Green Websites for kids

http://www.waitakere.govt.nz/AbtCit/ei/EcoWtr/WaterAmbassadors/index.asp

http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/water/water/index.cfm

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/

http://www.smokeybear.com/

http://www.arborday.org/kids/

http://www.seussville.com/loraxproject/

Teach to change

I believe that children should be exposed to ideas that are, by many, considered "beyond their years," such as the environmental issues of our time, global warming, poverty in a global economy, world hunger and the steps to building peace between individuals and nations.  I am not advocating upsetting them or being inappropriate in the content of discussion. I think we should discuss everything in an age appropriate way, but DISCUSS it.  To say that a child is too young to be taught about poverty or conservation is to say that they are too young to make a difference and that is above all not true.  Responsible citizenship begins at childhood.  Empathy, compassion and the belief in change are strongest in the hearts of children.  Don't wait until they are disenchanted with humanity to try and inspire them to change the world. Teach them that problems exist and teach them that they can have a hand in solving even the biggest of problems.  If we truly believe in the cliche "children are our future" then it's time to start trusting them with it.      

Treasure Box

Today was "Treasure Box Day."  The kids earn plastic coins for good behavior and then on Thursday they can cash them in for a "treasure"- which is basically just a trinket toy.  Usually this goes smoothly but often enough more than one child wants the same toy and things can get a little hairy.
      Today three kids all wanted this plastic toy computer.  I draw name-sticks to see who gets to pick first. Of course the computer gets snatched right up by lucky boy number one.  The two other boys melt into frustrated tears.  Anticipating that this would happen I had previously spent a long minute talking them through how to handle the disappointment that was inevitable for at least two of them. As these things usually go I was expecting the worst. As the two slighted boys weep they suddenly become aware of the shared disappointment of each other.  They throw their little arms around one another, tears streaming down their cheeks and, although still weeping, they lay aside their own hurt in order to console one another.
"You'll find another favorite toy someday."
"I'll invite you over to my house to play with my REAL computer."
"Don't cry your mommy can go to the toy store and buy you one"
"Oh it's okay...I'm so sorry this happened to you"
They cling to each other weeping until the tears finally fade and then it's their turn to pick a treasure.  Without much more ado they settle on another toy and move through the rest of the day happy as pie. As for myself I got my "treasure" for the day and it was in watching them, in their own highly comical little way put aside their own feelings just to console one another, even though their own disappointment was so great they couldn't keep from crying.

First Days

Cubbies and drawers, empty and waiting for the new students.

First days of school are always hard for me.  Don't get me wrong, in the big scheme of things they usually go great. Today was my first day back and I hardly had to do anything. The "honeymoon" syndrome was in full swing and the kids didn't so much as cross their eyes in the wrong direction.  Everyone was quiet, shy and perfectly stunned with the new atmosphere and routine.  Like little robots they followed every instruction to the hilt. It was every teacher's dream.  Everything I planned happened in just the way I had planned it.  But the passion wasn't there. I didn't yet love my class. They were like little strangers to me.  The deep loyalty, love and adoration I have for my students was missing, it's not there- not yet.  Each May I say goodbye to my students with the feeling that I'll never have a class I adore as much as I adored that one, and each August I welcome a new batch of students with the feeling that they'll just never live up to the last batch. But there's one thing I've learned- they all do.  Regardless of how much you make up your mind not to like them, not to love them, not to give way to unbridled adoration of their little persons, kids have a way of worming into your heart, settling in and leaving you changed forever.  Today was the first day. Tomorrow will be the second. Sometime in the third or fourth day I'll realize I'm in love. that I've fallen head of heals for a group of kids and I'll never love another class the way I love this one...at least until the next one comes along.  To all my past, present and future students- thank you for always being "the ultimate."

