don't jump in yet

I spent my first day of work learning the philosophy of the school.  It was like going to your first SCUBA class, swim suit on, and learning that SCUBA stands for "Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus" but not learning how to put on the gear or to go underwater.

The school uses a "Reggio Emilia inspired." philosophy.  I'm sort of familiar with the idea.  Instead of being a teacher-led classroom, it becomes child-led as the interests of the children guide the group activities.  They talked a lot about how much planning it takes to make this work, but never said what exactly "planning" entails.  They explained that teachers had to be researchers to "learn how the children learn," but didn't explain how they take data.  Best I could tell "data" refers to photographing and filming the kids in action.

So, I'm a bit confused.  But there were about twelve of us who were new,  joining a preschool of 80 teachers and 20 facilitators (of which I'll be one) so I can't have been the only one who really just wanted to get in the water.  We have a few more dates for orientations, both with the preschool teachers and alone with just the special ed. facilitators. 

Another question.  When you toss a child into a child-led classroom, you expect them to explore.  Kids are curious and they'll mess with stuff, ask questions and see what their peers are doing.  All of that will lead them to do more exploring.  But, toss a special needs child into that room and s/he is likely to either (a) hide under the table (b) climb the bookshelves or (c) wander away.  How do you let a child lead when the child doesn't want to lead or leads inappropriately?

I will learn this all in due time, apparently.

I'm to be paired with a little boy whom I believe I will call "Danny" for purposes of this blog.  I have not yet met Danny, but was told he is "cute as a button."  (All I really need to know, right?) According to his file (which I was given on my way out of the meeting) he is three years old. He has a thin corpus collosum, poor fine motor abilities, sensory issues, hypotonia (floppiness) and feeding problems.  His mother and father are well educated and mom writes that he is "high functioning."  He sees a developmental pediatrician, a GI doctor, a neurologist, two feeding specialists, a geneticist, a speech therapist and a physical therapist.  I have now learned that I will be part of an established team as his two teachers and I join that long list.

Also in my file folder is blank assessment form.  The Hawaii Early Learning Profile, which I have seen and maybe even used before.  Cool, I get to assess him then.

See what I can learn all by myself?  Who needs orientations? Throw me in the water; I can swim.

the better-late-than-never summary

On the Great National Vacation...

• 5,280 miles driven
• 18 states visited
• 1,141 photos taken on 3 cameras
• 48 license plates seen from the United States. (We never saw one from Deleware or Rhode Island, but Hawaii was represented.)
• 7 license plates from Canada
• best road names: Buttermilk Road, in Alabama, and Rattlesnake Gulch in CO
• worst road names: O 1/2 and B 3/10 and others of that ilk around Grand Junction CO
• smallest town: Emblem, WY, population 10
  
• worst observation: Bug, who was trying to read his book too often, and missing scenery
           me: "There's a giant pink dinosaur on Bug's side (of the car)."
           Bug: "Where?"
• best observation: Pook, "I saw a mirage but it turned out to be real." 
• best redemption from having poor observation skills earlier:  Bug, "I recognize that tree."  (And he did.  We'd accidentally  reversed direction on our long hike after stopping at the observation point.)
• best food: local place in New Mexico, although the salsa ("sauce") was hotter than my good eaters were prepared to consume. 
• most common question:  "What state are we in?" 
• most common statement: "I guess I have to go to the bathroom after all." 
• best idea: to include Mesa Verde in our route 
• worst idea: to get to Fort Worth and Dallas at rush hour on a Friday 
• oddest encounter: a family from our church, visiting the same paint pots area of Yellowstone at the same time as our family

What would I do differently?  Not much.  I would have liked to spend more time on our way and way home.  We did all our exploring by car or by foot and I'd have liked to have time for a bike ride, day of tubing, canoeing or horseback riding or a train ride. I'd have found time to visit Devil's Tower.  I'd have driven less in Texas and added Arkansas to our list of states visited instead. 

We were gone for 17 days, and I think just three more would have perfected it.  It was a wonderful trip and I wish every family could do something similar.

stay on the sunny side

It is hot as hell here in Atlanta, although as they say, "It's not the heat; it's the humidity."  And to be sure, we had hotter weather in South Dakota (104°) and in Texas (Dallas, 108°) on our trip. Here we feel as if we are swimming through the air.  Thunderstorms now and then but it seems as if the rain barely falls before it is evaporated back into the air.

The boys start school in the morning.  Yes, it is early August.  The 8th. Bug is headed to second grade and Pook to fifth.  He will be a Big Man on Campus and has even pointed out to me that "next year I'll be at the middle school."  (Slow down, child, I'm not ready.)

I've asked them how they feel and don't discern any worries.  I'm worried for them though.  Neither is in a room of good friends this year.  We aren't sure of all the classmates for Bug; there may be someone he enjoys who never had a chance to become a good friend, but those he knew to check were not in his class.  There are a whopping six classrooms of second graders, the largest group in our school.  I think it will go fine.

