Shopping with Toddlers

'Tis the season. While the rest of the world is engaging in "Retail Madness", I definitely won't be going anywhere near a store (or even leaving the house if I can help it). In honor of the temporary insanity that is Black Friday, I thought I would share this parent tip I came across about shopping with toddlers in tow:

Shopping fun

"When my 10 and 8 year old were toddlers, I would always put them in the shopping cart and we would first head over to the floral department to touch the balloons. We never bought a balloon, but they knew each time we came, they would have the opportunity to see the new balloons and touch any that were out. Next we headed over to the aisle with children's books and toys. I let each child pick out one thing to play with in the store. We talked about how we are borrowing the toy and need to be very careful – they always were. Then we would start shopping. When we were finished shopping, we would return to the toy/book aisle and say "good-bye" to the toys or books. There was never any screaming or demands to buy the toys because they knew the next time we were shopping; they would have the chance to pick out another toy to borrow. I rarely had problems taking my children shopping. I think they felt that I respected their need to "shop" and it was a fun event."

Cathy

Brilliant suggestions! This is a great way to deal with a trip to a huge place like Walmart or Costco. I can't say that shopping with my toddler has ever been that bad, but then again, he's an easy-going kid to begin with, and I don't insist on putting him into situations where he's likely to fail.

I don't usually try to go more than a couple of places per outing, and I don't drag him to the store when he's tired or sick, or during his accustomed meal or nap times. I keep healthy snacks in my purse, so I can sidestep the whole issue of him wanting the alluring looking things that the stores so cleverly place at toddler eye level. I give him little jobs to do to stay busy. If I'm really on top of my game, I might even schedule something fun at the end of the trip (like a stop at a park, or some other fun place that he really likes). I don't take him to places that are overwhelming, noisy, and likely to be busy (except during off-peak times of day), and try to intersperse a little "fun" into whatever we're doing. (Just the other day I was at Trader Joe's and they were playing some really fun song, so we had a mini dance party in the middle of the cereal aisle).

Take it Outside

“Given a choice, young children will usually choose to be in a natural environment. They want to be outdoors, in the fresh air and sunlight, barefoot and naked, surrounded by grass, trees, and flowers, hearing the birds and the wind, playing in water with sticks and rocks. If you ask most grade school children what is their favorite part of school, they say outdoor recess. When children spend time outside where they can run, jump, climb, swing, swim, and play, they eat better, sleep better and are happier. We all know that children thrive in the outdoors. Yet we often forget how much the environment can affect a child's mood and behavior. When children spend too much time inside breathing stale air, hearing the hum of all the lights, electrical appliances, and the television, surrounded by synthetic fabrics, playing with plastic toys, eating foods that contain artificial coloring and preservatives, they get cranky and disagreeable.” -Pam Leo

From a very early age, I could reliably calm my son and smooth out his rockier moods simply by taking him outside. As an infant, when he became “fussy”, (and all the usual suspects were exonerated) I would throw him in a baby sling and go for a walk around the neighborhood. I figured if nothing else, a “break” and a change of scenery would sooth MY nerves and restore my ability to meet his needs, but he almost always settled down right away when we went outside for a while.

As he got older, the walks became longer and longer because he clearly enjoyed them. When he became mobile, his enthusiasm for walks increased tenfold because now he could interact more directly with the world. These days, I can always count on enthusiasm about going outdoors. Now that he’s a toddler, it’s a lifesaver because the outdoors is a better forum for his boundless energy and endless curiosity. This morning, for example, I told my son we would be going outside later, and he RAN to grab his shoes. He was ready to go!

My son seems to have developed a strong preference for being outdoors. Even though he usually brings a toy or two with him on our trips outside, they are usually quickly forgotten (and go in mama’s pocket) as soon as he catches sight of the green grass, interesting leaves, bright yellow dandelions, acorns, rocks, and sticks. He likes watching the birds and squirrels, spotting airplanes flying overhead, and walking along familiar paths stopping to smell the flowers along the way. He’s a much happier critter when he is able to spend time outdoors where he can run around, jump over cracks and puddles, walk backwards, and climb on every bench and playground structure. So almost every day, we go outside for at least 20 minutes for some “nature therapy”.

Nature therapy works pretty good on teenagers too, by the way. I remember fondly doing these kinds of daily walks with my health class students at Job Corps. We had this great outdoor trail we could use, and I took generations of incoming students on a 20-minute nature trail walk every single day (unless it was pouring rain). By the time they arrived in my classroom, these students had been at Job Corps for a month, and were at a critical stage of adjustment to the program. They had been away from home for a month, disconnected from familiar people, eating unfamiliar foods, dealing with unfamiliar routines, and sleeping in dormitories for the first time in their lives. Usually the magnitude of changes in their lives started having a visible impact on their coping skills and overall mood. I figured the best thing I could give them during health class was a 20-minute break from all of that, so every day for two weeks, we went outdoors, looked at plants, watched the clouds, enjoyed some exercise and light conversation, and enjoyed whatever surprises nature had to offer.

