winter by a child's hand

how does your garden grow?

When I got to work this morning, the kids were playing on the playground. I noticed a couple of the boys from my class sitting off to the side and digging in the woodchips, so I headed over to see what they were up to.

Me: Whatcha doin'?

Hank: Planting a garden.

Me: What kind of garden?

Ryan: A veg-e-table garden.

Me: What kind of vegetables are you planting?

Hank: Carrots.

Ryan: And peas...and macaroni.

Maybe I'm the worst teacher in the world, but I didn't correct him. If he wants to plant macaroni in his garden, who am I to dash his dreams?

workin' girl

Yep. I survived my first full week in the workforce here in Arizona. I still don't know for sure yet, but I think I'm going to like the job. It's definitely better than being bored at home all day everyday.

I know it seems odd that I've worked a full week and still can't say whether I really like it or not. It's just that I really haven't been doing my job yet. And I won't until Wednesday. See, La Petite Academy doesn't just throw teachers into a classroom and wish them luck. They want to make sure the teachers know what they are doing first. So I won't completely take over my class until after a full day training session on Tuesday. I was supposed to go to the training this past Tuesday, but it was cancelled because I was the only one going. So this week my class has been combined with the early preschool class and I've been kind of standing back and watching how the other teachers do things.

While I appreciate not being thrown into a class and forced to figure it all out for myself, this whole wallflower bit just really isn't me. At least, not in a preschool. I like being in control. I like being able to run things my way. I'm a bit more of a..."structured" teacher than others. And I'm ready to have my class to myself and away from the early preschoolers. So I'm very much looking forward to Wednesday.

The good thing about this wallflower role I've been playing is that I've had a chance to watch my kids and get a feel for who they are. I've got some really neat kids. And I'm really looking forward to working with them.

Brought To You By The Letter B

On Animals

The younger four-year-olds class is currently studying an animal theme. This week's focus was animals of the rain forest. Ms Melissa was reviewing the animals they had gone over the day before by showing a picture of the animal and telling something about the animal (while showing the anteater, for example, she said "it eats ants").

The kids were really having a hard time remembering "toucan." It was obvious that the answer was dancing on the edges of their memories, just out of reach. Finally Kiera piped up as sincere as can be with "IT'S A CAN-OPENER!!!"

On Naming Children

This morning when I got to work, Mia was eating her breakfast at the table. When I walked in she told me that her husband Troy was hiding in our classroom under my desk. Yes, Mia is one of my students. She's four. After sending the imaginary Troy out to McDonald's to pick me up a sausage biscuit, I sat down at the table with Mia and we started talking. She said that when she gets old like her mommy and daddy (who are at the oldest in their early 30s) she's going to have this many kids (at which point she held up all 10 fingers). And then she started naming them all.

Star and Jade and Cinderella and Rainbow. And some boys, too - among the more memorable were Clock, Paint, Pencil, Computer, Spiderman, and Batman. And a boy named Star that will marry the girl Star, but not right away because they'll have to grow up first. Yeah.

The child kept naming children, and eventually realized she had long ago passed that limit of 10 that she had set for herself. So then she said, "I think I'll have zero-zero-one kids." That's 100 in child-speak.

"And they'll come to school here too, and when they get big like me they'll be in your class."

I love my job.

On Watermelon

"I don't like the green part...it tastes like grass."

I'm not really negligent, I promise

So, last week I mentioned that emergency personnel had to be called to the daycare to free one of my students' feet from a table that he had somehow managed to become stuck in during naptime. Yeah, I know. Naptime is an odd time to find oneself stuck in a table. And for that matter, a table is an odd object to find onself stuck in.



Anyway, I bring that little jewel of a memory up to tell you about what happened to this same child this afternoon. The kids were playing in centers. Alex was working a puzzle. I was putting my book center back together after what I can only assume was a tornado that blew through it. I had a clear line of sight to all of the children.



