Where's Ms Frizzle??

The 2010-2011 school year gave me the opportunity to embrace and express my repressed inner Ms. Frizzle. My previous location granted me the position of the Science teacher in their enhanced curriculum development program. I fell in love. They knew my potential before I realized it myself.



In my new location, they do not have the science program. As a matter of fact, there is a lack of science in my classroom in general. It's an acknowledged absence, but little done about it. After my successful experience last year, I attempt to insert my abilities and "expertise", but it is mostly unsuccessfully to this point.

Where's my inner Ms Frizzle gone?

I try and try to conjure her up, but she must be on vacation.

To find my niche in my new classroom, is my full time mission. How do you make a place that is supposed to come naturally, your own, after unconsciously forbidding it to yourself? My response: reminisce. Meaning, appreciate your history for what it was and the chapter it filled. Keep from pining or putting it up on a pedestal. Instead, find the good it was and did for you, apply the change-growth as a part of your current being rather than a conditional part of your personality outside the conditions.

I love and miss my old coworkers and the comfort of my "work home". I sniffle, thinking about my kiddos there and the joy they brought me. Here's to a lot of pleasant memories and the hope of some new, joint ones too!

PS- I realize my blog hasn't had ANY images yet, sorry! I will begin posting them, as I am finally figuring out how to. :)

Nuture Shock: A review at 10%

My dad got me this cool contraption, called a Kindle. It was a bit of a congratulations gift, on my success at GMU thus far, I suppose. Anyway, I've been going crazy with it! (I read The Help, by the way, and LOVED it!) I recently bought Nuture Shock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman. It's regarding the way we raise our children, how we praise them and what we allow or disallow for them. I must admit, it's a bit of a struggle for me. But there's enough in it to make it worth continuing.

Firstly, the first seven percent of the book makes me feel like they made their point, I get it, and now they're just hammering a dent around the nail. But, just when I'm to the point of putting it down, I come across the next subject and the process begins again. Perhaps it is because it reminds me of how my psychology textbooks are written, but the style's not my favorite.

Some things I found fascinating, and worth sharing are as follows... (to make sure I don't mess the meaning behind their writing, I am going to attempt to quote, more than paraphrase.) The following are regarding the value of sleep in children's growths. They are highlights of the book from my Kindle.

- Highlight on Page 34 | Loc. 447-48  | Added on Monday, September 12, 2011, 11:00 AM

Tired children can’t remember what they just learned, for instance, because neurons lose their plasticity, becoming incapable of forming the new synaptic connections necessary to encode a memory.

- Highlight on Page 32 | Loc. 427-28  | Added on Monday, September 12, 2011, 10:52 AM

“A loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to [the loss of] two years of cognitive maturation and development,” Sadeh explained.

- Highlight on Page 33 | Loc. 432-35  | Added on Monday, September 12, 2011, 10:53 AM

Dr. Monique LeBourgeois, also at Brown, studies how sleep affects prekindergartners. Virtually all young children are allowed to stay up later on weekends. They don’t get less sleep, and they’re not sleep deprived—they merely shift their sleep to later at night on Fridays and Saturdays. Yet she’s discovered that the sleep shift factor alone is correlated with performance on a standardized IQ test. Every hour of weekend shift costs a child seven points on the test. Dr.

- Highlight on Page 35 | Loc. 465-67  | Added on Monday, September 12, 2011, 11:05 AM

Kids’ sleep is qualitatively different than grownups’ sleep because children spend more than 40% of their asleep time in the slow-wave stage (which is ten times the proportion that older adults spend). This is why a good night’s sleep is so important for long-term learning of vocabulary words, times tables, historical dates, and all other factual minutiae.

- Highlight on Page 35 | Loc. 468-70  | Added on Monday, September 12, 2011, 11:05 AM

Perhaps most fascinating, the emotional context of a memory affects where it gets processed. Negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive or neutral memories gets processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories, yet recall gloomy memories just fine.

So, it seems that sleep is far more important than we act. We may "know" how important it is, but how many times do we say "ok" to staying up for one more "Tom & Jerry" to avoid the bedtime fits? These reports definitely give me more of a desire to get more sleep of an adult, wondering what exactly I think I am capable of! 

Please, don't skip the nap or wake them up prematurely each morning unless necessary for their rhythm and not for your time schedule. Let those facts and lessons sink into their permanent memory and increase their intellectual capabilities!

Touching on Human Development

This semester is loaded with Psychology. I have taken on nine credits worth of Psychology courses. Human Development, Psychological Factors in Aging, and Personality Theory. Now, two classes have one presentation and all three have two- three exams and that's it. HEAVY STUDY CLASSES. Great, what was I thinking?? And to boot, it all has very little to do with everything I've worked before- on early childhood education. So, I'm feeling a little out of my element.

Today, between church letting out and my birthday dinner with my dad and company, I watch my boyfriend hashing it out with the tree roots growing under his garden while reading up on my Human Development Text. I love how common sense it is, and how our society still needs it to be spelled out to them!

For example, as I've been saying since "Mosaic" (my old young adult group) was first incorrectly referred to as "a single's ministry," God cannot give you the man/woman you need until you've figured out who you- and that determines what's left that you need/want. Until you are who you are and confident in it, you can't know what you're in need of or what can be added to the life you're choosing.