Classroom Management: Communication and conflict

I came across this little gem the other day. It’s the perfect description of what you should do when you’re dealing with a student whose behavior is causing a problem in the classroom: “The best way to communicate to students is what we call P.E.P. We talk privately, make eye contact when culturally appropriate and sit or stand close enough to the student so we can talk softly and make an impact.” (from “How to Make Consequences Work”, Dr. Richard Curwin Director, Graduate program in behavior disorder, David Yellin College)

The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia

I was very excited when I heard about “The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia” a James Redford film about people with dyslexia. In the film, they state that 10 million children have dyslexia. As a reading teacher, that feels true--I run into dyslexic students fairly often, and end up thinking about dyslexia more than almost anything. It’s usually pretty obvious when you have a student in your class with dyslexia. Their handwriting and spelling usually give them away. They will go to great lengths to avoid putting themselves on display in any way, and often disappear when it comes time to take a test. They’re also usually among the most creative and interesting students you will ever get. Sometimes I get little glimpses into their world when they’re willing to take a chance and open up about what it is like for them, but most are too embarrassed to talk about it.

I think this would be a great movie to show students. Even today, a remarkable number of kids who have dyslexia are never formally diagnosed, and spend a good portion of their lives wondering, “What’s wrong with me?” The kids who already know they have dyslexia can say, “Oh yeah, I do that too!” And the kids who aren’t affected can see what it’s like for some of their classmates. And a lot of teachers don’t have any training in working with students with learning disabilities (like dyslexia) so they don’t have a clue why they’re seeing what they’re seeing in class.

Some of the things people in the movie mentioned that made their school experiences so difficult included:

Knowing from the very beginning of school (as early as kindergarten or first grade!) that something is VERY wrong with you, and not knowing what or why (until getting formally diagnosed, which often doesn’t happen until 3rd grade). In the meantime, you get to sit there watching your classmates sailing right past you, and wondering “why do they get it, but not me?” Almost as bad is having all your teachers assume the reason you’re not “getting it” is because you aren’t even trying. Ouch!

A lot of people had trouble with reading and spelling. A lot of teachers/instructors penalize students for spelling things wrong, and one guy said he had it so bad, “I even misspelled my own name.” But it wasn’t just reading--some students said they had just as much trouble with math because they kept reading the math problems wrong.

In general, people mentioned having severe performance anxiety in while in school. This manifested as being constantly “tired” or “sick” because of the crippling fear of being asked to do something they knew they couldn’t do. There was a lot of shame involved in people’s memories of school. One person mentioned being unable to remember their locker combination (and having to carry everything around all day because it was too embarrassing to admit that they had forgotten it again).

But the film if anything, exudes hope. Dyslexia is a paradox, but it’s not a death sentence. School is just a small piece of life. For many of the adults, in spite of all predictions to the contrary, college was easier for them. Some people mentioned the “strengths of dyslexia”: how it actually helped strengthen or diversify their problem solving abilities (they realized they were non-sequential thinking (non-linear) global thinkers, which is useful when you’re in a situation where you need to think outside the box). Others discovered they had talents in other areas, like the girl who said, “I dance my feelings out.” The main message from the people interviewed was, “Don’t laugh at my dreams.”

For teachers, who are wondering about how to help students with dyslexia, some of the things the people in the film say THEY find helpful (in coping with academic work) are:

-being sure to read material more than once -reading material that was accompanied by lots of pictures helped (you need to be able to “see” the material to really understand it. So the more visual something is, the better) -making tons of flashcards -underlining or highlighting text (distilling text down to its most important ideas) -listening to books on tape -writing EVERYTHING down (executive functioning) -spelling out loud, or using kinetic spelling techniques Official website: http://www.thebigpicturemovie.com

Classroom Management 101: Avoiding Power Struggles

I remember asking a Behavior Classroom teacher how he managed to be so good at what he did. I worked with him several times, and he had some very challenging adolescents that he worked with on a daily basis, but he made it look so easy. He said “The most important thing to do when working with these guys is to avoid getting sucked into power struggles.” This may be the most important piece of teaching advice I ever received, aside from “If you make them fall in love with you, they’ll do anything for you—even learn.”

“The typical power struggle occurs when the teacher makes a request and a student refuses to comply.” The classic scenario occurs when you ask a student to do (or stop doing) something, and the student says, “Make me.”

You of course don’t want to look weak in front of your whole class, so you make your demand again (and probably start digging into your repertoire of dirty looks and pull out your “I mean business” tone of voice).

By now the whole class is on the edge of their seats, waiting with breathless anticipation to see what will happen next, and since the student doesn’t want to look bad in front of their peers…

Who is going to win? If you guessed “nobody”, you are correct. Does this mean your only option is to let students do whatever they want in class? No, of course not. But this brings us back to an important Ken Peterson idea that I remember from graduate school: Problem Ownership.

The person having the problem, is the student, not YOU. You, the teacher, have the luxury of solving behavior problems in your class at a time that is convenient for YOU, not the student’s schedule, because it isn’t really YOUR problem. If the student wants/needs to solve it sooner, the onus is on them to do so, because it’s THEIR problem.

For example, everyone in class is working on an assignment, except one student, Mike, who’s over causing some sort of minor disruption. You notice he’s off-task, so you wander over to where he’s sitting.

Teacher: “Hey Mike, you need to get to work now.”

Mike: “Make me.”

Teacher: “We’ll talk about this after class.”

“We’ll talk later” is YOUR magic line in avoiding power struggles. It’s really hard for the student to continue arguing with you once you use it. (About the only thing they could say is, “No, let’s talk now,” and all you have to do is repeat yourself. If they continued, they’d just look crazy. Then at a time that’s more convenient for you, you can go have that heart to heart chat about what’s REALLY going on.

