Teacher On Break Part 1

Teachers and their summer vacations.....I hear all the time that I am so lucky that I get a long summer vacation.

Actually, I don't. I'm actually in between contracts. That's right, technically, I'm unemployed at the moment. But that's okay, I'm enjoying my break.

I thought I would give some insights as to how the rest of my summer is going. I spent some time packing up my classroom. I'm changing grades next year and the kindergarten classroom I was teaching in had to move to another room, closer to the kindergarten playground. So I had to pack my things separately from kindergarten for the moves. It took me a couple of weeks (I didn't work every day in my former classroom) but as of June 23rd, I was done with Room 5.

Just in time for a 3 day training at Sanford University. It was a specialized training for a specific student I am getting next year, so I won't be going into exactly what the training was for....but it was so specific that it was directed to the teachers specializing in the issue and not really for general education teachers like myself. I said something to the organizers, (not as a complaint just during the daily survey) and then one of the organizers met with me during lunch. Other experts joined in and I was able to have an excellent conversation around my specific needs with my student. 

I had a lot of fun exploring the area with another teacher from my district who knew the area. We walked around the campus and then drove up the mountains to an out of the way place for dinner in the middle of the mountains. It was beautiful and I had a delightful time. 

I took a week off and did nothing. 4th of July, lunch with friends, massages, etc.

But tomorrow, I am heading to my new classroom to start organizing it. I may take a weekday off here and there but right now, it's such a mess that I don't know exactly where to start and I'm worried that I won't have enough time to get things ready. 

I am going to take home books to read in the evening to start learning my new 4th Grade curriculum. 

I have 4 weeks until my training in New York City for a week. Then when I get back, it will be time to officially go back to work. My contract starts on August 17th. I am on a committee that meets the day before that AND my union work starts the 16th as well. 

I want to show people how much work a teacher really puts into their off time. Especially when they happen to be changing grades. 

#stanforduniversity #california

A post shared by Lara Ruark (@miss_ruark) on Jun 29, 2017 at 11:03am PDT

Halls of #stanforduniversity #northerncalifornia

A post shared by Lara Ruark (@miss_ruark) on Jun 28, 2017 at 9:18pm PDT

I Teach K Conference

I requested more training to improve my Kindergarten Teacher Toolbox. A teacher toolbox is a figurative toolbox containing all your teacher knowledge and know how. If you come across a problem or your students aren't responding to your normal procedure/instruction, then you reach into your toolbox and can pull out another method to try.

It doesn't mean that I don't know how to teach, it's just maybe there's a better method to doing something that I can try. 

And I will be honest with you: I do not enjoy teaching the beginning part of Kindergarten. 

It's not just the fact that I have to focus on the procedures of being at school, I don't enjoy what I am supposed to be teaching, namely introduction to the alphabet. I have been teaching it the same way for the last three years and I think there's a better way out there. 

Typically, after Winter Break is when I start to love what I teach. Yes, the children have the procedures down by then and are more independent but we also move from whole group instruction to Guided Literacy Groups and I have my stations going with different activities while I pull small groups of students and work with them at their reading level because if you don't know, some children come into my classroom not knowing the alphabet and some come in already able to read. I love my Literacy Groups because I can meet my students where they are and take them to the next level. 

I want to start my groups earlier in the school year. I want to spend time teaching the independent activities so that it my students will know what to expect before they go on Winter Break. But to do this, I have to completely change how I have been structuring the beginning part of the year, but at the same time, I am totally excited to do this since I need to make changes anyways. 

I went to my principal and we talked about what I want to do in my teaching. She was so supportive that she is sending me to the National I Teach K Conference in Las Vegas this summer. So many tools for my toolbox!

I feel like this will help me really zero in on teaching Kindergarten. After teaching 2nd Grade for so many years, there are some aspects of Kindergarten that I would like to be more aware of. I feel like my eyes are being awoken to all the possibilities!

Here are the sessions I am signed up for: 

*Fabulous Fine-Motor Fun (a total Kindergarten thing)

*Bringing the Outdoors in & Taking the Standards Out (toolbox)

*The Magic of Music & Movement (granted, we sing a lot but there's so much more!)

*Teach Sight Words So They Stick! (I hope to move away from relying on homework)

*Kick Learning Up a Notch with Literacy Center Fun (more activities!!)