Evidently Alex lost track of one of the pieces of the puzzle he was working on. He assumed it had fallen on the floor, so he crawled under the table (not the same table as last week's episode of The Preschool Files) to find it. I don't know if someone startled him or what, but he ended up hitting his head on the table when he came back up. And immediately he had what appeared to be a horn above his right eye. I got him an ice pack and made sure he hadn't concussed. He was perfectly fine - except for the large protrusion on his forehead, of course. Not even so much as a headache.



Someone please tell me why it's always the kid who gets notes sent home about his inability to follow directions that ends up injured on my watch. If I didn't know any better, I'd be suspicious of me.

Here's the kicker: the puzzle piece he was looking for was underneath the puzzle the whole time.

I love my job!

Jordayn makes an adorable genie, don't you think?

here we go again

It's an annual struggle that every teacher must face. You have been with one group of children for nearly a year. You have watched them grow and change. They have improved vastly on skills and constantly amaze you with the level of independence they have achieved.

Your class is a well-oiled machine. Everyone is comfortable with the routine and their place in it. You have your little tricks and you know which ones to use with each child for maximum effectiveness.

Obviously, it's time for room promotions. Your little darlings will move on to the next teacher or the next school. You will miss them, of course. But that's not the main issue. You are actually excited for them to move on to the next teacher and build on what they have learned from you.

No, the problem is that you now have a totally new class. And they aren't at the same level in their development that you grew accustomed to with your previous class. These kids are back at square one as far as you are concerned. They are not the mature and independent little people that you have grown so used to dealing with. They need you to do more for them, because developmentally they have not yet built the skills necessary to do for themselves.

It's hard to adjust backwards. It just is not natural to regress. You have to be more patient as you constantly remind yourself that these kids are behaving normally for their age. Yes, you broke your previous class of these behaviors months ago, but it was a slow process then, and it will be a slow process now as well.

You have to learn a whole new group of kids and find the tricks that work for each one. You have to lower your expectations - at least a little bit, at least for a while.

It's tough on everyone all around. Sure, you are having trouble with it. But so are the kids. They have to learn a whole new classroom, new rules, new routines, new expectations. They have to adjust to you and your personality.

The beginning of a new school term is a very awkward time all around.

good question

This is Z's last week at preschool. He's getting ready to start kindergarten, and his parents have found someone else (read: cheaper and willing to pick him up from school so he won't have to ride the bus) to keep him after school, so they want to start getting him used to her and her place.

Now, Z has been in my class for 2 years. I've only had about 4 months as a preschool teacher without him in my class. Well, last week I started saying things like "what am I going to do without a Z in my class?" and "I won't know how to take care of a class without a Z in it!"

Friday afternoon on the playground, Z came up to me and sat in my lap in the swing and said "What am I going to do without my Ms Amber to tell me what to do?"

how does he come up with this stuff?

This story requires a bit of setup. I work at a preschool with a school-age summer program. The building that the school-age class and both 4-year old classes are in is just one big open room - no walls between the three classes. And we share 1 girls' bathroom and 1 boys' bathroom.

Today I took my class to the bathroom, as is our habit before heading off to the playground. Because I don't want to spend the entire recess standing in the doorway so that I can supervise a playground and a bathroom at the same time. Anyway, Z was messing with the keyboard from the school-age music center (which is right next to the bathrooms) and I said "Z, please don't touch that." He came back with a smartmouth mimic and I gave him the "I know you didn't just do that" look. Then Z did the funniest thing.

He stuck his finger out like he was going to scold someone and then turned it to his mouth as he said, "Mouth, don't say that! Ms Amber is my teacher!"

Fun on the See-Saw

Last Friday on the playground, Frank and Jordayn got so excited about what they could do on the see-saw. Frank is a good, sturdy little 5-year old, and Jordayn is a very petite 4-year old. Obviously, this made for some imbalanced see-sawing. Here's the video, with commentary from 5-year old Justin:

fun in the shade

It's hot out. Seriously. Time and Temp said 93 degrees at 3pm. Time and Temp fails to mention the heat index, though. But my class desperately needed to get out of the classroom for a little while this afternoon. So I needed to get creative.

