August « 2012 « Miss Night's Marbles

Queen of the coloured pencils…

by Miss Night

Or, as we like to call them here in The Canada: pencil crayons.

Seriously, friends, this:

or, from another angle, this:

may be the single biggest stroke of genius I have ever had.

Think about it for a minute: with these set up, just like this, in the middle of the room where all the kids can get to them:

What happens when a child finds a stray coloured pencil on the floor? THE CHILD CAN PUT IT AWAY INSTANTLY WITHOUT HAVING TO GUESS WHICH SUPPLY CADDY IT BELONGS TO.
What happens when we are doing a lesson where all the children will need a green pencil at the same time? THERE ARE ENOUGH GREEN PENCILS RIGHT THERE IN THE BASKET. No digging.

See, you’re thinking about it now, aren’t you?

Also, when they need to change colours, they’ll have to GET UP AND WALK, and we all know movement is good for their brains.

I used to put the coloured pencils in the supply caddies for each table. By removing them, I have room for wax crayons AND pencil sharpeners:

Suppy Caddy courtey of IKEA

(These Ikea GLIS boxes are THE BEST supply caddies ever. They have lids, so they are stackable, and the inside dividers can be moved and rearranged to fit anything you want. They were discontinued for a while, and I had to live 2 years without them because I didn’t have enough for all my tables, but they are back! Go get yourselves a half-dozen or so, you will not regret it.)

Now someone please tell me that things like a rainbow of pencil crayons, and shiny new supplies lined up in pretty boxes, make you as happy as they make me.

Or, you know, just tell me I am a very special sort of geek. It won’t be the first time I’ve heard that.

Coming this weekend: more photos of my classroom (before the children and their glorious messes arrive), and a new Ask Miss Night column. I promise.

Happy Friday, friends.

classroom

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empty chairs at empty tables

by Miss Night

It’s been kind of a sad day in my city, friends. I know I am not the only one who woke up to the news that, in a normal residential neighbourhood on the south end of town, a 13 year old boy died in a skateboarding accident yesterday. No one did anything wrong. He was wearing a helmet, and wearing it properly. The hill was steep, he got going too fast, and had a catastrophic collision with a fence. As I understand it, he died before the paramedics arrived.

I did not know this boy. To the best of my knowledge, I do not know anyone who knew this boy. It is not like me to get emotional over a crisis that is 100% not mine to claim. But all day long, my eyes have filled (and occasionally overflowed) when I thought about this one detail: he was out skateboarding with his friends. A gaggle of 12 and 13 year old boys, wearing their elbow pads and cargo shorts and Airwalks , out to enjoy a magically beautiful last-day-before-school-starts, ended up watching their friend die on a sidewalk. They had to watch him die.

I don’t know if you know many 12 year old boys. I’ve known a lot of them in my career, thanks to summer camps and teen leadership and teen nights at rec centres. They are funny creatures: still physically little boys, but full of the swagger and smirks and smartassery that they think will make them seem big. They’re starting to notice girls, but still playing with Legos in their rooms. They have a collectively big, loud, spectacularly funny, sense of humour. There is something about them that is so so big, and so so little, at the same time. More than any other age group, in either gender, 12 year old boys seem to live in a strange and magical Neverland. If you recall from Peter Pan, Neverland is exciting, beautiful, but not without its hazards and risks.

They had to watch him die.

I do not know these boys. I hope they have good mummies and daddies who will let them be little and hold them tight when the nightmares come. Because you know the nightmares will come.

I hope their friendships with one another are the deep, raw, profoundly touching friendships that boys and men can (but do not always do) have, and not the ones based only on bravado and competition.

I hope they can hold one other through this – if not physically, than at least emotionally.

I hope that the adults who love them will help them love each other.

Those little boys had their first day of school today. Today. If you are a teacher, you know: by 7pm the night before the first day of school, the lists are made. The names are written on books, baskets, cubbies, lockers, hooks. They had to face a classroom where their friend’s name was already written. He had a chair, a locker, a textbook. At least, I assume his name was written, because what is the alternative? To take it down, cross it out, leave an empty space? Which is worse, a reminder or a gap?

I hope that they have good teachers, who will help knit their school life back together. I hope their teachers will help them heal around their grief rather than over it. The holes left by lost loved ones don’t ever really close, but with time and love, the edges can become smoother, less raw and splintery.

I don’t know if you pray, friends. But if you do, please wrap these little boys in your heart and raise them up to whatever you believe in. Pray for strength and wisdom for their families and teachers. Pray for their school and the empty chair where their friend should be.

