'm doing my homework right now." I'm there to help each and every kid, and I refuse to ignore any of them for the sake of a grade.

Speaking of the number of kids in class, we got a new student last week - a girl - and she makes an even 20 kids now. Miles is pleased because 20 is the limit - no more kids coming in in the middle of the year. The strange thing is, though, that the girl started on Wednesday, and then hasn't shown up again since. [???]

We're meeting Benny Bear tomorrow, and I haven't even given you Tiggy Tiger's song - here it is [to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star]:

Tiggy Tiger can tickle his toes.
Tiggy Tiger can tap his nose.
Tiggy Tiger can turn around.
Tiggy Tiger can touch the ground.
Tiggy Tiger can tie his shoes.
Tiggy Tiger can count by twos.

Awful. Oh, and as always, to get the full effect of this one, sing it in this really cheesy, horrible-Off-Broadway musical-composed-on-a-lousy-old-Casio-keyboard style. And, as the kids LOVE to do, for added FUN, act out what Tiggy Tigger can do in the song [Tap your nose! Turn around! etc.]!

Today was: Unconventional

Miles was way underprepared for today. He spent most of the morning before school running around, getting things ready for the day. Plus, he sprung on me, at the last possible moment, "Oh, so there is this meeting on assessment that I have to go to all afternoon with the other kindergarten teachers. There will be a sub from after lunch through to the end of the day." Then, one of the kindergarten teachers comes into the room and says, "SO, it looks as though they only hired two subs. I'm going to have to send half of my kids [Spanish speakers] down to your room for the afternoon." This pretty much threw off the perfectly planned Math lesson that I had come up with for the afternoon. I looked at Miles and said, "Could I sit in on the meeting?" He suggested it would be a good idea, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Since Miles was so backed up, I spent the first 30 minutes of the day in the copy room, making copies of a handout about Parent Conferences [they are NEXT WEEK] that the kids took home today, and a packet of Math worksheets [shh, don't tell...] that we threw together so that the sub would have something to do with the kids during Math time [because I got to be OUT OF THE ROOM!]. Halfway through the printing of the Math worksheets packet, the stupid copy machine decided to get all clogged and busted. The copyroom has no windows, is on the first floor of the school, and the WHOLE first floor of the school is unbelievable SWELTERING. Upstairs, the teachers have to put on sweaters because the air-conditioning works overtime, but downstairs, we MELT. I think that I mentioned the other day that I can't STAND being hot. [When you are cold, I say, you can always start layering up, but when it's hot, you can only strip down so far, and you are STILL hot.] So there I am, in the copyroom, it's hot, there are no windows, the copier is malfunctioning, I'm missing the first part of the day with the kids, and because it's SO hot and the copier is being TEMPERMENTAL, I'm starting to get really agitated. Eventually, unassisted, I found the source of the problem [a wayward copy crinkled up in some wheels], got through the rest of the copies, and even found time to take a packet of lunch tickets that a teacher had left in the copyroom upstairs to her room [it's wonderfully COLD upstairs!].

The meeting that I went to with Miles [while the substitute did who-knows-what with 30 kids] was stupid and pointless. Miles asked me what I thought of it and I said, "It was stupid and pointless." His response was, "I'm glad someone else thought so." Actually, the meeting was good because it got us out of the classroom, and didn't last the full time, so Miles and I got to sit down for some uninterrupted planning and talking time. We also went over the midterm checklist that he has to fill out for my program. He scored me mostly with 3's [out of 3], with a couple of 2's for things that I haven't really had a chance to work on yet [i.e. "Designs long and short term plans."]. He also looked over my plans for Math time this week [which is all pushed back and switched around because of today] and was quite impressed. Hopefully, the implementation of the plans will be equally impressive.

3 of the fish in the classroom fishtank have died, and one of them is covered in small white dots - a sure sign that he/she isn't going to last very long and has likely infected the other two fish. Miles went to buy some more after school today.

Miles mentioned that he has tentatively decided to teach at an International English school next year. He said, "Now, we just have to work on getting you my job here." He was serious, and I will do WHATEVER it takes to make this happen. I'm going to try not to get my hopes up TOO high, though.

Thursday was: A Rollercoaster

Yeah, Thursday, my second solo day, was up and down, up and down, and down and up. The day started with Miles having to have a meeting with a woman who works at the school, so, I couldn't really talk to him about what I was feeling, or what I thought that I might need some assistance with. Instead, I ran around the room by myself, making sure that transitions would be as smooth as possible, and that I wouldn't be constantly saying, "Now, where did I put ___." Oh, and right before the kids arrived, I jumped up and down a bunch of times, and did a bunch of leg lifts and bends in order to get the energy flowing. And, Miles had been listening to classical music and I said, "Sorry, I'm changing this", and put on The Sundays' Reading, Writing and Arithmetic CD instead. It's one of my ABSOLUTE favorite CDs of all-time, and a real comfort item for me.

The morning went by without much of a hitch. I did forget to do the Buzz Book question ["Let's come up with a list of names of people in a family"], but I got around to it right after lunch ["Who can tell me what I forgot to do this morning?" Oh, the hands FLEW up to respond...]. Also, my clutzy nature struck more than once - bumping into the pocket chart and knocking some picture cards to the ground, and kneeing a dry-erase marker holder, pretty much smashing it to bits. I didn't let it phase me, though.

I had the day perfectly timed, and then one of the school secretaries came into the room and gave me the schedule for the vision screening - it feel right in the middle of Read Aloud & Writing time. My perfectly planned morning was ruined. At 10:15am, I led the kids to the lunchroom, and Miles suggested that we let them sit at the tables and leaf through some books until they were individually called. He also thought that it would be better for me to go back to the room with the kids that had already be screened so that they could make up some missed time by writing in their journals. One by one, the kids came filing back, and with each one I had to run over and say, "Get out your journal and write about whatever you want." It was annoying, and the kids who got back earliest were finishing up with their writing and beginning to get antsy. When Miles got back I asked him how the stuff that I had planned which got bumped because of the screening could be plugged back into the day. We agreed that a couple of the things would just have to be jettisoned. Stupid vision screening.

After lunch, the kids came in from recess and we sat in a circle [Community Circle time!] on the rug and I asked the question, "Who is your favorite cartoon character?" Spiderman and Spongebob Squarepants were the big winners. I chose Samurai Jack because he's just too cool, and remains cool in the face of danger.

At Math time, things started to feel a bit rough. It was like I was mountain climbing and I suddenly lost my footing and I was dangling off of a cliff, holding on by one shaking hand. I mean, it started off ok - we did the calendar stuff, and then I did some clapping and movement patterns, since we're studying patterns. Then, I had them go and get their math books and crayons and meet on the rug so that we could do a couple workbook pages all together. Well, apparently it was WAY too easy for most kids because no matter how many times I said, "Ok, let's stick together! Don't work ahead!", the vast majority of the class was done with the whole sheet in no time flat. And, to be fair, it WAS way too easy, with the page showing a blue/red/blue/red pattern and then having the kids just duplicate the pattern. The boredom and restlessness was easy to see what with students calling out, "I'm done!" and others laying down and playing with other kids. So, I had everybody stand up [it's amazing the ideas that can come to your head when you are at your wits end], and we duplicated the patterns in the workbook that we just did using clapping and movement [like, if the pattern that they had just copied was yellow/green/yellow/green, then I had them clap and then jump once, having them say "yellow" when they clapped, and "green" when they jumped] - thus, bringing the whole lesson FULL CIRCLE. Whew, nice save, eh?