A world in words

I am a huge believer in the importance of literature in a child's daily education. I know from my own experience that my academic success was due to the fact that I was a reader. Without books as a child I wouldn't be a teacher as an adult. Stories create curiosity. A book is a child's window into the rest of the world. It offers them the opportunity to learn about things that would otherwise be inaccessible to them. A story can invigorate, relax and inspire.  Everything is better with a story.  Books should be available to children as all times.  As part of my personal belief in the power of books I have acquired a large collection of children's books. I make reading and access to them a priority in my classroom.  Reading a story to my students is by far one of the moments I enjoy most as a teacher.  I believe it's part of my job to put all I have into the story I'm reading. That means my tone, expression, voice, and emotion. It should never be boring to sit and hear a story. If my students are bored with the way I read or the book I am reading, I STOP and try something else, because I know doing more harm than good.  I never want to turn a child off of reading. Reading TO children is the gateway to getting them to read to themselves.  If they are interested in the stories that you read to them then they will be interested in the stories they will one day be able to read to themselves. In this generation there are many ways to get exposure to literature- television, movies, electronically i.e. podcast, audio books and ebooks.  I use all these methods to bring these stories into my classroom, but I still believe the most important way is just a good old fashion book. In my mind there is nothing more wonderful than seeing a child sitting down with a book, regardless of whether or not they can read the words yet.

Audrey Penn, the author of The Kissing Hand has also written a book call The Big Bad Bully.  It's a story of the forest animals and how they deal with a badger who is a bully.  Essentially the animals band together and confront the bully and thus change his mind and bring him over to their side.  Her illustrations are enticing.  Towards the end of the story the animals have gathered around the bully, backing him against a tree. The badger is surprised by their tenacity in confronting him and wide eyed he finds himself speechless as they animals gather their courage to tell him what's up.  

    Always trying to encourage my students to infer information based on what they know and what they can observe from an illustration, as I read that page I paused to ask them what they thought would happen next.  They thoughtfully observed the illustration of the wide eyed badger facing all the other animals of the forest. Clearly the balance of power was about to change. 

    One of my students, a tow headed, blue eyed, serious natured little guy raised his hand solemnly. 

    "Yes Johnny, what do you think the other animals will do now? "

    Very matter of factly- "They're going to kill him."  All his classmates nod in solemn agreement. This story will certainly end in a death.    

    I had to pause for a moment.  I could feel the sides of my cheeks tingling and the uncontrollable laughter building inside of me. I wasn't going to be able to hold it together.  Why would they assume that? Because children's books always end with a mob of angry animals tearing another from limb to limb in a desperate act of revenge?  So much for teaching to infer based on what we know.  

   As determined as I was to try and turn this into a learning experience I could feel myself losing control as the urge to laugh became stronger.  I held the book in front of my face trying to hide my expression if not my trembling shoulders.  An eternity of silence passed as Johnny sat with rapt attention, awaiting praise for so cleverly giving the right answer.  I composed myself enough to lower the book only to be met with those big serious blue eyes. That's when I lost it. Teaching moment gone, I gave way to uncontrollable laughter. One thing kids will always do is laugh with you even when they aren't sure why.  After wiping away some tears and composing myself I tried to get Johnny to understand why "killing him" wasn't the most likely way to end the story.  I'm not sure he or his classmates ever agreed with me but I know I can never read The Big Bad Bully again because I dissolve into laughter every time I get to that page.    

The first step we must take in teaching a child how to learn is to teach them to be curious about the world. That means surrounding them with things to be curious about and demonstrating a curiosity and desire to learn in everything we teach. We should never answer a child's question with "Just because" or "that's just the way it is" or "because I said." If we don't know the answer, admit it and let them know we wish we did. If we can't tell them, we should be honest. Help them understand that there is so much to learn that they are only beginning and where they are is just the first step in a never ending journey. We must demonstrate a desire to learn about them. We must let them ask the tough questions. We must be truthful and most of all be willing to teach beyond the lesson we planned.

These days in a classroom dietary restrictions and food allergies are a constant issue that teachers must be aware and on top of for the safety of their students and peace of mind of their parents. Fellow students without allergies however, watch and observe these going ons and can easily find themselves confused between what a student can't have because they are allergic and won't have because they don't like the taste. When encouraging a student to "eat their growing food" before they eat the Twinkie at lunch time, the retort I'm often handed is "I'm allergic to it." No, you're not, you just don't want to eat it.