Why does this work? Since you’ll be together for 180 days, not all problems are urgent, and can be dealt with at a time of your choosing. You’re still dealing with the problem, but at a time when you’re both calm, and when there isn’t an audience. Basically, it means if you encounter a situation in the middle of class, you DO NOT have to drop everything to deal with it right then and there. There’s no rule in teaching (or life) that says you have to deal with a student’s personal problems in front of the entire class during third period on Wednesday. This vastly eliminates the odds that you’ll get sucked into a lame power struggle with a student (and even if you do, at least you won’t have a rapt audience).

If you have a student who seems to enjoy argument and debate, and you’re anticipating having to deal with this person often, you can deputize the rest of the class by saying something like this:

"There will often be consequences given for disruptive behavior this year. However, the consequences will almost always be given privately, and I will almost never discuss one person's consequence with any other person in this class. As a result, although it may look as if I am ignoring inappropriate behavior, consequences are usually given later for two reasons: I am not going to give up our learning time, and I am not interested in embarrassing or being embarrassed by anyone in front of everyone else."

For those of you teaching (or raising) teenagers, this last bit is really important:

“When my daughter was a teenager, her last word during a disagreement was often a snooty ‘whatever.’ Although I would get annoyed at her insolence, I came to realize that almost always her ‘whatever’ was followed by grudging compliance. I had actually won! She was doing what I asked, although not happily. The challenge for me was to stay focused on the outcome without getting trapped by my anger at her attitude. The same dynamic holds when working with difficult students.”

Sometimes getting what you want is far more important than having the last word. Quoted material from: Allen Mendler, Defusing Power Struggles: It's Not About Getting the Last Word (November 12, 2012), Edutopia

Books are Good for Kids...

Books are good for kids. There’s no shortage of studies that confirm being read to as a child is enormously beneficial. Yet another study was published in the month of October by Brian Avants, who is assistant professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania.

What makes his study a bit different is that instead of focusing on the act of reading, per se, it addresses the stimulating effect that reading-friendly environment has on childhood cognitive development. “The amount of mentally stimulating content in a child's home — such as the number of books that are around — may predict the structure of the child's brain later in life.”

While this study speaks mainly to the growth and organization of the brain during early childhood, it speaks to the importance of reading itself, and the positive impact of providing an “enriched” home environment on a young child’s overall cognitive development. The results of the study showed that people who grew up in enriched environments during childhood had thinner cortexes later in life which correlates with a higher IQ. In a nutshell, this happens because their brains get used more.

One can’t help but wonder if it’s not simply a question of intelligent parents, but the study's finding held even after the researchers accounted for the parents' IQs. It seems fairly self-evident, but the early years of childhood are an important time for cognitive development. The research suggests that the overall environment is very important, and that it’s a worthwhile endeavor for parents to provide mental stimulation in the environment itself (such as children's books and toys for learning).

Implications:

1. Get some books! Great books for children are easy to come by. Run, don’t walk to the library. If you aren’t sure what to check out, ask a librarian, they know what kids read, and can help you find something good. Invest in a few of the best books out there (ask other parents what their kids read again and again). Hit the thriftstore or a yard sale, you don’t need to buy kids books new. Also be aware that many programs exist that provide free books to families with young children, you simply need to ask around to get connected with them. A good person to ask is your child’s pediatrician, or daycare workers. If you have friends with kids, consider having a book swap—kids get tired of books after a while, and you can trade for something new.

2. Toys: Developmental toys (toys for learning) are not to be confused with those shiny noisy flashy things that clutter up the toy aisle at your local store. We’re also not talking about “computers for kids” (e.g. Leapfrog). Real learning toys are toys that require the kid to do something to make something happen. In other words, the toy doesn’t entertain the child, the child entertains himself by using the toy to accomplish something. Examples of learning toys are puzzles, shape sorters, ring stackers, etc. Some of the best learning toys are not toys at all: they’re ordinary household objects that a child re-purposes. The beauty of learning toys is that most are very open-ended, meaning a child can use them in multiple ways. Because learning toys are fairly simple, they usually aren’t expensive, but sometimes can be harder to find than the flashy noisemakers. Best of all, they don’t require batteries.

3. How to set up the environment: You don’t have to do anything real fancy, or recreate a classroom in your living room: just make sure these two categories of items are accessible to your children so they can help themselves at appropriate times. Most children don’t need to be shown how to play with toys—but if you want to demonstrate how something works, go for it. For the most part though, it’s better to let the child explore toys by themselves. If they’re not ready to use the toy in the way it was designed, they’ll come up with their own way of using it, and that’s fine.

4. Books, of course, require a bit more modeling. The best model is reading to your children regularly—a short daily session is best. If you can do it more than once, even better. (It’s a good pre-bedtime ritual). Almost ALL kids enjoy being read to. If you do it enough, and provide the books, toddlers and young children will often take the books and “read” to themselves during play. Once you see them doing that, a good thing to do is have a set of books handy that they can read or at least look at on their own (without having to ask an adult for help). For most kids, a mix of stories and picture reference books works best. Feel free to let young kids explore books intended for older children-it won’t hurt them any.

How Books at Home May Affect Child's Brain Later, Rachael Rettner, My Health News Daily, 15 October 2012

http://www.livescience.com/23981-parenting-child-brain-development-reading.html

Some developmental updates

Now that Cedar’s almost 3, I feel like I’m starting to see the “language explosion” that people talk about toddlers having. It’s gratifying because he has a pretty serious speech delay, and I was really starting to worry big time this summer. It seems like in the past month or so, Cedar’s been doing a lot more talking than he had been up to this point—which was not a lot… Are we anywhere near the normal range of what toddlers normally do? No way, but I’m seeing a ton of great progress, and am hoping this means that he’s starting to catch up.