At afternoon recess, the girl with autism refused to come back inside. When I yelled out for the class to line up, she proceeded to yank the shoe off of another student [a boy] in class who was just coming down from the playscape. I wrenched the shoe out of her hand and began to bend down to put it by the boy's foot when I felt her hand land squarely on my face. Yep, she struck me in the face! Yeah, it appeared as though the blow was meant for the boy, and I just got in the way, but I grabbed her, looked her squarely in the eyes and said, "You don't EVER hit ANYBODY! Especially me! Understand!?" The weird thing with her is that I'm starting to think that she may like me WAY too much. Lately, when sitting on the rug, she has been scooting over to me and scratching at my shirt collar. ??? I've mentioned before that every morning Miles shakes the hands of each kid as they are waiting in line to go into the classroom, and that he gets either a hug, a handshake, or a "high 5" from each kid as they leave for the day. On Thursday, the girl with autism enthusiastically shook my hand in the morning, and HUGGED me in the afternoon. She has never allowed ANYONE to hug her AT ALL until Thursday. An autism specialist was in the room Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning getting a look at how the girl with autism was doing. Miles mentioned to me later in the day that the woman told him that the girl shouldn't be in our class at all, and that she wanted to set up a meeting sooner than later to discuss this. I heard that the specialist told the mother of the girl with autism that her daughter shouldn't be in our class and the mother started to cry. I'm filled with conflicted feelings around this whole situation.

So, after recess, the students got to pick Centers to work in for a half an hour. One girl wanted me to play ABC Bingo with her and I told her that after I got a group going on their ABC Go Fish game, that I would be over to play with her. Apparently, my promise wasn't good enough because she BURST OUT crying. All thoughout that hour, I felt torn and stretched in many different directions. I really need to work on being able to prioritize and juggle when things get out of hand. I swear, at least once every day I find myself surrounded by kids all yelling out, "Eric, help me with this!" or "Eric, read to me!" or "Eric, so-and-so called me a bad name!" or "Eric, I need you over here now!" It's like one of those "Calgon, take me away" moments where you just want to scream out, "EVERYONE BE QUIET!" and then leave the room without responding to ANYBODY. My goal is to really start shushing kids who ask me questions while I'm helping someone else, and to keep getting the kids to deal with their problems on their own.

After center time, I was feeling a little overwhelmed and OVER the whole day - what didn't help was that it was an unseasonably HOT day, and I don't do well when I'm sweating and feeling really uncomfortable. It just compounds everything. Plus, I was miffed that now, during Storytime, I would have to read the Read Aloud book that couldn't be read during Read Aloud time because of the Vision Screening. The book that I REALLY wanted to read during Storytime is a book that I've had, and loved, since childhood - Could Be Worse!. Stupid Vision Screening. Anyway, I sat down and began to read the book that I didn't want to read and an amazing thing happened: the kids were all MESMERIZED. Every last one of them sat in awed silence. It was a thing of beauty, and a perfect UP ending to an up-and-down day.

Oh, I forgot to mention that during Community Circle time, the para that has been working with the girl in the wheelchair in the afternoons said, in front of Miles and all of the kids, "I just want to say, Eric, that you will be an AMAZING teacher. I have watched you and seen that you really have what it takes. You should be very proud of yourself, and Miles should be pleased to have you in his classroom." I said, "Wow! That is really wonderful. Thanks. You're going to make me cry." And, tears really were in my eyes.

At my seminar on Thursday night, we got in this big discussion about our relationships with our Master Teachers. Listening to everyone else [No. I'm NOT comparing myself to them.] I realized that I should really step it up and get way more involved with the planning and implemention of the lessons in my classroom. Everyone agreed, though, that Student Teaching is a weird situation to be in, with the phrase "It's like cooking in your Mother-in-Law's kitchen" getting thrown around. It's SO true.

So, I'm off now to continue planning this week's Math lessons.

[I don't think that I've posted Tiggy Tiger's song here yet, huh? Tomorrow...]

Today was: Pretty Good

That's a "Pretty Good" with a postitive spin, rather than a moody "PRETTY good..."

Busy. Very busy tonight. I'm having a solo day tomorrow, my first in front of Miles, so I'm preparing an outline for the day, and preparing myself mentally for Miles' harsh criticism. Really, I'm more nervous about tomorrow than I was the last two times that we've had a sub and I've taken the class. This time is different because I'M BEING WATCHED, and CRITIQUED ALL DAY. I just need to follow my own advice and pretend like the grownups in the room aren't there. And, anyway, it's not like I'm totally going to bomb... right?

At some point in the day, my BEATIFULLY PLANNED [to the MILI-SECOND!] day will be interrupted by the students being carted off to do a Vision Screening. Apparently, because the kids are kindergarteners, they won't be asked to name letters on a chart [although, I'm SURE that all of our kids have PERFECT letter recognition...] - rather, students will have to play the "E Game", in which "E"s of various sizes, and in various positions, will be projected onto a screen. The kids will have to point their fingers in the direction that the "legs of the E" are facing. A flyer was placed in Miles' mailbox at school TODAY reading "Children should be taught to point their fingers in the same direction as the legs of a letter E. The E Game is training for the vision screening. Students should be allowed to play this game for 5 to 10 minutes each day for a WEEK before the screening." Again, this flyer was placed in Miles' mailbox TODAY. One of my SFSU professors was right, teachers and students in this country are constantly being set up to fail.

How clever am I? During recess today, some of the girls in the class were upset that the girl in the wheelchair didn't bring her long jumprope to school. What did I suggest we do? Jumprope with an imaginary jumprope. The girls LOVED it, and really treated it like there was a actual jumprope that another girl and I were turning. One girl even did that thing where you stand outside as the jumprope is turning, watching it to get the timing, and then run in and start jumping. Crazy.

Oh, I led Math time today and it went pretty well. Sure, the rather heavy Weather Chart fell off the wall and on a couple of students' heads because I pointed at it too firmly, and the girl that I had do the Calendar stuff with is the odd girl in class who seems kind of haunted and refuses to speak very much, but... Oh, and when it was time to clean up their Math Centers I said, "Clean up your centers and then put your heads down on the table and I'll call the quietest table to go line up for recess." I decided that I would help the Block Center because they had the biggest mess. There I was, picking up and putting away handfuls of blocks, oblivious to anything else in the room. A NUMBER of minutes later, I panicked and remembered, "HOLY CRAP! THE OTHER KIDS!" Sure enough, there were ALL of the other tables with their heads down, being quiet, who knows for HOW long. When I laughed about it later with Miles he said, "Yep, I saw that all of the other tables were patiently waiting, and I just let you handle it." Oops, I guess that I just totally forgot for a second [ok, a few MINUTES] that I was the teacher...

