Starting a New School Year

The first day of the 2017-2018 school year was this past Friday for my school district. Thursday evening, after meet the teacher, I was chatting with my Mom, super exited to be starting a new school year. I made the comment at the end of our conversation that I wouldn’t be near as excited after the first day. Sounds odd doesn’t it. That’s when it hit me, teaching is a lot like childbirth.

Teaching & Childbirth

Expectant moms spend nine months anticipating and planning for the arrival of the new life growing inside them. Teachers spend the summer anticipating and planning for the new students arriving with the start of a new school year.

Then comes the dreaded labor. Awful and painful as it may be that pain brings great things, new life and the greatest of joys. For teachers the equivalent of labor is the first few weeks of school. Training, guiding and encouraging three and four year olds into pre-k life. It’s painful some days and exhausting every day! Like the laboring mom the teacher wonders if it was this hard last time. How did they make it through? Was the outcome worth the pain and effort?

Oh, Yes!

The answer is yes, absolutely, I’d do it again in nine months.

Nothing worth doing is easy. For teachers our job changes drastically and unpredictably from one year to the next. Students change, policies change, teaching teams change, leadership changes and standards seem to be an ever moving target.

If this is the case why teach? Why do we do it? Why do we stay? Why?

200 Reasons

I can give you 200 plus reasons from the last ten years. They come in multiple forms, colors and backgrounds, with different strengths and challenges.

They start out as tiny little monkeys that are all over the place. They want to do everything all at once but nothing for too long. Some know all the letters while others can barely write their names. Some know how to follow instructions while others want to set the instructions.

As teachers we take all these differences and channel them into amazing amounts of learning. We go from having a classroom of monkeys all working for themselves to having a team of geese all using their strengths to guide the team to new heights. Flying together toward a common goal – to be better than we were and know more than we thought possible.

So why do we teach? Because of the children. They are the reason. They will always be the reason.

Like the laboring mom we quickly forget how hard the beginning of the year is because we are focusing on the end result. A beautiful new life.

Update:

 ALL FIXED!!! Wahoo!!

Enjoy!

Update:

All the files for both the Color & Number Word Unit as well as the Primer Unit have been re-uploaded. I know all the Color & Number Word links work – I tried them all out. I will try the Primer ones out after some dinner. But wanted you to know they had been fixed.

Kasey

Houston we have a problem!!

At least 2 of my pages have dropped all their contents! Not good! It’s not good!

The files are still up on my end but they are no longer up on the most important end and that’s your’s.

I am in the process of fixing this some what monumental issue. But the good news is it’s fixable. It’s going to take several hours and possibly a couple of days but it will be fixed!

If you have noticed any other files that are giving an error message or not loading, etc, please, please let me know.

I don’t want Milton & Prescott to be an additional headache for you, or me, for that matter.

Pages currently not offering what they should are our Color & Number Word Unit and our Primer Sight Word Unit. 

Thank you for being patient with this gargantuan hiccup! I’ll update this post when these two pages are back to doing what they are supposed to!

Soon to be Enjoying Again,

Kasey

Morning Routines

Remember that dreaded toy from childhood, Jack-in-the-Box? Remember the anticipation that came as the crank was turned and the music began, slow and methodical, fast and creepy? Then it happened the POP, the jumps, the squeals, the laughter, the tears, so many emotions and responses from one simple toy. You remember it well don’t you? That is exactly like mornings in pre-k and kindergarten!
It’s all fun and games until that POP, that one incident that sets all chaos in motion. You can’t prevent it, it will come, not every day but most, sometimes it’s a simple solution other days it’s catastrophic. While we can neither predict these events nor prevent them we can set up an environment which makes the managing of them far easier.

Let’s look at 3 easy steps to a stress less morning.

1. Greet ‘em at the Door

Always, always, always greet your students in the morning! It’s best if you can greet them at the door before they even enter the room but sometimes you are already dealing with a catastrophe and that’s not possible. Greet them with a smile, a positive word, direct eye contact and their name. Make it personal!

This simple act on our part has monumental impact on our students’ self-esteem and strengthens that bond they have with us. Students who feel valued and loved will work harder for the adult who makes them feel that way.

My students try to sneak in our class without me noticing. It becomes great fun to surprise me that they are already in class before I greet them. Even that brings smiles, laughter and comradery between us all.

2. Can Do Morning Work

Have morning work that they can accomplish on their own. No matter how organized and prepared we are Jack will POP and we won’t be available to help other students. The less they need you the more smoothly their morning will run. There are tons of ways to do morning work. I employ several depending on what time of the year it is, what we are learning in class and what my students are able to accomplish.

Providing a solid morning work routine focus young brains and sets a positive mood for the day ahead.

3. What’s Next

Always have a back-up option for students when they finish their morning work. Depending on arrival times, ability to work independently and how quickly speedy is on a given morning you will have those who finish before you are ready to start the day. These students need something to go to without having to rely on you to provide it.

In my class we have a shelf designated as the morning shelf. The shelf has large baskets of open ended activities that will serve multiple children. The first student done at a table gets to choose what basket they take to their table – one basket per table, no switching. They work from these baskets until I am ready to start our Morning Meeting Routine.

Working this way allows for social interactions inside a managed setting. They can chat and laugh and build and destroy and plan and execute over and over again. Building relationships and minds simultaneously – it’s a beautiful thing.
Sounds a little too simple doesn’t it? But it works like a well-oiled machine. They don’t need me or my aide to complete their morning routines. This leaves us both free to greet students, put out morning fires and assist individual students who need extra support. Welcome to a stress less morning!

Enjoy!

I am seriously so excited to post today! I have spent this week catching up on some me time, sleep and recovering from last week’s crazy insane but awesome schedule.
I have nothing new to post as far as printables today but I am finally getting to unveil Milton & Prescott’s brand new custom logo. Some of you will totally understand what I’m about to describe and those who don’t just hang with me for a couple of paragraphs here.
Have you ever dreamed something in your mind – created it, named it, designed it, loved it, longed for it yet couldn’t make it happen? Well I do that a lot, dream stuff up and design things but usually I can make it happen. I’m willing to attempt most all computer things and home design I’m all over it. Even designing flowerbeds, when it’s not too hot, I can handle. But when it comes to drawing I’m out, I’m done, I could try but what’s the point? I cannot draw more than random figures from sticks and sometimes they don’t even resemble what I had in mind.
There are a couple of people I know who are accomplished artists but there was this one specific artist I wanted to design our Milton & Prescott Logo. I knew deep in my heart that if anybody could make Milton and Prescott come to life outside of my head it was this artist.
Over dinner I explained in detail how I saw Prescott with his top hat with red ribbon, monocle and walking stick. I wanted him to give off a British air since he was native to that country and how I see him as the wisdom of the duo Milton & Prescott. I described Milton as I saw, him gangly and fun, the one of the duo who brings comedy and excitement. I felt like Milton needed something else but I couldn’t put my finger on it, something around his neck I was sure of that.
Talking to this wonderful artist I could tell she got me. She understood what I was trying to say and it encouraged and excited me to know that I would soon get to see these figments of my imagination come to life.
Let me just say this… what I got was so much more than I could have verbalized. When I first laid eyes on the drawing she sent me….. ummm, even now as I pause and remember that day I get goose bumps. There on that white sheet of paper were Milton and Prescott the exact images I had and still do see in my head. But you know Prescott needed something and what he got was perfect!
So without further ado, I give from the hands of artist Lisa Neal and the mind of Kasey Manning (drum roll please) ……………………………….

Thank you so very much Aunt Lisa for bringing these characters to life for me! I absolutely couldn’t have done it without you!

Enjoy!