SOL21 Slice 17: Mystery of the mind

 

I am participating in the

 Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOL21).  

All participants are sharing stories about moments in their lives, writing 

 every day for the month of March 2021.

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for nurturing teacher-writers!

Perhaps the most elaborate part of my school's preparation for students returning to in-person learning is their new, sleek wall system of horizontal elevators. It is masterful! These connect every classroom in the school and move students just one at a time, in an efficient, clean, sterile, COVID-free way. Every staff member has been given access to the iGOTTAgo app. Here's a quick description of how it works: the teacher selects the location that they need for the student to be taken to next (for example, bathroom, art class, principal's office, even to the entrance of the school for parent pickup; all destinations are pre-programmed, to meet the unique needs of each individual classroom). With the press of a button, the sliding doors along the back wall of the classroom open almost instantaneously. The student climbs into the horizontal elevator, and they are whisked to where they need to be next. While onboard, there is special hand sanitizer and a new clean mask, ensuring COVID-free safety at their destination, as well. iGOTTAgo eliminates the need for additional staff members to help with transitions of students, and ensures that teacher and students remain at safe distance throughout the school day. 

Seeing this system with my own eyes has triggered all sorts of anxious questions and concerns. I don't like that the individual elevator 'buckets' don't have any doors or enclosures, the students are each expected to sit down and still throughout the move. How will this work with preschoolers? Goodness, how will this work with a wily seventh grader? iGOTTAgo has assured my school that the sheer speed of transport fixes every student in their place, not one student got out of their seat during the program's testing of the horizontal elevators. I'm sorry, but I'm not convinced. Have they ever met [insert name of follows-different-drumbeat-child]? I'm imagining children being squished between the wall and the elevator bucket, I'm imagining the severing of limbs. You can't possibly add these concerns to a teacher's worries!

This is when I woke up.

I dream about being in the classroom all the time. I had anxiety dreams when I was teaching, and they continue now into this first year of retirement. Last night, there I was setting up a preschool classroom for in-person learning. It was time for the children to return to school, the pandemic was subsiding, we were allowing half the children to return for two days each week. I'm sure I gleaned this plan from all the news articles I read about this process, not to mention all the SOLSC blogs other teachers have written about this very transition. 

What a time of stress, for everyone.

Unlike many of my dreams, in this one I was aware I was retired, I knew I wasn't the teacher. I was there to help my former colleagues. I wonder if on some subliminal level, I want to be needed like this? (I am reminded of Glenda Funk's post yesterday, about how when you ask a retired teacher for help, you are almost performing a service!)

What fascinates me about these school dreams, I am ALWAYS with a challenging student. Yes, when I was teaching this was true, and now in retirement, it continues. It is as if my mind is still trying to solve the puzzle: how to help them? what is the best approach? what are their triggers? what have I noticed to date? what is working well and I can do more of? 

Throughout it all is this enormous weight of RESPONSIBILITY.

One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world.

- Malala Yousafzei

The Sleepover

I'm participating in a 5-day "Open Write" on Sarah Donovan's Ethical ELA.  

Today,  Kimberly Johnson introduced us to Jason Reynolds who shares about a death in his verse, The Way I Felt...we were encouraged to write one, as well. Jason Reynolds' poem was so powerful, I simply could not go deep. I decided to go light and happy.


The Sleepover


The way I felt
when you invited me
to a sleepover
was
     lighter,
     lifted by
     laughter.

You are four years old,
irrepressible, and
imaginative,
including me,
your teacher.

How did you say it?
"When this 'kona-viwus' is gone,
I want you to come to
my sleepover.
We'll play hide-and-seek, and
Guess Who? and
eat fruit snacks.
I miss you."

Yes,
in this time of isolation,
I felt
     lighter,
     lifted,
     loved.

SOL20 Slice #11: Too many people

I am participating in the

 Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOL20).  

All participants are sharing stories about moments in their lives, writing 

 every day for the month of March 2020.

Thank you, Two Writing Teachers!

The preschool classroom is a collaborative classroom, with a team of teachers working together. This year, I'm part of a four-person team, working with 21 three-year olds. Unfortunately, it has also been a turbulent year with sickness, family emergencies, and other unforeseen circumstances requiring lots of different substitutes and temporary assignments of staff, to work with my students. Our substitutes come from a contracted pool, and we rarely if ever see the same one twice. It's funny to me that the children always welcome the new adult as a rock star - as if they are thinking: YAY! Someone new to KNOW!! I, however, find the near-constant changes in staffing to be one of my biggest challenges. My head is filled with constant tension and calculation for every task...is it easier to just do more work, to do the things myself? Or should I take the time to show the new person how to do it? Plus, there's no denying that the whole classroom has a different feel, when I am working with someone new; I find myself hungering for normalcy, the tried and true.

