Bumps in the road

Today was by far the most difficult day in the Kindergarten classes (across the board). There were tantrums, trips to the no-sensory room (for the most defiant and unsafe behaviors), trips to the deans' office (though that's not unique to today), and apparently a suspension.

Because we are faced with such dangerous behaviors in conjunction with a whole slew of other inappropriate behavior, we often find that we must pick and choose our battles. As a result, despite the huge emphasize on 100% of scholars on task and sweating the small stuff at our school, students tend to get away with relatively less harmful behaviors that are still highly unacceptable (e.g. not sitting in SLANT position on the rug is okay because a scholar isn't hitting her neighbors). At some point, it's necessary to consider the impact that these little behaviors have on the general classroom culture.

I have my own hypotheses, but I'm curious to hear from you-how do you think not "sweating the small stuff" with certain students because it's not developmentally appropriate affects classroom culture? What strategies might you use to get 100% appropriate behaviors?

A true teacher....

Although I've only been truly "in the field" (i.e. in classrooms) for a week and a half, it feels like school's been in session for months. Some background info: last week consisted of half-days, a period of time when we get to know the students, introduce routines, procedures, etc. The purpose of this week is to get the students accustomed to the school routine, and take small steps that will help them become more successful when the full 9-hour day schedule sets in, and hence, it is dubbed "Small Successes Academy" (cute, eh?).

Throughout the past couple of days, I've started to learn about not only about the life of a school teacher (the distinction between a school teacher and a classroom teacher is that a school teacher is any teacher in the school, whereas a classroom teacher is one that is teaching in the classroom. So intuitive...but not.), but also about the life of a special education teacher (as a literacy specialist, this would be the best way to categorize me, which has its pros and cons. However, that's a reflection/venting session for an entirely different post). Although there's a lot of overlap in the experiences of a school and special education teacher (in fact, special education teachers are under the umbrella of school teachers), for simplicity's sake, I've decided to categorize experiences into these two buckets. For those of you not in education, consider this an educational glimpse (har har...) into the life of a teacher. After all, this is a blog about the life of an elementary school teacher. For those of you in education, feel free to empathize or add on! Disclaimer: these observation-reflections probably only scratch the surface of teachers' lives and may even be non-applicable to some teachers.

School teachers...(at my school anyhow)

• wake up early. The school day starts at 7:15, which means that I wake up at 5 am to take a 5:30 train. This means that it's pitch black when I wake up and leave the house. And nothing is open, including the Dunkin Donuts. The only place that is open is a local breakfast joint called Homefries (I'm determined to try it once I am more functional at 5:20 AM). It's a lonely, lonely walk to the station. Fortunately, the moon and stars keep me company
• ideally know all the names of at least 75% of the scholars in the school
• constantly reinforce aspects that make a "strong classroom community," such as "Mmm...you were just running in the hall. Walk back and try again....Much better-I knew you could do it!", "Check your uniform-tuck that shirt in!". Or my favorite interaction, and quite possibly one of the most frequent-

T: Good morning [insert scholar name]. Reach out for handshake.

S: mumble mumble mumble. Limp hand and looking everywhere except at the teacher

T: Nope. Look at me when you say it. Try again.

*on a side note-yes, still not 100% there, but you absolutely have to celebrate the small successes! Otherwise, you might be in the dumps feeling like you're an inefficient teacher for weeks on end.

S: Tries again. Repeat until gets it right

• pop up everywhere to scholars' surprise and mild displeasure ("I walk by the bathroom just as you're causing a ruckus-what a 'coincidence'")
• can be seamlessly integrated into classroom teaching

Special education teachers...

• are often summoned to relieve the classroom teachers of children that are:

a) crawling on the floor

b) sprawled out on the floor

c) standing on tables

d) hiding under tables

e) all of the above (aka glorified babysitting)

I can't say that any of these were in my job description (not that I really had a job description to begin with...), but it is primarily a result of our Small Success Academy support system, as all non-classroom teachers were oscillating in and out of the classrooms to help make the beginning of the school year as strong as possible; whether or not that actually happened...that's another story. Thus, we often found ourselves hauling out small peoples, some of whom are actually quite large for their age, which brings me to my next point...

