Wow...How Did All of This FIT in My Classroom?!

The preschool program that I teach for is undergoing some major changes.  This has meant an upcoming move to a new building and a move to a new type of program. 

While preparing for this, I have learned a few things about packing up a classroom...and I've learned a few things about myself.

First, those things I've learned about myself:

1. I may or may not have some hoarding tendencies...especially when it comes to school things...
2. I have enough containers, baskets and tubs to last a lifetime...
3. I really should have de-cluttered before this time...
4. Apparently, I have a super power that enables me to pack a ton of items in a very, very tiny classroom :)

And here are the things I would recommend when packing up an entire classroom:

1. Start early!  If you've been teaching in the same classroom for awhile chances are you have plenty of items to sort through.
2. I'm not sure if this would be the best plan for everyone; but I have found it works better to simply bring my own items home before sorting through them.  I store them in my office, then bring out like items or one binder at a time and sort through it while watching TV.
3. Take advantage of the opportunity to toss items that are not worth saving.  While sorting through binders I found IEP procedures that are completely out of date and incorrect.  Needless to say, all of these papers found their way to the shredder.  (My binders are much less full now!)

Have you recently had to pack up your classroom?  Do you routinely move locations?  What are your suggestions for packing up a classroom and moving to a new room or building?  Because, seriously, people, I could still use some ideas! :)
 

What Happened Here?!

So, what makes it go so wrong sometimes...while other times, the children are perfectly happy switching things up a bit?  Really...if I knew the answer to this, I'm pretty sure I would be a very rich person!
I'm getting bits and pieces of what last month was like in my classroom (while I was on break and a guest teacher was in my room).  Yep, you guessed it!  Apparently, the children decided a bit of a mini- revolution was in order!

I can just imagine the thoughts going through their heads:  "What!?  That's NOT the voice you use while reading that book!".... "How DARE you think you're going to hold MY hand while I go to the sink...I am PERFECTLY capable of doing this myself!"... "Oh, no, we ALWAYS sit about 2 inches in front of our teacher while she's reading us a book"... "What?! We can't today?!"

All of this, and, of course, the guest teacher is a wonderful person!  She has been in my classroom before (of course, not for a full month).  I have talked to her several times.  We share many of the same philosophies.   She has experience and enjoys being a guest teacher.   Sometimes, you just can't win!

It was all just a bit too much for them, I think!  First, a guest teacher in the room.  Then, a new teacher associate.  And, to top it off, ANOTHER new teacher associate in the middle of the month!  Yep, I think I would have started a mini-revolution as well!

I'm pretty sure the children do not feel sorry for any of this.  In fact, I'm pretty sure the impression that may have been made was "act really really horrible to the guest teacher and your teacher will return".  Oh, good grief...we may have some more work to do on being "flexible" thinkers and being willing to "go with the flow"! 

Then again, in a small way, I'm happy they felt powerful enough to stand up for themselves and insist that this wasn't OK with them!  I just wish they hadn't made it quite so difficult on the poor guest teacher.

Reconnecting with Some Old Friends!

Oh- Yesterday was GREAT...even with it being the first day back!  Coming back after a month off felt a bit like seeing some great old friends again!  After the initial hugs and smiles, everyone fell back into their routine!  (Yes, even I did!)

We "went on a bear hunt" yesterday; to the great delight of the children!  We painted with cotton balls.  We sang "Tap, Tap, Tap".  We smiled, gave hugs, read books together, painted at the easel, explored musical instruments while outside, talked about the things we saw around us, built with blocks, fed the baby dolls, played with playdough....whew...no wonder I came home tired! 

Shhh....don't let the kids know....I've got some bubblewrap fingerpainting for them to do today!  Oh, I can barely wait!  Hmmm....now how many other adults get to fingerpaint on bubble wrap... :)  BUBBLE WRAP!!! (I may be just a bit more excited than the kids...oh, probably not!) 

Out of Sorts...

Ugh...I HATE that feeling of being completely out of sorts the first few days I'm back from a break!  Now, it wouldn't be that big of a deal if the children had this time off as well!  At least I'd feel like we were all starting on the same "out of sorts" footing!
But, in our district, the preschool teachers have one month off during the summer months...while the children are still at school with a guest teacher!  Of course, it's not easy for the children to transition to a guest teacher, then transition back to me being in the classroom!  Everyone does things a bit differently.  No matter how good the guest teacher is, it is still a big transition for everyone!