What it looks like is I’m noticing him imitating more of what we say (or things he hears in songs or on TV), and starting to attempt bigger words (with more syllabication). Still miles from talking like a normal kid this age, but we are getting a lot more intelligible speech, and the beginnings of syntax (sentence formation). Once he makes the leap from single word utterances to phrases and sentences, I think he’ll take right off.

Clear through August, I’d say he probably had about 10-15 words max and was mostly using sign language. Most of his speech was restricted to one-syllable words, and often just a single phoneme (sound).

Towards the end of September, we started hearing a couple of 2-word noun phrases. Then in late September, he started counting from 1-10 (he doesn’t like to say “seven” so he says “eight” twice. He also added a few words.

Then in October, he was able to read along with the ABCs in Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (he skips W and X—something about those letters doesn’t work for him). Towards the end of October, he was able to do it without any verbal prompting at all. And he started saying some of the things he was only signing before (although he still signs when he says them). He also added some new words.

Now in November, he is counting away (pointing out things in the environment that interest him), and has added 11-20 (although he skips a few when he gets over 10, but he clearly has the basic idea). He’s also approximating a lot more words (for things that he can see in the immediate environment), and if you read a familiar repetitive book, will often supply the missing word. He also is attempting to read a long with books he’s heard me read numerous times. He’s also pointing out numbers/letters that he sees in the environment, and starting to take notice of the clocks (and counts down with the microwave).

I’ve known for quite a while that he “knew” all this stuff—he was able to prove that when he was totally non-verbal by pointing, that he could identify colors/objects/numbers/letters, but it’s wonderful to hear him actually SAYING these things now. I’ve got an IFSP (IEP) meeting coming up next week, and there’s going to be a lot to talk about since a lot has changed since this summer. I’m hoping by continuing speech services, he’ll be able to catch up by the time he starts school, and his early lack of speech will no longer present so many barriers.

North Portland Nostalgia Friday Day

Had a North Portland nostalgia day today. I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather all week with some sort of vague cold-like thing, but it’s not bad enough to be cooped up in the house. We’re 9 days into November now, so it’s not exactly pretty outside, but at least it’s dry (if not warm or sunny), and that’s motivation enough to get out and do some stuff. There will be plenty of wet, nasty, stay-indoors days ahead of us yet…

Decided that today would be a good day to go to up to North Portland. Haven’t been up that way since August. I had a hankering to go to SCRAP, and wanted to see a friend who lives a few blocks away. SCRAP with a toddler wasn’t as bad as I would have expected, but it was hard to convince the boy he couldn’t take home all the crazy stuff he managed to find on the floor while we were in there. Went over to Pizza-a-Go-Go for lunch since it’s been ages since I’ve been there (the last time I went there, I was probably still in school). A lot of things in that end of town have changed a great deal since we lived up there, I’m glad that place, at least, hasn’t changed a bit.

Walked around the neighborhood a bit with the boy since he needed the exercise, and watched him eagerly pick all the yellow goatweed (a common weed that looks a lot like dandelions, but enjoys the drier climate and alkaline soil that we have here). Unfortunately in his zeal to pick as many “yellow flowers” as he could hold, he lost one of his beads (that I let him keep from Scrap). Sad day.

Capped it all off by driving past our old place over on Tillamook St. It’s still there, and it looks like someone’s been using the garden space to its full advantage. Even better, someone turned those derelict vacant lots into a really nice garden space. Awesome! Kinda wish it had been that way when we still lived over there…

There’s a bunch of new stuff that I would love to check out if I had more time. And I had to stay away from Title Wave (for now), that place is deadly for someone like me. I’ll save that one for some yucky day in December when it’s hideous outside…

The November blahs

Dear teachers. We’ve hit what I call the November blahs. Usually by now the freshness of back-to-school has worn off. The honeymoon period of September has long since worn off, and with all the excitement of homecoming week long past, you’ve probably settled into a rut of some kind, and figured out the personalities that you’re going to be sharing a room with for the next 160 days or so. It’s getting dark earlier, it’s probably cold outside, and the leaves are probably off the trees (unless you teach in CA/FL/HI or somewhere with similar climatic tendencies). Coming on the heels of one of the ugliest election seasons I can remember, it’s probably about time for a pick-me-up.

A friend sent me a link to an awesome Youtube video that’s perfect for burned out teachers everywhere. So do yourself a favor and go watch it (on your own time):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fuBmSbiVXo0

Oregon City Rambles

I had fairly ambitious plans for the summer—I was going to take the babe and do all kinds of exploring of the “new territory”. It’s a shame then, that I spent so much of the first trimester feeling like crap. I missed out on a glorious season for wandering around and exploring our nearby sister city across the river—Oregon City.

When I lived in Portland, I did not even know Oregon City existed. That’s a common enough consequence of living in a place like Portland, where there’s not much incentive to go anywhere else. I probably lived there for 4 or 5 years before I know where Oregon City was, much less that there was a reason to go there.

In the summer, we took the free trolley that goes through Oregon City, and discovered all kinds of things to check out later. A trolley ride, in and of itself is fairly entertaining for a toddler, but I’ve always wanted to come back and just walk around the city more.

