Play is Academic

"Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity." -Kay Redfield Jamison

My students surprise me sometimes, at just how academic their play can be, when they seem so resistant to the same stuff during instruction. Some of my kids (most of them really) LOVE to play teacher. And they break out my alphabet cards, write sight words, and have others practice reading. And yet, when I'm reading with them they won't sit still. But they need this time to process what they learn, and to practice. Without play, it's in one ear, and out the other. Kindergarteners need play time, and there is so little time.

Today, my morning kids got some free time as I finished math assessments.

A little boy who started this year with zero English, (and who is absolutely adorable and my I-don't-have-favorites-but-maybe-if-I-had-to-choose-he'd-be-it kinder, who isn't always the best at staying in his seat or attending on the rug, but gets a great big hug at the end of the day and always wants his high-five higher), is making amazing language and academic progress, though he's still below grade level.

He's sitting, alone at his desk, happily building an alphabet block castle. He makes it, and I capture a picture. I check out what other kids are doing and glance back a couple minutes later. He's just sitting at his desk, staring at his tower. He then looks up at me and says, "I'm trying to read it."

He was trying to read a bunch of mostly consonants in his tower--to perhaps very little success, as he is one of my lower readers--but he was engrossed, and as a teacher, that was the highlight of my day.

And it made me realize, while I am exhausted, and excited for summer, I sure am going to miss these children who put me through hell.

This is Why I Teach

"There are lives I can imagine without children but none of them have the same laughter and noise." -Brian Andreas

"Children make your life important". -Erma Bombeck

There are a lot of small moments in teaching that remind me why I teach. I feel like I complain and vent a lot about my experience--it's easier to think of what's not going well, and my perceived failures. I don't feel like a successful teacher a lot. It's good to remind myself of things I actually get right.

Our current theme is "Words and Roads Take Us Places." It's about communication and transportation. How fitting then, that I got a letter this week from one of my students from last year. If there's one thing I know my second graders last year learned, was how to write a friendly letter. Every week they would write a letter to my resident teacher or me in a journal, and we would write back. It was such a great way to build a relationship with the students, and allow students to write and grow at their own pace (woo differentiation!)

My masters inquiry is about emergent writing. Research backs up the need for writing to be meaningful and authentic in order to engage students and promote growth, and I realize that those friendly letter journals were perfect. Letters were tangible, and they got something in return. The more they put in, the more they got back. Three of my students wrote letters this year and gave them to my resident teacher, and she passed them along to me. I returned the favor, and my resident teacher gave those students an addressed, stamped envelope so that they could mail their letters this time.

I LOVE snail mail, and if there's anything that's better than getting mail, it's getting a handwritten letter from a student. I haven't had the opportunity to visit them this year, because I have yet to have a day off when they don't, but the second I do (spring break, I believe), you can bet I'll be visiting. That my students remember me--the student teacher--and think highly enough of me to write a letter a year later, means the world to me. It reinforces the notion that what I'm doing makes a difference, and makes an impact.

Finally, Happy Valentine's Day! There is no better profession to be in than teaching when it comes to Valentine's Day, because you are never without a Valentine, or 30. 

A rose can say "I love you",

orchids can enthrall,

but a weed bouquet in a chubby fist,

yes, that says it all.

-Author Unknown

Congrats Grads!

"When people go through something rough in life, they say, 'I'm taking it one day at a time.' Yes, so is everybody. Because that's how time works." -Hannibal Buress

"When I was 5 years old my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life." -John Lennon

The hardest thing about teaching is that one year is not much time at all. And I hate goodbyes. They're hard, and they're sad. Yet the harder the goodbye, I suppose, the more you've gained from that relationship. For kids it's so simple--"Ms. Elson, can you be my teacher next year?"--and I wish it were so easy. Instead, I give the kid a hug goodbye, and hope that perhaps our paths will cross again.

Today, I graduated from UCD's teaching credential program. Graduation is yet another event that encourages reflection--and more goodbyes. I realized that I graduate three years TO THE DAY after I graduated from undergrad. What a happy coincidence! Three years went by so fast. And a lot happened in the last three years--I ran two marathons! I met new people! I became a teacher! I made a difference!

Reason #bazillion why working with kids is amazing: This poem was written by a 5th grader, whose class I was in for a mere 2 weeks. It really doesn't take long to make an impression.

I don't know if it's because I'm a glass-is-half-full kind of person, but I feel like I have been so lucky to have gotten to where I am today on the route that I took--I firmly believe that I could not have been happier at any other college than Carleton. I could not have had a more positive experience at any other site than my lovely St. Paul elementary school. And I could not have found a better fit in terms of grad school, than I did at UCD. Everything happens for a reason, right?

