First Week, Class of 2010, 18th Year

It's time to begin again, and a fresh opportunity to improve on what I love to do the most. Teach! Last year, I had full intentions of writing regularly about my year, but that's not what happened. It's a teacher's karma to repeat those lessons not perfected so here I go again, same goal. I will wrap up last years story by reporting that those kiddoos were a class in a million. They are now launched to third grade highly prepared and ready to delight their third grade teachers.

My new class is here, fresh faced in a somewhat sparkling setting if you choose to not notice the finger smudges still on the windows, or the spider webs in the corners. We're heading deeper into the Recession in California, but Sonoma Valley is not so hard hit due to its support community. All of us teachers at EV have learned something new: its a social framework for education called Responsive Classroom. It's a program that demands we greet each student daily, meet their basic social needs for inclusion, choice, fun, and safety. It's a dynamite program but will take time to implement.

I had to work very hard that first week to be present to my class. My daughter got married the weekend before, so those profound images filled my brain. If you teach, you gotta be present, so moment by moment I had to will away my post wedding revery and focus on the moment.

I organized and set up my classroom in July because of the wedding in August. I thought I'd just be able to walk in and teach easily, but it was a bit tricky since I forgot where some things were. Classrooms are very busy places.

That's the broad picture but here's the important part: the children. I have 8 girls and 10 boys, and a full inclusion aide to assist a medically fragile student. My aide is helping me assess the students for reading fluency by having them read sight words. So far, only 5 need to review their first grade words, but we're not finished. I have not assessed math although I have begun to teach it. We're using Mountain Math with small individual white boards and we're writing our numbers to 1,000. I am emphasizing social skills with the morning meeting and lessons surrounding rules and procedures. We have a rule museum set up to demonstrate how rules are used in different setting but we are planning to write our own rules. I have assessed writing by having them write. All are willing to write by themselves, and they are delighted to use their word banks and dictionaries that are in their writing folders. Only a few are writing words that are unintelligible. All are being conservative and writing only what they think I want to see.

Socially, there's been a few wrinkles but mostly I see their good training. One boy A tore up his team mate's paper doll. I had him make amends by trading and taking the torn one for himself. He pouting mightily to find out he would now get to decorate a torn but taped figure. M, a smiley but wiggly girl keeps showing me her broken crayons. I have discovered she is breaking them on purpose so I have shown her how they can be taped. Taped crayons are not so wonderful, so I am hoping she'll stop short of damaging the whole set. J is frustrated with me because I keep calling him by his brother's name, so we're trying to get him to remind me nicely by holding up his name card while I correct my messy habit.

Every time a child goes back to get a drink of water, they stop to see Bubbles the chinchilla. I don't mind because loving Bubbles will help them stay motivated to come to school and maintain a calm classroom. Bubbles nipped me when I took him out for the first time. It was a gentle nip to say he was timid. I used it to explain to the children about how Bubbles communicated using a soft nip to express his need for a calmer environment. If he was feeling threatened, he'd let us know that way. I told them that after a week or two of living in the classroom he would be tame enough to handle if they would only do their part of following classroom procedures. They are doing a bang up job of working quietly most of the time.

This concludes my snapshot of the first week. I'm omitting any descriptions which may violate a child's right to privacy, but will try to paint a picture of second grade at a predominately Hispanic, working class California public school.

Big Bear Lake

We've been at Big Bear Lake this week. We set up the tents outside our classrooms, and we've been reading inside the tents. We set up the tables with camping stoves, maps, lanterns, and other gear. Tomorrow we're going on a hike to Maxwell Park. We'll see the three habitats: the meadow, the woods and the creek. In the end we'll eat lunch at the campground and listen to sappy love songs sung by Mr. Madison. All this is connected to our reading curriculum: Henry & Mudge and the Starry Night.

I'm a bit jittery about tomorrow because I am short on parent volunteers. I just have one, and that's Mo, Kahlil's stepdad. I guess if I have to I'll buddy up with Mrs. Griffith who has 6 parent volunteers.