Pray that their nightmares will eventually be replaced with happy dreams of a warm summer day with their friend, the night before the first day of school.

reflection

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New challenge: September Spending Starve

by Miss Night

Ok, this is not a post about teaching, so I apologise NOW if that is what you came for. (Sidebar: could someone please tell spellcheck that in The Canada, apologiSe has an ‘s’?) Yes, I am a teacher, and yes, I mostly blog about teaching, but man cannot live on school alone, so stay with me here!

I have set out a challenge for myself for the month of September, and YOU ARE ALL INVITED TO PLAY ALONG! If you’re like me, you get a little casual about spending money over the summer because it’s vacation! I’m relaxing! I deserve a treat! And then, in August, you get a little crazy about buying stuff for your classroom and general back to school goodness (teachers need new schoolbags, too!). And then, in September, you realise (see my earlier sidebar about apologise? also true for realiSe, thank you very much.) that you better rein things in, OR THERE WILL BE NO CHRISTMAS PRESENTS FOR ANYONE.

So: I have set myself a challenge: to buy no STUFF* for 30 days. Here are the rules:

I can buy groceries.
I can buy gas for the car.
I can pay for experiences like going to the movies or tickets to a play or dinner with friends or coffee with Mom.
I cannot get takeout to eat by myself as a convenience, but I can get takeout if it is part of a social thing with other people. Ditto to buying coffee/ice cream: Starbucks alone = NO. Starbucks w/teaching partner = YES. (Note that this is a sneaky way of also forcing myself to focus on relationships, which is sort of important during the first month of a new year, right?)
If something I own and use at least weekly should fall apart or run out or irreparably break down, I can replace it.
If it is critical to my health, I can buy it.
If it is critical (critical meaning it CANNOT wait until October) to someone who depends on me (this is really just Skip for me, but if you have munchkins, this covers you, too), I can buy it.
If it is critical to the daily operations of my classroom, or the completion of my school-related responsibilities, I can buy it. (There was no way to start this challenge in September without including this, truly.)

*After much deliberation, I decided that the definition of STUFF includes digital stuff like music and books and apps. This is a big weakness for me, and it is way too easy to impulsively buy a new song I love or a book I hear about.

There you go. My rules for an entire month. My goals are really to get out of the summer habit of treating myself too often, and to gain some perspective on what my spending patterns are. I promise to post every week and let you know how I’m doing and what parts are hard or easy.

Now, who’s in? Sign up in the comments!

And, if any of you have the talent to make a happy little blog badge for “Miss Night’s September Spending Starve,” I will happily post it and the code, for all of us to share on our sites.

Now go zip up those wallets!

blog challenge Spending Starve

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Ask Miss Night: How to ensure “student led” program for all 23 students?

by Miss Night

And awaaayyyy we go!

Thanks to my new friend JB, who submitted my very first Ask Miss Night question, just hours after I first added the page. JB, you will never know what a confidence booster that was. The very least I can do in return is reply to your question first!

Starting very soon, JB will be teaching Junior Kindergarten, in Ontario, Canada. In the province of Ontario, JrK is included as part of the public school system. She has 23 students in her class, most of them are 4 year olds, although there will be a few 3 year olds for the first part of the year: children must turn 4 before December 31st to be eligible for JrK. Her children attend full days, but on alternating days – she will have 2 different groups of 23 children. (I’m assuming it is something like this: Group A comes Monday, Wednesday, and alternating Fridays; Group B does Tuesday, Thursday, alternating Fridays). She will have a classroom aide only if she has a student who needs extensive support, and if that happens, the aide will be for that student only, not the whole group. (This surprises me – I thought the Ontario model included a teacher and an ECE in each class, but maybe I am wrong? Or maybe funding has not turned out as promised?)

The Ontario Kindergarten Program requires that teachers offer a play-based, student-led program, with very little whole group instruction. From what JB has told me (as well as my own research), the role of the teacher is to serve as a guide: enhancing and extending the natural learning that occurs through play. JB has a good grasp of what this means, and seems at ease with the underlying philosophy (YAY JB! The Ontario program really is a model for other provinces, as well as other countries. You go, girl!), but her question is this:

“Do you have some tips, suggestions, strategies to help me move around the room of 23 three and four-year old children throughout the day, quickly and efficiently so that I might respond to, challenge and extend each and every child’s learning ?”

Eeep! Ok, my first thought here is: TWENTY THREE 3 & 4 year olds ALL BY YOURSELF? Cheezus Crisco, brace yourself! However, I realise that is not exactly a helpful response. Also, while we all KNOW the advantages of student-led programming, it is still a little daunting to figure out how to follow the lead of 23 children, without having to do 23 things at the same time, or split yourself in 23 different directions. (We all know the very maximum, even for teachers, is 15 things/directions at once, right?) And JB, I already admire your commitment to connecting with every child, every day. That is a big commitment, but so important. It is so easy for the quiet, compliant, meek little ones to slip under the radar until one day you realize you haven’t had a conversation with one of them ALL WEEK.