I am not one to believe in fate, or that there's some grand plan for my life, or anyone else's. That said, I think that stuff happens, and it's up to us to give it a reason. To make meaning out of the coincidences that make up life. For example, I did not just jump into a teaching after undergrad, but rather spent 2 years confirming my career goals (and having a blast, living in Minneapolis and working at a fantastic school!) I firmly believe without those years of experience, not only would I have been a horrendous student teacher, but that my particular class could have convinced a different me that teaching was not the right path, even though it could not be any clearer to me that education is my calling.

The takeaway message here is that life is what you make it--and everything happens for the reason that you give it. Life may not always go smoothly--in fact this year had me doubting my teaching abilities and included a lot of tears--but every event can be a learning experience. So here I am, ready to have my own classroom, along with seventy-some other amazing credential students who I am honored to have sat with at graduation.

A Homecoming of Sorts

"It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got." -Sheryl Crow

"Luck is believing you're lucky." -Tennessee Williams

Several years ago I was complaining about a lane assignment for a 200 meter race I was about to run. I enjoy running on the inside lanes, because I like running the curve, but I must have had a number 6 or 7 hip number. My coach heard me and said, "Amy, the lane you're in is the best lane to be in." It never mattered what lane you were assigned, because excelling at a sport is not about what might have been, but about doing your best in every attempt, whether it be lane 2 or lane 8, in rain, wind or sun.

I took her encouragement to heart. I never again complained about my lane assignments, and even half-jokingly repeated my coach's advice back to her whenever I heard her talking to other athletes about lane assignments. And I think this advice applies to more than simply the world of track. It's good advice for life; playing the hand you are dealt and making the most of it.

It seems fitting that two of this week's vocabulary words for my second graders are "memories" and "familiar." I spent last week in Minnesota, and was pleasantly surprised at just how familiar and comfortable everything seemed, from walking to the grocery store, grabbing a drink with a friend, or playing board games in my former roommate's apartment. I also visited the wonderful school I worked in last year. Nearing the end of my winter break, and not looking forward to the intense quarter looming on the horizon, my visit restored enthusiasm to see my current class again, and was a good reminder of why I am taking on the challenge of grad school.

This past week I thought a lot about where I would eventually like to teach, and at what grade. And frankly, I don't have an answer. I'm not going to lie, I would teach at my lovely St. Paul school in a heartbeat. I feel like it's a very special place, and I got to a point where I truly felt a part of the community, and that feeling intensified when I returned last week. But who's to say I wouldn't have felt that way about another school, had I been placed there 2 years ago? I love my students now, I love my Minnesota students, I love the new students in MN with whom I spent two days, and I love those random 4th graders who let me be a part of their classroom family in Vacaville for one day two weeks ago.

But I wasn't placed in any other school. The path I took led me to St. Paul, and I made the most of my two short years there. I can't ask for anything more, and the hugs I got last week were more than enough to make it worthwhile, to know that while I was impacted deeply by my students and school, the feeling was mutual. I guess it's like my track coach's advice: whichever classroom/grade I'm in, that is the absolute best place to be.

The Power of the Arts

Man will begin to recover the moment he takes art as seriously as physics, chemistry or money.  -Ernst Levy

Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something. -Kurt Vonnegut

The arts are so important to have in education, yet they're the first thing to go in this testing-heavy environment. By phasing the arts out of schools, we are doing a huge disservice to our students. Arts are not a luxury, but a necessity, and as it turns out, correlated strongly with success. Working at an arts-integrated elementary school has only helped fuel my belief in the necessity of the arts.

While I'm sure I could find some other articles to back me up, I'm going to use my personal experience. While numbers go a long way, I think that they are also, to some extent, impersonal. But if you make an issue personal, and put a face to it, I think it goes a lot longer sometimes. It's easy in the abstract to understand there are all sorts of injustices going on in the world, and go about your daily life. It's a lot harder when you can relate to it yourself. So that's what I'm going to do. I think that the arts are not just necessary to keep for low-income students or minority students or what have you, I think the arts are important for EVERYONE.

Take me, for example--I can't imagine my life without art. Growing up, my mom made me create any birthday or thank you card by hand, so for every occasion, I had a little art project to complete. In elementary school, I participated in a couple of theater camps, and had a blast. I love musicals. Most of the more memorable school projects-from elementary school through high school--were the creative projects. From videos about recycling, to creating my own "Brown Bear" book, those are also the projects I hang on to all these years later. Looking back at old notebooks, I doodled like crazy during class--to keep me focussed, or awake, or simply just to keep the boredom from setting in. But I feel like it says something that a lot of kids doodle on their schoolwork.