Our playground has a very limited shady area in the afternoons, and I wanted to keep them out of the sun as much as possible. So I grabbed a red bucket and filled it with water. I grabbed the paint brushes and rollers out of the art center. We took our water bottles and the supplies for our "mystery activity" out to the playground. And my kiddos "painted" the wall of the preschool.

For about a minute, they were concerned about getting wet, but then I explained that it was hot enough out that the sun would dry us all off quickly. After that, they competed to see who could get their paintbrush the highest, giggling happily about the water dripping on their heads. Then they realized that the sponge rollers were actually taking dirt off the wall - a bonus I hadn't considered when the idea came to me.

Oh, Really?

Children are such funny creatures. Their minds process events and concepts in sometimes odd ways, but you are always left with a sense of awe. Daily I am reminded in some small way of why I teach. It's not for the hefty salary. It's not the prestige of the office. It's not even for the satisfaction of teaching. It's for the comedy. You just can't get this stuff in an office setting.

"When I die and go to Heaven, do you think God and Jesus can get this rock out of my ear?"

Yes, she did have a rock in her ear, and yes, this is how she informed us of the situation. Seriously. I know - I have weird kids in my class.

"The table hit me!"

This little boy was playing with blocks at the table and he dropped one. When he leaned down to pick it up off the floor, he bumped his head on the table.

"Watch this! I'm turning tricks!"

The 5 year old in question was playing on the monkey bars and wanted to show me that he could do a flip. His mother got a good chuckle out of this when she picked him up that afternoon.

"A little bit."

That was the response I got when I asked one of the 5 year olds in my class if they had been good for the other teacher they were with that day - I knew this little boy had caused some problems for her.

"Land hole!"

They were pretending that a piece of playground equipment was a pirate ship. They were making each other walk the plank and everything. Finally one little girl decided it was time to find an island to look for treasure on, so that was what she yelled. Close, huh?

See what I mean? You just can't get this kind of quality entertainment with any other job.

Definitely Monday

There is a big difference between a group of 5 five-year-olds and a group of 18 six-to-twelve-year-olds. A huge difference. When I got to work this morning, the teacher for the school-aged class had called in sick and the afternoon teacher for the class was not answering her phone. So, me being the nice (and obviously more than a little bit insane) person that I am, I offered to take the class. I thought I'd be able to keep my kids in there too, since the state says that with that particular age group a teacher can have up to 20 children on her own (which is further proof to me that nobody who has any authority on such matters ever was a child, let alone spent any time with a group of children). But once everyone arrived, I was over the ratio. So my lovelies had to move down to the fours class.




The strongest thing there was to drink today was Dr Pepper. Yeah, that's not gonna cut it.* Not a large enough Advil bottle, either.** And if I were to go to bed this instant and sleep until it was time to be at work tomorrow, that wouldn't be enough rest to make up for the day I've had. It's not that they are bad kids or even that it was a bad day. It's just physically and mentally exhausting dealing with a class that you don't usually deal with.

And obviously more than a little insane me decided that this was the week I was going to start cooking more. So there's nothing quick and easy to pop into the microwave for supper tonight. *Bangs head against desk*

I'm with Garfield. Mondays suck.

DISCLAIMERS:

*I'm not suggesting I would have imbibed if there were anything stronger to drink available. I can, however, understand how some people would feel the need for a nice strong drink in the same situation. As in "This could drive a person to drink!" I'm just sayin'.

**I am also not advocating the use of more than the noted dosage of OTC products. Thought I'd throw that in there, just for good measure.

my brain is fried

The preschool/daycare where I work had its annual assessment today. Lucky me! My class was chosen for observation! (I realize inflection can be difficult to read in print form...that should be read in a very sarcastic tone.)

