Week 8: The Pre-K Diaries

Well, I've made it through eight whole weeks of Pre-K. Although there was apprehension, fear, excitement and a dash of doubt, I have survived the first five weeks of school and more importantly, so have my students.

I have an interesting band of 17 misfits with big personalities and even bigger needs. It's definitely been a challenge to learn what motivates them and what manipulation techniques I can use to persuade them to follow the rules or "make good choices" as we say in my classroom.

With that said, here are the top ten Pre-K moments so far with my band of misfits:

10. Reminding me that They are Little People Still Learning Right From Wrong: Don't know why this is number 10, but yesterday a student went into the bathroom and after I shut the curtain behind him (not more than two minutes) I heard a huge crash in the bathroom...he broke something...well, it turns out he pushed the cover off of the toilet lid and it smashed to the ground. Not sure how he lifted it or why he did it but when I asked him if it was a good choice, he didn't know. Needless to say, now he doesn't get the curtain shut behind him anymore and the toilet has a cardboard box over the tank.
9. Their Sense of Justice: Since day one, I have repeated the line: "Pre-K is fair" to my students with the hopes that they'll gain a better understanding of sharing. Well, this week,one of my students with an IEP (specialized plan for children with special needs) was watching as another student run up to the schedule and tear off the arrow pointing to where we were in the schedule. B was so appalled by this action, apparently, that he got up from the carpet, took the arrow from the other student saying, "No, N, that's not OK. You're not making good choices" and he put the arrow back on the schedule. I didn't have to say anything...B felt a sense of injustice and wanted to right the wrong.
8. Creativity: during an assessment, one of the questions is - does he/she know his/her full name? I asked one little girl what her name was and she said, "Claire". Then I asked, "Claire? What? What's your last name?" She stopped, thought for a second and smiled brightly while screaming, "Claire Polka Dot!"
7. Their Grasp on Reality: I took my students on a listening walk but before we went, I asked them, "what do you think we'll hear on our listening walk?" Their answers go as follows: -a firetruck -a car -a dog -a plane -a tractor trailer and my favorite, a  princess turning strawberries into frogs. I love that in my job description, I am not allowed to correct them, this was a brainstorming activity and you never know, we might've heard a princess turning strawberries into frogs on our listening walk.
6. The Innocence of their Thoughts: It's inevitable that a handful of my students are going to be listening to the same music as I. I recently heard a few students singing Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" which is 100% about sex. My students kept repeating the same lyric over and over: "I know you want it. I know you want it." So I finally asked them, "What do you think he wants?" and without a beat they responded, "I don't know, a cookie?"
5. Their Emotions: The emotions they have are so pure and raw and honest that it's beautiful. When they give you a hug, it's the best hug you've ever gotten. Yesterday a student was very sad after his mom left and my youngest student turned to him and said, "it's OK, mommies always come back" as she rubbed his back.
4. Their Ability to Roll With the Punches: We were reading Caps for Sale and it was my third read through and by this point they knew most of the words in the story because a few lines repeats over and over again. I read one of these repetitious lines, "Caps! Caps, for sale! 50 cents a cap!" and they read it with me. When it came time for the line again they anxiously yelled, "Caps! Caps, for sale! 50 dollars a cap!" I stopped, and smiled in disbelief and said, "wait, wait, wait, is this because of inflation?" And they screamed, "yes, caps are expensive!"
3. Their Ideas of beauty: while playing beauty parlor with my hair, they have pulled out probably half of my scalp...but as they constantly tell me, "it's all to make you more beautiful" and then one little girl screams, "we need more grease!" Still trying to figure this one out.
2. Discovering Little Boys' Problems with Being Easily Distracted: I learned very quickly that when a little boy is using the bathroom, that is the WORST time to say his name (unless, of course, you don't mind cleaning up urine off the floor, toilet seat, walls, step stool, his clothing and yours as well).
1. Potty Humor: I had a little boy who went #2 on the toilet and as I popped my head in to see if he was OK and asked, "hey, man is everything alright in here?" He lit up, hopped down from the toilet, turned around and bent over (spreading his cheeks wide open in front of me). I looked at his bum and then him and said, "you can wipe. Ms. Katie doesn't wipe" and walked away.  

Measuring Our Success

In my Pre-K classroom the measure of success isn't with the things one would usually expect. Yes, academics like knowing your letters, counting, knowing the shapes and colors are all very important but the thing that the parents ask for the most and the assessment that carries the most weight is the one measuring their child's level of personal/social interactions and empathy.

I made the silly mistake on my first home visit of being overly prepared to report to the parents all the letters and numbers their child knew and I even brought some example writing samples their child had done but the funny thing was when we started talking they didn't really care about the materials I had prepared. They wanted to know how their son was interacting with other children. And when it came time for them to make a "goal" for their child it wasn't for him to master writing his name or being able to read, but it was for him to make a friend and sympathize better with his peers.

That got me thinking, how do we get from those goals of empathizing with our peers to turning a blind eye to the needs of others. With the "recent" government shutdown, it's been a bit of a mess here in DC. Many are furloughed and many are in danger of not being able to pay their bills. I have friends who aren't getting paid but are still working and are nervous about how their rent will be paid.

Even though these realities exist it's amazing to me that there are people (a-hem, FOX news) that voice their opinions in between chuckles, "so a few tourists won't be able to see Statue of Liberty or the National Parks, this isn't a catastrophe like the democrats are trying to say it is."

To put some perspective on it, and to share an interesting fact; the District of Columbia has a budget controlled by the House. We have no "rainy day funds" or state funds backing us up. Meaning, this Tuesday will be the last time teachers in the public schools will be paid and charter schools (like mine) will lose funding on Oct. 25th. It appears that two sides are arguing and fighting over things that (in my opinion) seem minuscule compared to libraries, schools, trash companies, post offices and food inspection companies being shut down. The stubborn-ness and lack of compassion (and empathy) for those they are hurting is appalling.  So, I wonder, is it funny now? When does it become a catastrophe, my friends? When do citizens start to demand more and cry out in disgust and anger?

In my classroom if two students are arguing and can't come to a resolution we talk it through to see both sides until a resolution is met that both parties can deal with; and if that doesn't happen, they sit in time out. Does our government need a time out? Maybe equal treatment like their paychecks being withheld? Or maybe just a return to Pre-K so they can remember what we should be measuring success by: empathy.