Counting down to summer!

This is the time of year teacher's love... the countdown to summer break!  I need a rest... kindergarten is so fun, but it sure tires me out!  I am crazy busy right now preparing and keeping up with all of our end of the year activities.  Last week was our special spring concert, and my students did an AWESOME job on their dance performance for their families!  I was so impressed, and their parents loved it too!  The spring concert is one of my favourite events of the school year.  It is so important that our students have a turn performing on the stage at least once a year!

This week we are very busy with Father's Day, a class year-end party on Friday, year-end assemblies... and finishing some projects that weren't quite done yet!   Next week, we will be taking home lots of our work, having a day to play in the sprinkler and water tables outside, and next thing you know it will be the end of another school year.

I will miss my students a lot, however since I am teaching kindergarten again next year, I will continue to have my current JK students for their SK year.  This is my first time being able to do that, and I am so excited to see how they continue to grow and learn as they head in to year 2 of the kindergarten program.  They have made incredible gains in just one year, how exciting to follow that through!

We have only 7 more school days together, 10 days until the break if I include the weekends and next Friday's PA Day.  The count down is so on!

Reflecting on 2014

Tonight, as the house is quiet following quite a fun and festive New Years celebration with our best friends, I'm feeling reflective.  I guess a "new year" does that to you, even if you previously thought you really wouldn't bother blogging a reflection post.  Ah well, here I am!  2014 was quite a special and important year for me.

Our home was finished being constructed and we were able to move in on February 6th.  Our journey into home ownership has been such a positive experience.  We have loved living in our neighbourhood, and our place has felt cozy and right for us from the moment we got the keys.  We've been enjoying picking out some new furniture and decor, and have been able to host some nice gatherings with our friends and family here.  We hope to do a lot more hosting in the coming years, as the space continues to come together.  In 2015, our goal is most likely to paint over the horrible builder's paint in the main areas of the house.  It will be quite the interesting process as we try to pick out paint colours for such large areas of the home!  I also hope to hang some more pictures, and to get an overhead light for our dining room area and a nice, large mirror for above a buffet storage cabinet we have in that room.

Mr. Lock and I enjoyed events leading up to our wedding, and were overjoyed by how perfect and special our wedding day was on May 24, 2014.  Just two days before that, Mr. Lock turned the milestone age of 30.  Sometimes when I think back on my earlier 20s when I was so eager for marriage and domestic life, I am thankful in the end for the direction my life went.  Mr. Lock is such a fantastic husband.  He is kind, fair, accepting, helpful around the house, and is an excellent cook.  I am very, very lucky and I am thankful every day!

In the summer, we enjoyed our honeymoon vacation to the East Coast of Canada immensely.  What a beautiful place to be!

In September, I began teaching kindergarten.  This was the grade I went into this career hoping to teach one day, so it felt very special to have that dream realized.  It was a very challenging transition, in the end, and I had many moments of frustration as I adjusted to a much different educational world than the grades I had taught before (grades 1 - 4).  Kindergarten is certainly a very unique grade.  I have since learned more about the age group I am working with, and my confidence as a kindergarten teacher is returning.  I do love the age of the children, and my students are so sweet and are learning so much!  I am actually happy to return to work on Monday!  Shocking as that may seem to some people, haha.  But I do love my job!

2014 was certainly a year to remember.  As we move forward to 2015, I'm excited by the prospect of adding to our family (hopefully!  Though I don't want to jinx myself so I may not talk much about that until it happens, haha).  We shall start with adding a fur-baby, a Wheaten Terrier/Poodle Cross which we should be bringing home from the breeder in February!  We haven't "picked our puppy" yet; but the litter was born December 7th, and mid-January we should get to go and pick the one we will be calling our own.

Thanks for a wonderful year, 2014.  You were very good to me!  Cheers to another wonderful year in 2015!  My 30th year!

Happy Halloween!

I'm reminded with each special event at school just how much more exciting these events are in the eyes of children.  When I taught grade three and four last year, Halloween was very fun, but it was different and the kids weren't as "off the wall" or exhausting as teachers may expect.  Today, with senior kindergarten and grade one kids -- whoa!  They came to school wired!  SO excited about Halloween, and their costumes, and the day ahead of them.  It was hectic and crazy!

It was also THE BEST.  There is just something so special about spending these days with five- and six-year-old children.  They can express their joy so well, and they just see the FUN in things!  I even tackled carving a pumpkin with my students today, and even just the excitement they felt for getting to reach inside and pull out "pumpkin guts" was awesome to witness.   I am absolutely exhausted after this school day, but I loved it.   My students had a great day too, and are so excited for trick-or-treating tonight!

I'm looking forward to moving into our new home in February even more because I'm reminded that next year we actually have a HOUSE on Halloween.  I cannot wait to decorate it, carve our own pumpkins, and shell out to the trick-or-treaters in our new neighbourhood.  Then, a few years down the line, hopefully it will be our turn to enjoy Halloween from a parents' perspective - hectic, crazy, and so full of joy for the kids.  Reminds me so much of how fun Halloween was for us when we were growing up -- it was always one of my favourite nights of the year!

If you are a parent or caregiver tonight, enjoy it.  In our area it is wet and rainy and I know that can be miserable, but remember how fun Halloween is in the eyes of the kids - regardless of the weather.  Remember to be a big kid yourself sometimes!  It really is fun!

Happy Halloween!

What My Students are Thankful For...

Today we began discussing the upcoming Canadian October holiday.

No, no, it ISN'T Halloween yet!