I've got to continue going over my plan, and then answer some midterm questions ["What are you most proud of accomplishing during this first seven weeks?", etc.] for my seminar tomorrow night.

Something to look forward to tomorrow: Tiggy Tiger's song.

Today was: Quite Good

We went to the aquarium today... and it was fun, but exhausting. In the morning, before we left, we had to get everyone into green "Bryant School" t-shirts, then put name tags on them, then pair them up [boy-girl], and then assign an adult to each pair. Interestingly, I was the "Leader" for a twosome made up of the highest performing girl and the lowest performing boy in the class. This arrangement didn't work so perfectly because the girl wanted to be more methodical about the experience and spend time looking at everything, whereas, the boy was BOUNCING AROUND ALL OVER THE PLACE basically yelling out, "Hey, look at that! Hey, look at this! Hey, look over here!" What ended up happening is that, early on in the day, we ran into Miles' group [another high performing girl, and a hyperactive boy] and I ran ahead [i.e. chased after] the boys while Miles hung out with the girls. Oh, and there were still some sharks there! AND, the girl with autism didn't show up for school this morning, so there was no worry about how she was going to react to being led through a dark museum surrounded by a bunch of wandering strangers. Whew.

On the way to the aquarium, somehow a backpack fell on my lunch bag and one of my Gladware tubs was crushed, causing applesauce to explode all over my food. One of the girls in the class was nice enough to give me one of her cheese & crackers packs - yes, the ones with the red plastic "knife". All in all, the day at the aquarium went by way too fast, and all my group got to see was the aquarium part. Some groups, I heard, went into the Science wing and got to stand on the Earthquake Table which simulates a violent earthquake. I would've LOVED to have done that, but instead my group focused on what we were REALLY there for - the aquarium - where we touched some starfish and got to watch the penguins being fed.

After school, I went to the Leadership Team meeting [bi-weekly meetings to discuss things going on at school], and then Miles and I spent an hour and a half replacing all of the Colors All Around theme stuff with We're a Family materials. Tomorrow, we meet Tiggy the Tiger. Miles is getting REALLY fed up with all of these stupid mandated Reading Program characters, and I can't say that I blame him. On the one hand, I'm not SO against the program because as a first year teacher it will help to direct my reading/literacy instruction, but, on the other hand, these standardized programs act as the "great leveller" that aims to make every child the same - when, as we all know, every kid is different, every kid learns differently, every kid is at a different point in their language development, and not every kid likes listening to doofy songs about creepy alphabet animals.

Today was: So-so

I don't like Mondays. I think, if you go back and look at my posts for the last couple of weeks, I frequently mention that I just feel kind of "out of it" on Mondays - today was no different. Even though I don't do anything on the weekends, having three days off seems to wear me out somehow. Maybe it's an ALIAS hangover - that show can really hurt my brain.

Miles and I decided that I should probably be taking over a part of the day so that I am sure to be teaching every day, not just on my solo days. He let me pick whichever part of the day that I wanted and, for some reason, I chose Math. I guess I don't really know why I say "for some reason", because I actually kind of like Math, and I certainly don't mind the kind of Math that the kids are doing right now - patterns, and being able to distinguish between left and right. Plus, I really feel like I should be more proactive in the classroom - right now I'm kind of an assistant teacher, and I should really be a co-teacher. I was just hoping that I could put it off for a couple more weeks... Oh, and I'm going to do another "solo day" on Thursday. The only part of the day that I'm worried about right now is the Read Aloud time. Normally, this would be right out of the district mandated Reading Program, but Miles wants to try something new, having the kids talk about schemas and what their brains do when they read books. I'm just a bit unsure because I'm not certain that I can even explain these concepts.

That's all for today. Short, I know, but I'm tired and I need to rest up for the big ALL DAY FIELD TRIP TOMORROW. It looks like all of the adults that go will be responsible for 3 kids or so. This reminds me of being in 4th grade and going into Chicago to see a performance of The Nutcracker at Christmas time. My mom went with us so I was in her group - unfortunately, much to my EXTREME horror, the only other kid that got put in our group was Barney Sutton, THE CLASS BULLY. Man, I was pretty much terrified of this kid, and I just couldn't believe my bad luck. I mean, of ALL the kids that could've gotten placed in the group with my mom and myself they had to give us HIM. Truth be told, though, I don't remember him beating me up or getting unruly at all. In fact, I seem to remember him offering us some of his Bit'o'Honey candybar. Funny how you can misjudge people, eh? No - actually, the kid really was just a big bullying jerk.

Tuesday was: Not the best day

Jeez, even my parents gave me grief about not posting Thursday or Friday...

Miles wasn't there on Thursday. We had a substitute [the same one we've had both other times that Miles wasn't there]. It was a bit of madness. Really, even the GOOD kids had BAD moments.

I suppose the tone for the day was set when I showed up in the morning and the classroom was locked. Luckily, the next door kindergarten room links to ours via a door which is always unlock. But, this meant that I could not close the door at all during the day, otherwise, we'd have had to keep walking through the other kindergarten room. Yes, I went to the office right away and asked for a key to our room door, but the secretary couldn't find a key. She promised to get me a key at some point in the day, but it never happened. After school, I went to a professional development meeting in the library with the other teachers and was sure to leave the door ajar with a doorstop tucked in the way. When I realized that I should probably have a notebook with me to take notes, I ran downstairs and someone had shut my classroom door all the way. Thanks. To make things worse, the next-door kindergarten door was also closed and locked and the teacher was sitting in at the meeting that I was supposed to be at - so, I couldn't very well ask him for the key to get into his room [thus allowing me to get into my room]. SO, I went to the office to check on the progress of that key that the secretary was supposed to get for me earlier in the day. "Oh! That's right! I was supposed to get a room key for you!" Yeah, thanks for remembering NOW! She instructed me to run back upstairs and talk to the janitor woman who was vacuuming. Sure enough, she had a key and saved the [end of] the day.

So, yeah, the day was kind of crazy. I pretty much took most of the morning, and then let the sub take the afternoon - at least, that's the way that I mentioned to her that we should do things. Unfortunately, she kept butting in on my time, so I butted in during her time. Really, when it comes down to it, I just don't really like her teaching style. I like Miles because he, like me, just TALKS to the kids - we both teach the kids like they are human beings, rather than little creatures that need to be coddled and spoken to in a syrupy-sweet voice. Plus, like I knew would happen, I interjected when she was doing things that were contrary to how we usually do things in the room - as I predicted, I ended up speaking up when she was deviating from the way the class normally runs. During Math time we passed out a sheet with a bunch of squares on it which had different shapes of different colors on them. The kids were just supposed to cut out the shapes and then sort them however they wanted [all the squares together, all of the blue shapes together, etc.] on their tables. I saw a couple of students with bottles of glue on their tables so I walked over and said, "I did NOT tell you guys to get glue. We aren't going to be doing any gluing." As I took the bottles back to the supply cabinet, some other kids were getting bottles of glue for their tables. "I didn't tell anyone to get GLUE. We aren't GLUING." They informed me that the sub had told them that they would be gluing down their sorted shapes on white paper. Sure enough, I look over and she's handing out sheets of white paper to everyone. OK. Actually, I'm painting her out to be a lot worse than she really is - we do get along, and we both agreed that the kids were kind of unruly all day. I even went over and TURNED OFF THE LIGHTS at one point. Because it hadn't been done at all up to that point, I think the kids just thought that I wanted the room to be a bit darker.