Of course, today I also feel like I'm headed into a completely new room; since today is the first day I get to work with either of my two new teacher associates!  

I'm also pretty sure a few of the little guys in the classroom are seriously going to make me PAY for taking a whole month off!  I stopped in Friday to drop some stuff off and one of my little guys was definitely ready to grow Velcro and attach himself to me!  (Of course, the first day back, not a big deal...but if it lasts for too long, I may have a few of the other children a bit upset!)

It's definitely going to take a bit before we all settle into the routine!  Here's to hoping we all enjoy some nice relaxing summer fun for the next few weeks while we work back into the routine!  OK, reality check!  That's probably NOT going to happen! 

I don't care what time it is..."Where did my Dt. Pepsi go...I'm gonna' need more caffeine than this to keep me going!" 

Yikes!

My vacation time is very quickly winding down... or more like crashing to a close!  I am lucky enough to head back to the classroom on Monday to not just ONE new teacher associate to meet...but TWO! 

Wow!  Yikes!  I'm a bit nervous! I feel a bit like a stranger walking into my own classroom!   I almost always feel like I've just run into a brick wall the first few days I am back from vacation, but this is ridiculous!  I have only briefly met one of my new teacher associates.  The other one I haven't even met yet!

So think of me Monday morning!  And don't be surprised if these daily blog posts turn into every other day blog posts after Monday...or twice a week blog posts very quickly for a while!  I have a feeling I may be collapsing on the couch from exhaustion when I get home from school!

Saying Goodbye

Yep, I'm not good at saying "goodbye"!  The last of my little classroom team of teachers that we had going for a number of years has just started teaching in her own classroom.  So...I'm starting over.  Boo-hoo.  Yes, of course I'm excited for her, just bummed for me.

I'm not sure many people, other than early childhood educators, REALLY understand how important wonderful teacher associates (or assistants) are to the everyday functioning of the classroom!  I think sometimes people think assistants simply sit in the back of the room and laminate things! (I'm silently chuckling to myself about that last statement! :)

Of course, we all know how important every single person is to the classroom environment.  It just takes a while for a new team to really begin working together smoothly!  When you have a team that functions like a well oiled machine it's not easy to start all over and build that up again from scratch! 

Believe me...I know!  I've had associates in the past who have clearly and openly said they have no desire to work with children with special needs.  ...Um....tell me again why you took the job!?  I've had associates who clearly envisioned sitting back and relaxing all day while getting paid!  Not in my classroom...are you crazy?!

But those people are definitely NOT in the majority!  Thank goodness!  So, we'll work on getting our new team moving smoothly through the day!  I'm sure the children will grow to love these new wonderful people!  It will be a new adventure; as each person brings something new to the table!  It still doesn't make saying "goodbye" any easier!

One More Week...

I have one more week of my break left...one more week of waking up to my dogs barking at 5:40...letting them out, surfing the Internet for an hour or so....and then going back to sleep on the sofa :) 

One more week.  One more week to dress in t-shirts and Capri sweats...ALL day.

One more week.  One more week to stay in my pj's all morning if I choose...and, yes, I did choose to do this one day! :) 

One more week.  One more week to stand in front of the fridge and snack for lunch time...rather than actually making a lunch.

One more week.  One more week to paint my kitchen...to have my kitchen torn apart so I CAN paint my kitchen...without going crazy because everything is torn apart! 

One more week.  One more week to decide to meet a friend for lunch at 10:45...and meet for lunch at 11:45.

One more week.  One more week to do my grocery shopping in the middle of the day...in the middle of the week...when the store is completely empty...except for me!

One more week.  One more week to spend my day doing whatever comes to me at the moment!...at this moment I'm thinking about heading back to bed (it's 7:35 in the morning people...too early for me to be up!) :)

OH, just ONE MORE WEEK.....where DID this month go?!

Relax, Breathe...Find Solutions!

I was watching a documentary the other day on PBS about young people traveling to various developing countries and attempting to work through some of the challenges of poverty using a business model.  Hmmm...interesting concept.  The documentary was very good.  What I took away from it most was a typed sign that hung near a person's desk space.  Here is what it said: 

Relax

Breathe

Find Solutions!