Now that I live out in Clackamas County, and have a toddler who needs entertainment, fresh air, and exercise, I’m starting to appreciate the possibilities presented by the small towns around here. Quite unlike places like Beaverton, Hillsboro, or Happy Valley, that are all “NEW”, these older river towns like Gladstone and Oregon City are all built on a much smaller scale, so they’re much more walkable, and make for good pedestrian adventures. Conceived of and built in the days long before automobiles ruled supreme, these two towns have great parks, low speed limits, compact “main street” style downtowns, and lots of sightseeing in manageable sized areas.

Make a Pumpkin Spice Latte at Home

I love fall, and I love pumpkins, and like a lot of other poor saps, I'm a sucker for a Starbuck's Pumpkin Spice Latte. However, being an eternal cheapskate, I've been wondering for awhile how I could replicate the experience at home.

Lo and behold, someone's saved me the trouble:

How to Make a Pumpkin Spice Latte at Home By The Daily Meal | Shine Food, Nov 8, 2012 INGREDIENTS • ½ cup milk • ½ cup coffee • 3 tablespoons pumpkin purée • 2 tablespoons agave nectar (more to sweeten) • 1 teaspoon vanilla • 1 teaspoon cinnamon • ½ teaspoon nutmeg • ½ teaspoon cloves We recreated the PSL using nonfat milk, whole milk, and even half-and-half. You'll find that the nonfat milk won't create as much froth and bubbles as whole milk and half-and-half, but it will definitely cut back on the calories and fat. We used a 1:1 ratio of milk to coffee; if you like more a milkier, pumpkin-y taste to your coffee, feel free to add more or less milk. Either way, it's best to use a strongly brewed cup of joe for your PSL - otherwise, you might as well be drinking a steamer. For a lower-cal sweetener, we went with light agave nectar to sweeten our drink; and no drink would be complete without a splash of vanilla. Pumpkin pie spice is a mix of "warming spices," like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. Lori Lange of Recipe Girl recommends ginger and allspice in her mix. For ours, we used cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves for a spicy kick. Add pumpkin purée, milk, and agave nectar to a small pot over medium heat and whisk quickly for about 5 minutes. Add in pumpkin pie spices and vanilla, and continue to whisk. Your spices may not totally dissolve into the milk; if you prefer a smoother texture, use less of the spices, or add it them at the end. If you have less time on your hands, put your concoction in the microwave for bubbling, frothy milk in less than 2 minutes. If you want to get really fancy,put your milk into a blender to make it frothy. Once the milk is frothy and bubbling, add it to your mug. Pour in the coffee on top, and you're good to go. Of course, there's always the option to add whipped cream and more spices on top for an extra pumpkin-y drink. After all, we like the taste of pumpkin. With our version, you'll get that true pumpkin taste without the syrups and sweeteners.

Woo hoo! Now I can get my pumpkin on (and do it lactose free and fair trade too). WIN!

Sequestration: No Relief in Sight for Teachers

The election is over, but don’t start cheering yet. The past several years have been really lousy ones for educators, and there’s no reason to assume they’re going to get any better. That feels particularly true, here in Oregon, but it probably is true for just about everyone, everywhere.

Those of you who are coming into the home stretch and finishing up your teacher training programs (and are starting to think about jobs)—my heart goes out to you. Most of the people I know in the field have been laid off (multiple times), are only working part time jobs, or have only been able to find temporary long-term sub jobs.

SPED teachers are no longer safe from widespread layoffs either—I’ve known plenty of SPED teachers who’ve gotten laid off in the past 3 years, and SPED historically was a bastion of job security since there’s far fewer qualified people willing to take those jobs. Even getting into the sub pool is almost a non-possibility since several local districts laid off tons of teachers, so they get first priority in the sub pool, so forget coming in as a newbie. (On a slightly rosier note, I noticed that the elementary school down the street hired multiple teachers, and two of them were student teachers who had done practicums at that school…so you just never know.)

If you’re still in school and haven’t finished up your Master’s Degree, you might as well stay in and do that, if you can afford it.

I was very blessed to be working this past school year, but am probably going to be out of commission for at least the next couple of years. Granted this was my own choice—I wanted my husband to have a full-time job (which was never going to happen in Lincoln County where I had a very satisfying full-time teaching job, but an unemployed spouse). But enough about us…

It doesn’t look like things are going to get any better anytime soon, which is why I’m probably going to be sitting on the sidelines for a while. It’s hard to imagine them getting worse, but apparently they are about to do just that. The key word here is “sequestration” which is a series of automatic federal spending cuts that are poised to take a huge bite out of special education. This won’t happen until next year (Jan 2013), but they’re coming.

This is of course a direct consequence of our deeply divided, highly partisan congress, and the subsequent refusal or inability of our elected officials to work together long enough to actually deal with the budget problems in a rational manner. So in the meantime, during the 2013-2014 school year, 12,000 special education teachers and aides are projected to lose their jobs. Basically what’s coming down the pipeline is an 8.2 percent cut to almost every U.S. Department of Education program.

Consequences of this will no doubt include:

-Fewer special education teachers: You can expect this to result in larger class sizes, making it hard to provide adequate supervision (of kids that tend to need a lot more of it). You can also anticipate that this will dramatically reduce the amount of time available for licensed teachers to directly work with kids (because if you have more students, you have to spend more time on IEPs/paperwork, and therefore get even less time to work directly with students. This also means more kids with IEPs will probably be mainstreamed (into already crowded mainstream classrooms), which without an adequate level of support would probably result in little to no academic progress.