The girl with autism had a rough day. I think we can pretty safely say that she NEEDS routine and familiarity, and when there is a change she doesn't know what to do so she freaks out. No, we didn't have any scribbling on desks [or me] or running out of the classroom, but, she was pretty defiant and refused to sit in on ANYTHING we did as a whole class. She preferred, instead, to run around, do somersaults, or sit off in a corner by herself. At one point, she crawled under a table after I took a chart-card with Mimi Mouse on it away from her [which I, literally, had to PRY from her fingers]. Oh, and there were 4 kids sitting at the table. She wouldn't come out so I cleverly said to her, "Ok, you have a choice. You can either come out from under there or I can go and call the Principal to come down here and..." Wow, she REALLY doesn't like the Principal - she INSTANTLY scooted out and went to her chair. Sure, she didn't stay there for long, but...
I'm not quite sure what her fascination was with the Mimi Mouse card, but when she was leaving for the day she wanted to take it home with her. I stopped her at the door [the backdoor on the room which leads outside] and said, "No, you can't take this home because other kids need to look at it." She kept pointing to the card and then pointing across the school yard. "You want to take it home?" She shook her head, and pointed at the card and then across the school yard. I never found out what she meant and I felt SO bad that I couldn't understand what she was trying to tell me.

The BIGGEST news surrounding the girl with autism is that I'm pretty sure she made some sound! Yeah, she's snickered before while misbehaving, but this was a sound I hadn't heard before. I was working with the class and I heard this odd screech. Honestly, it kind of sounded like a puppy in pain - but, I saw her with this guy who's been the para for the girl in the wheelchair for the last week or so. He's not so great with the girl in the wheelchair [when she talks back to him (she actually tells HIM to have "a timeout"...) he just takes it], but he's REALLY good with the girl with autism, getting her to write and draw and sit still. Anyway, he was doing something with her and she must've really enjoyed it because she squeaked a couple of times. Unfortunately, he left while I was seeing some kids off for the day and I didn't get a chance to ask him how he got her to make the noise. I'm dying to know, though.

Have I mentioned that we have an ALL DAY field trip to the AQUARIUM coming up on TUESDAY!?

Today was: Ok

Miles said that he thought today was the best day so far this year... I didn't quite think so. It was good and all, and the kids really worked hard all day, but I didn't feel at 100%. I'm not sure what it was, but I just felt tired and worn out - it could be because we have a couple of mosquitoes [which we can't seem to kill] that hover around our heads while we sleep.

So, I just felt out of it and cranky most of the day, and when Miles asked me about tomorrow [Miles will be absent so there will be a substitute all day] I said, "I don't want to sound like a baby [even though I DID sound like a baby] but I really don't want to take over the whole day, and I don't want to feel like I SHOULD take over the whole day." One main reason that I didn't want to be THE teacher tomorrow is that I don't feel prepared - Miles and I hadn't really talked in advance about what things should happen tomorrow [we just can't seem to find time to sit down and chat these days]. I'm sure, though, that there will be many times during the day tomorrow where I'll say to the sub, "Ok, just let me do this", because I've been there every day, I know how things work and should be run, and I'm now familiar with the things that Miles wants us to do tomorrow. I don't know, I also feel like just kicking back and relaxing for a day. We'll play it by ear, depending on how I feel in the morning [stupid mosquitoes]...

I'm not sure that I've mentioned it before, but when the girl with autism feels like not attending to what's going on in class at all she'll get a piece of white paper and start drawing flowers. Well, today at recess I hung out with her and we looked at all of the flowers that are growing in the little garden by the playground. She's FASCINATED by sunflowers [probably because they are HUGE flowers] and she kept poking me to get my attention and then pointing at them. We walked around and saw some bees, I asked her which kind of flower was her favorite [she pointed to some light blue and purple ones], and she kept pointing at some white flowers that looked like they had been eaten by bugs [as I theorized]. When she's cute and sweet, she's REALLY cute and sweet. Oh, and she has a new haircut - she HAD a long bowl cut, and now she has a short bowl cut [that I think her mom may have done at home...] that makes her look like a boy.

We did a really cute activity during Math time today: everyone got a quarter of a sheet of white paper and got to draw a monster on it. There were guidelines, though - you had to draw it using only 1 color marker [blue, green, or red], and its main body had to be one big shape [circle, square, or triangle]. When the kids were done drawing [I made one, too - it was a blue square with 4 arms and 4 legs which I dubbed "The Crazy TV Monster"], I went around and taped a popsicle stick to the back. Then, while music was playing, we marched around the room making monster noises. When the music stopped you had to find someone who had a monster that matched your monster in one way - either the same shape or the same color. Finally, we placed them all in the appropriate boxes on a grid that had SHAPE as the vertical axis, and COLOR as the horizontal axis. C-U-T-E. Next week we're going to do it again, adding a third attribute - hair type. Maybe my Crazy TV Monster will get a stylish perm.

The kids liked the fish, but we ran out of time so they didn't FORMALLY get to be introduced to them. I'll make a mental note to send them over in table-groups to look at the tank tomorrow morning. Oh, at one point I looked over and noticed that the girl with autism's hand was all wet. A parent that was working in the room at the time said, "Oh, she just fed the fish." I looked into the tank and saw a FEAST floating to the bottom. My words to her were, "It's very nice of you to feed the fish, and you CAN feed the fish, but ASK me next time if you want to feed them." She seemed to understand - if she didn't then we're going to have some fish that are going to eat themselves to death.

Did I mention that we're taking a FIELD TRIP TO THE AQUARIUM ON TUESDAY!? I'm really excited, except that the school nurse mentioned today that because it is going to close soon for renovation, the aquarium just shipped its sharks off to other locales around the country. We're going to have some UPSET little kids.

Oh, I almost forgot to put up Reggie Rooster's song for you! Here it is, to the tune of Hush, Little Baby:

Reggie has a rocket that is red.
Reggie keeps it right beside his bed.
Reggie likes to listen to rock 'n roll.
Reggie plays it on his radio.

If you want the full effect, sing it in this really cheesy, faux-rock voice along to some awful keyboards and drum machine effects. Miles said it's his favorite so far. Whatever.

Speaking of which - during Read-Aloud time today, Miles said "Houghton Mifflin reading program be damned" and decided to read some real literature. His goal was to work on the comprehension skill of making personal connections, so he read Tomie dePaola's groundbreaking Oliver Button is a Sissy to the students, and talked about how the things that happened in the book were a lot like the things that happened to him when he was growing up. His story is the story that MANY of us share...

