Kindergarten is Hard!

Do you remember kindergarten? I do.

I remember the kitchen set and loving the baby dolls, we had the "diversity set" with dolls of 3 ethnicities and both genders.

I remember really fat crayons and giant headphones in computer class. I remember the monkey bars and the swings.

My daughter's experience is entirely different. She has cried so many times in the last 19 days since school started. And for her it's only 15.

We've been working on sight words, coloring homework, walking in a quite line, did I mention homework?, learning to tie shoes and .... going without a nap!

Maybe I am being a bit mellow dramatic. But, maybe not.

It seems like all of our high stakes testing and pushing is breaking our children. Kids are freaking out and losing control and getting upset over so many things that in the long run don't really work.

Why does this article on WebMD about dealing with stress in small children, even need to be published?

What happened to Montessori education?


Long gone are the days of students self selecting their play and self selecting their activities and having time to explore the world around them.

Parents are regularly told to spend crazy amounts of time making flash cards and small little reading books to "reinforce the work done at school". I don't know about you, but I need a break after a busy day and I'm guessing our kids do too....

Yet, there I was cutting up those flash cards with the best of them. Peer pressure.



Maybe I'll learn something better tomorrow.

Context Clues and Observation Skills

Keys to Success

As a science teacher, I think those two things are the two most critical pieces of a student that I can help develop. Context Clues and Observation Skills. My students do not always come to me with these skills, nor can I always develop them as much as I would like in my 9 months with my sweet darlings.

Today I received an email inviting me to speak at STEMCON. I plan to try to go. It's an incredible opportunity to share with some of the really great minds in my field. But, what I find we all keep coming back to, is that as teachers we have to find ways to bring out the context clues for our students or demonstrate the use of observation skills. This means that no matter the skill level, reading level, IQ level, functionality, etc, our students can all use more developement in the area of context clues and observation skills.

I find that my students not only hear teachers often say, "are you sure you read ________" referring to novels, directions or most anything, but that often the students eyes have gone over the symbols on the page without really absorbing the full content within, much less gaining any clue to the context.

Most of our students today have grown up around technology in a way that most veteran, ie 4 years or more, teachers did not. Most veteran teachers watched the technology develop, some have even embraced it into their classrooms as much as their schools will allow. What this means for our students is that they are used to memes, instagram and vimeo videos, youtube, google, facebook and other medias, being short snipets of information and sound bites that are always at their disposal.

How as teachers and parents can we navigate the minefield and get them to actually see the world around them!?! How will they discover the science behind Leonardo DaVinci or Claude Monet?! When will they notice the patterns of flowers directly match the wind patterns months prior? Or how will they find out that Vincent Van Googh was the first to finally make us able to see turbulence and the prior to this, no scientist or artist could really get it right?

What as teachers can we do?

1. Create class lessons that utilize 10-20 minutes of time and then require the student to do a different task using a different part of their brain.
2. Question what we show them.
3. Give them word searches and word puzzles and brain teasers to start our high school classes.
4. Make our content rich classroom, Actually RICH WITH CONTENT! Don't throw it all on the wall, give it meaning.
5. Teach your students to see context clues and how to use observation skills. Maybe give them a search and see sheet for your classroom or show a short clip and have them write everything they saw.

What ideas do you have? Post them in the comments below.

Life has been very busy

I need to start with an apology  for having abandoned the blog for the last few weeks!

So much has happened, I am excited to share with you all of the new goings on at our house...In no particular order, here goes nothing!

First, Dilly has TEETH! She has gotten her first two teeth peeking through, both are on the bottom and both are RAZOR sharp! We've begun introducing her to solid foods and so far a few favorites include; avacado, scrambled eggs, cheese, strawberries and rice chex. She really loves playing with Lissy Jane and working so hard at being able to do what Lissy does!

Second, well, I hate to admit it, but we are taking a break from potty training. It's just been so stressful! UGH! Lissy is definitely moving in a good direction and is interested in the goings on in the bathroom, but she is just not communicative enough for this to stick right now.

Third, for those of you who are not Memphians, this is going to sound crazy....but we just got done with our 5 days camp out to get Annie into White Station Middle School's Optional Program. The camp out started on Thursday at 830am when one of the moms started the line! Earliest one yet! Geez... We ended up having fun as a family at the camp out. Food trucks from Fuel, Mark's Grill, Square Meal on Wheels, Central BBQ and the Tamale Trolley all showed up at different points. The kids played on the lawn of the Board of Education and we made a ton of great new friends. Overall, not a bad weekend.

Fourth, not sure who knows, but I am now teaching at White Station High School! I am very ecited to have returned to the school where I went to high school and taught last year. It is a great excitement to be back and I have been blessed with an amazing roster. Literally, every class has an amazing community feel and is quite dynamic. Here's a couple pictures of my classroom.

So, all in all, there has been a lot going on! Hopefully, I can get back on track with all the things that you all like to see. Keep cheering us on, it's great to hear from you all about all the goings on in our little cozy house!