*Phonemic Awareness & Phonics Fun (toolbox)

*Interactive Read-alouds through Deliberate Instruction (not covered in my teacher college)

*How to Re-Tool Your Busy Day to Get Everything Done (YES! PLEASE!)

As I've said before, I'm a good teacher. I can and do teach children to read, write, count, add & subtract. I am the best teacher that I can be at this moment. I have even won a local radio station's Teacher of the Month.

Me rocking R2D2 on the front page

But my goal is to be an amazing Kindergarten Teacher. 

Three years ago, I was handled materials and told, "This is how we do it in K." Well, hang on to your hats, cause I'm about to shake things up! 

Pintrest Teacher Bloggers

I've been teaching Kindergarten (K) for three years now. There are aspects I truly love about K, but there are also aspects that I don't love. I like my end result but I think there is room for improvement. 

Looking to make some changes/overhauls in my teaching, I went looking for inspiration. I turned to the internet to see what other K teachers around the country were doing. 

And there I met the Pintrest Teacher Bloggers. 

The Pintrest Teacher Blogge

Their classrooms are immaculate, beautifully decorated and organized, and their lessons/projects are delightfully created with cute images and sweet fonts....and all of the lessons are available for purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers! (And some actually have stores where you can buy the decor!)

Now, I love Teachers Pay Teachers, because my classroom is not immaculate, beautifully decorated and organized and when I created a lesson/projects it tends to be very linear and handwritten with a sharpie. But I can go on this site and I can look like I am a Pintrest Teacher Blogger. 

And I love my Pintrest! I get ideas for organization, decor, anchor charts, and projects. 

These are all great resources that let me fake being a Pintrest Teacher Blogger, but I wasn't finding the inspiration that I needed. Because there is more to teaching than decor, organization, projects, and worksheets....and any teacher will tell you that. 

I wanted to dive in and be inspired by everything K. I checked out blogs that showed 5 year olds writing like Second Graders the first 3 weeks of school. Oh, really? Pictures of every child behaving and following directions....

These teachers remind me of images of the perfect housewife of the 50's, vacuuming in pearls and heels.

I'm so prepared and organized!

I like to think of myself as a good teacher but next to these teachers, I'm quite inept. 

So I've decided to embrace my role as an Inept Teacher Blogger. 

JUST like the teacher guide!

Like today, we built 2D and 3D shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks. And I posted a picture of one of my students building beautiful shapes, like right out of the teacher's manual! But I didn't take a picture of the marshmallow that was stabbed with 20 toothpicks. I should have in retrospect, because there SO MANY toothpicks...it really was a feat actually. That little boy was quite proud. 

Well from now on, I will show both sides of my classroom! The brilliant and the WTH! 

And maybe one day, a teacher looking for inspiration but not perfection will find my site and get one or two (or a hundred) good ideas that they want to try. Maybe other teachers will find this site and give me a great idea to try. 

I have nothing to sell but I will give credit when credit is due and send you over to other teacher's stores.

I've got big plans for next year and I will be heading over to the national I Teach K Conference in July this summer. 

Maybe one day I will be a Pintrest Teacher Blogger but given my preference of a blank paper and a black sharpie over cute fonts on my computer, probably not.

Bad Advice Or Why I Have To Pay THE MAN

I am not doing very much this summer. I don't have any big trips planned.

I tell people that I have to "adult" this summer. Because that's more fun to say than: I have to save my money because I owe the IRS back taxes and it's due at the end of the summer. So, instead I say something cute and kind of trendy.

But how did this happen? How is it that I owe back taxes? I'm a single school teacher who rents. 

Oh yeah, it's cause I thought some people knew what they were talking about!

Have you ever met someone who spoke with such conviction & authority that you had an instant respect for them......only to find out later that they had absolutely no idea what they were talking about?

Yeah, that's annoying. But thankfully, I am starting to not fall for that.

Back when I was filing my 2012 taxes, I was doing them myself. Now, I was still living & teaching in Alaska at that point and I couldn't take my taxes over to a professional to have them done.

My taxes are pretty straight forward anyways. But there was one thing that was tricky.

Since I had no say in where I lived in Akiak (the school district was my landlord and determined what house I stayed at AND who I lived with) I fell under the category of "Forced Housing". Which meant that my rent was tax deductible. 