Today was: Good

It's 10:18pm and it's the first opportunity I've had to sit down and write today. Right after school, I went to a Business Meeting [basically, all of the teachers sitting around talking about school business...], then Miles and I got stuff together for tomorrow [including getting ready for the kids to meet Reggie Rooster - his song is the WORST YET - you'll get a taste of it tomorrow, I promise...], and then we got on a bus, went to Best Buy so that we could both buy the new Travis CD [which I haven't even gotten to listen to yet], and then walked over to PetCo so that we could buy some fish for the class fishtank [we read a couple of books about fish last week, and are going on a field trip to the aquarium next Tuesday]. The fish are cute and I hope they survive awhile. The kids are going to LOVE them.

We didn't get back to school until 6pm, by which time the school was all locked up. Luckily, a woman who works at the school was outside and she called one of the late night custodians to come and let us in. I left Miles to acclimate the fish to the tank, ran home, ate a hardboiled egg, and then got picked up by a woman in my program and driven to a School Board meeting. I really wasn't looking forward to the meeting [my seminar professor is requiring us to go to one], but, I must say, if it wasn't a school night and I hadn't had a long day, I could've stayed until the end. The woman that I went with and I both agreed that we felt very "civic" to be there, and it further reinforced our notions that teaching is SO what we want to do with our lives. As it was, though, we only stuck around for an hour and left. While we were there, it was decided, after a couple of tearful testimonials, that a local high school gym be renamed after a beloved teacher that worked there for 25 years. It was quite touching.

Not much more to talk about - it's late, and I'm tired. Oh, Miles is going to be gone on Thursday and he asked me if I wanted to make that day another one of my "Solo Days". I told him that it seems like my solo days should be days when he's there, so I think I'm just going to do HALF the day on my own. We'll make the substitute work a little bit for her money this week...

Today was: A School Holiday - NO SCHOOL TODAY

I've got to say, I'm still kind of on a high from how great last week was - especially Thursday. Like I said, things just WORKED on Thursday - it all just felt so RIGHT. To be perfectly honest, I haven't felt so good, and in such a positive state of mind, in a LONG time - and I mean a L-O-N-G time. Plus, I suppose I'm on a high right now because I just got back from doing a Metreon "double feature" [NO SCHOOL TODAY!] and saw two fantastic movies - School of Rock was a great, fun, sentimental movie that I really appreciated because it's about appreciating kids, and Kill Bill: Volume 1 was JUST PLAIN AMAZING.

So, there's this one girl in class [oh, I WISH I could put her name in print here, because it is such an awesome name, but, alas...] who I find absolutely adorable [yeah, I think I say that about each and every kid...]. Every morning whenever the kids are given time to read from their Browsing Boxes [each week they pick two books from the class library to "read" all week] she runs up to me and, with puppy-dog eyes, pleads, "Will you read with me?" She's one of the best readers in the class so I usually just say something like, "Why don't you get started and I'll make my way around to you? I'm going to walk around and see how everyone is doing..." On Thursday I thought, "Ok, it's about time that I sat down and gave her my full attention." The book she chose to read with me was a book that we had read as a class earlier in the week called What's My Favorite Color?. It's pretty short, so we read through it 3 or 4 times, and, the last couple of times, SHE READ IT ALL BY HERSELF. I was STUNNED but managed to motion to Miles that he should witness this - he, too, was really amazed. Oh, and after the second time that she had read the book by herself she looked at me and said, "Ok, I'm going to read this by myself now. You can go away."

There's this thing that I've found you can do with kids to get them to read: if they say that they want you to read the book to them, begin to do so, but, occasionally pause for a while before a word and, 9 times out of 10, the kid will step up and try to read the word themself. It's almost as brilliant as the "I'm going to count down from 5 and by the time I get to 0 you'd all better be sitting quietly..." threat. For some reason, counting down gets kids to do ANYTHING - and the most amazing part is that they do what you want them to do EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVEN'T SAID WHAT THE CONSEQUENCE WILL BE IF THEY AREN'T WHERE THEY NEED TO BE WHEN YOU GET TO ZERO.

At lunch time, this one woman who works in our classroom two mornings a week was talking to me about the girl with autism. "You know, I think she REALLY likes you," she said. Well, if constantly picking at my sleeve, threatening to hit me in the face, rolling behind me and lifting up my shirt, and actually sitting up [at least for a couple of minutes] after I yell "Sit up!" at her is her way of saying that she likes me, then, yes, I suppose she likes me. The girl in the wheelchair has had a "substitute" para working with her - a guy who seems to be able to speak Cantonese, but doesn't seem to know how to handle the girl with autism. Twice this week, he's talked sternly to her and she's moved away from him and hid behind me. As I mentioned, the girl with autism is getting stickers every time she does something that we want her to do - well, on Thursday she got a sticker from the Resource teacher and instead of sticking it to her folder, the girl with autism walked up to me and stuck the sticker she had just gotten on my sleeve. Are these signs that she likes me? The woman in the lunch room said, "So, what's going to happen when you aren't here next semester?" I got really choked up and asked that we change the subject.

The other thing that happened during lunch was a Dental Awareness briefing in the teachers' lounge. Apparently, this woman is going to be visiting every classroom in the coming weeks to talk to the kids about good dental hygiene. It just took me back to 1st grade when we had to brush our teeth a couple of times a year with this toothpaste that was the NASTIEST stuff I had EVER put in my mouth. It was like REALLY gritty, sandy MUD, and one time, right before we went down to the gym to brush with this crap, I asked my teacher if I could go to the bathroom. I sat in the stall for 20 minutes and got out of having to do it. Thankfully, soon after that, the dental health program switched and we only had to gargle with flouride.

At my seminar on Thursday night, when it came time to talk about the chapter that we had to read for that night [yeah, we have HOMEWORK every week - as if being in the classroom all day isn't enough...] my professor said, "You know what? We're supposed to go over this chapter but I'm sure you guys read it and know what's going on. Eric mentioned to me last week that he would find it valuable if we either got into school groups or grade level groups, so, let's do that instead." Whoo-hoo!

I took the RICA test on Saturday afternoon and feel pretty good about it. When I left the test site I thought to myself, "I feel like I did pretty well on that". Now, I've talked to a number of people who took it in the past and thought that they BOMBED the test and still passed - so, I figure that I'm probably in a pretty good place. If it don't pass it will be because I answered the questions the way that I thought they should be answered. To explain, in the simplest terms, there are two major schools of thought when it comes to teaching language arts. On one side, you've got the traditional method of starting from the bottom - teaching kids how to form words with letters and letter sounds and THEN putting the words into a context. On the other side you've got those more "progressive" thinkers who believe that you should start with context - seeing and beginning to identify letters and words in sentences and literature. I'm a member of the latter school, and both programs that I've been involved in [at IU and SFSU] have taught us to teach in this fashion. Unfortunately, I think that the test wanted us to answer the questions from the former point of view. Oh well, my fate will be revealed to me on November 7th.

