Adjustments

I can't quite get into a groove with my Christmas ideas. Everything I try, doesn't go how I originally want it to. For example...... A few weeks ago, Mrs. Greca and I decided that we were going to have the kiddos decorate stockings to hang in the hallway. So this past Thursday, I planned to decorate stockings. I put out all kinds of decorating tools for the kids to use. Things like pompoms, pipe cleaners, feathers, foam stickers,  markers, crayons, glitter glue, etc. I let them pick the color of paper they wanted as well as what stocking tracer (there was a standard stocking and a stocking with a curled toe...very cute, Thank you Mrs. Augustine!...) they wanted. HOLY HOLY HANNAH. THEY TURNED OUT AWFUL. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but they were HORRIBLE. They looked like garbage. Elmers glue was everywhere. They scribbled all over them to fill the space. The glitter glue resembled seagull poo because they didn't have the motor control to squeeze it. It was just a disaster. At first, I felt like my students let me down, that they didn't try hard enough, or take it seriously. I wasn't sure what it was, but I left Thursday pretty annoyed. As I thought about it during the next 15 hours, I realized I had NO RIGHT to be upset with the performance of my students. ZERO. I set them up for that, for failure, but I wasn't exactly sure how. I gave them the necessary tools and pretty thorough instruction time. During the morning on Friday, it hit me. They are five. They came only handle so much at a time. They aren't ready for open ended jobs. I told them how to use the glue, the markers, etc...but I have never showed them or taught them what it looks like to have a "free explore" with something so open ended. They couldn't handle the freedom of being able to use whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted. They needed more structure with the assignment, and that's EXACTLY where I failed as a teacher. Now granted, they thought it was completely and totally sweet that they could do whatever they wanted, but they really couldn't produce anything successful or worthwhile. On Friday, we redid they whole thing. I still let them pick color and type, but they were limited to materials. They had markers and foam stickers. Now I look at that setup and still think I'm doing them a disservice. Only markers and foam stickers? Seriously. How boring. But, we are working together on finding a good groove and appropriate activities that fit what they can do and what I want the end result to be. Of course only having two materials to choose from wasn't as fun as an open ended assignment, but they were successful. And THAT'S what it is all about. So, I'm sorry Room 111. You will have to forgive me. We are all learning here!

'Tis the Season!

I went to school today for way too long (5 hours..) to prepare for Christmas themes and the next three weeks before vacation. Since Thanksgiving seemed to be "early" this year, there were four weeks until Christmas after that break (now there is three). It seemed too early last week to start getting into Christmas things, so I tried to avoid the subject. Today, I met up with Erika and we planned Christmas! I am so excited for all the cute things we are doing. I find that planning takes way, way more energy and time than I could ever imagine. It is really not just "planning". You have to decide where you want to put things, what order you want to do things in, what you have to send to the copy center, what you can copy at school, what you need your parapro to prep, how you want her/him to prep the work, what you need to quickly prepare for possibly the next day, etc... It really isn't just a "let's do this at this time" or "we will do this then". This is when being a first year teacher kind of stinks. I really have a blank slate to work with. I can't go to my files and pull out everything I did at this time of year last year....because there wasn't a last year for my teaching career. This is just how to goes! You got to start somewhere! I also decorated slightly for the season. I put up a little, fat Christmas tree in my room. Yes, a Christmas tree in my classroom. I can't wait to see my kiddos' faces when they see it tomorrow morning....or if we happen to receive a letter from Santa, himself!