Crunch Time

The countdown has started and it's crunch time.

Today is Friday and the last day for school is next Wednesday. Today is our "No Referral" Incentive party. Let me tell you, there were some unhappy campers yesterday when they found out they couldn't go to the park and skating because of discipline referrals. This will be a first for me. I have never taken a class full of Kindergartners skating. I suppose it will be easier than taking Pre-Kindergartners skating; after all, Kindergartners are bigger.

Next Monday we begin practicing for our Awards/Graduation. The ceremony will be on Tuesday morning. Afterwards, we will have a reception in our classrooms.

Then the day we have been working towards all year long arrives. Wednesday, June 3, last day of school and it's an Early Release day at that. The students dismiss at 12:00 and get to take their report cards and other stuff home and then start summer vacation.

Alas, that is not the end for me though. The staff still has end of year stuff to finish and than a workday on Thursday. Since our campus will be used for summer school and then summer training we all have to make sure our rooms are in order and all supplies are secured.

Fortunately I do not change classrooms this year. I changed last year and it was a major pain. I taught Pre-K last year. Since the district took Pre-K off several campuses this year I transferred to Kindergarten. So my STUFF was moved into another Pre-K classroom whose former occupant took a job in a nearby district. This teacher left behind a lot of STUFF. I also took the place of another Kindergarten teacher who got married and moved away. Her STUFF was also moved to my new room. I spent 2 weeks last summer before school started sorting through all of this STUFF and making sense of it. So again I say, "Fortunately I do not change classrooms this year."

P.S. I sat and made Graduation Tassels for my class last night. Oh the joys of Kindergarten.© 2008 Barry T Horst


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Teacher's Life of Leisure

My desk here at the house is a mess.

It always gets that way at the end of the nine weeks period at school. That is when I get involved in student assessments and various other forms of paper work. Let's see; there is assessment data to enter in the spreadsheet, grades to complete, and report card entries to make. After report card entries are complete, the report cards have to be verified. After verification they are printed. After printing they have to have more information manually entered on them. Why in this day and age that information can't be entered on the computer I will never know. After all is said and done the report cards are sent home. And then I wait for parents to return them. And I wait. And I wait. Some never come back. Sometimes I wonder if they ever made it home.

Now that report cards are finished it is time to plan the next nine weeks. The kindergarten teachers gather and spread the Scope and Sequence for the 3rd Nine Weeks. Let's see there is Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. We begin by looking at the various objectives/learning standards in each subject and see which ones overlap. That way we can plan to teach those objectives at the same time and hopefully double the impact. We plot the learning standards on a calender and try to map out the entire nine weeks.

You see, in Texas we are blessed with the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS). This is the wonderful test by which life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is measured. At least in Texas public schools. Teachers must be sure that the students are prepared for this assessment and life in general. The TAKS has various objectives that have to be covered. To assist in this endeavor we are blessed with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). The TEKS are divided by grade level and subject matter. The TEKS have broken down the TAKS into more precise and logical learning standards.

Wow! During the 3rd nine weeks at kindergarten we have 127 individual TEKS learning standards that we have to address. Of the 127 standards, 67 are in Language Arts alone.

After mapping out the learning standards we then double check to make sure that we have each one on the calendar. It wouldn't do to get to the end of the nine weeks and then discover that we did not cover everything.

Once the double checking is finished we get to plan our lessons and write our plans for the following week. Next week in Science we are going to do some experiments that involve 3 to 4 steps and changes that take place with the application of heat. We are tying in Math by working on sequencing up to 4 steps. Fun! We are going to be using cornstarch one day and gelatin on another. FUN FUN!

Having said all of this; that explains why my desk here at the house is a mess. There is a stack of mail about four inches deep and I can't even begin to count the number of magazines that have not even been looked at yet.

I'm going now and will begin to attack the mountain. No doubt that I will have a full trash can and paper shredder tomorrow.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.