Immediately, I thought, I need that sign!  It definitely needs to hang in my classroom.  For anyone who has ever taught or worked with children with special needs (or adults, for that matter) most of our day focuses on finding solutions!

We find solutions for the child who wants to paint, but doesn't yet have the physical grip strength to hold a paintbrush.  We find solutions for the child who is overwhelmed by loud noises but wants to be right in the middle of all the action!  We find solutions for the child who is unable yet to communicate verbally with his/her peers but wants to greet his friends.  We find solutions for the child who is unable to stand, but longs to dance with his friends!   And, on and on!

So, yes, many times I think we simply need to..."Relax....Breathe....and work on Finding a Solution!" 

The Secret Preschool Training Program

My time has been occupied lately with some slow and messy home improvements.   The worst part was definitely removing wallpaper.  Yes, I know, I've been lucky that this is the first time in my life I have ever had to remove wallpaper. 

Now that the wallpaper is removed, though, I have found my true passion...spackling!  I've been a spackling fool the past few days!  It's awesome!  All those tiny holes in the wall from nails...poof...gone!  Areas that were...um...slightly damaged in the wallpaper removal....poof...gone again! 

Of course, there's probably not a whole lot of need for "professional spacklers."  But, I don't care, I've been having a ton of fun!   Why have I been telling my husband he has to fix minor wall problems all these years?  I'm clearly the expert (um...as much of an expert as one can be in this area, I suppose)!

And I think I know why!  It's all those years of playing with playdough, fingerpainting and all those general messy preschool activities involving huge globs of glue and various sticky items!

I've been in some secret training program in preparation for...SPACKLING!  Yes, I knew all those messy projects would come in handy some day!  Oh, I can barely contain my excitement...next I get to paint the walls!  You know, we do pull out the paint every day in the classroom.  Talk about an awesome training program.  Who knew... :)

What WAS I thinking!?

I had an interesting adventure tonight with my two dogs.  This adventure reminded me a bit of teaching preschool.  Now, I am in NO way saying children should be compared to our pets or that children and pets should be treated in the same way.  Oh, just read on; you'll understand!

I set off on the adventure of taking BOTH dogs to a vaccination clinic.  I figured I'd save a few bucks and have their rabies vaccinations done this way.  Well, for most dogs, this would probably work.  For my special needs dog...who clearly has ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorder, oppositional defiant disorder and sensory processing disorder (amoung other things)...this didn't work so well.  Let's just say he had a few challenges with the idea of waiting in line with 20 other dogs and their owners.  (Just so you know, this dog has been through and passed dog obediance class...)

Yep, so that was my dog barking and jumping around like crazy (clearly in sensory overload)...with the little Chihuahua next to him joining in with the barking.  So, after a near mishap with 2 larger dogs coming up behind us and a kind woman offering to hold the yipping Chihuahua while I corralled the 35 lb. beast that was now going crazy trying to charge at a larger dog; we decided to head home.

At about this point, you're probably wondering how this would ever make me think of preschool!  I'm getting to it...I'm getting to it! 

After we made it home, my initial response was to collapse and call it a night.  I knew if I did that though, the last thing those dogs would remember was throwing a huge fit and then getting in the car, coming home, having dinner and curling up to watch TV. 

The fact that they threw a fit would have worked perfectly for them (oh, yes, do you see the connection with preschool now)!  They got to come home and away from the other dogs, which was exactly what they wanted!  Now, if I had been smarter, I would have realized that this was a poorly planned event and wouldn't have gone in the first place.  But since I had now created this, we had to finish it on a positive note.

So, just like I would do at school, we loaded back into the car, drove back and tried it again!  This time I was smarter and took my smaller dog in, then had the vet come out to the car for my dog with challenges!   (Oh yes, you should have seen the looks I got.)

We made some accommodations, but we made it!  We drove back home and everyone got a treat for doing so well!  (yes, I got one as well...mine just involved people food :) 

So, I guess here's the moral of the story:  No matter how off track things get, regroup, make the accommodations that are necessary for the child (or dog in this case) to be successful, get through the situation with the least amount of stress on everyone and then make sure everyone knows that they did a wonderful job even though it was very challenging...and then, of course, never, ever repeat the event unless your life depends on it!

