Today as I drove to work, I saw a sea of yellow pollen dust an inch thick covering everything from the cars on the road to the sidewalks. Yuck! That spells allergy time for me and a number of my students. Bless their little hearts, many came in today with red and swollen eyes. To make matters worse, it was around 92 degrees outside. At least the humidity hasn't set in yet. As I pulled in to park, I saw where someone had drawn the following on the back windshield of a car through the pollen: Who cares if everything is yellow? The sky is blue! Now that's a positive attitude if I ever saw one.

Once inside, I got settled and looked over my plans. Thinking I had time to run to the restroom before the morning bell rang, I ducked into the bathroom I share with the other kindergarten class. As I came back into the classroom, I saw the other kindergarten teacher doubled over with laughter. The bell had rung and the children were asking where I was. She told them I had gone to join the circus. One little girl responded "No she didn't. She's too old for that! She's 60!  I am not 60........yet! I have four years to go. I am going to have to start using wrinkle cream I guess...sigh.

 Later, as I was walking the children outside for recess, one little boy noticed an outside window that looked like it had been sprayed with mud mixed with pollen. He got all excited and hollered for the other children to come quick. He said "Some giant bird put bird poop all over this window! Come look!" In a minute they were all abuzz about a giant bird that was hovering over our school somewhere. All my students looked a little disappointed when I told them that instead of a bird, it was most likely a blower. It probably happened on the one rainy day when workmen were cleaning up around some construction going on near our building. I heard another child say as we continued walking "Well, it could have been a giant bird! You never know!"

The day pressed on and I had a parent volunteer come in today to help with a writing project we do each month. It is called The Wonder Year. There is a page for each month of the school year where the child can write a sentence and then I put pictures in it so the child will have a memento of his or her kindergarten year. As the parent was helping one child write a sentence in his book, I overheard her ask him " You said it two ways. Which would you prefer to write? Do you want to write "I hunted for eggs at the egg hunt" or "I looked for eggs?" The child thought about it for a minute and said " Which one's shorter?"  His little face fell when the Mom told him that the words are both the same length so it didn't really matter. I couldn't help chuckling.

As the day ended and I was headed to my car for the journey home, another teacher kindly pointed out to me that the back of my pants were covered with yellow pollen! I guess when I sat down on a bench during recess, I forgot to brush off the pollen. How kind of him to tell me after carpool, lunch, and two conferences  were over. I guess I paraded around with the yellow imprint of a bench on my backside for half the day. Oh well, what do you expect from a kindergarten teacher!

It is hard to believe that we only have about seven more weeks of school this year. Time flies when you are having fun. I remember one year when the school year was drawing to a close. It was the last day of school and one of my little charges came up to give me one last hug. I told her that she was going to have so much fun the next year in first grade and that she would absolutely love her new teacher. She smiled at me and started for the door, then turned and said "But I will still love you!" She wanted me to know that no matter who else was there, I would still have a space in her little heart. 

I passed her jogging in her neighborhood while I was driving home from school today. I guess that is what made me remember her last day in kindergarten. She is a beautiful young woman in high school now. I  waved and pulled over to say hi. I rolled down the window and she shared her latest news with me about how she is doing in school and how much she still thinks fondly of her year in kindergarten. As I wished her well and started to roll my window up to pull away, she said "I will never forget you Mrs. B!". I thought about her words all the way home. They reminded me of how God loves me among the millions of other people that He has to attend to, even with all of my faults. I can always rest in the assurance of His love for me in the  shape of the Cross that His son died on for me. Easter Sunday has come and gone but God will never leave us.

Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you...Isaiah 43:4

Every year in the public schools, we would administer a screening assessment to determine where a child was in terms of reading readiness, math, and social interaction.  The children are allowed to play in a large area with toys until they were called for the screening. I remember a  year when I was administering the reading assessment section to a sweet faced cooperative little boy. He sat patiently and answered all my questions. When I got to the question where I have to ask  "Can you show me where I start reading on the page?",  the child looked up at me in alarm and responded "Don't you know?" I couldn't help but break out in laughter. 

Out of the mouths of babes.................