Yay, right? Except that it's a pretty rare occurrence and not handy on any tax form. So I asked other teachers where they had put in the rent amount. 

They said, "Oh, you just do _______________." (I'm NOT posting what they said.)

I asked, "Really? That's it?"

I was told by several people, "I've done that for years and never had a problem." Then they looked at me like I was stupid for even questioning if they were correct.

Okay, so that's what I did. I submitted my taxes and everything was fine. Who was I to question those smarter than me? 

The next two returns, I went to a professional and everything was fine.

Except, a few months ago, I received a letter saying that my 2012 taxes were wrong and I owed thousands of dollars. 

And I saw on Facebook that many of my Alaskan friends had received similar letters.

To quote Lord of the Rings: ....but they were all of them deceived...

Okay, that was a bit dramatic. But bottom line: the advice didn't come from a tax expert. And it was bad advice.

I wrote the IRS and told them why I didn't owe them thousands of dollars.

And they agreed.....for the most part. They say I still owe $700. 

Could I fight it? Maybe. I could hire a tax attorney. I could go to a professional. Or I can be grateful that it's no longer thousands of dollars and just pay it.

And that's what I have decided to do. Chalk it up to the next time I want tax advice, you'd better be a professional. 

Although, part of me wants to submit a bill to the people who gave me the advice....but one of them is in jail waiting trial for abusing his adopted children, so I don't really want his money anyways.

My advice: there's a lot of bad advice out there, and if someone has to put you down to prove their point, maybe it's not the best advice after all. 

Bah Humbug!

Just kidding! Despite not having any holiday decorations up in my house, I'm not against the holidays. I just got sick.

I got a bad head cold...that turned into massive coughing fits requiring my inhaler. I would get the coughing fits at night almost every hour for three nights in a row, leaving me only having about 6 hours of sleep over a three day period. Only stopping when my doctor took pity on me and gave me some of the good cough syrup.

During the last week and a half, I only took one day off from teaching. And that was because I woke up with no voice early in the sickness. The rest of the time, I showed up to work every day. Even exhausted, I showed up and taught. 

Which was not only stupid, it affected my health and my holiday season. I pushed through every day and came home only to go to bed early to try to get some extra rest. 

Now, before anyone complains that I could have gotten the kids sick, let me tell you that's not how it really works. My fingers stay out of my nose, I cover my coughs & sneezes, I keep my distance from kids when I am sick, and I wash my hands often. You can't say the same for 5 & 6 year olds. 

Teachers are notorious for not taking days off when they are sick. Why? Because it's so much work to prepare for a substitute. Often times, a teacher is just better showing up and muddling through their day.

Think about it: to prepare for a substitute, a teacher has to write out how every single minute of the day needs to go. And what kids get pulled out for what. What kids have health concerns to remember. And a teacher has to have all the materials ready in a stack for easy access. And how is a substitute going to know who the kids are without name tags? And subs don't know your classroom procedures so a teacher better write those down too. That way if Little Johnny acts up, the substitute will know how to handle that situation. Extra duties? Write 'em down! What do you want the students to do with the finished work? How do you handle all of them wanting to go to the bathroom now that you've let one student go? Do you let everyone sharpen a pencil at once or do you have a procedure for that? How do you take attendance? Line up for recess? Where do you go? Who's the line leader? Who are kids that need aides? Who are the helpful students who will tell you anything the sub plans forgot to mention? Where do the kids sit? Where are the crayons? Markers? Pencils? Do you have a class pet that needs feeding and where is that food? Can students use your fancy markers that are in a special bin marked with the teacher's name? How do your kids leave the building at the end of the day? Do you walk them out to meet their parents or let them run wild? Oh, and we can't forget what to do if it's a rainy day with indoor recess!

And that's if you get a good substitute! I often get good substitutes who really make an effort to follow my plans and clean up. But one time, I was sick and I came back to a classroom that looked like a bomb exploded. There was trash all over the floor, papers & pencils everywhere, and my free choice materials were just left out. 

Another time, all my dry erase markers had disappeared. My students told me that the gentleman would use the marker and then put it in his pocket (most likely out of habit) and then walked off with a set of my dry erase markers. (My students knew that dry erase markers stayed on the board, so they watched the sub with horror as he pocketed them they later told me.)