• extracting scholars that are making unsafe decisions. Sometimes, this can be civil, with two human beings walking side-by-side. Other times, this can look like a 5 minute chase around the room, or a literal picking up of a child (though for what it's worth, it's a really great arm workout), or a dragging out of a screaming child (or at one point, a scholar laughing maniacally). As a result, there have been some bruises and scratches. Occupational hazard.
• at times, I feel shafted (secondary to classroom teachers)

Still, I'm completely new to the world of special education, so this might all change in a couple of months. On that note, because we're such a small team, and my "supervisor" (special education coordinator) is so swamped with so many things (e.g. there's currently a para crisis), I've had minimal to no direction, and so I'm mostly winging everything. Unfortunately, with my lack of expertise, this is a dangerous situation. Blah.

I've formally been inducted into the teaching world, and yet I still don't necessarily feel like a true teacher. Now to put my finger on the factors that are preventing me from feeling like a true teacher....

The First Day of School (yes, it's only mid-August...)

Tomorrow's the first day of school with our babies (the Kindergarteners; Tuesday for everyone else) and I'm psyched...the time when teaching is no longer just an idea, but reality has come. There were times during the past two weeks when I was a bit down, as everyone was working to prepare their classrooms for tomorrow while I really had no idea what my room should look like (I got as far as having a word wall and some borders, pictures coming soon), and would find myself spending my time outsourcing myself to help others set up (which always provoked a certain yearning to have my own classroom...as cheesy as that is!) or on gchat (thanks to those that entertained me!). To make matters worse, despite having spent a good couple of days in training, I still had no idea as to what my role would entail (aside from working with kids both in and out of the classroom-pushing in vs. pulling out), which produced a whole lot of anxiety in me (I'm definitely more of a planner than a "go-with-the-flow" kind of person when it comes to work). Needless to say, I've experienced quite a bit of frustration (and at least my room is somewhat homey..still looking to invest in lanterns...holler at me if you've got some donations!).

Still, I find myself, the day before the first day of school, as excited as I was 13 years ago (the farthest my memory of the day before the first day of school goes), except now I'm mentally going through my wardrobe to pick out that crucial "first-day-of-school" outfit (by the way, I'm still deciding, so recommendations welcome!). Despite having only been in the field for a mere 2 months, I've already experienced quite a bit of banana peels, but due to my tenacity (for a full 43 minute experience of exemplars and non-exemplars, check out my latest marathon, for a limited time only, since hulu shuffles through these like no other), I remain as motivated as ever, because after all, it's not about us. It's about the kids.

P.S. Here's a clip from The Secretariat that my principal showed us. Brownie points if you can make the connection to my work in education.

Commuter Tales: Commuter Woes

As any commuter can attest to, the trip to work, whether it be a "mere" 30 minutes, or a whopping 1.5 hours (that's what I have), the journey can be a time of reflection ("What are my goals for today?" "I wonder why xyz happened.") or a time of eavesdropping (http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/) or a time of interaction ("You have to be a female to use that ticket?" *cue conversation* ). Whatever the case, in my mere week of traveling, I've found that there are many a story that come from the 3-hours I experience daily on public transportation. Therefore, I've decided to start a series titled "Commuter Tales."

Just for some background info: every morning, I make the 8.2 minute trek (on foot) to the train station. Once I board, it usually takes me 1.6 stops to fall asleep. about 40 minutes later, I transfer to another line, which takes me to Brooklyn, where I proceed to take a Brooklyn bus (whoooaaa. crazy!) for about 10 min. During training, this all happens before 7:30. When school starts (in a week!), this will all happen before 6:30 (which unfortunately means that I'll be waking up before the sun rises, but on the flip side, the walk to the train station blesses me with a breathtaking view of the sunrise!).