My students (keep in mind I teach senior kindergarten and grade one) were so hilarious this afternoon!  I mentioned that a holiday for some families to celebrate together is coming up this weekend, and they were so stuck on the idea of Halloween!  I had to remind them of Thanksgiving, and of the Thanksgiving traditions that some of their families might have.  Then, we were sharing what we are thankful for so we could complete a short writing activity.

Well!  As we went around our community circle to each take a sharing turn about something we were thankful for, I discovered my students are VERY THANKFUL for... you guessed it, Halloween!

Also for trick-or-treating, costumes, pumpkins, and mom's who make special Halloween cookies.  Halloween was all the rage.

We had ANOTHER review of some of the OTHER things we could be thankful for, as I tried to gently lump Halloween into the topic of "I am thankful for special celebrations" in general... and yet, much of their writing was STILL about being thankful for Halloween!

Halloween is such a kid-friendly holiday, definitely an event they remember from last year, and are eagerly anticipating this year.  I'm going to try to make Halloween extra fun for my students, after hearing how excited they are for it!  I think we'll decorate our drama centre just like people decorate their homes.  Maybe we should even get started next week!

I'm thankful for my adorable students, who make my job so fun, and who give me a laugh with their personal interpretations of  the questions we ask them.

I'm a little thankful for Halloween, too.

The Learning Curve

I'm really having an excellent start to the school year.  I feel very confident in the grades I'm teaching, and I love being in my same school again, as I'm already known and familiar to the families.  That being said, this year is definitely a learning curve.  This Senior Kindergarten/Grade One split is very new, last year was the first year our school had one and it was very different.  This year, with the full-day kindergarten program, it just can't be like last year at all.  I'm forging a new way with this program, and have completed my long-range plans, so I'm feeling good about teaching the two curriculums together, it's just a new experience for all.

It's also new to be working with a designated early childhood educator (DECE).  Two teachers and only twenty students is fantastic, and I feel very fortunate for my situation.  My DECE is knowledgeable, and engaging, and she has been planning plenty of activities for the classroom.  It's still interesting sharing the program, however, and having to check in before making final decisions for my class.  I'm still in a leadership position, but I'm trying to balance it and ensure my DECE feels supported and like a leader, too.  She's also new to the school environment after being in a childcare setting, so there is some learning there, too.  It's going well, but it's new and every now and then we have a bump to get over.  Fortunately, through open communication and honesty it seems to be working well.

Our parent night is coming up at the beginning of October, sometimes we collaborate as grade teams to share our curriculum with families and present a unified program.  This year, I'm going to be presenting to parents by myself because my program is unique.  I'm hoping my DECE will be able to stay that evening too so we can present our classroom together.  I'm a little concerned with parent perception about the split class, and how the grade one parents will feel about everything, but I hope when they hear how much small group and one-on-one instruction is able to happen in our classroom that they feel comfortable about their child being in the combined grade classroom.  Parent pressure is so challenging in this job, even at grade one level it can be very stressful just how much the expect the grade ones to be doing.  Play-based learning is a huge push right now though, so they will have to get comfortable with the idea that play is happening... something new to teach the parent community!

All in all, a very successful school year so far, I'm so happy with how it is going... I'm just trying to keep a positive, collaborate relationship going with the DECE, and I'm looking forward to getting through parent night in a couple of weeks!

Let the second week begin!

I had a fantastic first week of school last week!  My class was so eager and interested in being back in the classroom, they were just wonderful to meet and teach!  I am really looking forward to what this school year will bring, because that was one of the best first weeks ever.

This year I'm running a class blog for my students and their parents -- I plan to update the blog a couple of times a week, once with a teacher message about what we're learning and with some updates for parents about upcoming dates or events, and then once with a post written with my students' input ("shared writing") using our Smart Board to project the blog and write a post together.  The blog is completely private, families have to login to view it, as I believe in privacy first when sharing about the classroom online.

I've had parents visit already -- the page views have gone crazy this weekend!  Despite only having seven families leave a comment on my welcome post, and three of those families comment again on the next post, the page views are at 258 views!  It was 43 the evening after I sent the logins home (Wednesday), so that's quite a nice jump this weekend.  I'm hopeful that families will appreciate the opportunity to interact with our classroom this way.

This week my goal is to make my way through senior kindergarten assessments, I'll need to get the students started on independent activities and then meet one on one as often as possible.  It's incredibly valuable to do these September assessments of things like letter identification, reading, and number sense because then I can better tailor my program to individual learning needs -- and I can begin to create some guided groups.  After I make my way through the kinder assessments, then I need to read one-on-one with my grade one students.  That will be my week three goal.

I had a nice surprise tonight, an email from the mother of a student I worked very hard with for the past few school years.  This year the child is at a new school in the gifted program, but his mother had asked for my email address last June.  I hadn't heard from the family in the summer, so tonight it was lovely to have a special letter about the first week of school from the student.  He was very important to me, and I hope he will be very successful at his new school.  Just a lovely treat to hear from the family, because we had worked so hard together on social-emotional support for their son.  There will be many students in the long career I have ahead of me, but already having such a significant impact reminds me of the rewarding aspect of this job.

On to week two of this new school year, looking forward to it!

My beautiful classroom!

Tomorrow is the first day of school!  I'm so excited for it!  I'm so happy to be back to teaching early primary, I love working with younger kids and teaching early learning skills.  My classroom is adorable if I do say so myself!  My Early Childhood Educator (ECE) was fantastic in helping it to get to this point -- she really contributed, and had plenty of amazing ideas!  I'm looking forward to team teaching with her this year.

Here are some photos of various areas of the classroom!