 In college I was almost an art major. Ended up in psychology, but got so much from the art classes I took. Not only that, but art balanced out my schedule. I felt like my art classes were, in some ways a way to use my brain in a different capacity. It wasn't by any means a break--they were challenging, time consuming courses, but it there was definitely a different feeling when I finished a 2 hour stint in the dark room, versus finishing a big problem set. Throughout college I had fun "borrowing" mugs from the dining hall and drawing on them in sharpie, and then giving them to people because they asked me to. I was also the go-to for various costume tattoos, as well as actual mock-ups of potential tattoos. Apparently I'm good at time consuming activities with lots of details.

My first college art course was observational drawing, the prerequisite for basically any other art class. So many people complained that oh, they would take this or that class if only they didn't have to take observational drawing. And to that I say, there was a damn good reason to take observational drawing before a class like photo. On the first day the professor gave a little lecture about how this course would change the way I look at the world. And I was like, pffffft. Yeah right. But you know what? He was right. I totally see the world differently now--I notice a lot more, and am a lot more aware of various details.

So then I started working in an elementary school where arts is its THING. And all my thoughts and feelings about how great the arts are magnified. Arts are a way to look at the world differently. And never underestimate the power of the arts to help teach math, science, english, and really any subject.

I am amazed at students' ability to memorize lyrics. This is why I now know the counting by 10s song, for example. It is nothing more than counting to 100 by 10s, set to a tune, but without that song, those kindergardeners would struggle much more. I remember being with some 4th graders learning the Fifty Nifty United States song and I was thinking, man this isn't that catchy, how does anyone expect kids to remember them all? But, while I can't (I blame the fact that I never learned this song in grade school), they certainly could.

What's more, is at the end of the year we put on an all-school musical. And the students are just SO into it. Each class has their own song and dance number, but somehow, most students know not only every single song in the entire musical, but most of the dances as well. It's pretty amazing. I think it's also a great way to introduce new vocabulary to these students. The teachers who wrote the songs (they're all original), are very clever. They aren't simplistic lyrics for kids, they're entertaining and full of puns and interesting references. The students may not always know what the words mean, but it's a step in the right direction. Having a larger vocabulary can help advance a student in reading and comprehension. Maybe they've never seen a word written down, but when applying their rules for sounding out new words, they will be able to make the jump to figuring out the word if it's one they've heard.

Beyond academics, the arts give a good balance to students who may have some behavior issues. Maybe it stems from some classroom insecurities, and excelling in dance gives them some extra self esteem, but also gives a teacher a way to see the child in a new light. So the arts don't just make life less boring, but can have very tangible, positive results for successful academic endeavors and relationships.

Moral of the story, ART is education disguised as FUN. What more could you want?

I don't care about your color or your creed, I will judge you for no reason.

...But your deeds.

So Tim Minchin is this hilarious comedic musician (see also his bit on the power of language) who has a great song (lyrics linked above) that you can't find him performing anywhere because of copyright. But anyway, it's about context. Which is very important.

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -Groucho Marx


Remember when you were younger and ran into your teacher at a grocery store, and totally didn't recognize them? Or nowadays, if you're walking downtown and walk by someone who is soooo familiar, but you just can't place them? And after the fact you realize you work with them, or went to school with them? Well, that's super common--and I remember learning about the phenomenon in intro psych.

It's interesting when you're on the other side--when the other person is the one who is confused by how familiar you look. I ran into a 2nd grader last year at the Minnesota Zoo, and said hello in passing. And he just stared blankly and almost didn't seem to notice that I said hello. I saw another kid at the Martin Luther King Day festivities-he was in the boy scout procession with some flag, and I also said hello. He kind of looked at me seemingly uncomprehending the situation. If you're so used to seeing someone in a certain place, you don't ever expect to see them in another, so you might just totally miss them in any other situation. It's like the opposite of the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, where you learn a new word, or meet a new person and then all of a sudden--they're everywhere! You never noticed it before, but it's not because it's occurring more often, but because you now actually have a reason to notice.

Interestingly enough, in both these situations when I saw the students at school the next day, they were overly enthusiastic about the fact that I saw them--They practically shouted at me. Where was this reaction when I actually saw them the day before? Well, now that they had time to process the situation, it was a special event. For all they know I live at the school and have zero life outside. Plus, they also now have friends to whom they can brag.

Although, my students are relatively aware of my life outside of school--Kim visited again, and now I have a whole host of kids who now continually ask about my sister. This was a month ago now, and I still get "Are you the real Miss Amy?" "Where's your twin?" Shoot, the other day I had a kid ask if she was married, or has a boyfriend. (Followed by those same questions about me). So curious. But again, makes you realize how much kids pay attention to the adults in their lives, that my sister was a big enough event in the lives of students who I don't even directly work with that they still comment on it basically daily.


