run to first! run to first!

Kickball is so much fun with 42 Kindergarteners.

No really..... it is.

And then make those 42 Kindergarteners run three laps around the gym.


Best. indoor recess. ever.

Happy February! :)

word to twenty-eleven

One week after starting back to school after Christmas holiday, and we get two snow days! Miss Hurst couldn't be any happier because my house was a mess, my lesson plans were a mess, and well... I was a mess.

Now, I'm rested, my house is clean(er), and tomorrow, my lesson plans will be nicer.

I love snow days.

This year is going to be big. I can tell. In Sunday School, this month's verse is...
"But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."-Philippians 13B-14

And my verses for the beginning of January that I'm memorizing are...
"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland." -Isaiah 43:18-19

It's amazing how God brings you the word you need to hear the most.
I guess I'm needing to "forget the past." :)

My word for 2011 is forward.
I am moving forward in life. I am not living in the past. I am going to live for the present and then move forward. I am memorizing scriptures for the future. I am going to not dwell on things out of my control. I am living for a greater good. This is my temporary home, and my purpose here is not to live in anxiety and fear. It's to be an example of His holiness. I am not a product of my career, just as I wasn't a product of my AP classes/busy schedule in high school. I am a product of the resurrection of Christ Jesus. Forward, march!

no! no! no! no!

No, December 29 cannot already be upon me. No way can I be teaching in six days. Christmas break just began. My students haven't enjoyed enough time out.... haven't played with their toys enough, read enough books, or rolled around in enough snow.. I mean sunshine! The weather is SO weird.

I cannot face this. I have too many books to finish reading. I have too many lesson plans to write. I have to clean my classroom. I have to clean my house. I have to spend time with my little brother before he's deployed this spring. I have to enjoy having mama around to cook. I have to see so many friends before everyone goes their separate ways....

and........

I have fallen in love with Dr. Oz. How will I watch Dr. Oz when I'm teaching?

Maybe, I can pretend like I forgot school started back and play the new teacher card.
What? I'm not a new teacher this year. Shoot.

Maybe, I can bring my students with me home at 2:00 so I can watch Dr. Oz. I bet I can teach AND watch television.
What? That won't help my students prepare for the MCT2. Shoot.

Okay, then, I guess I need some motivation.
KLOVE Christian radio suggested three things to get you back in the mood to work after a Christmas slump.
1. Start a project.
2. Set goals for yourself.
3. I can't actually remember number three.

So, number 1. I'm going to start a project. Hmm.... what kind of project could I start with a group of AWESOME but challenging six & seven-year-olds.
I think I might just have to start writing workshop. Teach these babies how to write before the rigors of first grade. :) Writing workshop would be a fun thing to research and set up, and it doesn't require a lot of planning on my part. Woo hoo! My kind of project.

and Number 2. Goals. Plural. I would do much better with one goal, but I guess I'll set two goals.

1. I will leave school before 5:00 every day! (whoa.)
2. I will put file folders back in the filing cabinet immediately after use.


Nope, still not motivated to end Christmas break.....

time to slow down

"The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."-Zephaniah 3:17

The past 4 months have been a whirlwind of school work, tier notebooks, anxiety, evaluations, and testing. I think Thanksgiving & Christmas fall at wonderful times. I needed a break, and I need rest desperately.

I absolutely love the teachers I'm surrounded by each day. They are helping me grow professionally and personally. They are my mentors.

Every day, Amory is feeling more and more like home. I am only making two resolutions for the year 2011. I want to mentor and volunteer with the youth group at my church, and I plan to memorize two Bible passages each month.

May God bless you and your family during this Christmas season!

shaping children.

I teach a challenging group of students this year. They are six & seven-year-old Kindergarteners. They learned their alphabet and numbers last year. The struggles they had were learning their alphabet and numbers plus the hundreds of other concepts Kindergarteners must learn before being promoted to first grade... basically, they need to be reading, writing sentences, and doing simple addition & subtraction to be prepared for the rigors of first grade. Let's face it Kindergarten is hard these days.

I learned how to read in home living at a half-day Kindergarten. I don't remember much else about Kindergarten except putting on an apron and serving plastic pancakes for breakfast to my classmates. Somehow though... I learned how to read doing just that.... playing. I thought teaching Kindergarten would be like it was when I was in Kindergarten. Centers, hands-on activities, singing & dancing, etc.  It's not really like that. We give grades. I have some hard working students in my class with all As, and they got a really cool yard sign that says they're on the superintendent's list for honor roll.

Enter TJ. Six-years-old. Shoes are more expensive than all of my shoes combined. Knows his alphabet and sounds but refuses to say them when tested. Knows his numbers but intentionally says incorrect numbers. Laughs at inappropriate times. Falls out of his chair 46 times a day. Will not sing and dance. Puts pieces of crayons in his pockets during centers. When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, responds with..."a robber so I can go to jail."

