Crazy Spring Time

I really have to get better at the blogging thing. Spring has been very crazy both at home and at school. A month ago, I found out that I am the teacher of the year at my school site. I'm shocked and honored at the same time. I teach with an amazing group of educators and I thank them for allowing me to represent our school this year. It makes me sad to think that students will miss out on five of my colleagues talents next year because of budget cuts and the increase in class sizes. How anyone thinks that increasing class size and cutting down on supplies and resources will improve anything baffles my mind.

Maybe now that I'm also one of the district teacher's of the year and I speak up more on child development and appropriate instructional time??? We will see.

My class did a great job with their farm unit and we also were selected as one of the stories chosen by an great group of "school assembly" performers called The Imagination Machine. Our "Polar Bear" story was acted out and it was great.

It is now our Spring Break and it is much needed for both my class and myself. I have additional work to do for teacher of the year (exciting and new) and I have several unfinished projects around my house to complete this week.

My last seven weeks of school will focus on "The World Of Animals" our last theme and we have decided on the oceans of the world to be our focus. We will turn our classroom into an ocean for open house in May. For the last two years, my classroom has been an interactive farm and rain forest so this year will continue the tradition. My students will be refreshed from their break and ready for a great deal of work on the ocean. If I can remember, I will post pictures of our successful night. I have several wonderful parents who help on a regular basis and that will be the only way our "ocean" is completed in time.

Parents as Partners,
I can't express the importance of including parents in the classroom. There is training and trusting that needs to happen first. The teacher must believe and trust in his/her teaching style and be comfortable with it before parents can spend time in the room. The teacher must have a plan for parents in the room too. It can be as simple as cutting or tracing projects, stapling homework, putting little books together etc. No job is too small. I have one mom who takes down my bulletin boards, not an easy job in my room, and hands out all the work into the cubbies. She also runs my homework and take home book program. Without Ms. Susan, my classwork would be way behind or stuck in a box until the end of the year. I also have a "Watch Dog" Dad and his wife who come in on a regular basis too and work at table groups and sit with more challenging students or work one to one in some cases. My Watch Dog mom can speak fluent Spanish, unlike myself, so that works well for helping other bilingual parents in our class stay on top of new information. In the fall, I want to open my room up in the morning so parents can read with their students. It didn't work this year because of duty schedules, but I'm hopeful that next year it will work out so we can offer this to our families. I have so many books and I've also joined the program Donors Choose to help obtain more books for my program. I once taught under an innovative grant program called Early Intervention for School Success and it taught me that parents want and should be included in our classrooms. I want to bring it back to the school I'm at now so these kinder bunny parents can share with others as they move forward.

Happy Spring!!!!