Today was: THE BEST DAY YET!

That's right, today was my favorite day of Student Teaching so far. Everything, all day, just felt right - it was just kind of magical. I feel so fortunate to be where I am right now, and I'm going to keep reminding myself of that fact. Details of today to follow tomorrow...

Thanks for reading...

Today was: Great

Today was great, except that I felt WAY tired all day [yesterday was really exhausting], and now I feel like I'm getting sick again [so soon!]. Well, it's easy to pick up nasty viruses when you've got 20 kids sneezing and coughing in your face all day. I swear to you that today, when we were sitting on the rug, I ran my finger across the carpet and felt something gooey stick to my finger. Upon closer inspection I saw that it was an ENORMOUS SNOT BALL. I almost threw up. Panicked, I immediately ran over to get a tissue but couldn't find the tissue box, so, I sprinted over to the nearest thing that caught my eye: the recycling bin. After rubbing my finger on a piece of scrap paper, I then composed myself enough to go over to the sink and wash my hands. ICKY.

Miles and I really didn't get a chance to talk much today about how yesterday went for me. When I got to school this morning, we talked briefly, but only while we were frantically getting things ready for the day. After school, the Speech & Language teacher talked Miles' ear off [a specialist with the district had been in the room earlier in the day to take a look at the girl with autism], then a former para with the school stopped in to talk to Miles, and then he had to leave early for a dentist appointment. What's worse, tomorrow morning Miles has a meeting with the Principal, and then tomorrow after school there is a cluster meeting [the kindergarten and 1st grade teachers talk about stuff] and then I have to leave early to get to my seminar by 4:30. I don't go into school on Friday, and there is no school on Monday [Indigenous People's Day - no WAY does this district celebrate Columbus Day], so the next opportunity that we'll have to talk is on Tuesday. OH, and Miles is going to be gone all day on Wednesday, again. Not sure if I'm going to be taking over on that day or not...

A para who works half the day with the girl in the wheelchair approached me today and said, "I just wanted to tell you that you did an AMAZING job yesterday. I mean, you were FANTASTIC." Wow. Then, when we had Community Circle time after lunch and went around the circle saying how we felt today, when it was her turn she said, "I feel happy. But, I also want to say that Eric handled things perfectly yesterday and he should be very proud of himself. He did a GREAT job." Double wow.

The girl with autism had a pretty good day. Monday and today she has worked with me while we were doing some Math book pages as a group on the rug. Initially, she resisted, but when I got out her book and set it on the rug [along with a pencil] next to me, she came over and sat down and got to work - no explanation on what exactly to do necessary - she just sat down and started circling all of the circles, etc. She did so well, and worked so diligently [after she completed each section she grabbed my arm, pointed repeatedly at what she did, and then I said "Good job!" and gave her a "thumbs up"], that I gave her a sticker for her efforts [it was decided at her IEP meeting Monday afternoon that she should be given these as a reward].

Oh, and speaking of Community Circle and the girl with autism: as we go around the circle, with each person getting a chance to answer the posed question, a white stuffed bear is passed. The rule is: the person holding Honey Bear [the bear's name] is the only person that should be speaking. EVERY DAY, when Honey Bear is passed to the girl with autism, she holds it close to her for a couple of seconds, and then passes it on. It's SO cute - like, she sees other people hold it and then pass it on, so, even though she doesn't want to say anything, she still does what everyone else does. Painfully adorable.

I thought you might like to know the lyrics to Mimi Mouse's song - we met her today. It's just as embarrassing and ANNOYINGLY infectious as Sammy Seal's song. In case you REALLY want to hum along, it's sung in a "jazz-style" to the tune of This Old Man:

Mimi Mouse, Mimi Mouse,
Minds her manners in the house.
When she sips her milk,
she never makes a mess.
Mud pies never stain her dress.

[And then, much to my gut-wrenching horror, the singer on the tape actually SCATS a bit!]

Mud pies??

I have to take a test on Saturday, and I'm starting to get freaked out about it. I haven't mentioned it before because I'm trying not to think about it. It's called the RICA, and, barring anything going horribly wrong in the next 9 weeks of my Student Teaching, it's the only thing that stands between me and my FINALLY getting my Credential and being able to FINALLY get my own classroom. Not much pressure at all.

Today was: [a little chaotic, but overall-] SMASHING [considering...]

All things considered, today went quite well and I'm pretty pleased with myself. I did it. Sure, I've handled classes all day before [back in Indiana - substitute teaching and student teaching], but this time it means a lot more to me.

One thing that I did today because Miles did it yesterday and I thought that it was the cutest thing was this "game" called "No Zoo For You". So, we're in the midst of learning about the /s/ sound [with good ol' Sammy the Seal], right? Well, a kid is given two pictures, one that has an item on it that starts with /s/ ["sun"], and one that doesn't start with /s/ ["map"]. It is explained to the kids that you are opening an /S/ Zoo and you only want items in the zoo that start with an /s/ sound. Their job is to pick up the picture that doesn't start with the /s/ sound, look at it, and yell out, "NO ZOO FOR YOU!" I'm telling you, it's adorable - the kids just get SO into it, and each kids yells it out in their own adorable way. The kids didn't seem to get as big a kick out of it today as they did yesterday... but I did.

Ironically, the part of the day that I was most worried about ended up going the best. I wasn't feeling so confident about the 10-10:30am slot when we were going to sit on the rug in a circle and have a literature discussion on the 4 books we read recently [I Need a Lunchbox, I Went Walking, My Red Boat, and What's My Favorite Color?] - plus, it was during this timeslot that my supervisor would be visiting. In the morning, before school, I looked again at the signup sheet, saw that no one signed up to have our supervisor visit in the afternoon, and considered changing times. Luckily, I didn't switch. The morning went really well, and the afternoon felt quite chaotic. It was probably just me, because when the sub asked how I thought the day went and I mentioned that the second half of the day seemed out of control, she said, "OH, it could've been A LOT worse. That was not chaos." I guess it just FEELS like chaos when the noise level in the room is higher than your used to and you've got 4 or 5 kids yelling "ERIC!" all at the same time.

The most chaotic time of the day was definitely Math time. First, we went over to the calendar and the girl in the wheelchair got to move the arrow from "Monday" to "Tuesday", etc. The whole time, one of the students was tapping on my foot, one was eating paper, one was looking at some folded up piece of paper, a bunch of kids were gabbing quietly, one girl in front kept fidgeting all over the place, the girl with autism [who, thankfully, had no MAJOR freakouts] was rolling onto her back and kicking her feet into the air, kids were calling out my name, etc. It was just one of those Calgon Take Me Away moments where EVERY LITTLE THING was adding up to something HUGE. I pride myself on my ability to remain calm, but I swear I was inches away from puffs of smoke coming out of my ears. Next was Math Center time. Most of the groups worked quietly, but the Magnet Center was OUT OF CONTROL. LOUD TALKING, FIGHTING, GRABBING, THROWING THINGS, PLAYING INSTEAD OF WORKING - just CRAZY. After a little while, I walked over and said, "Ok, we're done here. You guys don't seem to be able to work together with the magnets so none of you are going to work with them." I took all of the magnet stuff away and plopped down a bag of rocks on the table. "You guys can sort rocks and I hope that you COOPERATE this time." When I came back to the table a few minutes later, they were sorting rocks as a group instead of individually. That made me feel warm inside.

