Kiddie Carnival of Education

Welcome to the Kiddie-Carnival. This week the Carnival is hosted in a pre-k class. We will spend a day Inside Pre-K. The Pre-K bloggers at my new gig will start us off here at Circle Time.

First with morning opening is Jennifer who answers the question, "What do we do all day in pre-k?" Someone who didn't know any better might say, "Oh, so they just play..."

Karissa says from the shape carpet,"No, we don't! We do Reader's Workshop, even in the summer!"

A major area of study in pre-k is the subject of rules. In today's pre-k classroom we like to give kids the opportunity to create the class rules themselves.

Tweenteacher offers the rule: Don’t listen to the gossip in the teacher’s lounge in Oh, the Wells Fargo Wagon is a comin' posted at tweenteacher.com.


Joel says, New Classroom Rule: Don’t Talk To Me posted at So You Want To Teach?.

The hall monitor tries to hand out a detention slip when D.C. says,"I'll behave if you pay me.."
but Travis argues, "They say there is research."

Melissa B., a little off the topic, (but pretty close for a preschooler) offers the rule: Be careful how you unpack your stuff in Taking One for the Team? posted at the scholastic scribe.

Bill has forgotten the "you should never throw rocks" rule but, remembers: You have to share, even in college, and questions whether university professors are properly prepared to drive change in a share-and-share-alike world where collaboration is the norm and isolation is to be avoided. In Throwing Rocks at the Ivory Tower. . . posted at The Tempered Radical.

But, oldandrew, in Rewriting the Dictionary posted at Scenes From The Battleground. Asks, what is a teacher? His answer is hilarious.
Bellringers, in Fitness, 5-Alarm Educational Challenge & Emergency Chocolate posted at Bellringers firmly believes we should not call people Big Fat Stupid Head, for as long as we can.

We are worried about the first day of school even in pre-k. Mathew Needleman presents Activities for the First Day of School posted at Creating Lifelong Learners. To give us a Head Start. Scott Walker at Epistles of an Educator posted at The English Teacher writes,
"While worrying about my worksheets and syllabi and dreading the next day when this circus would start up once more..." But he is interrupted by Deb at the Dangling Conversation who calls out, (as preschoolers are wont to do sometimes) "If I Ran the Zoo..."

All this sitting on the carpet is making us a little fidgety.

Brendan Murphy presents A Perfect Example of Why Education Can’t Be Sitting Around Waiting to Be Taught posted at SchoolFinder Blog.

It must be music and movement time.

"Because teaching is like dancing", says Pat in New Teachers and Dancing posted at Successful Teaching.

After movement time comes center time.

John Norton of TLN fame chooses to go to the block area because he writes about Middle School which has a lot to do with team work.

Mrs. Bluebird muses over this particular group of 7th graders and wonders what was in the water about 12 years ago.... possibly wishing more of her kids had gone to pre-k to get some social skills. Mrs. Bluebird presents Not feeling the love posted at Bluebird's Classroom.

Larry Ferlazzo presents The Best Sites To Help Teach About 9/11 | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... posted at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites Of The Day For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL.

Woodlass is very upset that she can't go to the music area because it is full and do what she loves in ATR links — Part III: update posted at Under Assault: Teaching in NYC.

Thomas J. West argues in incredible detail for a preschooler, why Woodlass should be able to go to the music area. Neurology Applied: How Science is Bringing Music Instruction Back to Expressive Development posted at Thomas J. West Music.

Lightly Seasoned believes teachers should always have tried to do what they ask their kids to do. If it is pre-k we have to dance like a monkey, in high school English it would be to write an I Believe essay posted at Lightly Seasoned.

The Science Goddess goes to the math area to learn how to compare groups of students in a graph. Maybe They Made It posted at What It's Like on the Inside.

Jose is in the writing center scribbling about the profession trying to be Whatever they need me to be posted at Jose Vilson-The Blog.

Jane Goodwin is in the book area and knows teaching is more than just following a textbook in, Hope Is More Than Just The Thing With Feathers. . . . posted at Scheiss Weekly.

After clean-up time every pre-k class likes to review what they have learned.

Mathematically speaking half of all children are above average, and half are below. Just like doctor’s graduating from medical school, we can’t all be above average.Todd presents Your Kids (probably) Aren’t Above Average posted at HarvestingDollars. Which may have bearing on college completion. Corey Bunje Bower examines trends in college completion, an issue affected by preschool attendance in Trends in College Completion posted at Thoughts on Education Policy.

Joanne Jacobs talks about next president's educational history in The education of our next president posted at Joanne Jacobs. They went to school back when, as EdWonk reminds us, Labor Day marked the last day of summer. Labor Day 2008: What Was Old May Be New Again posted at The Education Wonks.

Laureen presents The Lesson of Failure posted at The Life Without School Blog. She suggests that we should take risks and learn from our failures.

Dana presents Homeschooling amateurs outdoing professionals posted at Principled Discovery. She says, "What a teacher needs to be successful in the classroom is the freedom to make these decisions for the children in the classroom as well as the support of the children’s families. In all too many instances, the teacher has neither.

It is hardly fair to compare the results to a homeschooling family which has both."

Elementaryhistoryteacher reminds us that she assesses kids like we do in pre-k, with anecdotes, work samples, and research based assessments compiled into Classroom Notebooks Revisited posted at History Is Elementary.

Finally, Nancy Flanagan writes about why teachers mean so much to the world, even if none of your students ever become famous, in Almost Famous, posted at Teacher in a Strange Land.