It really wasn't too terribly awful. I only had 4 kids in my class and they were pretty well-behaved (at least while our "company" was with us). The only mishaps I can actually recall from today were Z spilling his milk all over him at lunch (I had to leave the other 3 unattended at the table while I took him to the bathroom and found his extra clothes) and J blowing chunks right after a great big lunch of beef fingers (which technically happened during my lunch break after my observation was over, but the woman was still in my room). If anything else happened, I've successfully repressed the memory.

We won't know our scores until after they are completely finished with our assessment. And since the school-age class was not assessed today (the person assigned to that observation was in the hospital), that could be a while.

Good Grief!

Take one week off of work and all hell breaks loose! Crap had been slowly building up for quite a while now, but last week while I was gone it all finally hit the fan. 5 teachers quit and another gave notice that this would be her last week. What happened???

From what I can gather, some teachers were called on the carpet for being on their cell phones and not paying attention to the kids on the playground. Things may or may not have been properly handled. Certain parties may or may not have negatively influenced others with lies and malicious gossip. Some simply walked out in the middle of the day. Others quit. One was actually let go. One may have come back the next day begging for her job back. A couple had reasons for quitting that were completely unrelated to the situation at hand.

I don't know all the details. What I DO know is that I have one week to prepare my class for their preschool graduation ceremony that the administration decided on a whim the day before my vacation to put together. And I still have to finish those scrapbooks for my kids and burn 12 copies of picture cds before then. And then I have another week and a half to get my room and class ready for our center's annual assessment. And with my whopping 2 years of experience, I am now the senior staff member in the preschool age group at our center.

Good thing I was on vacation last week. I probably would have ended up being caught up in the drama if I had been here. And I'm still so relaxed from that week off that even though we were short-staffed yesterday, nothing was getting to me...I think my mind is still firmly planted on a beach towel watching the dolphins parade by.

They've Killed My Spirit

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Ok, so it was just the worst of times. I don't know if it's me, or the weather, or the time of year it is, or if demon possession is involved, or what, but I'm seriously having issues with my job right now. I'm a preschool teacher. But it seems as though I am the warden at pre-juvie. The kids have lost their ever-loving minds! Yelling, pushing, shoving, hitting, kicking, running all over the place, and they absolutely will not shut up! If something doesn't change soon, this job is going to keep me from ever wanting children of my own.

Now, you're probably thinking "Amber, that seems like pretty normal behavior for 4 and 5 year olds - especially when you get a group of them together." But the problem is, these are the same kids I've had all year long. And this behavior just started in the last month.

And it's not just my class. It's the entire preschool. Is there a sign above the door stating "Your Child Must Be This Defiant To Enroll"? Have aliens invaded and abducted all the preschoolers in the area for some grand scheme to take over the world? I'm really starting to lean toward my old demon possession theory, which is rather amusing when you consider the fact that our preschool is owned by a Pentecostal church. Maybe we should have someone come in and pray over our classes. Couldn't hurt, right?

I've decided that the only way to keep myself from totally snapping is to just stop caring. Sounds so easy, doesn't it? Just quit worrying about trying to be a part of helping these kids grow into well-adjusted adults. I'm going to stop worrying about getting them ready for kindergarten (they know the academic stuff, but behavior-wise? Let's just say I'm already praying for their kindergarten teachers!). Instead, I'm going to focus on what I've been doing a pretty good job of so far - keeping them alive long enough to make it to kindergarten. It's all about setting reachable goals.

now THAT's random

Yesterday I was walking past the older 3s classroom at work on my lunch break and I heard a little girl singing. I thought I recognized the song, but told myself that couldn't possibly be what she was singing. So I got closer. Sure enough, her little crystal clear voice was singing "catch me ridin' dirty!"