I WAY over-planned for today. No, I didn't over-PREPARE, there was just way too much that I wanted to do. Like, I SO ran out of time for a lot of things. In Science, the kids were supposed to draw their own eyes [after looking into little mirrors] and then the eyes of a partner. Didn't happen. Well, they had JUST enough time to draw their eyes, but that was it. There were a bunch of phonics-y/language arts things that I had planned that we SO didn't have time for. After the literature circle, we were supposed to read another book, brainstorm a list of sentences about the "Eating a Rainbow" activity we did yesterday [the kids got to eat different colored fruit], and then go to their seats to write/draw about that activity OR the book that we just read - and the drawing/writing was going to be posted on the Best Work wall. Well, I wanted to be sure that the kids got to to write, so I didn't read the one book until AFTER Writing time. Then, I only brainstormed a couple of sentences with them about eating the fruit, and I felt so rushed that my handwriting [on the dry erase board] was ATTROCIOUS - like, a REALLY bad model for the kids to go off of. Ugh.

So, my supervisor was there for the literature discussion circle, which, as I said, was one of the most successful parts of the day. I reintroduced the 4 books, got the students to recall plot details and the sequence of events from each text [the kids did a GREAT job here], and then had them think of similarities and differences amongst the books. The supervisor noted that I do a good job of "shifting", or, knowing when and how to rephrase questions when I'm met with blank stares. She also noted that I should "keep my sense of humor and continue to pick up on what the children are telling you." In my book, those are two of the most important things that I can bring to the table as a teacher.

I'm exhausted, feeling a lot like I did after the first couple of weeks of school. The school day isn't all that long, but, MAN does it FEEL really long. It was a fun, full day and I'm looking forward to Miles being back to school tomorrow. I'm totally up for taking the class the whole day anytime, but I need a couple of days to recoup before I do it again any time soon.

Tomorrow, Sammy the Seal gets a friend: Mimi the Mouse!! [Cringe.]

Today was: Really Good

Today was really good, yep. Unfortunately, it was REALLY long - I was at school until 5:30pm - and I'm kind of tired, pretty hungry, and I have a lot to do to prepare for tomorrow.

Did I mention that tomorrow is going to be my first "Solo Day"? Miles is going to some professional development seminar tomorrow - yep, we're having a sub. The sub is the one that we had in the room a few weeks ago when Miles was taking kids out to be assessed, and she's the one that the whole school calls first when a sub is needed. SO, when I saw her in the lunchroom last week I said, "So, we're going to be working together again next week. I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to try and do the whole day by myself..." She seemed to go for it, but we'll see how hands-off she can be when it comes down to it. I'm pretty confident that it will go well [Miles said that he knows I'll do a great job] since I've got the routine pretty well ingrained - I know how the structure of the day works, it's now just a matter of figuring out what SPECIFICALLY to say, and when to say it. What's worse is that Miles and I didn't get to talk much about tomorrow because he left early on Friday, we were pressed for time to get stuff ready for today this morning, and we had the IEP meeting [for the girl with autism] from 2:30-5:00pm [!!] after school today. BUT, my MAJOR worry is that the girl with autism will have a day like the last time there was a sub - if you don't remember what happened, I'll refresh your memory: IT WAS HER WORST DAY EVER. I've already talked to the Principal and he has said that if she is a problem at all that I can send her to his office [she HATES going there because he makes her sit in silence with the lights out - basically, without ANY sensory stimulation], which is reassuring.

Oh, did I mention that tomorrow is also a day that MY SUPERVISOR IS COMING TO OBSERVE ME? SO, there's even MORE pressure for the day to go well. SO, I'm going to cut things short here and get busy on getting things ready [like my sanity] for tomorrow.

OH, and if you live in California, GO OUT AND VOTE TOMORROW/TODAY (Tuesday, October 7th)!

I'm sick. No, not dirty sick, I'm not feeling well sick. It started last night right after I posted here. Brian got home, we ate a late dinner, and suddenly my nose started to run [actually, that's not true - it started running during my seminar...], my throat felt really scratchy, my head was stuffy, and I got really crabby. I kept waking up all night with cottonmouth, unable to fall back asleep [yes, I realize that it is a contradiction to say both "I kept waking up all night" and "I was unable to fall back asleep"...], and still feeling crabby. I woke up thinking, "Crap. Why did I agree to go into school today?" I mean, I really wanted to go to school, but, because I was feeling sick, I knew that it would make everything a whole lot worse.

I showed up at school during lunchtime, and Miles and I quickly went over the schedule for the afternoon. He seemed to feel REALLY bad that he not only had me come in on my day off, but also that I had to come in when I was feeling so nasty. At Community Circle time, right when the kids got back from lunch recess, Miles told the class that he was going to be leaving early and that I would be taking over. I interjected something along the lines of, "I've got to say that I'm not feeling so good. SO, I'm going to ask you all to be EXTRA good and quiet after Miles leaves." It seemed to work. Recess time came, Miles grabbed his bag, we led the kids out to the play-yard, and then Miles left. My time began. Admittedly, I let the kids play outside a bit longer than I probably should've - (a.) I wanted them to work off as much energy as possible, and, (b.) I kind of wanted to postpone our having to go back into the classroom as long as possible. When I yelled out, "Room KB, line up!", surprisingly, EVERYONE CAME AND GOT NICELY IN LINE. It was magical. I led them back inside and in order to get them to all come over to the rug and plop down without too much gabbing I played a short game of "Simon Sez" with them, the last direction being "Simon says sit down quietly without talking". We read a short poem together ["I Love Colors"], and then I explained what their Center Time choices were. I broke the rules by allowing more than 4 people in the ABC Center, but I don't think that I'll get in too much trouble for that. Honestly, it was one of the quietest Center Times that I've witnessed so far. The kids all sat in their centers, worked on what they were supposed to work on, and there were no complaints, fights, or tears. I'm not sure if it was set up ahead of time as a way to keep an eye on me, but the Resource teacher ended up being in the room working one-on-one with the girl with autism the whole time - I didn't mind this too much because it kept the girl with autism occupied. After Center Time, I gathered the students back on the rug and I read them "The Wishing Well" from Arnold Lobel's Mouse Tales [one of my favorite books from one of my favorite children's author/illustrators]. They seemed to get into it, and liked predicting what would happen next. 1:45 came and we did Appreciations - I mentioned that I appreciated that the students cooperated with each other and with me that afternoon. As the students left the room, I continued Miles' tradition of getting either a hug, a handshake, or a "high 5" from each kid. Most gave hugs. They really are a sweet bunch of kids. The girl who said that I smell nice gave me a SUPER long hug. I asked, lifting my arm so she could get a sniff of my armpit, "Do I still smell nice?" As she took a whiff, I looked back and saw that the Principal was standing right behind me. What must he have thought?

