My day with Christopher

It was a day like any other. I woke up with that feeling in my throat that suggests that my throat isn't sure whether it's sore or just temporarily annoyed. I jumped out of bed committed to the idea of making a cup of tea immediately in order to combat this threat. It sounded like a lovely idea, and I kept it at the back of my mind as I proceeded to do anything but make that cup of tea. Eventually my Once and Future Roommate Sarah sent me an IM because she desperately needed to chat with me about the pizza rolls she'd had for breakfast, so, needless to say, it was an hour before I finally had that cup of tea and it seemed that the peculiar tickle at the back of my throat was there to stay. I'd survive. I've lived through worse. Dealing with a sore throat is generally easier when you aren't on your way to a Pre-K classroom where singing at the top of your lungs and shouting at children to stop climbing the walls are both fairly commonplace. But that's all beside the point. The point is that I was feeling only slightly off, but off all the same.

And for a while, everything was fine. I came in the building and got down to business. I was on a role! I'd only been in this particular classroom for one day and I was already confident enough about the routines to take care of setting up before the teacher returned from lunch. I prepped notebooks. I set up the attendance board. I booted up the smartboard in preparation for circle time. It was smooth sailing. Until the children came in.

My role in the classroom, at least for the week, is essentially to sub for the SEIT who is usually in the room. My art therapy background technically constitutes a special education background in New York State, so the arrangement works for everybody. Essentially, working as a SEIT involves a lot of one-on-one work with a child, helping them with skills on an individualized basis. There's a lot of sensory adaptation and whatnot, which was pretty much all I did during my senior practicum last year - albeit unsupervised and with considerably younger children - so it's not terribly challenging in comparison. It felt like a good fit for me. Two days had passed, and I'd worked with two children, and learned the names of all of the others. The day before I knew all of their names. I would have been completely confident picking any of the children in the class out in a line up.

Today, however, I decided they were all named Christopher.

I called the child I was working with one-on-one Christopher despite spending a large chunk of time working with him on writing his name. I called just about every single boy who came to play at the center I was supervising Christopher. When someone asked me a question, I once suggested that they should seek out Christopher to help them. It was all quite bewildering, mostly because none of the children were answering me and I really couldn't figure out why. It wasn't until a little girl, assuming I was being my normal silly self, laughed out loud and exclaimed “His name isn't Christopher!” that I realized just how many times I'd done it. And I couldn't stop.

There is no child named Christopher in the class.

So I made it through the rest of the day somehow, pledging to take a moment to think before calling children by name. When I got home I had a second cup of tea (this time immediately!) and sat down to decompress. They always tell you that you're going to have days where you feel like the most incompetent teacher in the world, and it's true. Usually it has something to do with phrasing something badly and accidentally hurting a child's feelings, or making a bad discipline choice that you can't take back. I didn't do that to any of the children at school today. I take no credit for what I may or may not have done to poor Christopher, however, whoever he is.  

My Sticky Valentine!

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a fair bit of affection for contact paper. It didn't start until I saw my first contact paper collage on display at the center where I taught art enrichment about a year ago, but it took off from there and I haven't looked back! In addition to being great for simple lamination, adding a dry-erase component to activities and its generally addictive tactile quality, it makes the process of sharing tactile-sensory explorations with toddlers and preschoolers simple! Beautiful double sided collages will never go out of style! Because my passion for contact paper is unending, I thought I'd mix that passion with passion itself and turned it into a Valentine's activity! I called this project “My Sticky Valentine.” Although this is could be a great collaborative art experience, in this case I turned it into an individual experience because my class was drop-in and choice based and I wanted to make sure these got home for Valentine's Day even if some children left early! 

 I began by setting out trays that included tons of bits and bobs in the traditional Valentine colors - reds, pinks, purples, and whites. Because most of the children I was working with were toddlers, I wanted plenty of different things to touch and manipulate! Feathers were quite popular. There was also fabric, polar fleece scraps, string, felt, paper hearts, various yarns, lace, and curled ribbon! The older children (and even the younger ones!) enjoyed using the foam letters and numbers for a little added letter and number recognition, and they made lovely collage elements, too! Additionally, the curled ribbon provided a bonus fine motor workout, because in order to get it to stick the children had to use their little fingers to straighten it out!