My sub horror stories aren't scary, but I have heard other teacher's stories that are. Sure, you hear tales of a substitute not following any of the plans for the day and totally doing their own thing. My favorite bad sub tale is when a substitute who not only did not follow the plans, but she opened up the teacher's art cabinets and let the kids take & do whatever they wanted for the day. (For you non-teachers, please note that many of us have special materials for special projects that only come out during certain times of the year.)

And when things like that happen, the district doesn't reimburse teachers for materials like that. Most of our fancy art supplies comes out of our own pockets. 

Some teachers only request substitutes that they know. Since I was a sub before I became a teacher, I do like to give the unknown person a chance now and then. But this last week, the week before Winter Break, I needed someone that I knew.

Here's why I pushed myself (admittedly too far I might add) this last week:

Friday ~ I woke up with no voice. I have in the past taught with no voice (kids have to pay extra attention to me) but I was going to be working with the entire kindergarten (Fun Friday) and knew I couldn't push myself like that. So I did stay home that day.

Saturday & Sunday ~ I stayed home all weekend. 

Monday ~ I had nothing set up for a substitute. I figured I could muddle through the day and then get a sub for Tuesday.

Tuesday ~ All the substitutes I contacted were busy. I had a parent holiday card the kids were making and I felt that was too important to leave to someone who may or may not get it done, much less make them how I wanted them to come out.

Wednesday ~ 1st night of only 2 hours of sleep. We were making gift bags for the ornaments we had make the week before and we also had library & a guest story teller. I figured with the breaks between the day, I would be fine. Plus, I would go home and sleep.

Thursday ~ 2nd night of only 2 hours of sleep. My own mother was coming to my class to volunteer to help the kids wrap their ornaments, put them in the gift bags, and then staple them to the parent cards we made on Tuesday. I knew set aside time to end the day with painting and some yoga for kids on youtube (Cosmic Kids Yoga ~ I highly recommend). But I had to be there for my mother! Plus, I was so tired that I figured if I went home and went to sleep, I'd get sleep just from being so tired.

Friday ~ 3rd night of only 2 hours of sleep. I was trying not to cry walking Dakota that morning. It was going to be a short day. I had parents coming in to help build gingerbread houses, I knew kids were going to be bringing me presents for the Holidays, and I knew that I couldn't disappoint them by not being there. I had to be there, you know, for the kids!

"Gingerbread Houses" were a success!!

This past weekend was filled with my mother's birthday brunch and my niece's horseback riding lessons that I take her to every other week. Today is the first day in a week that I have to just allow myself to be sick....

3 days before Christmas.

Nothings wrapped, decorated, and I still have a few presents to get.

At least I can sleep now! Thank you cough syrup with codeine! There's always a silver lining!   

Miss Ruark, Kindergarten Teacher

This is my focus wall/calendar

I don't write about my actual teaching on this blog. Which is funny because teaching is what I spend the majority of my time doing. But I don't want to write about what I am doing in my classroom and how I have decorated it, or organized it...even though I am proud of my classroom. And I check out many different teacher blogs and am grateful those teachers posted their ideas and what works for them.

But I thought I would devote a post about me being a teacher. 

I want to be a great teacher. I want kids to shine when they are in my class. I want to help them improve not only their weaknesses but also their strengths. I would love to be the kind of teacher that newer teachers will be inspired by.

I think I do well by my students however, I don't think my teaching style is very exciting. 

You see, I am a very laid back teacher. I teach like I am about to be interrupted. Which I mostly likely will be. And not just by the 5 year olds, because other adults interrupt me constantly. Other teachers, parents, parents of other classrooms, issues from the office...and I have 23 mostly 5 year olds. I will be interrupted.

The worst interruption of my career happened a couple of months ago. I had taken my students outside on the bench and was about to create an eruption of a paper mache volcano. I had filled the volcano with the proper ingredients and was just about to pour in the magic that would make our volcano erupt. 

Now, I should also point out that I was a drama kid in high school and can be very theatrical. I also teach like I'm on stage, entertaining the crowds...not only does it make for a more engaged classroom, but it gets out my need to perform regularly. 

My Word Wall 

So, I have presented my lesson with the gusto of a side show magician and I have the kids on the edge of their seat as I am about to pour in the liquid from the beaker in my hand...

...when a parent from another classroom comes to me to inform me that she has the box of tee shirts that I will need at the end of week and where should she put them? 