-100,000 fewer children enrolled in Head Start, and 20,000 fewer Head Start employees: (Headstart is one of the best early intervention programs we have) -16,000 fewer teachers and aides working in Title I schools: which greatly impacts the ability of a school to meet the educational needs of low-income families (Title I students are often ELLs or SPED or both). Then the school gets penalized because too many students are failing the state standardized tests. You see where this is going to go…

-4,300 fewer at-risk youth in the Job Corps education and skills training program: The waiting list to get into Job Corps is already pretty long. Job Corps is a kind of last-resort program for a lot of at-risk youth who could not make it in a regular high school. It’s a self-paced program (which takes most kids about a year to complete) where young adults can earn a high school diploma or GED and get vocational training and on the job experience in a variety of fields. Large percentages of Job Corps students have the following factors in common: many have learning disabilities, have been homeless, are parenting, are in recovery, many are older newcomers/refugees (SIFEs) who aged out of school—so in other words, it’s the kids who are hardest to serve in a standard public school setting. That would be like closing 19 (of the smaller) Job Corps centers.

In a state like Oregon, you cannot expect the state to make up what is cut by the feds, and thus can assume that things are only going to get a lot worse than they have been…and if you can imagine it, worse than they are now.

My chances of getting a job in the Portland Metro area in the current climate are probably about nil.

-Jobs of Thousands of Special Education Teachers At Risk, Nirvi Shah, EdWeek, October 16, 2012

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/speced/2012/10/jobs_of_thousands_of_special_ed.html

Oregon, Teaching Licensure, and Professional Development

I went through the grueling process of renewing my State of Oregon teaching license this year (Initial I-->Initial II). What fun that was...but now it's over for a few years.

Having just been through all this, I already have some concerns about doing it again in 3 years. One of my problems is that it's highly unlikely that I'll be working full-time at any point during this time (mostly by choice, partly by the general shittiness of the job market), so I'm wondering what that's going to look like when it comes time to renew again.

Also, the 75 hours of professional development requirement is going to be tough to meet once I have two diaper-wearing kids at home. I'm not working for a school district, so it's not happening automatically (via inservices or district trainings), so I'm wondering how I can fulfill that while I'm unemployed or marginally employed.

Given the state of the job market for educators, I can't be the only person wondering about this. I know a fair number of my former classmates are unemployed (or employed outside of public education), so if anyone else out there finds they're having the same questions, here's a few resources that may help somewhat:

Rules about PDUs (Professional Development) http://www.oregon.gov/tspc/Pages/FAQs_PDUs_Overview.aspx

What "counts" as Professional Development: http://www.oregon.gov/tspc/Documents/PDU_Activity_List.pdf

How to keep track of Professional Development if you are renewing a license after 2013: http://www.oregon.gov/tspc/Documents/PDUs_Log.pdf

Upcoming ODE "official" Professional Development: http://www.ode.state.or.us/news/events/

A Year of Books

Reading to your Child: What a Reading Teacher Recommends

While I don’t consider myself an “expert” per se, as a Reading/English teacher, it would surprise no one that I think reading is mighty important. Never mind the numerous studies that extol the virtues and rewards of reading aloud to kids. I find it to be a particularly relaxing and pleasant way to spend some quality time with my toddler. Reading with mama is probably my son’s favorite activity, second only to eating! We climb in bed, pile on the pillows and blankets, and grab a stack of books.

I have quite a few books at home, but we go through so many that the vast majority come from the local library. Having a library is such a godsend, let me tell you… Here we are closing in on the end of another year, so here’s a partial list some of the things we’ve read together (this is probably only half of the things we’ve read at most). If you’re wondering what on earth to read to a 2-year-old boy, these are all things that worked well for us:

(* recommended , ** strongly recommended—it was a favorite)

1,2,3 to the Zoo (Eric Carle)** 10 Little Rubber Ducks (Eric Carle) A color of his own ** Ants Baby Bug (magazine) Big and small Big book of transporation Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? (Eric Carle)** Bumblebees Child’s garden of verses* Color Farm Crickets Dig! Lift! Push! Farm machinery Gallop! Garbage Trucks Go, dog, go! (P.D. Eastman) *condensed version ** Have you seen my cat? How Kind! I love trucks!* I spy little bunnies I spy little hearts I went walking Long and short Moo, baa, la la My first book of food My food /Mi comida* Oops! Plant ABC Richard Scarry’s Shapes and Opposites* Richard Scarry’s Word Book* Tap, tap, tap, what’s hatching? That’s not my train (Usborne)** The airport The baby goes beep The five trucks * The Foot Book (Dr. Seuss)** The Itsy Bitsy Spider The Mixed up Chameleon (Eric Carle) The very quiet cricket (Eric Carle)** Time for Bed Tonka trucks Tools Tow trucks Tractors Trains Trucks Usborne book of trucks Very hungry caterpillar** Waddle! Wheels on the bus Where does Maisy live?** While you were sleeping

Commentary: Here’s a few observations and reflections about some of the things we read this year:

Eric Carle books are generally well-liked by kids. His books span the early childhood spectrum, and he has titles that appeal to babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary-aged children. They are glorious picture books, full of bright colorful illustrations. Some sample titles are: “1,2,3 to the Zoo” (this was good to teach about counting and animals), 10 Little Rubber Ducks, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? (good for teaching colors/animals), The Mixed up Chameleon, Have you seen my cat?, The very quiet cricket (this was a poignant read for me because my son has a speech delay and the story is about a cricket who can’t chirp), Very hungry caterpillar (a classic, probably read in every kindergarten classroom in the country), Draw Me a Star.