In my text (Lifespan Development by Denise Boyd and Helen Bee), they reference the neo-Freudian Erik Erikson's work. "In the first of the three adult stages, the young adult buildso n the identity established in adolescence to confront the crisis of intimacy versus isolation. Erikson defined intimacy as 'the ability to fuse your identity with someone else's without fear that you're going to lose something yourself' (Erikson, in Evans, 1969). Many young people, Erikson thought, make the mistake of thinking they will find their identity in a relationship, but in his view it is only those who have already formed (or are well on the way to forming) a clear identity who can successfully enter this fusion of identities that he called intimacy. Young adults whose identities are weak or unformed will remain in shallow relationships and will experience a sense of isolation or loneliness."

Huh. Fascinating stuff, right?

I love that definition of intimacy. I may have to frame it...

So, in all this that I believed and preached before, I wish Erikson jumped off the page years ago and slapped me in the face with this paragraph!

Needless to say, this chapter is making me look hard at my generation and my own particular developments. The three adult stages being 1) identity versus role confusion. 2) intimacy versus isolation. 3) generatively versus stagnation- "primarily the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation" (Erikson).

I may be getting more out of this semester than I had so passively thought.

The Beginning...

Monday, I showed up for my first day at my new location. My new assistant director explained to me that the other teacher in my new room is on vacation and they have not yet hired a third teacher. Therefore, it was I, the new teacher, and two substitutes for the first two days of my first week at my new location.

Fun.

Learn and relearn, today is my first day with my new co-teacher, as she just returned from vacation. What I am so used to being unquestionably required at previous centers, is not as cut-and-dry in my new classroom. While I like all that is happening, it will take me a while to "relax" and adopt the concepts and lee-ways in this room. Can I regain my "Floater" attitude or are my new ways from being full time in my own classroom too set to flex?

I miss my kids. I miss my co-teachers and all the staff at my old location- I love you guys!!

I'm on my break, so I'm going to chill for a little. But I will keep you updated. More to come.

Kids Say the Sweetest Things...

Quoting my students is one of my favorite things to do. They can really put it into perspective sometimes! Here are a few of my favorites, although I am certain there will be several more posts like this to come as it's constantly growing.

While practicing home phone numbers and "911"... "Ms. Briana, does God have a phone number? I think I need to know that one, it's an important one to know."

On a day I'm feeling a recent weight-gain, "I need to tell you something, it's important. You're beautiful like a princess."

During nap, I was brushing a child's head to help him fall asleep. He looked asleep, so I whispered to find out..
"I love you, *** ***"
Drowsily and barely conscious, "I love you too, Ms. Briana." With his face smooshed against his pillow pet.
"I'm going to miss you when I go."
"I know."
And with that, he was out.

"Ms. Briana, can I give you a kiss?"

While playing Hi Ho Cherry-O with a teacher and two friends, "Can I win now?"

"But when you smoosh up pizza, it's play-doh."

One door closing...

Friday, I began my goodbyes. Parents are making sure I have another week left before they start their tearfest, and several of my 4-year-old-loves are leaving for vacation this whole week- and I will not see them again. One of my beloveds brought me flowers and a card (with money for a nice dinner this weekend, they specified) and read his card to me. His latest obsession post-angry bird phase is Mario Brothers, he told me I'm his Princess if he's Mario. Yeah, I almost cried.

Now that I'm two days into my last five, I'm finding it harder to believe but a little easier to do. We have low numbers this week, since so many are on vacation. This gives the teachers the opportunity to get a head start on preparing for the new school year. Cubby tags are being laminated, bulletin board boarders are being colored, birthday boards created and primary groups listed. However, I am helpless to just stand by as they prepare. I still do not know what my schedule will be next week, and I have not been assigned a room. Therefore, I have nothing to get started on and feel a little behind or left out- lonely, really. I help where I can, but it has nothing at all to do with me.

What to do with myself...? I've taken to interrupting students' play, playing tricks, and all-around just goofing off. In the midst of this, I realize how busy the Pre-K room is and how much more confident I feel in my interactions with the children in the Three's room. I wonder if it's too late to request a specific room?

I have been aiding the school year prep by offering the large amount of papers and information I have saved the last two years. I have the pack rat habit of saving almost all my references- such as old projects the kids and I have enjoyed, old lesson plans, daily schedules etc. So I reference these for my two co teachers' use this school year, pulling together what they may need to successfully pull off their hopes for the year. Stay tuned for some of my favorites! :)

The Big Transition

My current workplace: Beautiful city, driven people and children caught in a currently transitioning society.

My workplace is a wonderful one, I treasure it to the fullest possible extent. The staff is amazing, the location is peaceful, the building is spacious and well planned, management is strong and creative and supportive. In a word, comfortable. My habitat.

This summer, I have spent my time in Pre-Kindergarten, grasping the truth of my decision to leave. Yes, leave. I am in a great child care workplace (hard to come by) and will take my chances at a new location.

My heart breaks tonight as each parent inquires when my very last day is. A few of my children are going on vacation next week, so I embrace them in a goodbye they are still grasping to understand this themselves.

My dilemma is this: do I feel the sorrow and weep gradually over the coming week or do I suck it up and just make the jump with a masked emotion? I hold strong to the conviction that children feed off our emotions, they know when we need a hug before we do. They react to my bad days, I know not to wear my heart of my sleeve. However, I know not to hide all of my emotions and thoughts, because they know a lie when they hear/see one.

To mask my emotions is to keep them from realizing the truth as much as it keeps me.

This, in short, is my largest thought this week.

Well, that and the fact that I have no idea what I'm walking into at my new location. There is a toss up as to which classroom they would like to place me, and therefore there is not a set work schedule they have to adhere to me. At this point in time, I'd be planning a lesson, next week prepping it. I don't have anything to plan or prep at this point and I'm feeling very useless as the teachers around me are prepping and planning for the upcoming school year. It makes for a lonely leaving.