I guess my response of, "Just set them down there, please." wasn't enough of a response. Because she then went into how she was going to set them down in the classroom and how the shirts were arranged. My "OkayThat'sGreatThanks!" seemed to miff her and she huffed off. 

My students who were once in rapt attention were now fidgeting in their seats and whispering to each other. The moment was lost....thank goodness for my acting training years ago, because I was able to bring them back to a new moment and not act like I was totally irritated.

I teach with my gut. I feel what my kids need, whether that be what they need from me emotionally or if I need to change gears in the middle of a lesson because I'm losing them and I need to try a different approach. 

And despite my love of the theater, I don't do well with scripted lessons. I don't plan out my lessons that way. I know the scope of what I want to teach but if I am teaching the math vocabulary words, will my kids understand with the math video alone? Should I demonstrate with stuffed animals? Or will I have to be really dynamic and stand on a chair to demonstrate something? Or will the energy of my class be so off that standing on my chair would create too much silliness that I would lose the effectiveness of the lesson? Or will I simply have to use a real life example of that vocabulary word that will spark a class discussion of when my students used that vocabulary word. I wing it. 

If you think my math lessons are theatrical, then you should see me read a book! I use voices and expression to "act" out the book. I love reading books to my students. I read silly books, sweet books, and books that make me cry. There's one book called The Two Bobbies that makes me cry every single time I read it aloud. And I read it every year.

Lara Ruark 1982
Kindergarten

Before I tell this next story, I need you to know something about me: I tear up when I laugh. And when I laugh hard, I will cry....but when I am trying to hold back my laughter, then tears will run down my face.

Once a week, the special person of the week brings in their favorite book and I will read it to the class. Last year, one of the boys brought a Batman book to share. Now, I do voices when I read...and the only voice I could possibly do for Batman was that deep graveling voice from the movies but better yet the Batman voice from the web cartoon: How It Should Have Ended. Check out a clip here. 

This was by far the silliest voice I had ever done. Not even my gingerbread man voice could top this. And I was cracking myself something fierce. I even had to stop reading a couple of times to get my control back. All the while, tears are streaming down my face.

Of course the kids noticed. "Miss Ruark, are you crying?" one of them asked. I nodded, hid my face with the book, and shook with laughter.

They thought this was terribly funny. One of the boys started imitating my "Batman" voice, saying things like "I'm Batman." Which made me laugh even harder, but all the while trying not to laugh and still crying about it. I got through the book, but I don't think I did the story justice at all. 

It's interesting to notice that my students tend to be strong in their math skills and love books by the end of the year with me. I think it's no coincidence that those are my two favorite things about teaching. So, it's no surprise to me. 

Don't get me wrong, I also enjoy teaching reading and seeing my students improve their skills. But learning to read is based so much on the developmental connections in the brain that sometimes despite constant practicing the brain isn't ready to make that "click" until the student is a little older. When I taught 2nd Grade, all of a sudden the student's reading would take off and as much as I would have loved to take the credit, it was really their brain making that connection. 

I feel the best thing I can do to teach reading is to keep giving them that foundation and give the brain more opportunities to make that connection. I didn't start out a strong reader until I was older and I can remember looking at the other reading groups books in 2nd Grade thinking that they had the better stories to read. There was this girl in my 4th grade class who was the best reader in class and would make these fantastic book reports for these amazing books. I kinda "stalked" her and would read every book she did a report about all because I wanted to be a good reader too.

If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Goodreads, you'd know that I grew up to become a total bookworm and I read a lot. This year, my goal was to read 37 books and I am almost up to 50 books for the year 2014. Last year was a slow reading year with my move and I think I barely read 25 books.

Miss Ruark 2014
Kindergarten Teacher

So, I love to see improvement in my students but I don't think how good of a reader you are in early elementary defines a future bookworm. I figure as long as they love books and practice, their brains will catch up. Look at me. 

Wow, I had a lot more to say about teaching than I thought I did. 

I guess the real truth about my teaching style is that while my class may look cutesy and we sing silly songs and sometimes it looks chaotic, is that I am very aware of the end result. I may not be the most polished looking teacher, or use the proper teaching terms (I didn't use the term realia once, but I mentioned it!) but I know where I want my students to be at the end of the year, and you know what? We get there. ;)