Last Monday, I began my first day as a commuter, PUMPED to be starting training at my school (as opposed to the network-wide training at a beautiful-but-not-my-school campus). I woke up pre-alarm, and was feeling good. Day 1 of training. Awesome. High energy. Psyched! But I was tired! A full day of training, starting at 8 (but really, 5:30, when I woke up), really was a foreign concept to my body (I had to fight my body to sit upright...gosh it was tempting to just lay down on a carpet). I was about getting ready to leave to go home when I got a 3-word text from my sister that would really put a damper on my plans to go home, eat a home-cooked meal and pass out. "Trains are down."

Me: What do you mean the trains are down...why?

Her: Apparently there is a hail storm and signals are off, and trains aren't running.

Me: *looks out window* I see kids playing soccer outside, and it's cloudy, sure, but there's no precipitation.

Her: Hailing at Tai ah-yi's, but it's clear skies at home. So, it's whack.

Whack it was. (I actually had no idea how whack it was until I just google searched it)

I went to Penn station, figuring that there are more trains. When I got there, our line had recently been rebooted. Only 20 minutes to go! Though I was super hungry, I passed on the tempting pizza and Auntie Anne's, because how else would I have room to eat some delicious rice + random side dishes? So I settled for a nice jug of sweet tea from Mickey D's. 5 minutes to go, and I'm ready to board, when suddenly the time disappears! APPARENTLY MY TRAIN HAS BEEN CANCELLED. Grr. So I met up with my sister who was chilling at a nearby beer garden until the next train, an hour later, where I proceeded to be antisocial cranky-pants ("I just want to go home. I'm tired."). Day 1 of commuting, and I return home 3 hours after my initial ETA, 1 30 minutes before my self-implemented bedtime. Is this what the life of a commuter is like? Oh gosh, what happens when winter rolls around?! =X

Day 2 of my life as a commuter, and thankfully, the MTA had mostly recovered from the freak hail storm (save a 40 min. complete stop at one point, which I certainly used to maximize my napping time). Training was good, I learned about some neat mathematics pedagogy. Great. Waiting at Jamaica, where I'm holding my required reading (would highly recommend!) for training, when this guy makes eye contact with me and moves as to say "Hello!" At first, I brush it off as a creepster...and then I worry that I actually know him and am being rude by ignoring him. BIG MISTAKE. He inquires about my reading, and upon learning that I'm a teacher, proceeds to ask if he can tell me about this social psychologist whose ideas really should be implemented in the classroom. Thus begins an hour of chatter about random psychologists; importance of empathy; how he thinks my students (special needs) would love it if he came in and spoke to them, because he had a lot of learning disabilities growing up, and just look at how successful he is now!; and at one point, he even felt compelled to show me where he used to live (a white brick house, just next to the train tracks). I stupidly feel obligated to carry on the conversation, and am relieved when my stop comes, and he doesn't get off as well. I figure that I'd probably never see him again.

....except, the next morning, when I arrive at the train station, HE'S THERE. Maybe that was actually his stop and I just never noticed him because I didn't know him, but that skeeved me out a bit. Whatever, I'm only taking that train for a couple more days, and I've decided to use headphones as a "I don't want to talk" cue.

I've taken that experience as a lesson-it can be refreshing, entertaining to talk to other people on the train, but I don't think it's for me. I'd rather not, especially since I often feel obligated to continue conversations, even if I'm uncomfortable.

Change-up

Ever since my student teaching experience in the fall of 2010, I've felt an extreme sense of urgency. I just wanted to be in my own classroom. Teaching kids. Putting all this theory into practice. I likened my emotions to those of a horse or his/her jockey at Belmont, at gate, anxious to hit the ground running ("Let me at it!"). Which is similar to the emotions evoked by this situation (for all of you competitive Super Mario Karters like myself)

That feeling of excitement (due to the adrenaline rush), coupled with an overwhelming amount of anxiety due to the unknown. You might have an idea of what the experience will be like (some rolling boulders with smiley faces, or snowmen strategically placed along the track), but there are always surprises (oops, banana peel! or, hello, ink blot obscuring my vision), and you never know what the outcome will be like (unless you're a true Super Mario Kart pro, in which case, we're not worthy!).

