School Journal 2014-15

snippets, slices, slabs of moments and doings : we start the school year with…a 2nd grader and pre-K dude

irregular, infrequent, and incomplete thoughts & lists on learning, education, play. or sometimes just snippets of conversation with our kids amidst life, which is one of the most beautiful and wonderful ways of learning. I will possibly include older snippets and slices involving work of the past; many of which now degree hold some level of humor or eye-rolling, as many examinations or remembrances of the past tend to do.

June : Some things a pre-K fellow practiced in 2014-15 (age 4)

Phonics. Vowels with short and long sounds. Beginning sounds.
Writing. Letters and numbers (A-Z, 0-9)
Shapes and colors. Considering which colors might go with which types of objects, such as which food, which color? Basic shapes: triangle, rectangle, oval.
Body and personal world. Different parts in generic terms, starting with skeleton. Clothes, personal objects, etc.
Nutrition. What is healthy. What do you like to eat?

June 02 Second grade winds down

Spelling. Sample: thankful, forgetful, joyful, careful, self, text, love. She misses grateful by including an a (greatful). That actually feels like it could be/should be a word too. Sample sentence:

I try to be thoughtful, but sometimes I’m forgetful.

She celebrates the completion of her spelling test by requesting another one. She is granted this wish. kindness, brightness, power, listen. Sample sentence: If you listen more than you speak, you will be wise.

That’s a good thing to carry from second grade into the rest of your life.

May 19, 2015

Spelling. A second grader romps through her test happily. Sample: slowest, smartest, brightest, funniest, context, poem. She trips over silliest, inexplicably with sillyest. Apropo for the word, perhaps. :) Sample sentence:

The smartest students check their results and revise their work.

May 05

Spelling. Not a one missed. Sample: painter, workers, teacher, thinker, dreamer, problem, age. Her sample sentence:

Are you a dreamer, or a thinker?

April 28

Spelling. A 2nd grader scores 15/16 on he weekly test. Nice! Becca writes, with a smiley face and 94%. Sample words: madly, quickly, weekly, loudly, simple, care. She misses bravely, leaving out the e. Sample sentence she writes:

Do you want to go on a daily or a weekly bike ride?

April 21

Spelling. A 2nd grader rocks out a hundred percent on her test. Sample words: bolt, felt, melt, face, edge, arms. She draws an elegant array of checkmarks for each correct answer; all 16 tally marks rising to the top right of her lined notebook page. Her mom, Countess Becca, scrawls out Excellent! at the top. At some points in the formal learning process, these little marks of praise and excitement especially matter. Then…she wants to take another test. This one includes whale, why, whistle, sun, display, knew. Scores up a 15/16 and a Nice Job! from her mom at the top. Then she writes out some sample sentences using these words:

If you whistle while you work the job is fun.
Show me where the whale went while I was gone.

April 07

A 3.5 year old practices writing numbers. Today: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

March 15, 2015

Geography / Spelling. I quiz our 2nd grader on all 50 state capitals. She’s doing great. The tough ones are remembering Des Moines, Boston, Lansing, St. Paul, Concord, Raleigh, Cheyenne, Bismarck, Columbus, Harrisburg, Pierre, Nashville, Charleston, and Richmond and spelling “Pheonix, Michagan, Minnosota.” I love how she dives in dutifully and keeps absorbing, editing, revising, and improving. That is what I want.

March 14

A preschooler/pre-Kinder(?) practices counting Ewoks and matching numbers to objects. Flanked by his mum, he earnestly markers in Tatooine groupings to compare amounts, counts moons and coins, and various Endoran creatures.

I have mixed feelings on the ubiquitous licensing of properties like Star Wars for ‘educational purposes.’ Mixed in the sense that commercial exploitation of kids, particularly in the rampant-for-corruption sector of ‘education,’ is off-putting. But also mixed in the sense that it is an extension of gamification; of taking something beloved and finding learning opportunities embedded in its world. Our son has enjoyed this particular book, and I think there are things that have been not necessarily learned, but at least reinforced. Things like counting, comparing, connecting patterns, recognizing and writing numbers, following directions or instructions, handwriting, understanding groups of something and relative sizes, etc. I don’t know…I have an uneasy relationship with things like tracing and coloring: I know they may be fun and important at different stages (even into adulthood). Yet I’m also, for better or for worse, resistant to spending too much time on learnings that are proscribed ways of imitation or limited imagination. You know? The difference between giving a kid a blank sheet of paper and watching the magic of imagination take over and spill from mind to hand to paper, versus giving an already-drawn illustration of something and having them practice coloring between the right lines just right.