Child's Play

Thirteen things my class loves to do/play with: 1. Duck Duck Goose - and all its variations. We played Pilgrim Pilgrim Indian at Thanksgiving, and all winter long we played Polar Bear Polar Bear Penguin (they have to waddle like penguins around the circle instead of running - it's adorable!) 2. I Spy - I have some very observant little preschoolers. 3. Quiet Mouse - yes, they actually like playing Quiet Mouse. There are days when I am the luckiest teacher in the world, I tell you. 4. Legos - I have some brilliant budding architects and engineers. 5. Math - I have a set of different colored bowls and a set of little figures (houses, cars, people, dogs, trees) that are different colors. The kids love to roll the color dice and sort the pieces into the bowls. Yes, they're my little nerdlings. 6. Cutting and Gluing - they adore cutting things out of magazines. I give them paper to glue their pictures to so they can keep track of them. 7. Dinosaurs - I think there's something about the preschool ages that just naturally attracts these kids to all things dinosaur. 8. Cars - I blame Disney/Pixar. There is always a knock-down drag-out over who gets to play in the car center when we have free play. There's only enough room for 2 kids in that area at a time. 9. Hungry Frogs - it's Hungry Hungry Hippos, but the mouths are frogs instead of hippos. My only regrets? A) it's only 4-player; and B) it's LOUD! 10. Play Dough - don't mess with the classics. 11. Jellyfish Tag - I tried all last year to explain the concept of freeze tag to my first class of 4 and 5 year olds. They never got it. Until we talked about how when a jellyfish stings a fish, it paralyzes the fish. Now I pick a jellyfish and the rest of the class are fishies. Swim, fishies! 12. Jumping Jacks - sometimes they just need to let out some extra energy. They don't realize they are doing jumping jacks though. I call out "tin soldiers!" and "tepees!" 13. the Hokey Pokey - elbows, knees, tongues, noses...they all go in.

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a pocket full of dandelions

There are days working in child care that make you want to scream. Someone calls in sick, leaving the facility short handed. A child comes to school in a foul mood and nothing you can do will help. Another child spills his milk all over him and doesn't have any extra clothes to change into. While you are occupied with that child, 2 others decide that was pretty funny, so they pour their milk out on the floor. Another child displays a severe need for for an attitude adjustment (sadly, the only thing you are legally allowed to do for that is time out). It would be so easy to walk out and never come back.



And then a child comes running across the playground holding a dandelion picked through the chain link fence aloft like an Olympic torch. He stops and hands it to you, saying "you're my best teacher!"



That little bit is just enough to keep you coming back for more.

ancient Ms Amber

Yesterday on the playground, I bent down to tie a little girl's shoe. As I bent down, I groaned and said, "Ms Amber's too old for this." The little girl said "yeah."

I asked, "how old do you think I am?"

The response?

"Fif-teen!"

Good answer, sweetie.

close...so very close

This morning we had an area-wide tornado drill. Right around the time I was wrangling my class through the hallway to go to the water fountain, the city's severe weather alert sirens began to sound. Of course the kids were curious, so once we got back to the classroom I explained that the city was just testing the sirens to make sure they work. Then we talked about what the sirens were for and our class emergency plans. We talked about how, if there really were a tornado, we would line up quietly and calmly and go sit in the hallway. As conversations with 4 and 5 year olds are wont to do, the discussion evolved and we turned to other emergency plans. We talked about fires and about what to do if someone were to get hurt badly or seriously ill. They raised some very interesting questions about our emergency plans - here are my two favorites:

"What do we do if a giant attacks our school?" (I told them I'd have to check with our director on that one)

"What if a dragon attacks?" (I assume the emergency plan in this situation would be similar to that of a fire, since that is the typical mode of dragon attack)

One little genius really had me impressed for a minute.

"If there's a fire we call 9-1-1 and they ask 'where is your emergency?' and we say 'at day care' and they come and they spray the tor-may-doe down until it's little and then they blow it away."

I think he got a little mixed up somewhere in there.