Just Giving my Brain a Break!

I think my brain just needed a break!  Maybe that's why I have avoided blogging for awhile!  I had my fill of dealing with challenging situations this week...not children by the way!  I think I just needed to focus on one thing at a time. 

So, mid-way through the week I had an odd dream that I was climbing a million stairs to get away from some horrible impending doom!  I've had this dream before; but I have never actually made it to safety!  I always end up with some horrible thing happening (of course, I'm never sure exactly what happens!).  Then I wake up.  When I go back to sleep, I re-enter the dream only to start all over again! 

This time, however, I did make it to a small (apparently safe) room at the top of the stairs!  I was with thousands of other people on the stairs.  Only a handful of us were safe at the top.

Here's my own analysis of my dream :)...

Good news:  I must feel confident enough in myself that I feel I can overcome whatever horrible thing is happening. 
Bad news- apparently, I'm pretty sure everyone else will perish!!!  Hmmm...I think this fact was more disturbing to me than if I didn't actually make it!  (Don't read too much into this, I think I was just a bit too stressed!)

OK, in reality, things weren't really that bad this week!  I think I really was just thinking about too many things!  I think I wore my poor brain out!  I needed to rest up those brain cells!  Ahhh...a much needed brain break!  

Spring Break!

ahhh...spring break and some spring cleaning!  Will post again next week!

Everyone Needs a Moment to Relax Every Once in a While!

Ahhh....I'm on a week break from school right now!  I guess I didn't realize just how much I needed a little break at home until I was AT home!  I am catching up on so much that needed to be done around my house, but wasn't really sure what I would blog about while on this break!  Given the fact that I am relaxing and rejuvenating, I was thinking of ways we find to rejuvenate while IN the classroom!

I don't know about you, but if I'm having a tough day in the classroom, I try very hard just to really ENJOY the small moments of the day!  Sometimes I have to purposely remind myself that I can worry later, but NOW is the time to stay in the moment!

Working with preschool children tends to naturally lend itself to staying in the moment.  99.99% of any of the stress I feel at work comes from adults...not the children.  And, I'm sure that probably is the case for most of us! 

If I'm REALLY having a tough day, I may try to catch a few breaths by taking a lunch cart down, assisting a child with a sensory break or even changing a pull-up.  This gives me just enough of a breather to regroup and allows me to spend some one on one time with a child.  I often "find my smile" again while walking down the hall with a child pushing a weighted cart, kicking a weighted ball with a child or pushing the lunch cart to the lunch room!

Sometimes we do group things that others may think are for the benefit of the group, but in reality, I'm trying to regroup and relax!  Often we listen to relaxing music at lunch time in order to relax.  If I'm on edge you will probably see me pop in my "Zen Relaxation collection".  (just thinking about it helps me relax!) 

As a group, we may just decide to take an afternoon walk after lunch!  In order to make sure this is not too stressful, I simply push back to the next day anything we may have had planned for the afternoon.  This way, we can take our time to really enjoy the walk and explore the outdoors without feeling we need to hurry back to the room. 

In order to prevent feeling crazy first thing in the morning, I make sure I get to work early enough to make sure things are ready for the day and in time to check the answering machine to make sure one of my teacher associates won't be out for the day. 

Another trick I've started is checking my e-mail BEFORE I even arrive at school.  I check e-mail in the morning after I get up and ready.  That way, if there's anything that I will need to take care of immediately, I don't feel like a bus just ran over me when I get to work!   I can go in, take care of it and move on with my day!

How do you find time to take a breather if you're having a tough day?  I'm sure we all have creative ways to regroup when we need a breather!

Picture Day...Or the Fine Art of Juggling Sharp Objects!

Tomorrow is picture day.  Now, I know parents want a great picture of their child...I know!  But, I must tell you about picture day from my point of view! 

Managing a group of children who are not big fans of changes in schedules, bright lights, loud noises, large objects, new people; and then requiring that the child sit down, look at a person they don't know, smile and, of course, do all of this without WIGGLING...is like herding a group of cats into a room full of dogs.  Needless to say, it's not always easy!  