Some screening like the assessment above that I participated in was very appropriate. That screening device  gave me lot of helpful information in regards to reading and math readiness, social interaction, and fine and gross motor skills. I can't say the same for some of the other tests that I saw administered over the years in the public schools.

I saw some colleagues get angry and frustrated as end of the year testing approached. Many would literally be reduced to giving lots of "practice" tests. In other words, they would teach to the tests. The major problem with that is that the child may be able to store the information in short term memory but it never gets to long term memory. In other words, they don't really learn the skill because testing became the instruction. Test scores become  inflated so that the school gets higher scores but the child is the unfortunate loser in all of this.  Do the tests actually measure what the policy makers originally intended? I would have preferred to see education set content standards and align curriculum and assessment to them.

I know I sound like a broken record but that is what I love about the private Christian school I currently work in. The upper grades do administer an end of the year test, but like all of the other grades, we spend the year teaching our students, free of having to implement "new initiatives" before we ever learned the prior ones. Our focus is on using assessment in daily instruction. We use the information from testing  to aid  our instruction and hopefully result in better teaching.

What is your opinion of all of the testing done in  schools?

                                              We rejoice today! He is risen!
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. (NIV)
I hope you all had a wonderful Resurrection Sunday!
Blessings

Today, while doing some Spring cleaning, I ran across some cards my students made for me during Teacher Appreciation Week. Our Art Teacher asks the children to do this every year and it is really funny to read what a five year old thinks is special about his or her teacher. Here are some of the reasons my students think I am special:

She doesn't make me eat my peas at lunch like my Mommy does!

She can tie shoes in a double knot!

She doesn't have to be quiet in the hall!

She likes to wear a pencil behind her ear.

She likes to jump around like a monkey when we play dance music!

If we spill juice on the rug, she doesn't get mad at us.

She thinks there is stuff called magic dust that makes us get in a straight line when we line up. We just let her think that. 

She loves me.

She tells good stories and puts us in them.

She knows a lot of clapping kind of songs.

She hugs me!

She is fun! Sometimes she lets us watch a movie during rest time or she reads us a story.

She doesn't make you go to the thinking chair if you are good!

She is nice! She holds are coats  on the playground.


We get to have parades a lot.

I got a good chuckle out of reading them again with the exception of the dancing one. All I could think of was Elaine on Jerry Seinfeld. Have you ever seen her dance? My daughter especially liked that one. Go figure.


Happy Easter everyone! I hope you all have a blessed day tomorrow!

John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. (NIV)

I mentioned in an earlier post that whenever a child is absent in my classroom, we call him or her at home and the entire class yells "We miss you  and their name......!"  Why do we do it? Childhood is such a brief moment in time, and  I want to do what I can to give each child the best possible start as they begin the journey of lifelong learning. Little gestures like this one only take a few minutes and  it seems to make the children feel so special. I want children to love school and get excited about learning.

Does that mean that I come in happy and excited every morning when I get to school? No! I have to admit that there are days when I come to school tired and wish I could have slept one more hour. On those days I try to remember what a gift God has given me to  impact the life of a child.  Children are our greatest asset and I want to do what I can to give them the best possible start in kindergarten. The choice to be  a positive impact or a negative one God leaves to me. Since my goal as a teacher is to have my students remember me as a positive influence, I keep this saying by an unknown author above the computer on my desk along with a bible verse. It serves as a gentle reminder of how precious each child is and why I have to leave that tiredness or grumpiness outside the classroom door before I enter each morning. I bought it several years ago when a little girl in my class had to move again for the third time in one year. Her little eyes filled with tears as she told me " I don't want to leave. I want to stay here. I love school and  my friends and I know you love me!"  She cried and cried as she left. I didn't realize until after she had gone just how difficult home life had been  for her and her siblings until  a social worker shared it with me.I thought about all of the days that I could have shown that child more empathy or given her more attention  and I felt so sad.

So, on days if I am feeling out of sorts, I look at this sign, and the bible verse below, and I remember that little girl. I remember how oblivious I had been to just how much school meant to her and it turns my day around. I am so thankful for all of the parents out there who do their best to provide a safe and caring environment for their children.

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.
(Matthew 18:10 ESV)