Today Patsy brought in water bottles holders for the entire class. We will take them on the hike. They each picked one hand crocheted bottle which will live in the classroom until the end of all our field trips. I showed slides of hikes with former classes while they tried on the water bottles with Patsy's help.

They calmed down more today, still I am concerned about the noise level in my class. I've got a lively bunch. At least they read well - I have six who can read at 3rd grade level.

Them Bones

We began the skeletons this week. I hung Alaina's yellowed paper plate skeleton up, and introduced the project.
"Once many years ago, before you were born, there was a very popular teacher at El Verano School. She was Mrs. Fromke, and known for teaching about birds and bones. My daughters, Alaina and Kaily, were lucky enough to have her, and I got my design for building a skeleton out of paper plates from her. Now we are going to study bones just like the students here long ago.

So I began my patter, to the collective gasps of awe and disbelief. They were amazed that there were students who sat in this same room before they were born. They never even considered that Alaina had even sat in room 33, then room 9 with Mr. Grund but that's another story - one that occurred twenty years ago.

"Did you know that this room is still filled with skeletons? There are 25 skeletons sitting in here right now"

"No! Ms Cambio, skeletons aren't real!" laughed the kids. Then I had to break it to them. Not only were skeletons real, and alive in our time, but they were the skeletons, or each of them has had a living skeleton inside of them.

"Wow" they all exclaimed when they saw my crate filled with traced paper plates, in stacks by bone type. "You must have stayed up late doing all those plates."

"It took two nights of tracing, so you'd better really listen to the instructions or you'll have a skeleton with a bone missing. It happens all the time, the poor student who makes a skeleton that has to hop around on one leg, or make do without a pelvis, all because someone didn't follow directions."

Then I showed them the bag of spare bones, with students of the past's names on them. I saved them just in case someone needed a new humerous or femur.

We passed out the plates and let the cutting begin. We cut out the skulls, the ribcages, the pelvises, the femurs. They labeled each bone with their name and the name of the bone: Alan's pelvis, and Bella's ribcage. I insisted upon the use of possessive s in their labels so they could practice the grammar skill along with the bone identification. I passed out a big plastic bag to each person so they could begin their own bag of bones. We had to stop at this point and clean up.

We'll begin again next week. After the children left, I sorted through the bones, and found an extra pelvis on the loose, and a missing femur. Someone had labeled the skull "femur" and someone else forgot to label at all.

Anyhow, we will in the end, fabricate a set of 24 skeleton models with the bones all labeled to take home on Halloween. It will take time and patience. It will take fine kettle of patience. I'll wonder why I signed on for this again, then in the end, the magic of a classful of dancing skeletons will win me over. It's a boneyard out there!

Another September Birthday Blues

Well, it was Em's birthday today which makes five this month. We made her the traditional birthday book in which everyone encloses an illustrated letter. I thought we had gotten off easy without cake this time because it was the end of the day, and none had shown up. We sang the usual song and rolled the birthday dice which selected the poem to be read. Then at least a half dozen students got on the bandwagon to roll the dice. They all claimed to have lost teeth which entitled them to a roll of the teeth dice.

In the end, the cake showed up. "Oh, rats," I muttered under my breath. "More cake, more sugared up kids."
The school board passed a resolution to disallow sweets at school, but what is one to do about the cakes that arrive willy nilly as each birthday occurs. Then, I bit my tongue because after all, it was a child's birthday which is really the most important day in their sweet but short lives.

A good teacher must always have a positive attitude even when the frosting is dripping off the top of the cupcakes, and the kid-lets are bouncing in the seats on a mellow chocolate high.

I corrected their math tests, fact tests, spelling tests and edited their fall paragraphs after school. I also planned out my next week and set the schedule correct for Monday.

I thought about my kiddoos as I played catch up in the work department, I need to reach past the surface, dive deeper into the consciousness of the world through the eyes of a child.

The Peace Path

We solve our problems in room 33 by using the peace path. We got to it today because many students wanted it, but we had to have it early during math time so not to conflict with the activity time at the end of the day. Juggling the schedule is a daily mind boggling event. Here's how the peace path works: anyone who has a problem can take it to the class council. We pick names from a tin box to take turns with conflicts. If you have no conflict, you say pass.

