UN Assembly at ISD

Friday, ISD celebrated UN day--in addition to letting me off the hook about celebrating Halloween, it was an amazing day--children came dressed in national dress. Enjoy looking at these pictures. The children were fabulous. During the assembly upper elementary grade children volunteered to give greetings in their native language, and holding their flag.





















There are two other children in the class, but not in the picture--two of my more difficult children, and they didn't want to or were not prepared to have their picture taken. In the picture are two UK, three USA, two Indians, one Dutch, one German, one Mali/Australian, one French (but born in Ethopia and wearing dress from there), one Ivory Coast. and one USA/Sierra Leone. I didn't pose them this way, just all the girls wanted to be in front!

Problem solving success

On Tuesday we talked about the problems kids were having building with the colored blocks. I was not limiting the number--and it generally started out alright--but then degenerated into arguements about people not having enough blocks, who was building with whom. I felt that I was just putting band-aids on the situation when I went over to problem solve with them. We needed to step back to think about the problem, so I made it a topic for discussion during morning meeting. I described the problem and asked the kids to think about how they could solve it. One girl said it was "a boys problem" and when they fought, they should be sent to the principals office.



One of the issues that is a frequent focus of disagreement is how many blocks each building has--and if two children are working together--then they need more than a child working alone.
So the solution that we agree upon, is that there are four colors of block, so four children can use the blocks at a time, each one getting all the blocks of one color. If two children want to combine their blocks they can work together. The first day that we used this method, one child picked a color of blocks, but his best friend was on the waitlist to use the blocks. So he invited his friend to work with him with those blocks.

The same day, three boys wanted to play a lotto game with pictures of animals, but there are four game cards and three boys. The matching cards are all together in a bag to be drawn. At first one child (he is the type of child who wants to be first, have the most, and win all the time) took two cards and the other two boys each had one card. The two boys, pushed their cards together, and then the first child objected--I think he figured out that if the two boys were each getting a turn to draw cards they would fill up their cards faster than him. So he proposed that they push all four cards together, and as they drew out the matching cards, they would find the match and place the card on the game board. After several rounds, the first child, drew two cards at one time and placed them on the board. "Hey, you drew two cards." objected one of the other players. As I was sitting near by, I just looked at him and said, "You draw two cards too. I guess he is changing the rules." The rest of the game proceeded with them passing the bag around, drawing two cards, and then finding the match. They all cheered for themselves when all the matches were made.

Parents, parents, parents

What a week dealing with parents! A spokesperson for some of the parents asks to meet with me on Monday--from some comments I thought it was going to be about my substitute assistant; they had said her English was not good enough to be working in the classroom. Five mothers showed up to complain that their children were getting short changed because I wasn't academic enough. The other class sent home worksheets and gave homework. They had already scheduled a meeting for the next day with the Elementary School Principal. He said, "I think they had the meeting with you, just so they could say that they had met with you--not that they were going to listen to anything you said." The principal is very supportive--and recognized the very different style the other teacher has.

I left the meeting with parents to go to the early childhood staff meeting, where we are discussing the book "About the Authors" as the K, 1 and 2 teachers want to shift to writers workshop. I had to share with the group about the parents complaints. It made me think that writers workshop will not go over well with those parent

By Wednesday, several of the parents had heard about this meeting, and contacted me in various ways to express their support of me, and in some cases extreme disapproval of certain complaining parents. I began to worry about being caught in the cross fire. One of the "complaining" parents is very reasonable and I think she helped calm the others. Then another one e-mailed me to say how much she liked my style, saw growth in her son, but just wanted to see more of the work he was doing.

By Friday, the principal, the other kdg teacher and I had a plan. I would eliminate my rest time, add a half hour to guided reading. We would have a joint newsletter to the parents about the curricula, weekly. I drafted a letter to my parents telling them about the change. And I am putting together packets with take home games for families to do with their children. I am still resisting worksheets in the classroom, but will be sending home more of their work and not waiting until the end of the week. The math program comes with "home-links" and I'll be sending home those pages that are interactive with parents. I continue to push reading aloud from higher level texts--I have sent home a list of suggested chapter books that the school library has in their collection.

During the week the kids continued to be terrific. On Friday, Sedi, the assistant teacher on maternity leave came to visit with the new baby. We had read the book, "Honey, honey, Lion" and in which the honey badger's "tummy is as flat as a pancake". One of the boys (who has two younger siblings) ask Sedi, "Is your tummy as flat as a pancake?"

We have also been doing lots of rhyming, and during the day, kids will dash up to me saying, "chair and hair rhyme" or some other rhyme. Thursday, one of my most proficient rhyming boy, said excitedly, "say and sand, (Pause), they don't rhyme."

When I skyped my sister, Monday evening, she said, "Lucky this happened to you now, not your first year teaching!" And as an experienced 5-6 grade teacher--she added, "This happens more in the early grades, K,1,2 so I had to deal with less of it" I am also much more sympathetic to all the teachers who have complained about having to deal with pressure from parents who want more of everything. I remember Sally saying that when parents asked for more of something at the nursery school she directed, she would ask them what should be eliminated to make room for it.

The village across the street

Across the street from my apartment is a small rural village, with shacks, outhouse, goats, chickens, and vegetable gardens. Down the street there is another family living and farming what had been an empty lot. It is a good reminder to me that most of Senegalese are poor and do not live like I do. When it is dark, it is dark in the village, they get up with the sun and the rooster. No electricity, A/C, running water, I wonder what they think of us who live across the street. Do they wonder what our lives are like?