Classroom library area

Creativity centre for art and literacy

Dramatic play centre

Science/Inquiry centre

Math centre

Cubby area, with adorable alphabet made by the ECE

So, these are just some of the main centres in the classroom.  I have other areas, too, such as grade ones having their own desks so that they get the "full grade one experience" even though they are in a senior kindergarten and grade one combined classroom.  We also have a whole group learning area and a Smart Board in the classroom for interactive lessons.  I'm so excited to meet my kids tomorrow, and get started on this program!

Happy first day of school tomorrow to families who have kids going back, or to teachers who are returning after summer break!

Exhausted.

I've been back in my classroom since Monday morning, each day (except Wednesday), and I am EXHAUSTED.   It sure takes awhile for a teacher to build up their stamina after the summer break!

This week is particularly tiring because it begins by moving around A TON of furniture.  I've moved to a new classroom (for me), and cleaning it thoroughly and setting it up *just right* is quite the chore.  During the summer, everything has to be stacked in a corner and all of the furniture gets removed for floor cleaning by our caretaking staff, so re-arranging the room is the first job and it sure works the muscles!

I've met my teaching partner, the Early Childhood Educator who is a part of my classroom because of the full-day kindergarten program.  She has been fantastic this week!  She has been cleaning and scrubbing and has shared wonderful ideas.  I'm looking forward to the students arriving next week so we can really dive in to our program planning together.  I think we are well-suited for one another, and I'm really appreciative of her help this week.  It's unpaid and voluntary, so it's much appreciated that she's there to take part in our classroom set-up.

All in all, I'm having a very positive experience being back in my classroom this week... it's just this darn exhaustion at the end of the day!  Time to hop into bed so tomorrow can be extremely productive - it's my last chance to make the classroom perfect before our kiddos arrive on Tuesday morning!   I'm going to take some photos tomorrow and share them this weekend, so you can look forward to that. :-)

A 15 Year Journey... Thank You

When I was 13-years-old, my teacher knew that I loved working with kids.  My grade eight teacher saw something in me, and she used to send me off to volunteer in the kindergarten and grade one classrooms at our school.  Sometimes, I remember "teaching"  kindergarten and grade one during grade eight more than being in my actual grade eight classroom.  The learning that came from those hands-on experiences have led me to this point in my life today, and I am forever grateful to Ms. J and the gift she gave me when I was thirteen.

When I was 17-years-old, in the twelfth grade, my youngest brother was in junior kindergarten at my former elementary school.  His teacher, Ms. K, was one of our former grade seven teachers and knew me well.  I had an afternoon spare, and was able to volunteer in the JK classroom multiple days each week.  Ms. K saw in me my passion for teaching, and often let me run the class, read stories, and tutor students with special needs.  Ms. K inspired me to be a fun, outgoing, and enthusiastic teacher.  I will forever be grateful to the gift I received from Ms. K when I was seventeen.

When I was 22-years-old, I graduated from the University of Guelph with a degree in History, and a minor in Educational Psychology.  Having not gotten in to a teacher's college program for that fall, I dove in to Early Childhood Education courses and began re-writing teacher's college applications.  I began an ECE placement in a kindergarten classroom at my former elementary school, with Ms. L.  Ms. L had me in her classroom every Tuesday and Wednesday, all-day.  She was new to kindergarten, so we co-planned and she considered me her team teacher.  She respected my knowledge, and encouraged me to pursue my passion.  She wrote me a glowing reference letter.  I worked in her classroom from September to June of that school year, and celebrated my acceptance into teacher's college alongside her and her colleagues.  I will forever be grateful to Ms. L, for the gift she gave me when I was twenty-two.

When I was twenty-three, I was hired for a tutoring program by Mrs. M, a vice-principal.  I was a teacher's college graduate, and would not be able to get in to teaching until the next fall.  Mrs. M introduced me to her staff, and to the Principal at her school - Mr. W.  I worked in a kindergarten classroom most of the time, and then worked with a small group of grade one students.  I will forever be grateful for Mrs. M and the gift she gave me when I was twenty-three.

At age twenty-four, I was hired to the school board as an occasional teacher (supply teacher).   Mr. W hired me as a long-term occasional teacher for a grade one classroom in February 2010.  I have taught at the same school ever since, taking over for teachers who have left to have a baby.  I've been a long-term grade one teacher, grade one teacher again (two of them in one year), grade two teacher, grade 3/4 combined teacher.

When I was twenty-seven-years-old, Mr. W hired me as a full-time, permanent teacher.  Back to my roots, I will be teaching a senior kindergarten/grade one class, beginning in two weeks.

Today, now age twenty-eight, I went to the school board office and officially signed my permanent teaching contract.  I am a 100%, full-time, permanent teacher in my school board.  My classroom on September 3rd is my classroom.  I am no longer covering for a teacher on leave.

Fifteen years in the making.  I will think of Ms. J, Ms. K, Ms. L, Mrs. M, and Mr. W fondly whenever I think of how I got here.  You will most likely never read this*, but thank you.  Thank you all so, so much.

*that being said, I have told them in person/email just how influential they have been over the years -- remember to tell the teachers that made a difference for you that they did so, it really makes their career mean something.

It's SUMMER! Here's a huge update about my life!

Today was my final morning of going in to my school for this past school year.  I am officially on summer break!  I had a lot of boxes to lug around, because next year I'm moving back down to the first floor of our school.  I have very exciting news -- I've secured a permanent teaching position in my school!  I still have to sign the paperwork, but FINALLY!  I'll be teaching a senior kindergarten/grade one combined grade class next year.  We will have the full-day kindergarten program, so I will also have a designated Early Childhood Educator teaching with me.  Over the summer, I have a bit of homework as I prepare for a whole new program yet again!

Life has been SO good to me this year... I got engaged, bought a house, AND now a permanent teaching position!  All is VERY well!  2013 rocks, haha.