In our classroom, as part of a school wide curricular activity, teachers teach a once a week teach a "cooking lesson" during which we supervise the children in making a variety of simple dishes. This is a fun activity that requires the picky eater to try new things. At this particular time we were making a fruit salad which that went nicely hand in hand with the tropical theme we were teaching to that month. I was passing out fruit for the students to slice and put in a community bowl. As I distributed the fruit we discussed what it was, it's attributes and where/how it grew. I came to a mango. Being as I am allergic to mangos I thought this was a great opportunity to clarify the allergy vs. taste aversion running rampant in the class.

"Oh I love mangos" I waxed. "They are my favorite fruit. But," big frown to accentuate my disappointment "it makes me so sad because I can't ever eat a mango. Do you know why?"

Rapt attention. Why oh why couldn't Ms. Stacy partake of her favorite fruit.

"I can't eat Mangos because I am allergic to them. Isn't that sad. I like mangos but I'm allergic to them. Sometimes we like how something tastes but we are still allergic to it." To drive my point home..."Do you know that if I eat a mango I get red bumps all over my face!"

I stop for a moment, taking in the awe of the students as this new realization concerning the allergy washes over them. Jane leans in close and raises her hand.

"Yes Jane, do you have something to share with us?"

"Ms. Stacy", Jane says soberly leaning in to get a good look at my face, "I think you ate a Mango."

I scheduled an appointment for a facial and hit the Clinic counter directly after work.

So this is just funny- well in hind sight- its a funny story. One of those moments where my attempts at being a brilliant teacher are hijacked and I'm left oscillating between mortification and pondering how in the world did everything veer so off course.

It begins with the Texas standards and the fact that come February certain topics have got to be covered, among them American presidents and at this grade level, three in particular: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and whoever the current president is at the time. We write a letter to the president and guess what? He writes back! And we introduce our first and 16th president. While it's impossible to talk about George Washington without talking about honesty, it's equally impossible to talk about Abraham Lincoln without talking about the Civil War and freedom for all. While we temper our discussions to match the age and maturity of our students anyone listening in would be surprised at how curious they are, how many questions they ask, how much they already know, and how interested they are in learning all about such issues. At the same time their true understanding of the topic is convoluted at best. This particular class was exceptionally interested in slavery and the Civil War and the role Abraham Lincoln played. Anyway after several question and answer session about the Civil War in which I was in the hot seat and left wondering exactly how much to share on the subject of war and slavery I navigated the waters as carefully and as age appropriately as I could, careful to avoid details of physical violence, as always reminding myself that curiosity, even at this young age should be rewarded with honest and frank answers because this is the beginning of their quest for knowledge which would hopefully carry them all the way through college. Fast forward a week or two. It's recess time and our class had been having a little trouble playing appropriately and we were discussing what the new and abridged rules for the class, given the difficulties we'd been having.

No wresting, hitting, pretending to shoot people etc and thus cops and robbers is banned as a game...any questions?

Hand it the back row. It's Johnny.

Yes Johnny.

Ms. Stacy, can we play slaves?

gasp, gag, choke- Can you repeat that Johnny?

Can we play slave? We won't chain anyone up, promise, and we'll just pretend to beat them real gentle, promise! (Jane chimes in that she has first dibs on being Abe Lincoln)

Deep breath deep breath deep breath. NO NO Johnny no. You may NOT, at any time play slave!

Awwww. Pleeeeeaaase.

Either think fast or your career is over.

Johnny, (voice still high pitch and squeaky) slavery is a very serious matter! People should never, ever, chain or beat anyone or treat them as a slave, not even for pretend. Abraham Lincoln and lots of people worked very hard to end slavery and... (I begin to mentally pat myself on the back. This is good stuff, I can bring this back around. I can fix this)

Johnny and his classmates are now hanging their heads in shame...Ok, we promise, we'll never ever play slave, ever ever ever,...right, we understand, not ever at home either, we promise.