Look at all of those lovely textures and patterns! Don't be surprised when the smaller children find more interest in exploring the materials than they do in actually assembling a collage! The collage is actually secondary! The sticky paper is just as irresistible, however, so plenty of odds and ends will doubtlessly make it on! Then just fold the contact paper up to seal it and the children can take it home! It can be used as a suncatcher, or even as an insert in a card! I'm sure there are plenty of other lovely ideas, too!

Lovely!

Miss Aly, Book Detective!

I've never been very good at New Years Resolutions, mostly because I don't often remember to make them until New Years Day, when suddenly everyone starts talking about them and I realize I forgot about them again. I think it's because, no matter how old you are, a full year is a long time! A lot of things happen in a year! You meet a lot of people, go a lot of places, and once 365 days have passed, you may be miles and miles from where you started last January 1^st, physically or metaphorically. By New Years Eve, I have no recollection of what I might have resolved to do on New Years Eve the year before. That, I suppose, is the purpose of writing things down (if you can remember where you wrote your resolution a year later – good luck). Still, a resolution is a nice thing, so I decided that this year, I wanted one.

First, I wanted to create a new blog. I make no promises about maintaining it because it has been a considerable amount of time since I last blogged regularly. I just wanted to create one which, clearly, I've done. Well, hooray! That's one resolution down! That's also very anticlimactic, however, so I figured I needed a second one.

So, my second resolution – which I have already started – is to commit to building my classroom library this year. I know that seems a little silly, since I don't have a classroom yet, but there is no way that adding to my collection of high-quality children's books won't serve me as I go through student teaching and subbing and my other work with children. Having a collection of high-quality children's literature – high-quality, foremost in content, but also good physical quality – can really make a classroom. If you want children to love books and implicitly want to read and be read to, it really doesn't help anyone if all you have to share with children are free books from the scholastic catalog and some old leveled readers. I resolve to build a strong library that I will be proud to share with children.

This is a challenge, foremost, because I'm a poor graduate student and books, as a rule, cost money. I'm not in the market for anything full-priced because it just isn't practical. Luckily for me, books that have been previously loved are just as funny, exciting, interesting, colorful, beautiful, enticing, lyrical, and/or well-written as brand new hardcover books straight from the shelf in Barnes and Noble. Therefore, I have begun a quest to get the best possible price for any book I buy while striving for the highest quality! As of today, January 10^th, 2012, I have already added eight books to my collection and I have spent a total of $20. Not bad, hmm? I happen to be quite proud, particularly because five of the eight books are hardcover books in brand new to excellent condition and usually retail at between $10 and $18 each! 

The first three books I added to my collection are brand new Eric Carle hardcover books: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother, Too?, and The Very Busy Spider, all for $5 each from Kohls. The full value is donated to Kohls Cares for Kids, which is a children's charity – so $15 of the $20 I have spent on books so far has gone to a good cause! You can't beat that! I'm thrilled to add these books to my collection at such a discount. 

The other four I picked up at a local used children's shop. Unfortunately, when I stopped in to browse I discovered that the store was in the middle of doing buy back, so the place was mobbed by rumpled looking parents toting old exersaucers and bags full of children's clothing. One whole shelf of books was blocked by cranky people waiting in line, so I didn't even get a chance to look through everything! I did find a beautifully illustrated, brand new, hardcover retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Jim Aylesworth and Barbara McClintock which usually retails for $18... for a buck! Additionally I picked up a hardcover The Little Engine That Could (how could you go wrong?), and paperback copies of Caps for Sale and Sylvester and The Magic Pebble, which were standards I couldn't turn down for a dollar each! I think those prices may merit another trip during a more convenient time! There's a whole shelf of books I haven't even seen yet! Who knows what treasures might be hiding?

I still have plans to visit thrift shops and warehouse sales this year, so I plan to get better at digging through shelves for the hidden gems, but I think I'm off to a good start! Even if I don't remember that I made this resolution by next January 1^st, I'll definitely have made a dent at the beginning of this year! Plus, I have a nifty new blog to boot!