I work with teenagers, and boys in particular seem to enjoy non-fiction, and will happily read that when nothing else seems to attract their interest. So it would behoove a reading teacher to keep plenty of non-fiction around in the classroom. As a parent, it’s not that practical to acquire tons of non-fiction titles, although DK reference books are a good resource for a non-fiction collection in the home. Fortunately, the library is a good resource for introducing non-fiction books to kids. Most are aimed at elementary-age readers, but there’s no reason you can’t read them to toddlers (who are just as curious about the world as older children). A few examples of these short, easy books are: Ants, Bumblebees, Big and small, and Tap, tap, tap, what’s hatching?

Baby Bug (magazine) is a poetry magazine aimed at toddlers. My son isn’t crazy about this publication as a whole (I think it probably works better for girls), but he did like certain selections from it.

“Transportation Books”: Boys tend to eat this stuff up. There’s usually tons of these in the library, from board books, to more exhaustive encyclopedic compendiums of different modes of transportation. You have stories about trucks like “Dig! Lift! Push!” and “I love trucks” to straightforward easy-readers about trucks like “Garbage Trucks”, to the “Usborne Book of Trucks”. A similar genre is books about trains. When you’re sick to death of reading books with cartoon characters (like Thomas books/Cars) give these non-fiction books a go.

Child’s garden of verses* Written long ago by Robert Louis Stevenson, this is a childhood classic. While some of it is quite dated by now, some of the poems are still quite enjoyable. Technically better for older children, there’s no reason not to introduce poetry earlier.

“Gallop!” and “Waddle!” are visual special effects books that show animals running/moving when you turn the pages. Small children love these things to pieces. Literally. It’s hard to find one in a library that hasn’t been taped back together.

P.D. Eastman books are another crowd pleaser. “Where’s my mother” is probably the most famous, but no less deserving is “Go, dog, go!” The condensed version is a bit better for toddlers than the original which is rather lengthy.

I spy books: These are fun when your kid reaches the “matching” stage. I used these to informally teach about numbers and shapes and colors.

“My food /Mi comida” is one of a delightful series of bilingual books for babies/toddlers. I love the simple pictures (made of paper cutouts) and large text. They’re great for teaching vocabulary, and print awareness.

Richard Scarry Books. I loved these growing up, and my son seems to love them too. I’m glad they’re still around. Most of them are huge, and unwieldy for a toddler, but they do make condensed board book versions of some of the longer books, such as “Shapes and Opposites” and Richard Scarry’s “Word Book”.

Usborne “Touch and Feel Books”. Usborne put out a series of “touch and feel” board books on a number of topics. They all have a title that starts with “That’s not my…” You can start these in infancy, but toddlers enjoy them as well.

Dr. Seuss books are wonderful, but most are written for slightly older children (who are around kindergarten age/emergent readers). Two that are short enough and work well for toddlers are The Foot Book (Dr. Seuss), and the ABC book.

Maisy books: Very simple with colorful illustrations, these are gender-neutral and appealing to babies and toddlers. Some of them are lift-flap books which toddlers love.

Pumpkin Dal

Pumpkin Dal Now that Halloween is past, I’ve got a pile of pumpkins I need to do something with. My preferred method of recycling is to eat them (squash have a ton of vitamin A). Here’s one of my favorite recipes, a nice warm pumpkin dal, which is just the thing to take you into late fall/early winter. It makes a ton, so you can either feed a crowd (or plan on freezing some for easy eating later).

Ingredients:

*Dal (The word “dal” is a pretty generic word that covers a huge spectrum of beans/pulses that are commonly eaten in India. The reason I’m being vague is because this recipe works well with almost anything. Probably the easiest thing to use is dried lentils, dried yellow peas, or some kind of mild white bean. Depending on the size of the pumpkin you’re using, you’ll either use 1 cup (dried) for a small pie pumpkin, or 2 cups (dried) for anything bigger.

1 Pumpkin (whatever you have leftover from Halloween), size doesn’t matter much. You’ll either need to peel it and chop it up into bite sized pieces first, then cook it until soft (tedious!), or skip all that and simply roast it in the oven at 300 degrees for a couple of hours (my preferred method-it turns into a nice soft mush and you can just scoop it out with a spoon and skip the knife work). If you’re using a jack-o-lantern (as opposed to a culinary variety), be aware they exude a lot of water during the cooking process.

1 Onion medium(chopped)

Oil for frying onion (coconut oil or ghee tastes even better, if you have those)

1 Tbsp curry powder (any kind you happen to have on hand will work)

Oil for frying onion (coconut oil or ghee tastes even better, if you have those)

Water (amount depends on dal being used-a general ratio is at least 3:1)

Salt to taste

Optional but good:

Garlic, finely minced (however much you like)

1 tsp Ginger (finely minced)

Chili pepper or cayenne (if you want it to be spicy)

1 tsp Amchar powder (powdered green mango)

1 tbsp chutney (whatever kind you like)

Cilantro, (finely chopped), to taste

Method:

Wash and chop pumpkin into bite size pieces without skin, and cook in a pan with a little water until soft/mushy—or simply roast whole in an oven for a few hours at 300 degrees, then scrape the soft flesh out of the skin and set aside for later. Regardless of how you get there, the pumpkin should be a pile of mush when you’re done.