Miles had said that I should leave right after school, but, I ended up sticking around until 3:30 [an hour and a half after school ended]. Well, I thought that I would make sure the room was straightened up, plus I wanted to set up as much as I could for Monday since he didn't get to. Actually, I noticed that I had left my reading program Teacher's Edition at home, so I RAN HOME, GOT THE MANUAL, AND WENT BACK TO SCHOOL. How crazy am I? Such dedication for one whom, you might remember, is feeling under the weather, eh?

At about 3, as I was grooving to some Underworld on the classroom CD player, the classroom door opened and the girl with autism and her mother came into the room - the girl had left her quilted vest in a corner of the room. The mom and I talked for a good 10 minutes or so, and it made me like her and her daughter a bunch more. She asked about my role in the class, my life after December 12th [when Student Teaching is over], she offered me tips on how to deal with her daughter, she talked about how difficult it has been for her to raise a daughter with autism [ugh, this hurt...], she said that her daughter speaks a very little bit at home, and she wondered if it was interesting for me to get to have a girl with autism in the class. As she was further endearing herself to me, I couldn't fight off a thought in the back of my mind: we have the IEP meeting Monday afterschool which will likely decide that her daughter shouldn't be in our class. It is VERY interesting for me to get to have a girl with autism in the class.

Today was: REALLY Good

As you can probably see (if you look at the "Today was" part of the last 4 entries), this week went REALLY well - certainly, it was the best week so far. I'm officially 1/3 of the way done with Student Teaching and, as with just about everything else in life, it seems to have gone by WAY fast and WAY slow. I've got to go into school tomorrow at lunchtime so that I can talk to Miles about what I should be doing with the class from 1-1:50pm [since he's leaving early and handing the class over to me]. We didn't get to talk about it today after school because he had an impromptu/emergency meeting (which I'll address here tomorrow), and I had to leave right after school to make it to my seminar on time. I'm starting to get a bit nervous about my 50 minutes of solo teaching tomorrow, but, I know deep down that it will go just fine. Miles said that he mentioned to the Principal that he would be skipping out early and that he was going to let me finish out the day with the kids alone, and in response the Principal put his hands over his ears and went, "LaLaLaLaLaLa". Whether things go well, or horribly, it doesn't really matter - I'll learn something either way.

Today was: Very Good

Along with the new theme that we started today [That's right! "Colors All Around"!], there are new phonics and phonemic awareness goals. Yesterday was the last day that the kids were introduced to new letters of the alphabet [the program, inexplicably, paired up the introductions of "Yy" and "Zz" in a single day - I guess it's because 26 doesn't divide equally into a 5-day school week...], and today we began letter sounds by talking about the letter "S". Unfortunately, the letter sounds concepts are presented using The AlphaFriends, and embarassingly ridiculous bunch of picture cards and doofy songs. Here's Sammy the Seal's song (to the tune of "Yankee Doodle") which we got to sing today:

Sammy Seal will sail the sea
when summer is in season.
Sammy Seal will sail the sea
and never needs a reason.
Sammy Seal will sail the sea
in very sunny weather.
Sammy Seal salutes a seagull
as they sail together!

Ugh. I mean, just Ugh. It seriously makes me almost NOT want to be a kindergarten teacher in the district next year if it means that I have to, without irony, acquaint the kids with Mimi Mouse and Reggie Rooster. Even worse, yet somewhat luckily [I don't want to have to sing the Sammy the Seal song acapella] there is a cassette tape that comes with the AlphaFriends materials with recordings of each character's song. Sammy's song is this CHEESY, jaunty sailor-song style riff on "Yankee Doodle" done on a cheap Casio keyboard. Ick. When Miles and I listened to the song for the first time I said, "How embarrassed are you for the guy singing? He must have done this ONLY for the paycheck."

I got to read a book to the kids today called I Need a Lunchbox. The key concepts that I focused on [as dictated by the Reading Program materials - yes, the same ones that mandate the use of the AlphaFriends] were "Prediction" ["Look at the cover of the book. What do you think the book is going to be about based on the picture on the cover?"] and "Sequence of Events" ["Stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. What happened first in the story? What happened next? What happened at the end? Did the boy in the story really need a lunchbox? Have you ever wanted something really bad that you didn't actually need?" - a kid responsed to this last question by saying, "A videogame." Cute!]. It went REALLY well, the kids were quite attentive, and Miles said that he thought I did a fantastic job. The only thing that went wrong was a discipline issue. During our discussion at the end, one of the kids who was sitting right in front of me kept toying with another kid. Now, the kid who was doing the toying is a special case because he has some kind of "violent behavior" issues and is constantly rocking, contorting his face, and shaking his head. OH, and I guess last year, in preschool, he had a problem with striking other kids. So, I asked this boy who was doing the bothering [the "bothering" was pushing and blowing on another boy] to stand up and sit somewhere else. He refused to move. I asked him again - the whole lesson being STOPPED DEAD IN IT'S TRACKS while I took the time out to deal with this boy. He refused to move. "I've asked you twice, nicely, to move somewhere else. Now, I'm telling you to move." He refused to move. It was obviously taking too much time away from the task at hand so Miles yelled from the back of the group, "____, get up and move. NOW!" Miles apologized later for interjecting, but, I was actually kind of grateful. Sure, I was a bit upset that he overrode my authority, but, it could've been a WHOLE lot worse if the boy continued to disobey me. I've certainly asserted myself with success to a few students - in fact, the girl with autism actually seems to be listening to me and following my directions these days. For a while there, it really seemed like she treated me as a joke and that the sound of my voice triggered giggles and ABSOLUTE defiance. Well, lately when I raise my voice with her she tends to listen. Small victories.

I was invited by the Head Special Education woman today to sit in on the IEP [Individualized Education Plan, I think...] for the girl with autism - it's going to happen Monday after school. COOL, huh? It is at this meeting that the parents, the Principal, the Reading Recovery specialist, Miles, the Head Special Education woman, and other people that I'm probably forgetting will sit down and write up a formal plan for what will be the ultimate fate of the girl with autism. This is BIG for a Student Teacher [well, at least it's big for this Student Teacher] - it's kind of like an intern at a hospital being asked to "scrub in" for a brain surgery for the first time. WAY interesting stuff to take part in that will really come in handy when I have to do them for students in my own classroom.

I think I've been elected to stage a revolt in my seminar class tomorrow night. You see, more than one person has come up to me and said that our seminar is boring and feels like a waste of time, and I've brought up that I think it would be helpful if we got to meet for 20 minutes or so with the other Student Teachers at our same schools [there are 4 others at my school and I RARELY see any of them], and then meet for 20 minutes or so with other people in the seminar who are Student Teaching in the same grade. This would be WAY more interesting/helpful to me then some of the other things that we are being asked to do in seminar on Thursday nights. The suggestion was made to me that since I came up with the idea that I should be the one to do the suggesting to the professor. I'll let you know how it goes...