Pook has definitely been separated from all the kids he's been with for years, some since kindergarten.  There are only three teachers and two of them taught him in fourth grade last year.  I thought he'd have one of them as his homeroom teacher again this year for sure- I thought the point was the continuity.  Not only is he not with one of those teachers, but he's down the hallway from the two, who kept their fourth grade classrooms.  I wish his friends were with him.  I'm a bit worried for him. He claims to not be concerned. I wish I could be more of an optimist for him.

I taught the boys the words optimist ("We can climb Mount Everest!")  pessimist ("We're all going to die!") and pragmatist ("Let's pack some granola bars.")  Cautiously optimistic.  Is that the same as pragmatist?  It describes me.  I'm generally optimistic, but I'm not leaping into action, counting on good luck. I expect to plan a bit and be prepared 'just in case'.  Yes, I would suggest granola bars on a long hike, but I'd probably nix Mount Everest.

I haven't said too much about it here, but tomorrow is my first day too.  I start my new job tomorrow.  There are a half dozen orientation dates, plus a CPR/1st aid day, before the school starts, after Labor Day. I won't meet the little guy I'm teaching for a few weeks. I'll have to pick a name for him so I can tell about him here.  A new topic!

As a pragmatist, I have the route (to a busy part of town) mapped out.  I have my paperwork ready.  I even have my lunch packed.  (I haven't picked out my clothes, although I had the boys pick theirs.)  The pessimist realizes that I will be meeting piles of teachers whose names I will (mostly) forget immediately.  The optimist thinks, maybe they'll all have name tags!  It has occurred to the pessimist in me that most of them may be twenty-somethings, as I was when I began to teach, but surely not all.  The optimist in me says that I will find a few whom I can enjoy spending my time with. The pragmatist says, get at least one name learned tomorrow! (Perhaps the two of the teachers whose room I will be sharing!)

New adventures await us all. 

what I did on my summer vacation

We're in the home stretch.  Home looms ahead.

We LOVED Mesa Verde.  I am so glad I pushed to go there on our way back.  We spent one long afternoon at the top of the mesa and squeezed in two Ranger-led tours before staying in their lodge.  Incredible.  I think the boys were just as impressed.  There are over 600 homes built into the cliff-sides by "pre-Puebloian peoples."  (Apparently "Anasazi" is a politically incorrect term these days, meaning "ancestral enemies" and the tribes who have descended from these people don't like it to be used.)

I'm not sure what has been my favorite.  I am in love with Colorado, although the eastern half has no point in being around at all.  We drove through green mountain passes twice and felt as if they almost equaled the Beartooth Highway, although there was less snow visible.  And we still didn't see a big-horned sheep or mountain goat.  (You have tried to guess my animal photo in the last post, right?)

We were at a grocery store in Nowhere, CO when a scruffy-graying-bearded-guy-in-a-pickup (that narrows it down to all the men in the state over 40) commented on our distance from home and then nicked my plans to drive through Santa Fe.  He called it a "dusty big city" and suggested a different route.  I wish I could tell him we'd taken his advice and had a lovely drive.

The kids have been great. They've had lots to do in the car and we haven't had any "I'm bored" comments at all.  We have had to confiscate Bug's books to make him look out the window at times.  We've given them some choices-- longer but prettier, or faster and maybe time to read aloud before bed, etc., and they've usually opted for the scenic route.  We packed a huge box of books and only Bug has read more than one.  (At least we didn't fly.)

Enough chat.  Here are photos.

The photo of the Tetons that everyone must take

Out by the Snake River, looking unsuccessfully for moose

Can you see the Triceratops femur? Almost as wide as the photo, 4' long

Petroglyphs at Dinosaur National Monument

Bug and Pook working on one of many Junior Ranger badges

Long House at Mesa Verde National Park

Cliff Palace

Goodbye National Parks.  We're on our way homeward.

contest time!!!

I think I shall have my first ever Pook and Bug contest!  See below for details.

The boys are a bit disappointed that we haven't seen more wildlife than we have.  I think I promised them moose, which has not happened, even in the Tetons.  We have seen:

• elk, which are all over like pigeons around Mammoth Lodge, and scattered here and there everywhere else in the park
• bison, which I am not to refer to as buffalo without hearing Bug correct me
• two pronghorn antelope, which are apparently not really antelope at all
• a bear of some type, although Pook missed it.
• prairie dogs
• trumpeter swans in the Tetons
• mule deer
• llamas (yeah, they were on a ranch, but still...)

So, here is the contest.  Look at the photo below and find the animal.  Something is hiding there.  No, I don't see it either, but it's there!  Leave a guess in the comments and win a prize-ish-like-thing! (Or at least my profound admiration.)