Warning: contains sarcasm (and possibly peanuts)

Sometimes I feel like an old ratty doormat. I seriously have to check in the mirror to make sure I don't have WELCOME stamped on my forehead. And it's all because I'm dependable. And I'm dependable because I have perfectionist tendencies (although you would never know it judging from the current state of my house). I would love to just throw my hands up in the air and say "Screw it! I don't care!" and walk away. The problem is, I do care. And that's why I'm the doormat. Have a project that needs to be done, but you don't want to deal with it? Toss it my way. I'll seethe quietly, resenting doing your job for you, but you know I'll do it anyway because it is something that needs to be done. Feel like playing hookey from work just for the hell of it? Go ahead! Don't worry about your responsibilities - the doormat is always there to take care of everything. Can't afford to play hookey? No problem! Come on in and just sit around staring at the clock! I'll take up the slack!

I think maybe I let my housework go as a rebellion of sorts from being "the dependable one." I don't feel like I can just let things go undone at work. But at home, by George, I can. And I do. And as much as I would like to believe that being able to say no to something feels good, in reality I'm just surrounded by clutter that creates a claustrophobic depression. The issue is that I'm not saying no to the things I should, the things I really want to say no to.

Remember CRAP for a healthy smile

As a preschool teacher in the state of TN, I am required to complete a minimum of 12 inservice hours each year (though our preschool requires an additional 11). So last night after work I went to a 2-hour class on dental health for preschoolers. Got some good materials to use for teaching lessons about teeth and such.

Anyway, we had to watch this video on dental health as part of the class. I'm guessing from the hair and clothing styles that we're talking late 80s-early 90s video. You know how most videos like that have a summary screen or two at the end? Here's what this video's summary screen looked like:

Remember these important steps to maintaining a healthy smile:
* Cleaning
* Regular dental visits
* A healthy diet
* Play it safe

Yes, my friends, the acronym you see before you is CRAP. No, they didn't put it together like that. As a matter of fact I think that a coworker and I may have been the only ones there to notice it. But it definitely made the class memorable, and worth the time-sink.

So, yeah. Remember CRAP for a healthy smile.

mean old Ms Amber

How do children do it? One day they are absolute angels. Then they act like the spawn of Satan incarnate. All in the course of a couple of days. I don't get it.

Today was one of those days that left me questioning my calling...as well as my sanity (which those who know me personally already deem questionable). I spent my whole day in one power struggle after another...with preschoolers. How pathetic is that?

Don't get me wrong. I don't nitpick just to be mean. I'm not a dictator. I'm just trying to teach the kids that actions have consequences. So when I say "If you play at naptime, you cannot play with your show and tell this afternoon," I have to be willing to follow through. If I don't, I'm not teaching them that they are responsible for their choices and the consequences of those choices. Not only that, but what I am teaching by failing to follow through is that I don't mean what I say (which has disastrous consequences for my authority in the classroom).

But honestly, I think I punish myself just as much (if not more) than the kids when I follow through. Because if I follow through with enforcing the consequences I've laid out, I have to deal with the tantrums they throw. And they do throw them. And when I'm standing in the middle of my classroom with 2 four year olds screaming and crying and thrashing on the floor while the other 10 kids decide to start getting out of control because they can see that Ms Amber has her hands full and can't possibly deal with everything that's going on all at once, it's hard for me to look at the rationale of what I'm really trying to accomplish. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, is it such a terrible thing that they played on their mats the entire 2 hours of naptime? Would it really be so horrible for me to just give in and let them play with their stupid little dinosaurs and cars?

See, they're only 4. They don't realize that I'm doing this because I care about them. I want them to learn to be responsible, functional members of society sooner, rather than later. To them, I'm just mean old Ms Amber, who won't let them do the one simple little thing that would make them the happiest little creatures on the planet. The only thing I can do is to hope that someday years down the road, probably when they are dealing with preschoolers themselves, that I had their best interests at heart, and was only trying my best to teach them valuable life lessons that, hopefully, they are glad to have learned.