Here's our home in progress... I am so shocked by how quickly it is going up!

It is a semi-detached home, we have the unit on the left.  We don't close until February, but they are making amazing progress on the framing!  I will be back to having a commute to work, but that's okay with me!  It can be very nice to live in a different town than where you teach.  For example, if I wasn't so close to my current school then maybe I wouldn't have already bumped into one of my students this summer (yesterday, one of my grade fours from this past year).

Wedding planning is going smoothly.  I've already bought my wedding dress!  First day out shopping.  I'm pleased, I'd like to just keep checking things off the To Do list, and then have a fun event.  We've met a DJ we like, so I think our next step is to finish booking their services.  So that's venue (ceremony/meal/bar), officiant, gown, and now DJ done.  I've also been working on photography, as I think we are going to go the route of using friends-who-are-great-photographers rather than paying thousands for a specific professional company.

So, three amazing things!!!  Now that summer is here, I plan to be blogging more regularly again.  The school year took a lot out of me, but now I'm ready to relax and enjoy July and August until I'm back at it again.

Obligatory Report Card ...Report

It's that time of year!  Report Card writing!  WOOOO!  /sarcasm.

I have to be honest here, I'm really not hating writing these report cards as much as I have in the past.  I mean, I'm a fairly good writer and a speedy typist, plus I know my students VERY well, so it shouldn't be so challenging for me.  I actually prefer having to individualize and differentiate the reports, I just open up an MS Word doc for every subject, and go to town writing about each kid and what they need to improve on. Bam!

The only thing that will always bother me about report card writing is how TIME CONSUMING it is.  It isn't the actual writing that's the problem, it's how long it takes even when I am efficient at it!!!  I have seven curriculum subjects to report on (most subjects for my 23 home room students, otherwise for 25 grade three students), and then 23 main learning skills paragraphs to write about each student.  Once I get through all of my assessment and generate final marks, time consuming outside of regular work hours as that is, it's then a good three or four hours per subject to make it through each and every kid and edit their comments well, too.

I've made excellent progress so far, my strategy this year seemed to be doing a little bit at a time as I could in the week leading up to our report card dedicated PA Day, and it really helped. Then, my immediate teaching partner and I worked together all through the PA Day to generate some next steps and opening statements for many of the subjects we plan together.  We were really on a roll, and it helped me stay on task and make great use of the day.  Today, I've spent all afternoon and evening plowing through as much as I can.  I've gotten pretty far, but still have to finish my learning skills, science, and literacy sections (marks are done, I'm working on comments).  My goal is to finish my learning skills comments before bed tonight, because I'm down to my last five students!

Then, I'll have plenty of editing to do!

So, all in all... it's a heck of a long process, but I'm not "stressed" about it, so much as I'm annoyed by how much time I have to devote to it.  At least I have to submit them Friday, then I can take a breath and relax and focus on enjoying the last couple of weeks of school with my kids.  I've enjoyed this class a lot, but am also ready for a change in the fall.

There we go, my usual June report card post.  I feel like I have a more positive outlook this year than in the past, but I'm afraid to look up my old posts in case that isn't true!

THAT type of teacher? Not I, apparently.

You know, my ambitions were grand when I first became a teacher.  I was going to have THAT classroom -- the well-coordinated, welcoming, colourful, well-organized classroom where little Disney-esque bluebirds flit around your head singing beautiful melodies as you enter the room.

Flash forward, to a mere four years since my teacher's college graduation... and I've already learned that it is NOT all that realistic to be THAT teacher.  It's not realistic to follow those AMAZING ideas you see on blogs for a perfectly colour-coordinated classroom.  It's not realistic to believe that your students will be able to take care of any belongings, shelving, books, ANYTHING LABELLED in any way that will keep your classroom looking organized and gorgeous past the first day of school (even if your kids are TEN-YEARS-OLD in the fourth grade).  It just isn't realistic that every project and note home will have gorgeous, fancy fonts that you can later upload to Teachers Pay Teachers.

Frankly, all those AMAZINGLY PRETTY-AND-UNATTAINABLE-CLASSROOM teachers... I admire them, am jealous of them... but man.  I've already learned that the bar they have set is too high to reach.  Every time I move classrooms, I lose stuff or lose some of my colour-coordination because I need to replace some bins, or other items, and nothing matches from before.  Every year I spend my own money on certain things to "beautify and organize" the classroom, and by October the kids have smashed it, lost pieces of it, stepped on it and left it on the floor.... only to either leave me with messy, ugly used stuff the next year... otherwise having to buy BRAND NEW STUFF after only 10 months of use out of my own pocket.  Forget that.

Also, our caretaking staff barely cleans or dusts ANYTHING, and especially seem to rebel against cleaning furniture or extra carpets that were not originally in the classroom... so unless I just want more stuff to collect dust and dirt, it's not even worth having pretty IKEA things in my classroom.

Frankly, It's OKAY for it to be like this!  I've already learned the importance of work-life balance.  I take my time to keep working at the school until 5 or 5:30 every day -- a nice, typical work day.  When I go home, I try VERY HARD not to bring too much home with me (there's always SOMETHING to do, but I try to keep it small).  I've learned that I am a better, in-the-moment, engaged-with-students teacher when I am putting my 100% effort in during the school day, and am recharging by doing something OTHER than being a teacher in the evenings.  I've learned that I value my kids at school most when I am not really worrying over my classroom being perfectly matchy-matchy.  A lot of you who read this are parents, I bet keeping your kids play areas and bedrooms at times is a hassle... multiply those rooms by having 23 kids of the same age (at least) in them... forget it!  We "tidy up", but we don't have to have matchy bins to do that.

