Perspectives

I started thinking about some of the practices my students use today when cleaning up after centers. I have a few who wander around the room with basket or container in hand waiting for someone to put something in their basket all the while looking very busy. I have a couple who decide it is time to go to the bathroom. I have a few who just walk around aimlessly and several who really clean. My thoughts immediately think: They have been cleaning up all year, they should know what to do and how to do it. There is no way that child has to go to the bathroom every day at clean up time. Seriously? Carrying a basket is not cleaning!   Okay now take a breath, reflect, think.  This is not a problem that is these students. This is MY problem. If I really am honest with myself, this shows I did not do a good job of teaching what I expect my students to do during clean up time. I need to go back and simplify my expectations so that my students clearly understand what to do when the clea...

I woke up to see this light on my bedroom door. It was fairly large about 6" tall by 2' wide. I kept staring at it and trying to figure out what it was.  Was it a burgle in the house? The flashlight just holding steady and reflecting on my bedroom door? All these crazy thoughts were going through my head. Then I put on my glasses. The reflection changed, it was only about 1/2" tall by 4" wide. I got up to investigate and found one of the kids had left the speakers in their bathroom and the little pin LED light was being reflected off of my door. It suddenly hit me. How many times have I in my teaching lost focus? How many times have I looked at a something in my classroom and it seemed ginormous? Too many to count actually, if I'm honest. Sometimes our problems seem so big and overwhelming and then we put on our glasses and focus. Well, actually something like what just happened to me makes you stop, step back, and take a minute to focus and see the problem is no...

I tweeted a thought I had earlier today the tolerance is temporary, acceptance is permanent and we should all strive to be accepting. I'm not sure why, but this thought has been on my mind for a couple of days now. I think of life in general and how sometimes we tolerate actions of those around us. Sometimes those actions irritate and annoy us, but we tolerate them in hopes that the actions will go away.  In the classroom, we need to learn acceptance. A child comes in on the first day with all he/she is. It is our responsibility to accept that the child will have faults just like we as adults do and our responsibility to accept the child's faults and build on the child's strengths. To do this we have to build a community in our classroom. Make our classroom a safe environment. By a safe environment, I mean a place where the child feels safe to be who he or she is and feels comfortable talking to you as the adult. In this community, it becomes possible to find our the child...