We begin with a recital of the rules including hand signs: no put downs, no gossip, right to pass, active listening. Everyone does this in chorus. Emily was the mediator, and I assisted since Joshua was out. Anytime we named someone who had a problem, they'd step up to the path. The wronged child stands on red, the defendant stands on blue. "I feel bad when you're mean" said the newbie to the peace path. "That won't do," said I, "You haven't told us what mean is! You need exact words."
"I don't get it." "Well, what was so mean, tell me what he did." Then the story comes out. O has been a bit of a show off to his friend. "That's a put down! When you say, 'I can do it better than you,' you'll hurt someone's feelings." I steer them through their agreement.

"You've agreed to be kinder to your friend, can you keep that as a promise?" so asks the mediator as we step through the conflict.
"Does that solve the problem?"
"Shake hands, and exit in peace."
When Bella and Sofia step up to the peace path, there's a murmur - "but their best friends!"
"And they want to stay best friends," I remind them. "The peace path is a good place to work out anything with your best friend. It's not a bad thing, it's a good thing!"
"Oh, now I get it!" exclaimed O, "It's for talking about things."

And so we go, step by step, facing the small concerns one item at a time.

Thousands Club

A veteran teacher understands the need for good 'sponge' activities. The sponge is any somewhat important activity that a child can do on their own after they have finished with their assigned seatwork. These days we call these the May Dos, and the Must Dos. On the must do list, are all the most essential tasks - stories or letters to write, the daily language, spelling and math worksheets. On the may do list, there's a few easy, valuable but not immediate tasks that a child who finishes early can do so that they don't have to come up with their own ideas. My May Do list is simple: read a book, practice with flash cards, or work on your Thousand Club Book.

The thousand club book is a simple book with 10 pages of 100 grid graph paper on which one can write the counting numbers to 1,000. Here's where it gets a little twisted, if I made my students write to 1,000 it would be like pulling teeth. They'd hide their books, lose them and break pencils just to avoid this horrific chore. I've been this route.

But to put it on the May Do list, a prize activity choice and voila! It's got a new image, Now it's the most popular pastime happening in room 33. If I turn my back on my munchkins, there they go - sneaking out their counting books to clandestinely work on them.

I already have seven students who have finished their books, one more will finish tomorrow. I gently scold them for working too much on the numbers when they need to finish their language arts, but not without an inner chuckle. I'm quietly proud of their contrary industry.

What's in the Box?

Everyone in second grade got a chance to view the BOX - a big enough TP box of corregated cardboard decked out with labels: Handle with Care/ Caution, Fragile/ Breakable, and This side up. We all guessed and Mrs. G even pretended to lift it as if it were very heavy. It was empty, but the little guys didn't know that because they were told not to touch it.

On Monday, we all trooped out to the garden area in front of our rooms for the grand box opening. While we were inside taking care of morning business, our aide V slipped out and fetched Jose, a former second grader to be the imaginary pig. "Do I have to do this again? I did it last year!" Jose exclaimed. "Well, we could ask someone else," we said. "No! I'll do it." So we had a deal.

Jose crouched in wearing a pig mask, and we made haste to gather up the kids in a giant circle so they could all see. Then after a brief introduction, Jose popped out! Our second graders were amused, all laughing at the sight of a child dressed up like a pig hopping out of the crate. It was a sight to behold the teachable moment.

Even more touching was the vision of our former second graders, now in third, clustered at the window looking on at our impromptu assembly. All of them were lined up with their faces alight watching the new second graders. I looked back at them, and took in the image of education at its best.

It's not about test scores, skill drilling, or data. It's those small enthusiastic beings who just got to share a well crafted prank - the kind of street theatre that will always help them remember what it means to be curious, and to make a prediction
After we finished chuckling over the box, we all returned to class to read about Julius, the pig from Alaska who arrived in a box to become Angela's pet.

No one got stuck on the word "imitate" even though it's a mouthful. We read with a picture in our minds of what the story was about.