So, while I admire, and am quite jealous, of the insanely well-coordinated, matchy!!!, nature-inspired full-day kindergarten demonstration classroom I saw tonight... forget it.  I'm going to try REALLY HARD not to get worked up over not being able to do the very same thing.

Sometimes, you need to just be REAL, and teach kids in a REAL way... not everything has to coordinate!  So, there's my very blah blog post about my somewhat blah at times classroom.  You know what though, my kids will remember me for the lessons they've learned and the respect I gave them... not for having matching bins and baskets for them to forget to put their stuff in every day.

/END RANT.

P.S.  Unless I get a permanent position elsewhere, looks like I'm in for another change next year - a senior kindergarten/grade one split class (SK/1 they call it).  I'm actually VERY excited to move back down to early learning... bring it on!  It's also the first year our school will have the new Full-Day Kindergarten program, so it will be very interesting!

I'm still here!

Hi Internet,

I am still here.  It is report card writing crunch time, so I'm a bit of a hermit.  They are due Friday, then life can resume!

So, I still exist.  For now, however, it's back to writing about these kids...

Fine. Let's get Political.

I don't really want to, I don't want the backlash... but then again... I believe in our cause.

I'm an educator in Ontario.  A member of the Elementary Teacher's Union of Ontario.  Someone asked me why, in plain English, why we are having a political protest day.  Why we are against this Bill.  Here is my reply (edited to make more sense for a blog post).

Bill 115, Subsection 15 (2) - the subsection that puts the government above the Charter of Rights and the Ontario Labour Relations Act. We are fighting because we live in a democracy, and have a voice. We are fighting because the government is abusing its power, and is doing it to us because they know we are compassionate about our students, and they expected us to roll over and take it. This bill sets a precedent that the government can tear up collective agreements, legislate whatever they want, and it's not an appropriate process in a democracy. We are unionized, we have an Ontario Labour Relations Act and it protects our rights to fair collective bargaining. This has been stripped from us. Also, the bill stipulations make little to no practical sense in our schools and school boards -- nothing was written in consultation with anyone truly connected to education or with an educators background. No one even *gets* what most of this stuff will look like, or can explain it to teachers in "plain English". 

We are also using our voice and our opportunity to stand up for the caretaking staff, support staff, administration team, and school board employees -- all of whom are also having contracts imposed on them with little information or evidence of planning to what it means for the future, and whom cannot fight for themselves. We are a village, our schools are full of important people, and we are allowed to fight for our worker's rights to a fair process. 

We have been misrepresented, completely disrespected, and demeaned... and we are good people, in a very special job.  It's so hard to keep hearing that parents are angry they need to spend a day at home with their children... over and over again.  Sorry, but we have a future for your children to fight for.  We are the tip of the iceberg and we will not sit idle -- for all of Ontario.  The thing is, this is all a very human process... and quoting articles doesn't help because nothing is ever reported without bias. I'm bias too, but I'm on the front lines so here's why *I* agree to this protest. I know you will have your own feelings, of course, but you asked so here it is. I'm fighting, as a young teacher, for my future in this profession. I'm fighting so the government can't act like a dictatorship when we have the right to fair process.

Many of you, if anyone is reading this, do not agree or are not on the teacher's sides.  That's fine.  It's not easy to change someone's mind when they are not personally experiencing the whole picture.  I'm not trying to change your minds.  I do hope that any comments on this post will be respectful, as I'm being respectful of you.  Please remember that teachers are human beings.  For full disclosure, before the usual rant and rave begins about my time off and my pay... I am not a permanent teacher yet (I am a long-term occasional who fulfills the role of a permanent teacher while on maternity or sick leave, and am in my position for the full year therefore am on par responsibility-wise with the permanent staff), and for every holiday I receive $0 for that day, so just keep that in mind.  

I do agree whole-heartedly to a political protest.  This is not a union telling us what to do, we have voted and we have stood in solidarity.  This is a bigger beast we are battling than ever before, a significant impact for the future of Ontario will stem from all of this.  

Also, keep in mind.. it's good for you to be angry.  Do, please, get angry!  But then please, turn your anger towards letters and calls and email to your local MPP.  You can even rant about "the teachers", but rant to your MPP.  Ask what they are doing to ease the current education crisis.  Do it.  Anger needs to turn into action in this province.

Okay, that's it.  I really will try not to say anything else about it.  After so many negative comments out there about "those teachers" like we are faceless entities without feelings, I felt I should share something here.  Now I'll go back to movie reviews and light-heartedness.  Carry on.

Parent-Teacher Interviews

I enjoy parent-teacher interviews, in general.  I like meeting parents, I think it's an important part of the teaching job and I don't mind it at all.

However, I teach in a school where a lot of kids have a lot of pressure to "get straight A's".  Well.

I do not just hand out "straight A's" so that's the first problem.

You see, in Ontario... "Meeting Expectations" is a B - or "level 3".  If a child learns everything they're supposed to in the overall curriculum expectations, and demonstrates this knowledge consistently... they are level 3, or B.  To get an "A", or level 4, they have to be EXCEEDING expectations -- this level is typically reserved for children who have a strong aptitude in specific areas.  They may be making deeper connections to the topic they are learning and other subject areas they have learned before, they are writing with a lot of detail above and beyond what you would expect for their age and stage of development.  You don't just get A's anymore in Ontario elementary schools, you get B's.

This is a concept my parent community DOES NOT understand.  The pressure put back on me as the teacher about this point drives me up the WALL.  It's the one part of parent interviews that gives me the biggest headache.

After enough parents being "disappointed" that their child is generally a B-average (AAARGSH!!), I began to reflect.

