Browse by Tags
All Tags »
urban school (RSS)
On the one hand, spending a morning with preschoolers can be lovely and simple. Read stories, play, follow routines, talk, play outside, learn about interesting things. On the other hand, spending a morning with preschoolers can be made frustrating and
Read More...
I was out sick on Friday (with, naturally, a migraine). This morning when I greeted the kids at the door, one little boy looked at me with interest and a little relief. “I see you’re feeling better,” he said, sagely. ********** At the art table today
Read More...
I work in a pretty great school. We have a warm, supportive environment, and our school is welcoming to adults and children. I don’t have any plans to leave, and that wasn’t true of the first three schools I worked in. On the other hand, we have our flaws.
Read More...
Everyone is aware of the teacher’s strike taking place in Chicago, but I wonder if I am alone in feeling frustrated by the media coverage. Everything I read about it contradicts something else I read , and not one article has given me the whole story.
Read More...
I am in pajamas as I type this, and while I am exhausted, it’s more of a good/content tired than a frantic/despairing tired. The room was, after all, ready in time, and it looked great. A few colleagues, including one I hadn’t seen since May, came by
Read More...
Two of my new students are now gone, just like that. To be honest, my life is easier without them, but still. ARGH. Why would you put your child in a preschool class for a month, and then pull him/her out without even saying goodbye? One family pulled
Read More...
I haven’t posted much lately. I think it’s because usually my posts about my year and my class tell a story, and this year, the narrative keeps getting botched up. Three years in a row I had an awesome class. Last year’s bunch mostly had two parents at
Read More...
….to be getting new students. One little boy started a few weeks ago, and this is his first experience in school. He is doing pretty well, actually. He learned how to walk in a line, how to sit in the meeting area, and how to keep his hands to himself,
Read More...
Yesterday our bus driver, an immigrant man who is great with the kids and delightful to talk to each day, reported that on Thursday, when he got to my new student’s stop, there was no one there to collect him. The bus driver waited for ten minutes until
Read More...
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.
Read More...
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
Read More...
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
Read More...
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
Read More...
I’m still jet-lagged from my trip (came back after midnight on Saturday), and I can’t seem to catch up on my sleep, but otherwise am glad to be back at work. Today I came back to find that Miss Dickens had gotten lots of stuff done yesterday, and put
Read More...
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
Read More...