Thanks for coming to our class and remember our theme song...



photo credit: flickr.com/photos/buzzbishop/2645005844/

photo credit two: DAILY Photo by Dan Henry of The Decatur Daily

Men and the Call to Teach

ABC news ran a story on the "Mistrusted Male Teacher" August 28th. It points out the inherent difficulties of being a male teacher in the early grades. As one of the fewest of the few, a male teacher in early childhood, I read the story with my own biases. Bryan Nelson, a 30 year veteran teacher summed up the lack of men in teaching this way,

"People don't think of men as caretaking or nurturing, which many of the young grades require," Nelson said. "And if you're a single man and you're going out to date somebody, when they ask you 'what do you do?' it just doesn't have the same cache as saying I'm an engineer or a scientist."

I haven't had a lot of problems with parents and issues of trust, but I have had my share. I once had a parent who told me to my face, "I wish my daughter had any other teacher than you." Some folks might have asked that the child be taken out of their room. I invited the parent to come in and watch what we do. ... every day. She came in for almost the entire year. I basically took her child from zero reading skills to reading in a year. We got along better and better over the course of the year. When it was all said and done, by the end of the year, she still didn't trust me. There was nothing I could do to change her opinion except continue to be open and honest with her. I have sometimes thought that maybe I was doing my boy students a disservice by being capable of teaching them as active boys only to send them to kindergarten to fail because they "couldn't sit still," or didn't seem to "pay attention." But, I also know that for some I have been their first introduction to what a caring man can be. I have even been able to help some kids with fathers because the fathers are more comfortable volunteering in my classroom. They see how they can care without being weak and nurture without giving up their masculinity.

Another recent article, Herland by L. J. WIlliamson, talks about this same issue. The author took a different point of view, sighting the lack of men in child care and teaching as contributing to keeping women, "in their place." She writes,

Of course, it won't be long before these kids get old enough to start noticing things like the fact that our country has never had a female president, or that male teachers typically don't come into their schooling until the academics get more serious. By that point, many will come away with the impression that caring for small children is women's work, and for the most part, they'll be right.

Also quoted in the article was this quote from William Marsiglio, Professor of Sociology at the University of Florida and author of Men On A Mission: Valuing Youth Work In Our Communities. He says,

"We pay our mechanics more to work on our cars than we pay people to watch our kids, which tells you something about our values. As long as we as society continue to perpetuate the narrative that being nurturing to children is inherently a gendered process, we'll never have gender equity. It will continue to be a society in which women are disadvantaged, and males are given an excuse not to be involved. "

I think the thing that bothered me about that ABC article is that it treated the chance of your child getting a "bad" male teacher or "good" male teacher as 50/50. Its just not like that. Most of the men who teach, especially in the younger grades, are teachers because they felt a call to teach. They aren't closet perverts or weak human beings. My greatest mentor was a male instructional assistant who also happened to be a minister. He felt a calling to teaching as he felt a calling to serve God. Perhaps if people thought of teaching the way that most teachers do there would be less fear. To most teachers, teaching is a calling, it is my calling, and it could be the calling of other young men, if they aren't pushed away from the field by the lack of social standing, pay, and support for being there.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.uppercasegallery.ca

This I Believe MEME...

My friend and mentor Bill Ferriter tagged me a while ago before I moved to Inside Pre-K to participate in a blog MEME. He asked me to write a post based on the National Public Radio series “This I Believe” where individuals share essays they have written that enumerate their philosophies.

This I Believe...

Education is the thread that creates the tapestry of America. Teachers spin the strong yarn of many colors, shades, and tones of America’s people by pulling, stretching, and expanding students’ minds. The lives of America’s people, woven together, are varied and bright, and when seen from afar, create a tapestry that shows the most important philosophy of the American experiment: possibility. The tapestries of countries without a strong educational system are pictures of what has always been. Poor farmers’ children grow up to be poor farmers, factory workers’ children grow up to be factory workers. Because of teachers, these children can grow up to be inventors, scientists, or teachers. But most importantly, no matter where the children come from, they are able to pursue happiness through gainful work that contributes to society.

I have seen the truth of this philosophy in the community where I teach. My former pre-k student Zasheen’s mother came from a family that did not value education. She works in a low wage job that she does not value, because when she was a teenager, she saw a lack of possibility in the pursuit of education. But, Zasheen’s mother chose to emphasize the importance of education as a means to a brighter future by enrolling Zasheen and his brother in pre-k. Now Zasheen’s thread is strong--each new teacher contributing to its strength--but it can be broken by any teacher along the way, especially in the early years. The importance of a high quality education to the thread of Zasheen’s life, as it is passed from teacher to teacher, is part of his mother’s dream.

Because of the American right to education for all, teachers can expand our horizons to the wider world. Pre-k is a part of that right, the right to choose what is best for our children. We are not bound by our personal histories or those of our families and our communities. Because of education, we are able to see past what we have always known. The tapestry of education shows us what can be. In every child, America’s teachers spin as strong a yarn as they know how. Each teacher in a child’s educational career adds their personal strength to the yarn that will become a child’s future. It is up to the child to determine where he or she will fit in the tapestry of America, but it is teachers who make it possible to have a choice.

This I Believe

Uh, What's A Meme?

Here is a brief description of what a MEME is.

http://www.webraw.com/quixtar/archives/2006/01/blogging_101_the_blog_meme.php

Some of you out there don't know a meme from a hole in the ground but that's ok. I'll bring you up to speed.

The short definition is "a unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another."

However, that definition is incomplete as it relates to an Internet meme which "occurs when something relatively unknown becomes increasingly popular, often quite suddenly, through the mass propagation of media content made feasible by the Internet" technology.

Here is the challenge: A Pre-K Now Mini-MEME. Please leave a one sentence comment about what you believe over at the INSIDE PRE-K blog and join in the fun. It could be about Pre-K, teaching, learning, family, children, or life. It can be a long sentence or a short sentence. You could even make it really hard and write just six words like the members of the Teacher Leaders Network did for Teacher Magazine recently.