What is most important in life -- developing good character, learning to set goals and assess them, and learning to process and understand the messages in the media that kids are inundated with these days... or the specific letter grade on a report card when you're 8-years-old?!  I don't care that the parents of my students are only obsessed with final marks... I'm still teaching good character and team-building, because I do think it will help their child be a more successful adult in the long run.  I'm teaching critical thinking skills, inquiry-based learning, and I'm also making the classroom FUN... because students need good social skills and communiciation skills to be successful one day, too.

It's elementary school!

How much of my day is spent dealing with issues because kids are NOT NICE to one another?!  MOST of our day.  MOST.  We have so many lessons interrupted having to deal with recess issues, with issues of bullying.  I won't stand for that behaviour, so I'm taking a pro-active approach -- these kids need to learn how to be GOOD people.  NICE people.  KIND people.

I had some lovely parents too, who got it and were happy.  However, I'm a teacher who cares more about teaching good character, equity, inclusivity, and about managing in the broader world outside the classroom walls, than drill work and easy A's working in a school where parental expectations are skewed and where high academic achievement is the only thing valued.

It's not easy, but for the sake of the kids, I'm keeping up with what I'm doing.  Daily happiness for children... if we want them to be successful, I completely believe they need to learn to be happy, self-confident, and respectful of each other.  I just do.

I'm off to make a cup of tea and try to just de-stress!  I hate assessing 8-year-olds with letter grades, just sayin'.

How Full Is YOUR Bucket? A GREAT book for classrooms, and families!

I am such a proud teacher, I really do love my job and love to say that OFTEN.  The best thing is, what began as a stressful school year (because it's a split class -- new to me, and TWO new grades at that) has become more routine and happy now!  We are sailing along and learning so much, and best of all my kids have really learned to treat each other with respect.  There is a lot of good stuff happening at school, and a lot of the stress is disappearing.  Hooray!  It just takes getting into a routine, and then all is well.

One of my favourite things to do is to build a sense of a "classroom family" within my classroom.  I absolutely LOVE the book "How Full Is Your Bucket?" -- I discovered it a couple of years ago.  This is in no way a sponsored post, if you're wondering, I'm just seriously passing along something I really enjoy using in my classroom.

I read "How Full Is Your Bucket?" to my class early in the school year, within the first two weeks.  We discuss the concepts found in the book - that we all have this invisible bucket, and we are either bucket fillers or bucket dippers.  We fill other peoples buckets in various ways (my class and I brainstorm how to fill a bucket), and we empty (or dip) into each other's buckets when we are disrespectful or unkind.  The kids REALLY get this concept.  Many teachers in our school are beginning to use this book, and even the kindergarten aged children are understanding much more about being nice and being a good friend through this idea.  It's very powerful!

The next thing I do with my class is introduce them to the idea of leaving appreciation statements for one another.  I have a large bucket outline drawn on chart paper, and the kids fill out these small rectangular pieces of paper that have a template on them for sharing what you appreciate a peer for.  So they say:  "I appreciate _________ because _____________ .  From: ____________".  The kids fill in the blanks (obviously the blanks are bigger).  They leave the statements in my mailbox, and I put a sticker on them and then tape them to the large bucket outline, just outside our classroom door (because they like to appreciate kids from other classes sometimes too).

At the end of the month, I'm taking down the appreciations and creating a Wordle out of them.  I'm then able to post these Wordles on our classroom wall for the whole school year, and we can have fun tracking the main reasons we have appreciated others -- which leads to great discussions about even more ways we can do nice things and show respect and friendship.  This is my first year doing the Wordle, but our first one from September and October appreciations is amazing, so I think this will be a powerful add on to the appreciation statements.  The kids get to take home the appreciations that were written to them.

Our September/October appreciation Wordle

One of the best parts of this, which happened quite naturally but which I am so very proud of, is that my kids have begun to appreciate others anonymously.  Rather than leaving their name, after "From: ____" they are beginning to write "a friend", "a mystery man", etc.  The cool part of this is, they are learning that they can appreciate others without needing someone to thank them back, or without needing someone to in turn write an appreciation to them.  This is so powerful, and shows this project moving towards intrinsic motivation for kindness.

It feels good to fill a bucket, as much as it feels good when someone else fills yours.  That's another concept in the book - by filling others' buckets, we fill our own too.  My students this year are REALLY getting that idea, and I just love this easy way of building a caring classroom community, and a positive climate for learning.  Give it a try for yourself!

I bet you could even do something like this in your household amongst your children and family members if they need to learn a little more about showing appreciation and recognizing ways to appreciate others (family members or even strangers -- "I appreciated the person who held the door open for me at the mall" is just as nice, it stretches their positive thinking when they recognize the positives in the world!).   You could make a bucket template for your fridge, and stick appreciation statements on it with magnets!  It would also make for great conversation topics over the dinner table.

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Speaking of great things for the family and kids, Disney/Pixar's Brave is out on Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack TODAY!  I have FOUR copies to give away... so enter on this post here for a chance to win!  Contest ends 12:01 am on November 23rd!

Anti-Bullying

I'm only just catching up on some of these stories about Amanda Todd, the poor girl in British Columbia who made a few mistakes at an extremely young age, and was then tormented to the point of suicide.  I am shocked, saddened, and appalled by the accounts of what happened to this young girl.

