Elbow, knees, dreams

Talking to small children

Elbows, knees, dreams — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:18:51 GMT

I am back from a long vacation, the first part of which was spent at the beach with my husband’s family, and the second part of which was in a big city with my sister and her family. I had the opportunity first to observe my sister-in-law talking...(read more)

Elephant and Piggie!

Elbows, knees, dreams — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:46:27 GMT

Available at Yottoy. Read More......(read more)

My new favorite book

Elbows, knees, dreams — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:20:18 GMT

The kids who need preschool the most

Elbows, knees, dreams — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:29:44 GMT

This article in the San Jose Mercury News reports that only 15% of preschol-age children living in poverty are in high-quality programs. This is where I want to tear my hair out and rant that we should more like the French and the Italians, and have universal...(read more)

Teaching on the Titanic

Elbows, knees, dreams — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:09:44 GMT

What a discouraging week. The lead master teacher at my school has decided to work elsewhere. She wants to work at a school with strong leadership and a staff dedicated to improving results for children. That witch!!! Seriously though, can you blame her?...(read more)

ahh, summer

Elbows, knees, dreams — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:48:12 GMT

Things are looking up. Finally. After my not-so-great last day of school, I had a not-so-great last day for teachers. My children came to work with me, and I thought they might be helpful, but instead they were bored and underfoot. I tried to keep them...(read more)

A bad ending

Elbows, knees, dreams — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:27:36 GMT

I’m glad we had Monday at the park, because the last day of school wasn’t so great. Our plan was to walk to the library for storytime, which would have been really fun (and would have taken up most of the morning). Alas, it rained heavily,...(read more)

A perfect day for the park

Elbows, knees, dreams — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:36:37 GMT

On Monday we went to my favorite coffee shop in the world and got treats (cinnamon twists for the kids, coffee and scones for the grownups) and then went to a cute neighborhood park to play all morning. The weather was gorgeous, and the morning could...(read more)

Diary of a preschool teacher, pt. 2

Elbows, knees, dreams — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 00:06:22 GMT

It’s Friday night, I’ve got three days of teaching left, and I’m one glass of chardonnay down so far. In my role as mentor teacher, I did an observation cycle (pre-observation conference, observation, post-observation conference) with...(read more)

What we did this year

Elbows, knees, dreams — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:47:07 GMT

I asked the children to tell me the story of our year yesterday, so they told me things that we did, played, learned, and sang, and I wrote it all down. Here are some samples: This year, we: had a necklace of nametag on the first day of school didn’t...(read more)

What parents do

Elbows, knees, dreams — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:25:19 GMT

I mentioned M. once before — it was her birthday and I forgot to check the calendar, and missed it. And she is so non-verbal most of the time that she never mentioned it. M. is one of my special ed children, with developmental delays, speech difficulties,...(read more)

a sad thing to see

Elbows, knees, dreams — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:04:23 GMT

A few years ago, I was in the teacher’s lounge, feeling exhausted. A middle school teacher (my school is preschool through 8th grade) asked how things were going, and I told her all about how difficult my kids were being. I then asked her how she...(read more)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Elbows, knees, dreams — Thu, 22 May 2008 01:35:24 GMT

We’ve finished learning the whole alphabet, and some of my little friends actually know the whole damn thing, so we’ve been celebrating our accomplishments with some spirited readings of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. On Monday we made a mural,...(read more)

Miss Nelson is Missing

Elbows, knees, dreams — Thu, 22 May 2008 00:31:29 GMT

Now that we’re in the home stretch, our theme is “Ready for Kindergarten,” and all the books on our shelf are about kindergarten and school. Z. commented that some of them looked familiar, and I told her that we’d had a bunch of...(read more)

On not being safe

Elbows, knees, dreams — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:47:42 GMT

How’s this for a headline? “Teacher tries to help preschoolers stay alive.” I nearly spit out my coffee this morning when I saw that one. Preschool teacher Marisol Sierra, who teaches in the Chicago neighborhood where schoolkids are...(read more)