So, I think that, if I was in your situation, this is what I would do: I would make a daily checklist that I carried around on a clipboard (or maybe you could bind a bunch together in a little booklet…?). The checklist itself could be super-simple: just a spot for the date, a list of kids names, and room for notes next to each name. If you wanted to get fancy, you could make columns for things like what activities that child was doing, who they were playing with, what skills you saw, what skills need development. But, if it was me, I would just do a “Name” column and a “Notes” column. As I circulated around the room, I would add at least a checkmark, and if needed a quick note about the children as I observed and interacted with them. I would extend the children’s play as I interacted with them, but would also then use those notes to plan the next day’s play activities. I know that carrying a clipboard is a little unwieldy… if you can write really small, you could maybe make the list just a half-page, and then bind a bunch into a notebook half the size? As a bonus – think of all the rich material this would give you at report card/progress report/assessment times – you’d have daily notes on each kiddo! With 23 kids, your notes would have to be in some kind of code or short-hand, but that wouldn’t be hard to develop. This could get fun if the kids catch on to what you are doing – it could evolve to a point where they have input into what is in your notes. Once they are settled and into the routine, it might be really interesting to explicitly tell them that you make notes every day about what they are learning, what they enjoy, what they could learn next, and that if they have things they want you to remember, they can tell you. How cool would it be for them to have an active, explicit voice in the direction of their own learning?? “Please write down that tomorrow I want more time to string beads.” “Please write that I want to learn to zip my coat.” Fun, right? If you went that way, you could also make the “by request” lists public, on a white board. (You could take a picture of the whiteboard before erasing it, so you have it documented.) The more I think about it, the more potential I see to involve the children in this process…

If you have an iPad and/or iPhone/Smartphone, the other tool that could be really great for this (regardless of how/whether you involve the children), is an app called Evernote. I used it for digital portfolios for my kids last year, and am already thinking about how to also use it for ongoing notes this year. I blogged about it in detail here. You could make a notebook for each child, or a notebook for each class group, and then title or tag your notes with kids’ names… With a phone or iPad, you could type a quick note (or even snap a pic!) about each child. The iPad interface makes it pretty easy to see if there are any notebooks you haven’t updated on any given day. Once again, you would also end up with great documentation to answer parent questions and/or help you write reports.

As much as possible, I would try to move through the room naturally, interacting with the children in small groups as they play, rather than being super-systematic about following the checklist. Once there was less than an hour of potential interaction time remaining, I would check to see if there was anyone I was missing, and make a point of checking in with that/those child(ren). Again, if the kids were involved, and knew this was part of your daily routine, they would be happy to let you know if you have not checked in with one of them!

To me, the important thing here is that JB is on board with the philosophy of her program, and has a good understanding of what “student-led” should mean. JB, I hope this is helpful in some small way – please check in and let us know how it all goes! Readers, if you think of something I have missed, please jump in in the comments.

Smiles and Sunshine to all;

Miss Night

Do YOU have a question for me and/or the readers (who are, truly, ever so much smarter than me)? Click here to share the juicy details!

Ask Miss Night classroom how-to tech

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Ask Miss Night: Now Open for Business!

by Miss Night

Not much of a post tonight, – just a request that you check out my new page: Ask Miss Night!

The idea here is blog content by request – submit a question or request, and I just may answer. Questions might involve a particular challenge you are facing in your own classroom (or with your own kiddo), or something you would like me to write about, a question you have about my experience or background, or even just a request for tips and tricks. If you’re feeling braver, you can submit a question to the readers, and I will post it for people to respond to in the comments.

I feel a little weird about doing this, because I have always been reluctant to portray myself as somehow more knowledgeable than any other teacher, BUT: I loved the comments and conversation over my behaviour chart post SO MUCH, and I like the idea of making this place a little more interactive. Is that crazy? I promise to focus on being helpful & supportive and not bossy or prescriptive.

At least two of you said you thought this would be a great idea, so please don’t prove me wrong! Check out the page, submit the form, and let’s have some fun! Spread the word and pin the page, too – let’s see if we can get something going!

Ok. 12 hours at school for me today. Bath, book, bed. (Did I tell you I’m reading a book so scary I can’t keep it in the bedroom at night? Yeah, for real. I haven’t had to put it in the freezer yet, but it could be headed that way.)