The fact is, bullying happens all the time.  It always has.  I'm a good person, and yet I feel guilt to this day because I know in the sixth grade I was sucked in with my peers, and I too treated a classmate poorly.  I was not the instigator, but I certainly laughed when everyone laughed, and didn't make a move to stop anyone from treating this boy like crap.  I'm just glad to know that as he grew up, he married and has a great job and is doing well.  We were later somewhat in the same group of friends, so I hopefully have redeemed myself since.  I also use it as a lesson learned, and try to live my life as respectful, supportive, kind, and loving to others as I can.  However, especially being in the job I'm in now as a teacher, I still do regret being a Mean Girl age at 11, even just the little bit that I was.  Age ELEVEN, before I could even really control myself, and I still have regrets.  I'm sorry I ever laughed when the others laughed, I'm so sorry about that.  I still did it then, and it's just reality.  I'm a very GOOD PERSON, and yet I cannot let go of this memory of a mistake from my childhood.

You know what?  I'm not perfect, and absolutely nobody is.

Bullying is just made so much worse now by social media, by people being able to say and do whatever they like while hiding behind a computer screen.  It is so disappointing that kids are using the Internet this way, that they are somehow missing important education about appropriate online behaviour.

Let's face it though... there has always been mean words between kids and teens, and even adults.  Always.  This isn't an excuse for it, but it is reality.  We need to keep working with our children and students all the time about the fact that words and actions hurt, but even while doing that... once they are together in a peer group and "survival of the fittest" kicks in for popularity reasons... mean words and actions take over.  We need to consider how we live our own lives at adults... what are we modelling in front of kids?  Are we ranting and raving about people in our life and how much we dislike them?  If so, your kids are going to school with the mindset that they can also rant and rave about people, which then gets the mob mentality going with their friends, which then turns in to bullying.  

We need to teach the following lessons to kids, from the moment they are born:

1) We are all UNIQUE and it is BETTER for human beings to be unique.  So stop tormenting others just because they are different from you!  I teach my students the following: "If we were all the same, life would be so boring!  What would we talk about?!" -- my students repeat this, and seem to "get it" at least a bit.  We have a very multicultural classroom, and there has been nothing negative said ever about cultural differences for example -- so this is working at some level, at least about race (a start).  We don't HIDE our differences, we celebrate them.

2) Every single human being has the right to be respected.  They have the right to be "who they are", because we need all kinds of people to do all kinds of different jobs in our world.  We are not to make someone feel poorly about who they are, because there is a special place and a reason for them to be in our lives.

3) It is OKAY not to love everyone around you.  You know what, we can't all agree all the time, and we will have different opinions.  This is actually OKAY.  HOWEVER... it is how we react in the moment towards that person that matters.  If you do not love someone, you still need to be respectful.  Then, you may go about your life without them in it later on.  You have to get through the moment so that the other person never realizes you don't absolutely love them.  Then, let them live their separate life from yours however they see fit.  You don't have to LOVE everyone, but you cannot be disrespectful of them because this is a big earth and you can simply be separate later on.  You can achieve this while still being nice in the moment.

This is a lesson teenagers do not understand.  They are in their own bubble, and they cannot leave their peers alone... let's start to remind them, they do not have to be in those peers' lives forever... they will form their own groups, own families, in their own locations.  For now, they just have to get through high school and then they can explore the much bigger, wider world beyond it.

If we fake it, and teach kids that "you must like everyone", we are actually not helping the problem.  This is when kids are much more sneaky, when they cyber-bully and write mean notes.  Let's just be HONEST... No, they will NOT like EVERYONE they meet.  OF COURSE NOT.  BUT, it is how they treat them in the moment that will matter most.  It is still about letting that other person live a normal, happy life regardless of if you personally love who they are.  It is just about leaving others alone.  You don't have to become their best friend and call them every day, but you are not allowed to outcast them in a harmful way either.  There is something called "tact", and I believe we should be teaching "tactfulness" to children -- it will help them immensely as adults.  If Amanda had of been left alone when she went so far as to CHANGE SCHOOLS multiple times, then her past may have been forgotten.  Those teens in her life should have learned how to just let her be -- let's unfriend some people on Facebook!  Let's stop having so many random people from our past be a part of our life now, especially harmful or rude people.

4) People make mistakes and those mistakes should be allowed to be forgotten.  Even if you dislike what the person did, even if you want to gossip about it, it was a mistake by that person.  Mistakes happen all the time, and each and every one of us will do something embarrassing or silly at some point in our lives.  No one is immune to a mistake. A mistake should be able to be learned from, and then there should be the opportunity for it to disappear.  Unfortunately, the Internet is storing all of these mistakes.  These are now following people, tormenting people, and no one can escape their past.  What a strong message to teach pre-teens and children about the use of Facebook -- your past will follow you EVERYWHERE, LIFE-LONG.  We need to teach our children that they are not perfect little flowers.  We are doing our children a disservice if we make them believe they are immune to making embarrassing mistakes themselves.  We need to teach EMPATHY, and that they could have just as poor an experience as someone else, and how would they feel if they were never allowed to forget their mistakes?!

We also need to all remember that things that children and pre-teens do are all learning experiences.  They are experiments with growing up, with how life works, with what rules and responsibilities they have out there.  If a 12-year-old is allowed to be on the Internet unsupervised, they just might do what Amanda did.  I bet there are thousands of pre-teens around the globe experimenting online this way.  Truthfully?  They are not yet at a mental capacity to think that those choices at age 12 will follow them through their lives.  We need to start the conversation VERY YOUNG about how the Internet works, to try to build this capacity.

Let's get started immediately.  First, teaching compassion and to just leave others alone sometimes, and secondly, about the power and harm of the Internet and social media.  Let's model appropriate behaviour, build empathy, and teach our kids that no one is perfect so WHY do they think they have the right to treat someone else so poorly?!  Let's build a global community based on the simple foundation of mutual respect.