The mother of children across the street is disabled, she crawls on her hands and knees within the immediate area. I see her leaving early each morning in her hand cranked bike-wheel chair. The youngest girl sits on the back and the older daughter walks and sometimes pushes from behind. I say "bonjour Madam, ca va?" to her each time, and she has the most beatific smile as she greets me in return. There is also an boy, about 10 years old, I think.

One day I saw the youngest girl, pushing a partly broken toy wheelbarrow with a very soiled white cloth doll in it. I haven't seen it since. I think about what toy could I get for the child. I wonder if the children go to school.

The first photo shows the water jugs that they refill--I don't know from where. The third photo on the right, I took during a terrfic rain storm. I was intrigued by the child proping up an umbrella as she did the laundry.

I was told that they might not be swatters, they might even be paid a little to occupy the land. I think one of the men does some work for the family next door. I see him opening the garage sometimes and working in their garden. It is a French family that lives in the house, with swimming pool.

A few weeks ago, the French family had a party, and the village seem to be having their own celebration, each with their own traditions. It was quite a contrast.

I don't think the village has noticed me taking pictures from my window--I will continue to document life across the street.

Coaching from the kids

After an exhausting week, unfortunately, Thursday and Friday are my longest days with no specialists, I was at a loss, as most transitions turn into a frenzy of running around the classroom, climbing and jumping off bookshelf. All be it, only a few kids do it, but it feels like chaos.

After the kids were finally settled, I asked them what their ideas were about how to make it go better. There were the usual suggestions of punishment (send them to the principal's office or put them in time out). The kids haven't yet noticed that I don't use time out, it has been so much a part of their experience to date. And then I called on Alexis, who is wise beyond his years. And he gave me a suggestion that I have often given teachers--rearrange the room to block the running area. Duh! Why couldn't I remember that.

I am now working on how I will rearrange the room. By the way, the first early childhood assembly--on the first Friday of the month--each teacher gets to nominate one or two children for recognition. Most kids got awards for academic success or being good--Alexis got an award for being a good problem solver--and I gave an example of how he helped other children solve problems. Next he should get an award for coaching his teacher!

I need my own coach

After each challenging day in the classroom, I wish fondly for a coach of my own. So a few days ago when I felt I had "gone negative" with the kids, I wondered: what would I say to support a teacher I had just observed in the classroom doing what I was doing.

First, I would reflect on what had gone well--it is so hard to keep that in mind when you feel frustrated with the kids. So I spent sometime culling the brief moments of success. That helped me feel grounded.

Second, I thought about how often I would say to teachers that children that need attention are going to get it one way or another, so plan to give it as much as possible for the positive things. So the next day that what I did. Every second the most challenging child was not running around the classroom, climbing on the shelves, throwing tantrums for not getting his way (being picked first for whatever), and pushing or shoving, I showered him with attention. We played games together. I would call on him the instant he was sitting and quiet.

Third--Help a child to reflect by creating some distance. On Wednesday, I had playground duty. He came over and sat next to me. leaned against me and said he was hot. I said, "I'm hot too. But you get to go swimming this afternoon, and I don't," I complained. I continued to whine, "it's not fair, I want to go swimming too, but I can't"
"Why not" he asked.
"Ms Kerri (PE teacher) won't let me. She said the rule is that I have to stay out of the pool so I can help the children get dressed. I don't like that rule."
Suddenly, the child becomes the voice of reason and problem solving. "Maybe you can go swimming later. You could go when there is a party." (the week before a classmate had his birthday party at the pool).
"I don't like to wait."
"Sometimes you have to."

Fourth--have more back up plans, stay flexible, when the planned activity falls apart or ends early move on. When it feels like chaos in the classroom, I want to clamp down with more control which is totally non productive. Two weeks ago, I just substituted an second choice time in the afternoon when I knew that a more directed teaching activity would not work.

On Friday, a very hot day, (you know it's hot then the Senegalese complain about the heat!) the electricity went off in the morning. The school generator will power everything except the air conditioning. The room was heating up as we were finishing group games in math and language arts, the next activity was science--expository text about bats, as we had read the story book "Stellaluna" who is a bat. A few kids said they were tired. One child looked at the schedule on the wall and said in dismay, "we have to wait until after lunch and outside time before we can rest?" I proposed that we could do the science after lunch and have rest now, at 11:30. The group agreed. Two days before I had allowed two boys, including my challenging child, who were resting next to each other to look at the same book. It had gone very well. The next day, I said they could do it again, and others asked to have a rest time partner. I thought to myself--OMG--what have a started now. I expected it would be a disaster. But I agreed to try it and it worked. On Friday, was the second try of allowing rest time partners. At first there was some struggle over who would partner with whom. But even that was resolved quickly. There were 5 pairs looking at books together, and another 4 resting on their own. My challenging child was on his own, so I stayed close by and at one point held him on my lap and read a book to him--he fell asleep before I was finished. It was calm for 1/2 hour, as the Archduke Trio by Beethoven played in the background.

If I had a coach, I would ask for suggestions of other music to play at rest time, other active songs or activities to do when kids have been sitting for too long--I need to add to my repertoire--Simon Says, Head, shoulders, knees and toes, freeze dancing and counting down to blast off is all I can remember right now. I don't do the Hokey Pokey--in case that is what it is all about. And I would ask for story books about trees: our next theme is trees and it starts the week after next. I am including Caps for Sale--so the book just needs to include a tree somewhere. Comments welcome, or email me directly. Thanks in advance

The kids

I took this picture of the class for the cover of our "Name Book". The name book had a page for each child about their name--as told by their parents. I told them that they could not make funny faces for this picture--and afterwards I took another picture where they could make funny faces--this the photo they like the most.