This summer at institute gave me a sneak peek as to what having my own classroom would be like (except, of course, I shared it with 4 other individuals), and it got me even more pumped up to find out what grade I'd be teaching, and to have my own classroom to decorate, and my own set of kids to micromanage and worry about (almost) every hour of the day (I obviously did not have a healthy work-life balance mentality back then, oh so long ago). I was fortunate enough to have been hired on the first day of induction (fast. turnaround. ever.), and so all I was waiting on was my actual placement (what grade I would be teaching). I kept my fingers crossed for first grade, until I found out last week that the 1st grade team had long been solidified. Which left me with K or 2 (lower elementary teaching!), which was cool too.

Finally, last Thursday, the long-anticipated email from my principal arrived. My placement for the fall would be *drumroll* a learning specialist! A what?! A learning specialist. This definitely took my by surprised. I'm certified for general education 1-6, and and I had interviewed for a teaching position. I also have absolutely no experience with students with special needs, nor will be formally educated in this area (my TC program is for Curriculum and Teaching, and I don't qualify for a master-certification program through TFA due to my current certification). And here I was, slated to be a learning specialist, which, according to Columbia's office of disability services, entails working with students on an individual basis to help develop strategies that will help them compensate for needs in certain areas. So I would be working with students with special needs...in some context (which, as of now, is unknown to me).

BAH.

So many questions-do I not qualify as a teacher? Why me?! Yes, I'm sure that I'll love the job, I actually work super well in small group settings, and it'll be a good experience for me should I choose to become a classroom teacher at some point. But I'm pretty sure that there are more people that are better qualified than me for this kind of work, and the few learning specialists that I know had classroom experience first. And I was REALLY preparing myself for some hardcore classroom teaching. And what, exactly does my job entail?

So yes, there were definitely some feelings of disappointment and confusion. But, I think I'm good now. I absolutely love the school culture (it helps that they're all about teacher sustainability now; on a side note, we just had a beast of a session yesterday...3 hours...on "The Together Teacher"...AMAZING, Maia H-M. is my hero!), my colleagues are chill, and I'll still be working with kids!

So I've experienced my first banana peel. I slightly veered off-course, but I've recovered and shaken it off. In the words of my now-21-but-then-8-year-old-cousin, "LESSGO!" (let's go)

Whose house? ....Lighthouse!

So this is a little out of order, but there has been a request that I add "more photos! more action!" Now while I'm not quite sure how I might add more action...I do have photos that document the beginning of my official teaching career.

As you may or may not know, I spent much of the past month at a lovely little place in the Bronx. I worked in a collaborative of 5 individuals, and together, we taught a spunky bunch of rising 3rd graders (going to 3rd grade in the fall). My teammates are still holding down the fort, but I had to leave prematurely, due to my fall teaching placement commitments (more training! whoo!).

But even though I'm not with them, I think about my kids every day. We're a pretty good looking bunch:

...and sometimes pretty silly!!

Wishing the kiddos best of luck on their end-of-institute assessment tomorrow!

A New Chapter

Today was the first day of new staff training at my placement school (where I'll start teaching in exactly 3 weeks!). It was phenomenal. I love the energy. I love the people. I love the facilities (although I realize that my actual school will not be as night). I love the structure. I love the fact that the co-CEOs take the time to get to know us by running the majority of the sessions, despite the fact that they've both got families and probably have places to be, people to see, educational reform to contribute to.

As is the case with any new setting, I came into this new staff training anxious (and it doesn't help that a few of us are living in the basement of a hotel in an abandoned...yet safe part of town). But all of that anxiety was dispelled by how awesome the people are. If only I knew what grade I'll be placed in...it's frustrating to be kept in the dark! THE SUSPENSE IS DRIVING ME CRAZY.

Still, I don't think I could've asked for a better placement to help me with this transition into the real world. That they really prioritize human capital (i.e. our happiness) doesn't hurt either. Bottom line: I'm excited to be a part of an amazing network of individuals and can't wait to get in the classroom and hit the ground running!