Well, of course, everything will be just fine!  The children will adjust.  The adults will make it through the day.  The photography equipment will be just fine.  The photographers will live to make it through another picture day at another school!  And, we will see smiles...a minimal amount of wiggling and (hopefully) clean clothes and combed hair from the children!  

But, I always have a million things going through my mind before we head down to a loud, large, echoing cafeteria for picture day.  ..."Got to grab the puppet, so we can catch a smile as the puppet gives kisses.  Don't forget the maracas or other musical instrument so we are happily listening to the music and 'forgeting' that we are uncomfortable with the loud noise and bright lights.  And, remember to sing with the child who will almost always smile as he is joining in the singing." 

"Oh, and, wait, make sure no one spills any breakfast on their clothes!   And, yes, we will need to avoid the long lines.  We will need to time this just right.  We will need to check the photos as they are being done.  We will need to make sure the photographer doesn't try to hurry through.   We may need to remind the photographer that it may take 1,2,3 or many more takes before we get a picture with a smile!   We will need to strategically position all adults to make sure no one tries to take off or tries to dismantle any equipment!"  (children or ADULT trying to escape...ALL will be stopped!)

Whew...I'm exhausted just THINKING about tomorrow.   Good thing I have all next week off.  I may need a whole week to recover from picture day! 

The "bonus" snow day!

The second snow day is always more fun than the first!  On the first snow day I feel trapped in the house.  There's no way I'm going out before the streets are plowed!  The second snow day is a whole different story.  The second snow day always feels like a "bonus day"! 

Second snow days don't come around very often.  So you have to make them count when they do!  Baking cookies and staying in your PJ's is for the FIRST snow day!  Going out to lunch and heading to the mall is for that "bonus" second snow day!

So, here I sit, at my computer...wondering what to do with my bonus snow day.  Darn, I need to start planning for snow days!  Next time I must have a list of fun things to do that don't require much money for my bonus snow day!  But for today, I'll have to wing it!  I'm sure I can come up with something for my bonus day!

Under Self-Imposed Quarantine!

It's been a LONG week!  You might think that I've had some time off...in my P.J.'s for the last four days...but, no, I'm recovering from some illness!  Strep test...negative.   Flu test...negative.  101-102 degree F. temp for 2 1/2 days......sadly, yes.  Attempting to cough up a lung...yes.  Horrible body aches, chills, muscle pain, gland pain, couldn't eat anything...OK, you get the idea! 

I think the doctor finally felt sorry enough for me at about day 2 of this horrible thing and decided it must be some type of infection and broke down and called in an antibiotic.  Well, what do you know, after 2 doses, my fever finally broke!  I'm still nowhere near back to normal.  In fact, sitting here typing this is the most I've done in several days.  I did manage to finish a child's IEP while my temp. was 101.  I was awfully impressed by that!  I hope it made sense, I really don't remember much of what I added at that point!

As you may notice, there are no photos to accompany this post...I really don't think you need any...nor do you probably WANT any...my description of being ill should stand on it's own!  Hopefully, I'll be back to semi-regular blog posts next week sometime, but for now, I'm going back to bed!

Last Day of Vacation Blues

It's January 2nd and I'm pretty sure tomorrow will be a tough one!  You know what I'm talking about: actually having to get up BEFORE ten in the morning! Actually having to get dressed and out of my P.J.'s BEFORE noon. Oh, the horror of it all!

We're back to school tomorrow. We're back to 6 AM....hit the snooze button several times. We're back to yawning and feeling out of sorts until lunch time. And, darn it, we're back to eating healthy.

Yes, I have to do it. I have no choice. I have eaten out ONE (Ok, maybe two or three) too many times over my break. If I don't stop now, my jeans won't fit much longer!

You know the commercial with the lady in the red coat who is mistaken for Santa Clause by the reindeer? You do? Well, soon that will be me.

So, here's to all those PJ mornings, fast food lunches, couch potato afternoons, stay up late evenings and general relaxation. I will miss you. I will miss you more than you know! And, welcome back real life.

Good Riddance 2010...Hello 2011!

I decided this year to make two sets of New Year's Resolutions.  (I've just stuck with all my resolutions so well, you know, I might as well tag on a few extra!)  I decided I needed a few resolutions for myself in general and then some "school resolutions"! 