Now obviously the chaining and beating of slaves had never entered our "age appropriate" discussions. As often happens in a classroom the discussion on a subject at home exceeds the discussion at school because parents are less encumbered by the need to be appropriate in order to keep their jobs! Johnny was intrigued by the additional details he had learned about slavery either from his parents or the media. As the teacher I was charged with tempering Johnny's zeal to share those details with his friends. Friends who would go home and discuss such details with mommy and daddy, who would in turn email the teacher demanding certain answers about what exactly was being discussed in Kindergarten and how appropriate it was. Thankfully Johnny never again asked permission to play slave and we quickly moved on to learning the very interesting details of GroundHog day, a much easier subject to teach. 

Obviously when blogging about real people there are privacy issues to be considered, so in each one of the blogs the kids will be referred to as either Johnny or Jane. So this story is about a little Johnny. There are a couple stories about this same child that I'll be writing. He is one of those special kids who touches your life in a wonderful way. Teachers aren't supposed to have favorites, but some kids just stand out more than others and yes they are a favorite. Contrary to popular belief it isn't the perfect kid who always does what they're told and gets perfect grades, instead it's the one that tests your patience everyday. They push you to the brink and back and just when you think you can't take it anymore they do something wonderful so that you're reminded your life has meaning and it's all because of that mell of a hess kid that crawls under your skin and stays there for good. THAT is the definition of "teacher's pet." So here's a story about this Johnny. This happened right after the tragic earthquake in Haiti that devastated the country and took so many lives. It was all over the news at that time and consumed much of our thoughts as we went through the day. Previously in the same year the kids had run a "Trick Or Treat For UNICEF" campaign and raised almost a thousand dollars for UNICEF.

During centers one of my students was playing and suddenly he left his game and came over to me. I was reading with another child and he said very politely "excuse me Ms. Stacy but I have to tell you something important." He said "my mom told me that theirs a lot of kids that need some help." I instantly knew he was talking about Haiti and I asked him if he meant the kids in Haiti. He said yes and that we needed to collect money for them just like for Unicef. I agreed that that was a great idea and he said that he needed a jar. So I went to the cabinet and got him a jar and told him to make a sign on the jar that said what it was for. He did and then told me that he needed a jar for all of his classmates. I told him I didn't have 10 jars and could they share? "No, this is real important and everyone needs their own bank...how about a bag." Yes, I have bags. I gave him 10 little paper lunch bags and he spent the rest of the hour writing each of his classmate's names and "money for the kids in Haiti" on the front. This is a lot of work for one little guy and a big sacrifice to give up your play time to make charity bags for kids you've never seen. Then he took the bags, passed them out and explained to the kids what they were for. "These need to stay at school and Ms. Stacy will give us money to put in them." I keep a basket of change and when they were collecting for Unicef I'd pass out coins for their Unicef bank as their reward. So I got my change and we preceded to earn money for Haiti throughout the day. One of the kids made a big sign that said "munee for Hadee" and drew a picture of a house with a big X through it, meaning 'don't take it home.' I'm not sure why, but to them it was really important that the bags stay at school.

True empathy in a young child is a rare thing. Their little brains just tend to be pretty self centered at 5 and 6 years old and that's developmentally normal. But every once in awhile a child comes to my class and they just have a heart that's bigger than their 6 years. Of course I can't be sure, because after they leave my class the road is very long and full of bumps and anything can happen, but sometimes get a deep down feeling that says "this one here is special, they will go far and the world is lucky to have them." I got that feeling that day.

As the week went on I shared his story with a couple of people who in turned shared it with others. It mushroomed. Before the week was out people from all over campus were dropping off change for Johnny's Haiti fund. They told their family and friends and I had people sending in checks from places all over the United States. Johnny brought in his "toy fund" money from home and every classmate that had a piggy bank or received an allowance dipped into their own personal fund to give to Haiti. Johnny's parents decided to create a webpage for him so people could give online. The class set a goal and tracked the progress with a bar graph and ended up exceeding their goal by around 500%. At the end of the month Johnny and his classmates had raised hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Given the magnitude of the disaster in Haiti it wasn't a lot, but the impact was huge. For myself, I'll never forget it.