I fully believe these lessons, and regret that at age eleven I laughed when my peers laughed at that boy.  I'm trying to right the mistake I made as a child, by helping others to hopefully NOT join in like I did... to realize the error of their ways.  It will start with the adults, the teachers, the parents -- kids and teens are not yet thinking about their actions on a global level, they are not at the mental capacity yet, we need to build that capacity.  Please do your part to help.

Farm Fresh Veggies

Last week, I did in fact prepare a dish for my students using the veggies they harvested on our field trip.  Seriously, who says teachers don't go the extra mile for their kids?!?

The selection was only so much of each vegetable, so Mr. Lock and I chose to cube the turnip, squash, and potatoes, and then add some cut carrot and some onions.  We then prepared the swiss chard to add to the dish at the last minute.

We added a bit of seasoning, and a touch of brown sugar, and then baked it all for 40 minutes or so.  I took it to school the next day, re-heated it on my prep, and the kids were SO EXCITED to try it!  Seriously!  VEGETABLES!  They said, "It smells like Thanksgiving!"

There were, of course, a few kids who didn't enjoy it... but only two boys didn't try any, everyone else at least gave it a try.  Some kids returned for seconds, and others for THIRDS!  The entire casserole dish was empty, with very little wasted.

I was shocked, but it made it worth the added effort and time outside of the school day.  I am so glad I gave this opportunity to my students!

Field Trip!

I took my students on their first field trip of the school year.  It seems so early to me, and yet it was such perfect weather to be outdoors on the farm!  Part of the grade three curriculum is comparing and contrasting urban and rural communities.  We were able to book all four of our grade three classes into a working farm/outdoor education centre about half an hour from our school.  Considering the stressful field trip I had last school year, I am just pleased as punch that today went smoothly!

Field trips are stressful, every single time you go on one.  There are so many kids to keep track of (24 for me this year), and parents to meet and keep your cool in front of (haha, not that I really have trouble with that), kids with allergies and epi-pens to keep track of.... sigh.  I always find it stressful.  However, this was such a great location, we were the only school there today... it was contained, yet the kids still had space to explore... overall, very successful day!  No one was hurt, or lost, or any of those negative things that I imagine happening every trip we take.  It's so important that kids have the hands-on experiences that field trips provide, so I'll always plan them even though they make me anxious!

The kids had a chance to pick vegetables from a big vegetable garden... and of course the farmer made a point to say that their teacher would probably let them taste the vegetables or... GULP... "make a soup"!  So, I have the most random vegetables (2 small potatoes, a few carrots, some swiss chard, some turnips and a squash)... and when Mr. Lock (my personal chef) comes home, I'll be asking him to help me turn them in to something edible to share with my kids.  I don't like "teaching with food" and rarely, if ever, plan experiences for my students that involve food... but since we're learning about processed vs. unprocessed foods in health, and they picked these veggies themselves, I suppose I should help them to try them out.

We'll see what Mr. Lock comes up with! HA!  He... doesn't know about this yet!

I am now completely exhausted, and plan on doing absolutely nothing productive for the rest of the evening besides dealing with the veggies!  I'm glad the Fall TV season is starting up, I have the new How I Met Your Mother to catch up on, and then I'll peruse and see if there are any new Tuesday night shows to watch.

Successful field trip!  Hooray!

Such a Great First Two Days!

Oh, hello!

Well, we are already in the evening of September 5th!  Where did time GO?!  TWO days of school are OVER already!?!

I have been INCREDIBLY BUSY lately... between getting ready for the new school year, and all of the exciting final details coming together for Quin's wedding (which is THIS Saturday!  OMG!).  I've been working on a slideshow for the wedding, and editing my Maid of Honour speech... tomorrow night is the rehearsal dinner!  Insanity.

I am, as I mentioned before, teaching a 3/4 split for the first time.  I've had such great days at school so far!  Having gone from grade one, to grade two, and now three AND four... wow!  First days of school get so much easier with each older grade!  Go figure, eh? ;-)

My class seems lovely, I'm so looking forward to this year!  I did have a parent yesterday who was very disappointed with their child being a grade 4 in the 3/4 split.  I suppose they felt it meant their child wasn't doing so well, and had to almost "stay back" with the grade 3's.  I explained that this isn't the case.  In fact, in our school regardless of if you are the higher or lower student in the grade, it is quite a compliment to your child's learning style that there were selected for the split class.  Typically we choose students who can work independently, and often they are quite top achievers.  Split classes are a reality because the government has a cap on our class sizes, however it isn't a negative for a child to be in one... of course that can all depend on how the individual teacher or different school runs it.

Well, this parent came to see me today (yesterday they did not speak to me about it).  I think I was able to reassure her, I will teach the kids (and I've told the kids this) like they are in Grade 3 or in Grade 4.  They will receive a fair education based on the curriculum and grade they are in.  I will ensure I differentiate my instruction and expectations, and reach out to each student as an individual based on their needs.  Having a class capped at 23 students does afford me this opportunity.

The mom gave me some of the nicest feedback I've ever heard since starting this profession: that she was very concerned yesterday but after "speaking to some other parents" she was told, "Your child is with a really great teacher right now, be careful asking for a change you might not get such a great teacher".

I was very humble about it when the parent said this to me, but wow!  How nice is that?!  I am not even a permanent teacher yet, though I've worked going on four years now covering maternity leaves in the same school.  How nice is it to hear that the parent perception is that I'm a "great teacher"?!  That regardless of concerns about the split, the general thought out there is that I will do a good job?!  She even said she thinks she'd almost prefer now for her child not to be moved.

What a confidence boost!  You don't always get much feedback as a teacher, the kids may like you but you don't always hear how the parents feel.  I try very hard to develop a positive rapport with parents, I am so glad to hear it's working out.  What a lovely thing to hear on the second day of school, I have such a renewed spirit for this school year!