Here are my school resolutions: 

1. Resolution #1:  Plan with my teacher associates EACH and EVERY Week.  (we'll see how many weeks we make it....don't hold your breath)  If you saw my earlier post about working together as a team, you might know I'm big on teamwork in the classroom!  However, I'm HORRIBLE about the paperwork and actual SIT DOWN meeting time with my teacher associates!  Our schedule makes it difficult to spend much time together planning together or even touching base on issues, since our planning/cleaning/break time is all supposed to take place during nap/rest time!  WHAT!  Yes, we do all of that while those sweet little angels are napping.  If our group actually needs a nap and sleeps every day, this works out well.  If not, we don't get around to much planning!  
2. Resolution #2: Daily anecdotal notes.  I generally feel too busy to actually write anecdotal notes throughout the day.  Instead, I sit down at the end of the day.  Not the best idea.  It's more difficult to remember exactly what the children did.  I do take lots of photos, which helps jog my memory, but we do need to work on actually taking those pads of sticky notes and using them to write down what we see the children doing throughout the day!
3. Resolution #3: Spend more time planning for, making use of and engaging the children in outdoor learning.  I wrote about this earlier.  We just don't make use of the outdoor space we have.  A few of us also are not big fans of the cold weather!  No names will be used here; but you know who you are!  (No, it's not me, although I would prefer there not be ice on the sidewalk as I'm walking down it!)  We have a few challenges in this department.  Have you ever tried to wheel a wheelchair through snow?  There are quite a few things that we can do, though, that we are NOT doing now.  For us, this is a big one!  We're currently looking at some ways to make our outdoor space a bit more accessible for our children in wheelchairs and walkers.  This would offer us more freedom of movement and increase the chance that we take more of our learning outdoors. 

So, to wrap this up...Hello 2011!  I wasn't a big fan of 2010, for a few reasons.  I'm looking forward to 2011.  Happy New Year! 

Hugs....colds...do you see a link?

I haven't quite been feeling myself today...stuffy nose, sore throat, headache...you know...probably just a cold.  Well, after spending 90% of the day on the couch in my PJ's (thank goodness for the week off) I started catching up on some of the blog posts from today.  I noticed Deborah's post at Teach Preschool and in it she talks about children encouraging each other. 

This made me think of the ways we encourage each other in my classroom.  Since my children have very little language/communication skills currently, we use lots of hugs, smiles and other physical ways to acknowledge each other.   And it suddenly made me think of the reason WHY I probably have a cold right now. 

Now, I'm really not trying to BLAME anyone for this cold...but, in my classroom, we do share a tremendous amount of hugs (this is the one GOOD thing to share)...followed by coughs, little bit of drool every now and then, food spit or "accidentally" thrown at us and various other gross things. 

I suppose it's inevitable that a few germs will make their way through.  To prepare for this I take a huge amount of vitamin C every day.  Recently, however, I was negligent in replacing that huge vitamin C bottle.  Needless to say, I won't forget that again!

I'm pretty sure most parents, preschool teachers and special education teachers out there wouldn't trade the great hugs for fewer days with a bit of a cold!  So, for now, I'll just keep those vitamin C tablets handy and get lots of rest this week...before the possible onslaught of hugs next week.

The Stockings Were Hung by the Chimney with Care...

I think we must be the only preschool in the country holding classes...tomorrow....TOMORROW!  GOOD GRIEF, I still have a house to clean!  Our stocking are hung...now the laundry just needs to be hung!  The gifts are wrapped...now the shopping needs to be wrapped up! 

Granted, tomorrow will be an awesome day!  Tomorrow is our annual Pajama and Movie Day at preschool!  All 5 preschool classrooms will pitter-patter down the very LONG hall to the big screen TV in the cafeteria, snuggle on the floor on blankets or on a teacher's lap and watch The Polar Express! 

We'll munch on popcorn and wiggle around during the slow parts of the movie.  Some of us may make multiple trips back to the classroom since it is such a long movie.  Some of us may make multiple trips to the bathroom as well!  But, we'll all love being together on our last day before winter break! 

So, bring on PJ day!  We're ready for The Polar Express!  That laundry can wait...and the shopping!?   Well, shopping is so much more fun when it's last minute....right?...stay positive....stay positive!