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One of my friends came to school yesterday, limping heavily. She explained, “I was bad, so Daddy punched me in the leg.” My assistant teacher, who was the one who greeted our friend off the bus, said later that she nearly threw up, right then and there.
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Little One is struggling, and we are struggling right along with her. For about two weeks now, she has gone way backward in terms of her behavior. She comes in sad, or manically happy, which soon veers into tears or yelling. She desperately wants the
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I’ve got a new friend in my class. He is very much like one of my other boys, in appearance, behavior, curiosity, and temperament. However, the original boy has a really stable home life, considering that he was once homeless. The new boy….maybe not.
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In Connecticut, a homeless woman has been arrested for sending her son to kindergarten in a better school district. Her babysitter, whose address she used as her residence, has been evicted from her public housing. I cannot imagine my school district
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A new study that came out recently found that children who do not read at grade level by 3rd grade are much less likely to graduate from high school. A student who can’t read on grade level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19
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In the house corner, Deer wants the baby doll that another girl has. A teacher offers her the other, almost identical baby doll. Deer slaps the baby across the face. From across the room, my heart stops. It looks exactly like she is re-enacting violence
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The mother I’ve been talking about is kind of a wreck. However, she is a good mother, in lots of ways. Her children have about 500 books. No, she doesn’t read to her children (I’m guessing, as of yesterday, that she can’t), but their father does, sometimes,
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So that mom, that sad mom I talked about in my last post, has a lot of problems. She’s got a major illness. One that can be life-threatening, and — she is refusing treatment. She’s annoyed that the doctors keep calling her and trying to get her to keep
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I had a very bleak parent conference this morning, with a mother whose life is in shambles. Major medical issues, mental illness (anxiety and severe depression), and an emotionally — possibly physically — abusive relationship. She told me she doesn’t
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NPR did a report on the Meaningful Differences work that Hart and Risley did. It’s fascinating, and well worth reading. The article talks about their experiences as educators, trying to teach four year olds vocabulary to put them on par with rich kids
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Wow, yesterday’s post certainly touched a nerve. That was the most hits I ever got on my blog, and the most comments. So thank you, everyone, for being part of the conversation. So the question is, how do preschool teachers strike a balance between helping
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Yesterday a teacher/mentor from the early childhood department came out to my class to observe Deer, so that she could advise me on referring Deer for possible special ed assessment. Of course, wouldn’t you know it, Deer was having a pretty good, on-target
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If you teach in an affluent community — or at least, a stable, middle-class one — then as the summer approaches, your students probably behave in predictable ways. They get restless, they start to slack off, they become lively and happy and loud, and
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My seventh grader brought home his last book report assignment of the year. He and his classmates need to read a book with an adult (preferably a parent or guardian), and discuss it, as if it were a two-person book club. He decided that he wanted to read
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A long time ago I taught kindergarten in an urban area, at a school with a very high poverty rate. One year I had a little boy — we’ll call him Button, because he was as cute as one — whose family was in disarray, and who had gotten inadequate parenting
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