Chop onion, and fry in a large pot (at least 6 qts is recommended) with the oil with the curry powder until onion is soft/translucent.

Add dal, and stir well (so that the dal soaks up the oil/spices.

Add an appropriate amount of water for dal being used. When in doubt, err on the side of too much since dal usually soaks up water like a sponge anyway.

Bring to a boil, stirring often to keep dal from sticking to the bottom of the pan and/or forming clumps. Add more water, as needed to maintain a nice soupy consistency.

When the dal is well-cooked (in most cases, rather soft/mushy), add the pumpkin and stir until well mixed.

Add any of the optional ingredients at this time.

Simmer on low heat for an additional 15 minutes or so.

Serve hot, as is; or you can serve with rotis, naan, or rice.

No duh…Technology changes how students learn

I saw the following article in the NYT: “Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say” (NYT, November 1, 2012), and all I can say is “duh”. Of course it does, that’s obvious.

“There is a widespread belief among teachers that students’ constant use of digital technology is hampering their attention spans”

Well obviously. If you’ve spent time around anyone under the age of 60, you’ve probably noticed that thanks to the proliferation of technology, a lot of people can’t seem to go two minutes without playing with their electronic toys. Adults are not immune, one can hardly expect teenagers to have escaped this phenomenon.

“What’s going to happen when they don’t have constant entertainment?”

This is why I’m still rather skeptical of the push for more technology based curriculum. It’s almost like you’re building in the expectation that learning has to be flashy, fun, and entertaining all the time, or it’s not worth pursuing. Don’t get me wrong, I like fun, and I do think learning can and maybe should be enjoyable much of the time. But let’s face it, not everything that students need to know and learn can or should be as fun as messing about with various game apps on smart phones. And there will always be a need for tasks that call for sustained attention, and focus in learning. These two skills are especially at risk when your expectations are shaped by constant immersion in the instant gratification environment that’s cultivated by constant exposure to technology.

“The education system must adjust to better accommodate the way students learn.”

On one hand, I’m inclined to agree—if you teach one way, and students learn another way, you’re not likely to get much learning, are you? On the other hand, how much “catering” are teachers really expected to do? I think of it, the way I do instructional accommodations: if it has instructional merit, meets my instructional goals, and actually facilitates learning, I’m willing to give it a go, but I’ll admit that I’m not entirely convinced that new=better, and tend to wait out the fads to see what has staying power and merit. All technology has it’s upsides and downsides, and figuring out what’s relevant, useful, and likely to be around long enough is a challenge.

“About 60 percent [of teachers surveyed] said [technology] hindered students’ ability to write and communicate face to face, and almost half said it hurt critical thinking and their ability to do homework. There was little difference in how younger and older teachers perceived the impact of technology.”

In some ways it does seem to inhibit writing, while ironically encouraging it as well. Computers make the task of writing deceptively easy. It’s easier to get the words out (once you know how to type—after all, I’m cranking out this post as we speak), but conventions seem to get lost in the shuffle. The influence of texting on writing is a notorious example of what I’m talking about.

The critical thinking piece is another problem. When it comes to information found on the internet, people are surprisingly gullible (hence the persistence of spammy chain letters), and kids are especially inclined to believe anything they see on the internet. Using iffy information in research papers and taking everything they see on a website at face value, makes it hard for kids to consider the importance of verifying the accuracy of what they see, and forming reasoned opinions about it…much less in writing.

“Technology Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say” (Nancy Palmieri, Matt Richtel, The New York Times, November 1, 2012)

Brussels Sprouts and High School Students

Back when I used to work at Cleveland High School, the cafeteria manager, Leslie, used to make these amazing brussels sprouts. (Cleveland participates in the Farms to School Program, so throughout the year they get the most amazing produce that they serve in the cafeteria.) I'd come down in the morning during second period with my students, and I'd see her getting them ready to bake. Maybe it's just me, but they smelled amazing. Of course, not everyone was brave enough to try them, but I spent quite a bit of time in the cafeteria supervising high school students during lunch, and I can confirm that a fair amount of them got eaten--more than you'd think, anyway. (And if they didn't, I went over to the "free table" and helped myself to a few, they were VERY good).

I found a recipe that seems to be exactly like what I remember from those days, so I'm posting it up on here, so I can always find it when I'm feeling nostalgic for Leslie's Brussels Sprouts.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Total Time: 40 min (prep 10 min, cook 30 min, yield: 6 servings) Ingredients
• 1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts • 3 tablespoons good olive oil • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Cut off the brown ends of the Brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves. Mix them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Pour them on a sheet pan and roast for 30 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly. Sprinkle with more kosher salt ( I like these salty like French fries), and serve immediately.
Serves: 6; Calories: 109; Total Fat: 7 grams; Saturated Fat: 1 gram; Protein: 4 grams; Total carbohydrates: 10 grams; Sugar: 2 grams; Fiber: 4 grams; Cholesterol: 0 milligrams; Sodium: 269 milligrams

Now, I always wondered what it was like to be a teacher stuck in a room with 30+ kids who may have had Brussels Sprouts for lunch...(I was in SPED, we only have 15, and I had my break AFTER lunch...)