"Let's get this apple-pickin' party started!!!"

Today, we took our class to "Dr. Davies Farm" to pick apples and pumpkins. To say the kids LOVED it would be an understatement! Here are a few of my favorite moments from the day:

7- Watching the kids "ooh" and "ahh" over the New York City skyline as we crossed over into the Bronx, even though they've grown up right next to it all their lives.

6- Watching them run around in wide open spaces and enjoy nature. It's hard to come by good, clean nature in the big city!

5- Feeling Neveaha's little hand slip into mine every few minutes on our walk back down the dirt trail from the apple orchard.

4- Singing songs with Dwayne all the way home on the bus- everything from Justin Bieber to "The Wheels on the Bus." It was refreshing to see the kids in a different context. Their true personalities shined through!

3- Hearing the kids break out into chanting, "APP-LES! APP-LES! APP-LES! APP-LES!" as we rode down the trail on the hay ride. Their excitement was contagious!

2- Preston shouting in pure elation, "Let's get this apple-pickin' party started!!" with his adorable lisp as he hopped off the hay ride.

1- Seeing those beautiful smiles on all of my kids' faces. Although some days it may be difficult to remember- I truly appreciate having the opportunity to get to know these 28 incredible human beings and to be a part of their lives. And I still get to spend another 9 months with them!! :)

A Day in This Teacher's Life

PAVE Academy/P.S. 15

6:30- Walk to the bus stop a few blocks away. I always see the same few people outside getting their restaurants and shops ready for the day or making deliveries. Even though I don't know their names, it's nice to say, "Good morning," to a familiar face. Someday I plan to stop and get to know their story...

6:35- Take the bus (B61) to school. Not many people get on at my stop, but the very next stop is right by the Subway so there is usually a crowd of people waiting to take the bus. There have been a few humiliating occasions (which I figure happen to most NYers) where the bus is just pulling away as I get to my stop, so I haul it to the next stop and make it just in time to load at the tail end of the crowd. One morning I loaded the bus at my usual stop only to realize I had forgotten to refill my Metro card. So I took that humiliating sprint to the next stop, went down into the Subway, refilled my card at the machine, sprinted back up the steps, and was the last person to get on the bus before it pulled away. For that 1 second I felt like I had beaten the city! Yeeah! :)

7:00- Prep for the day. This time flies by! I make copies (if the machine is working), post objectives, prep lesson materials, open the attendance tracker on my computer, etc.

7:35- Go downstairs to get the kiddos! The kids eat breakfast in silence, and after they throw their trash away we say our creed,
have a few announcements, and head up the stairs! We occupy most of the classrooms upstairs in P.S. 15, so we have to get out of the cafeteria before their kids come in for breakfast at 7:40.

7:50- Morning Meeting. We practice literacy skills, and we talk about the day. During lessons we have hand signals for students to communicate. For example, to show excitement students show "vibrance" (one of PAVE's core values- perseverance, achievement, vibrance, and excellent character) by showing spirit fingers. To show that they agree with a statement they make the surfer "hang loose" gesture with one hand. To show that they disagree they "shake it out" with their hands. These, along with many others, are used throughout every lesson, every day.

8:10- Reading. We've been learning about titles, the author, the illustrator, the difference between a letter and word, spaces, and rhyming words. 

8:45- Writing. This mostly consists of learning to stretch out a word and write the sounds that you hear. Just last week we introduced writing more than one word, and then sentences!

9:20- Specials. While the kids are in art, music, or PE, I either have a meeting with my instructional coach or I prep for lessons.

10:00- Fundations. This is a foundational literacy curriculum that incorporates letter and sound recognition, comprehension, and sentence structure.

10:40- Lunch and Recess! If I don't have duty, I either have a meeting with my mentor teacher, grade homework (our kids have homework to be completed every night), lesson plan, or prep for afternoon lessons, and hopefully scarf down a lunch. :)

11:35- Rest. In New York, kids can enter Kindergarten as long as they turn 5 by December. So we have several 4 year olds, and many more who have just recently turned 5. CrAzY! So this time is the closest thing we have to nap time, but not nearly as effective. We basically try to get the kids to sit still for 10 minutes with their heads down on their desks. Right.

11:50- Clubs. We pull struggling students for intervention and excelling students for enrichment, while the rest of the class goes to a specials club (music, art, PE).

12:20- Math. First is math meeting, where we practice calendar math, counting, and other foundational skills. Then we have story problem, which is one of my favorite parts of the day! We read the kids a story problem several times, and after they memorize it they return to their desks to use any strategy they like to solve. So far it has been basic addition and subtraction story problems, but by the end of the year they will be doing conceptual multiplication and division. Awesome! Last, we have an investigations lesson, where the students learn strategies and skills through games and exploration activities.

1:45- Snack.

2:00- Guided Reading. This is when the students go to literacy centers and each teacher takes a guided reading group. We have a guided reading session with every child every day. We choose literature that is at the student's "instructional" level, and we are there to provide support in whatever area they need growth, whether basic concepts about print, word solving, or comprehension, etc.

2:45- Read Aloud or Science. Read aloud focuses on comprehension skills.

3:15- Shared Reading. Shared Reading focuses on concepts about print, such as the difference between a letter and a word, spaces, directionality, turning pages, etc.

3:40- Dismissal. Throughout the day we track behavior with a color "thermometer." If they need a reminder to sit in SHARP (legs in criss cross or under the table, hands folded in lap or on desk, straight back), to track (look at) the speaker, to raise their hand, etc, and they do not correct their behavior, their clip is moved up to the next color on the thermometer . If they correct their behavior for several minutes their clip moves back down. At the end of the day we write their final color in their homework folder for parents to sign. 

4:00- Meetings, lesson planning, grading, prep for the next day. My co-teacher and I have been staying until 7:00, when the building closes, but we're trying to go home earlier! 

6:00(fingers crossed)- Walk to the bus stop. 

6:30- Home!!

A few of our "scholars" <3

Welcome to our Howard University Kindergarten classroom!

Our "Look Who Wall"

My incredible co-teacher, Lara, teaching writing