Also, there were finger puppets at the end. Those were a hit.

I don’t know. Perhaps, ideally, my thoughts and views will evolve. I am a kid under construction too.

January 27

A 3-year old practices identifying different colors and takes the opportunity to draw red versions of his beloved character Darth Maul, although his mom spells it Mal on his paper. We have got to watch more Star Wars together. I love seeing the different renderings at these ages of their heroes and figures they admire.

January 20 - Tuesday

Stupid grades, or rather, grading. Enjoy teaching. Do not appreciate “doing grades.” In this case for high school students in my two classes. Or students who make no effort, or little effort to learn or get something out of their time in a class. Also: challenging to work with a stream of people coming through to chat. But…how many times have I been on the other side of things; the one making somebody else pause what they’re doing to converse?

January 16

I give an introductory lesson to high schoolers how to shoot a commercial. Lots of mistakes, as expected. But…they had fun. I think. And learned a little something. I think.

January 12, 2015

A four-year old furiously flies his pencil through a Star Wars workbook, tracing and matching the numbers 6 through 10 against a backdrop of lightsabers, Jawas, Ewoks, clone troopers and Jedi. His colors for each are consistent; there is no mix and matching of hues or shades. They are different from page to page, but homogenous within a group. Interesting. On other pages, there are instructions for filling in a particular character with a specific color. He ignores these instructions and colors them in the colors he is drawn to. I am not sure completely how to feel about this. If it turns out to be a good thing, I was thinking I could take credit for this development. If it turns out to be a blockade to the development of following instructions and directions, I was thinking I could point the finger at his mom. The Countess. Is that a cowardly mindset?

I love the ferocity, yet specificity and attention he gives to each of his marker strokes. They are full of fire and and chaos, but there is also purpose and energy. I love that. And I love the time his mom gives in sitting alongside and helping, encouraging, affirming him along. She is amazing.

January 5, 2015

It’s Monday. The boy, all 54 months of him, is cranky, but doing better. The girl, all seven mighty years, worked hard - math and language arts. And we listened to Rachmaninov. And we started the series 24: Live Another Day. Not the kids.

We’re getting our 2014 Christmas cards addressed. Oh life. So much for kicking off 2015 right.

November 11, 2014

The Countess Becca works with one of her proteges, age 4, on abstract concepts such as identifying, counting, and writing the numbers 0 through 5. This is done against a character backdrop of galaxies, droids, suns, tauntauns, starships and Wookies from a certain cinematic universe.

October 21

I assist with a high school Spirit Week assembly and celebration. There is great glee and enthusiasm by many. Not all, but many.

October 1

My trusty and sometimes-loyal assistants accompany me to educate young, but older minds in the age 15-18 range in Portland at the high school I teach a couple days a week. The junior assistant, with all four mighty years of out-of-womb experience, waits for a clear classroom before stalking me around as I push chairs back in after class and grumble about things left behind. The senior assistant, with her much greater seven years of life wisdom, more aggressively chases me around, always wary of anyone who might wander into my domain; the digital media laboratory where I teach two classes. En route to home HQ, we stop to cavort in a tiny Southwest Washington town main square, and at home, they ridiculously crawl onto couches and fall asleep. Huh? Not like I run them that hard…right?

They talk me into an expedition to the terrifying woods of great peril, and crazy dangerous stuff happens there but I don’t remember, I guess we made it back safely and had supper, although they also decided to use mealtime as a chance to knock off P.E. as well, in the form of wrestling while eating rice and tofu. It’s okay, we’ll sweep next month. Later, there was drawing and reading of knight tales, and eventually a little lad laid out on his bed surrounded by many of his favorite things: two swords, a battle ax, a shield, books, a drawing notebook, and his ubiquitous pink blanket.

Totally forgot I meant to teach them something today. Rats!