The entire month of August, I worked and worked on breaking the attitude. The entire month of September, I worked and worked on finding out what motivates TJ to do things (maybe not learn.... but just to do something!!!) The entire month of October, I worked and worked on teaching him the rules & procedures of the classroom so he wouldn't go home in trouble every single day. The entire month of November, I worked and worked on teaching him manners. So far... so good. It's amazing to see how he's changed in 3 shor... I mean LONG months. :) TJ can sit for about 8 minutes during a lesson without interrupting me. He can be nice to his classmates and keep his hands to himself at recess. He can write all 26 letters and he can tell me the sounds associated with the letters. He can even write CVC words when I say them slowly (CVC-- consonant vowel consonant like cat, dog, pat, sat, rug). He can answer 50 addition facts in 5 minutes and get 90% correct. On the Thursday before Thanskgiving, he handed me a tray with a spork/napkin combo and told me he was trying to be nice to others.

Several problems are still lingering.... the goal of being a robber to go to jail, the refusal to do work (sometimes), and thinking making F's are funny. I still have to search his pockets (without his knowing) before he leaves every day to take out my linking cubes, crayons, and whatever else he hides in there during centers. I also have to distribue a LOT of stickers throughout the day to keep him motivated to work, sing, & dance, but the price of stickers is so worth it to me. He's not going to be instricially motivated to learn... not when life has been hard and it's too much fun to fail. My goal by the end of this year is to teach this child of God that he is worth something to His creator and savior and God has a plan for his life..... not to be a robber or whatever else may come to his six-year-old mind that has seen far more than I have seen. God's plan is for him to love others and serve. It's for him to grow up and continue his education so he can be something greater than we can predict in Kindergarten. We can "police officer, nurse," it all day long, but who knows what kind of jobs will exist in 2025. He's an important.... necessary piece of my puzzle of students this year, and although at the end of the day, it can be quite upsetting to think I've got only 6 more months to get this child ready for first grade, I know it's not me doing this work. It's God. God is using me to train this child the way he should go..... and I'm so thankful to be able to see His work each and every day (because this student is never absent.) :) :)

MY students LOVE literacy this year!

I was a funny little first-year teacher last year. I learned about classroom management. I learned a lot about Kindergarten. Kindergarteners learn a lot more than the alphabet and numbers like I once thought. Kindergarten is about growing a little older, a little wiser, and about learning the very basics of reading. Teachers teach little ones to listen to stories, comprehend stories, visualize the stories, sound out words, memorize other words, read phrases fluently, and get from reading level aa books (two & three word sentences) to level D-E books (considered beginning 1st grade). Many students are successful. Some students work really hard but they can't learn THAT MUCH in 9 months.... that's where I come into the picture this year. I am the teacher of the second-years, the transition to 1st grade teacher.

This year, my students are a little older (with spring birthdays... all six), come with experience with alphabet and sounds, and are eager to grasp everything Kindergarten in their efforts to move forward towards first grade.

This year, I am not teaching the alphabet in a one letter per week fashion as Kindergarten teachers do. Saxon is a good program, and the students learn SO much through the lessons, but.... I just knew this new group of older Kinders needed more than what Saxon had to offer. I was not given another option for a program, so I am doing it my own way, and I think in the process, I'm learning how to really teach. I'm not leaning against scripts & scheduled lessons to tell me what to teach my students and when. I am making decisions based on assessments, and I am constantly monitoring my students.

This year, I have fallen in love with a book called The Daily 5, which has changed my view on centers. I am teaching my sweet students to be independent when I teach guided reading which is a 360 degree turn from centers last year. My students interrupted my lessons constantly last year..... which hurt the students I was trying to teach how to read. This year, we are slowly building stamina with independent reading-to-self, writing, working on words, listening to reading, and buddy reading. The students do five activities independently throughout the reading instruction, and they are growing as readers and writers.

Every day, I am amazed at how much my students are improving with spelling words in different word families, writing sentences that not only include subjects & verbs... but also adjectives & articles. I love watching them guiding their fingers under the words as they listen to fluent reading on tape or with their Leap Frog Tag books/pens. My students this year are not only learning to read, they are learning to love literacy. Their book baskets are filled with books they enjoy, and they get so excited when I ask them to pick one to read aloud to me. The love finding their sight words they've learned so far, and they work hard to sound-out new words. One of my students last year is with me again this year. Last year, it took him ALL year to identify 26 letters. He never grasped sounds. This year, he can write words like mosquito, dinosaur, and science. He will be a successful first grader next year because of the extra time he spent in Kindergarten.

It's also amazing to have a WONDERFUL para-professional who loves to teach, too. I have passed Calendar Math lessons over to her so I can assess and prepare for afternoon lessons. My days are more scheduled, filled with better teaching, and I can admit my students are happier than my students were last year.

my obsessions

I get so tired after a day of teaching. I get home around 6, fall on the couch or into my computer chair, and I cannot get up for a good hour. "The Office," double stuff oreos, & simply lemonade have been my go-to's after school this week. After making so many decisions, answering so many questions, and hearing "Miss Hurst" 1,500 times in 8 hours, I need to zone out for an hour. :)