I wonder though, if I move back to California for grad school, how quickly they might forget me. People are adaptable, and I know I have an awful memory--but if I come back to visit, how well might they remember me? Will I have even made a big enough difference in their lives to merit being remembered even years from now--into middle school, or high school? I don't remember many adults from my elementary school outside of my classroom teachers, so I can't expect much. At least I'll remember them. I can only hope I've made a fraction of the impact on their lives that they have on mine. I know that sounds horribly cheesy and/or cliché, but, while it's still a while off, I am dreading saying goodbye.
 
Now, we're back to the beginning
It's just a feeling and no one knows yet
But just because they can't feel it too
Doesn't mean that you have to forget
 
Let your memories grow stronger and stronger
'Til they're before your eyes
You'll come back
When they call you
No need to say goodbye.
 
 -Regina Spektor, The Call

Keep Calm And Carry On

"How great is life today?" -Scott Heinig

People do not die for us immediately, but remain bathed in a sort of aura of life which bears no relation to true immortality but through which they continue to occupy our thoughts in the same way as when they were alive.  It is as though they were traveling abroad.  ~Marcel Proust

Warning: This post is going to be a little less specifically education, and a little more general life issues...but I'll tie it in somehow.

So "Keep calm and carry on" was a little used British propaganda piece from WWII that I am seeing everywhere now. There it was as a poster in the house where I dog sat. A postcard in the window of a track coach's office. Someone's username on some online social network-y site. Some stranger's t-shirt. I don't know whether there's been a resurgence in popularity, or if it's always been around. But I suppose it's decent advice. And in some sense what I already do--I don't think it's in my personality to get super stressed out about anything--especially at work. If I were easily stressed, lunch room duty would kill me. But it's also what helps to get through the day when outside-of-work stressors strike. Which they have.

My roommate said that death often seems to come in threes. Which it kind of has--first someone who graduated college with me went missing and was found dead months later. Then a freshman at my alma mater dies in a car crash. Sure I didn't know either of these people, but I still feel so connected to my alma mater, and the fact that they were so young shook me up a bit. And then I found out that a guy from my 6th grade class (who I also went to Jr. High and High School with) died in a fall. And it's taking it's time to really sink in. I think I saw him once since graduating high school--I ran into him at the gym and we chatted and he was the same cute, friendly, and all around great guy I knew years ago. He's one of those guys you don't really forget.

In the past few years my family's three cats died. And each time I was over here in Minnesota. Which means I never got the same closure as I did back in 3rd grade when we put our old dog to sleep. So I still expect to see a cat when I visit home--even though there are none anymore. Which I think is why I've also had mini crying spells when it suddenly hits me that Scott is gone. Especially when I think about when I knew him best--he was one of the leads in my 6th grade class' musical. And remembering that has increased exponentially since the school I work at is starting to think about and prepare for their summer musical. And the fact that I see the 6th grade classes every day. I hope all of these kids make it past their 22nd year. They're facing more challenges than Scott or I did--most of them are going against the odds--statistically more of them may end up in jail than college, given that my school is mostly students of color and of a lower socio-economic status.

It's been an odd couple of weeks. Everything seems to remind me of Scott. And it's making me think a lot more about death--and about appreciating the people in my life right now. And while it will be less depressing when the memory isn't fresh, I still want to remember him in 10 years. Because while there are a ton of people from high school for whom I couldn't care less about where they ended up (not that I want them dead, it just doesn't matter what they ended up doing with their lives), Scott was going to be one I'd be interested to see at reunions. But here's the thing--No one really close to me has died, and I don't know how I'll react if they do. Let's hope I don't find out for a long time. I can't imagine if I were Scott's family, close friends, or girlfriend. That would be even more awful than it already is.

At least, it seems clear that Scott lived a full life for his 22 years and was very loved. Which is more than some people can say. One of the reasons I worry about the kids I work with is because a lot of their home lives are unpredictable. The Kindergarden teacher with whom I work the most told me that this one girl who has major behavior issues and is also the only one who still can't write her own name, told her about how her mom gets drunk, throws up and passes out. At 5, she really shouldn't be learning the effects of alcohol, but that's her life. How much can one teacher offset the damage that has already been done? Maybe not a lot, but you do what you can. You can't fix everything, but I suppose if you can make a little bit of difference, it can mean the world to someone. The other day I was walking with a first grade class down the hall and a boy grabs my hand and says "I love you Miss Amy." And during lunch, one of his classmates said "I want you to be my mom!" I can't control what their lives outside of school is like, but hopefully I can insert some extra love and happiness into their school life, for the brief window that I am part of their lives. Because life goes on, and all things considered, it is pretty great today--I made some kids smile, helped them read, learn math and got some hugs, and will have a home cooked meal with my close friends/roommates.