It seems so simple, to help out in a preschool classroom. I think: do what needs doing. Seek out groups of children. Support, listen, converse, re-direct, extend. However, I'm wrong about this simplicity - it is not instinctive to join in the play with young children.

My team reflected on the many different personalities we have met, chuckling with memories:

• The gruff one, who spoke sternly to the children about obedience.
• The one who would have made a great museum docent, walking about the classroom slowly with their hands folded behind their back.
• The one who appeared dressed for a corporate job, and tried to avoid preschoolers with paint and glue and yuck.
• The energetic one, who I had to redirect even more than the children, as they regaled children with stories about them-self, and even got their phone out to show them a favorite video game. 
• The one with no affect, saying nothing, who sat down immediately in the quietest part of the room, apart from preschoolers, and had to be reminded, all day long, to assist with the children.
• The one who overshared about their personal life - to the preschoolers!
• The one who found the quietest, calmest child and stayed glued to her, unavailable for anyone/anything else.
• The one who asked question after question, talking over the children, even interrupting my read-aloud.
• The one who reeked of smoke...should they really work with young children?
• The one who seemed annoyed when any task was suggested.

Every now and again, we have had a real gem of a substitute: friendly, focused, kind, hard-working, able to instigate great conversations with children, willing to wipe up spills, sweep floors, and do basically anything that needs doing.

These gems are all too rare.

SOL20 Slice #2: Girls Just Wanna

I am participating in the
 Slice of Life Story Challenge (SOL20).  
All participants are sharing stories about moments in their lives, writing 
 every day for the month of March 2020.
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers!

I open up my Spotify app and begin blasting Weird Al Yankovitch's "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch." He's right beside me, chortling with laughter, noticing how Al's spoof has the same exact beat and rhythm as the original song by Cyndi Lauper.

My dear husband, how he indulges me.

He is retired, some three years now, and I am working full-time, teaching preschool. I come home in the evening bursting with stories, some frustrating, some challenging, some adorable, but always bursting. Today, I had a few minutes with the children that were laugh out loud funny.

It started in dramatic play, where I was playing with the children, and I was told - in no uncertain terms - that I was the daughter, a little girl, and that I had three Moms and two Dads. This is preschool reality. The next thing I knew, the plot had changed, and I was at "the doctor's." One preschooler was acting as the admitting nurse, seeming very professional, and working over a keyboard. She asked, "What's your name?"

I turned toward my Moms and asked, "What's my name?" Mom #1 immediately responded, "Gloria. Your name is Gloria." Which is how I responded to little Miss Administrator, "My name is Gloria." She stayed in role, and very theatrically asked, "Spell your first name for me."

I struggled to not burst out laughing, her acting was so precious.

I said, "G, L, O, R, I, A."

She asked, "What was that, again?"

I couldn't resist - I burst into my best Van Morrison, "G, L, O, R, I, A - GLORIA!"

This rendition did very little to amuse my preschool actors. They had no idea what I was imitating. This is an example of showing my age. So, I opened up my Spotify app and played it for them. To which, one preschooler exclaimed - "Oh, you should play, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" - that song is really the best."

So, we listened to that.

To which, another preschooler exclaimed - "Oh, you know what's really, really funny? "Girls Just Wanna Have Lunch!" It's like the same song, but not."

I had never heard of that song. So, I searched for it. Unbelievably, she was right, there is such a song and, of course, it's by Weird Al.

This is just one tiny example of how technology has changed our world. When I first started teaching, I created playlists in advance for the preschoolers, putting them onto a cassette tape. I had to really think ahead. Now, I can play any music I want, at any time, to support whatever bubbles up in the classroom. Three year olds are so well-versed in, and at ease with, technology, that they direct me in how and what to do.

One thing that hasn't changed is my rock-steady husband, who indulges me and my far-flung tales from school every night. I am truly blessed.


When the working day is done
Oh girls, they wanna have fun
Oh girls just want to have fun (girls, they wanna, wanna have fun, girls wanna have)
They just wanna, they just wanna (girls)
They just wanna, they just wanna, oh girl (girls just wanna have fun)
Girls just wanna have fun