Just watching

Spent the morning watching children, and letting them manage themselves.  I had one child watch another child complete an entire map with labels without any assistance.  The one that was observing was silent the entire time.  I also observed that she did absolutely no independent work.  She has trouble picking her work.  Another child wanted only to pick the work that someone else was doing.  Yet a third didn't like it when she had to sit alone until she was able to pick a job that she wouldn't be silly about.

I'm having morning circle less and less often.  I like the results in the morning, but the frustrating part is that I like presenting lessons to the children as a group.  As a consequence, I'm thinking about how to redesign my classroom so that more and more materials are on the shelves without ever needing a formal lesson.  Certain areas just need to have a built in consistent structure so that the lessons can change subtly, but still remain in place and child directed.

Yesterday, a child was determined to be silly by eating the pieces of a job.  On purpose, and with the intent to make other children laugh.  It became an opportunity for me to create a job that will allow the children to wash their own job when they put it in their mouth.  She got to wash all 55 pieces of that math job during outside time.  Then in the afternoon, she got to complete the job.  (Perfectly capable of it.)

I bought bamboo drawer dividers.  Best move ever for the classroom.  There are so many cases where they work better than either baskets or trays.

Rambling today.  I need to work on my writing style and organizing my thoughts more.  Yet, at the moment I don't care.  I write more for myself than anyone.

Quiet Days

A couple of children have left.  They are moving on to kindergarten.  Others will soon.  It's the way of the summer though.  The children start to "check out" and only want to talk.  Whoever said that they are intrinsically interested in work doesn't watch those ready to be with the older kids and "not there yet."  They have turned social at all costs.  As a result, classroom management is both easier and harder.  You know what these kids can do, and you know what lessons you can throw at them!  It is truly amazing how one single child can dramatically impact the playground and the classroom.  This year, it was one in each classroom.  The teachers can talk to each other outside right now instead of constantly trying to eyeball what chaos one child will be creating.

One of my teachers is out on maternity leave.  I miss her deeply, but at least this wasn't a surprise.

Going to remodel the kitchen in a few months.  Lot of money, time, construction and chaos for a dishwasher.  OK Then.

Wow.  Restart.  I felt the need to write today, and how it actually clicked in so many ways to write about teaching, kids, worries about them and general thoughts.  So much has happened.

Short list:

• Started a Montessori school.  Super successful.  Super happy, and I absolutely love my faculty.  One hell of a lot of work that I don't regret, except sometimes a bit on the weekends but I'm working on managing that.
• Blog template got screwed up/ hacked.  Eventually, I'll fix that.  I had to reset it to a default.
• I started the school.  Part of my dreams.  It works.  I get tired.  I'm in high demand.
• Hit with a cyber- attack.  Super fun.  MRA's decided that I hated men and went after the school.
• My husband is now the CEO of his own startup which is flying along at super speed and doing very well.  A year and a half ago he was fired from a company with the potential of what 8 million when the stock vested after 4 years?  I think so.  Better all around.
• My own kids.  Never mind them.  17 and 20.

OK.  I'm back to thinking about kids.  I have always wanted to write, and periodically I do.  Somehow, somewhere.  I think that I'll write a novel when I want to retire.  Right now, and right here, writing about Montessori and education with bits of personal in it.  I like random.  I like random everywhere - with kids, in life, and in writing.

I've been thinking about a child.  Let's call her Ellie.  She's going to do her kindergarten year at my school, and I'm glad.  I like her parents.  Good people.  She's got some strange learning styles.  I started to wonder if she has language processing issues / disorder.  Have you ever looked that up?  Weird damn nonsense and generally quite useless.  Strange that it is completely under "auditory processing disorders."  Have you ever wondered why adults don't wonder around admitting that they have "x'?

Anyway, after two different conversations I realized a key insight.  Her actual skills are phenomenally weak for a 5 year old, but they are extremely difficult to detect and evaluate because she is adept at copying and she is functionally not cognitively flexible.  It is only when you put her in a situation where she can't copy someone and "pretend or memorize" that you can literally see how much she's struggling.

I felt like a puzzle formed before my eyes.  Now I need to work on my teaching strategies.