Week Three!

I would like to add to the author’s suggestion for getting pictures of emotions from Second Step.  The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning  (CSEFEL) website also has many free options of how to use emotion pictures and includes the pictures. Go to  csefel.vanderbilt.edu  and look under the resources for teachers. There is also link on the right side of this blog under Website Resources.  As you read the chapter on Empathy I could not help but think of myself on many occasions causing stress in my classroom because I had to be in charge and in control. Stress on my part and that of a child could have been reduced by being more empathetic letting my control go and allowing the child to hold a toy during circle time or lay down instead of sitting.  It would have meant  adjusting “my own preferences for what would benefit the class as a whole.” (p.64)  Can any of you relate to that?  I  also like her suggestion the if a certain procedure is not working smoothly, then stop and reteach it. I also had to think.

I would have to question her comment on the bottom of page 71, “Easing the journey from oracy to literacy”  This implies scaffolding and I would prefer to think about it as Christopher Kliewer, Ph.D does, more cyclical. His document Building Blocks for Literacy and Language is for parents and it references children with special needs. It can be found at http://www.pealcenter.org/images/PEALBook_Kliewer_for_web.pdf  and I will add this link to the resource section.

Moving on to Kindness… I have put every one's name in a hat for the book The Invisible Boy   which is  a great story about kindness and  Kristine Koerner-Bowe has won this children’s book -I will bring it to you next Friday since I will be seeing you then! Congratulations!

On page 73, I was mulling in my head - do I feel that addressing a situation with the whole class is appropriate for 3 and/ or 4 year olds as well? Any opinions out there?

My other thought as I read was obviously this has taken years for her to get to the point where she could write a book about it. Where would you start? What can you do right now and what can you aspire to do the rest of the year?

One last thought - I tend to believe that everyone in a class are not “friends” I prefer to call them classmates. What I do feel is important is that you are friendly with all your classmates. This might look different for 3 year olds - we could possible talk about everyone being our friend then but by 4 and 5 I think it changes.  Agree? disagree?

November 2-8

Welcome to the 2nd week of Sharing the Blue Crayon.  Thanks to those who posted during the 1st week, and we encourage you to keep sharing your thoughts.  I was reading chapters 4 & 5, and some things caught my eye.  First is the Chart 4.2; I wondered how, other than time and maybe trial and error, the author paired the social/emotional skills with the various aspects of literacy learning.  I wondered how others would match the S/E skills to the literacy learning skills.  

Ms. Buckley notes on page 46, that "Teaching is not 'a matter of urgency' but rather a thoughtful and systematic development of an environment that supports learning."  I wondered how often teachers felt the urgency, felt the pressure of the urgency, not to mention the pressures of being a teacher.  What strategies do you employ that enable you to stay focused on the systematic development of a supportive learning environment?  These can be personal strategies to help foster positive mental health and/or teaching strategies for the supportive learning environment.  

Welcome to Sharing the Blue Crayon book group.

Since you committed yourself to this book group and I need to be accountable for providing this as professional learning, there are a few expectations. I (or Cathy) will provide you each week with some guiding questions to ponder as you read the week’s pages. Feel free to deviate from the questions and share your “ah has,” “I wonders…” and/or questions. In the past with a lot fewer people I would ask everyone to respond each week. I have tried to figure out the best way for people to share without overwhelming everyone with having to read 43 comments each week. The expectation is that everyone will:

·       Comment at least 2 times over the course of the 7 weeks ( if you want to contribute more please do)

·       Provide one resource that pertains to the readings (a children’s book, a website, a teacher resource….) These will be collected from comments and placed in the resource section of the blog (right side under the book picture.)

·       Be prepared at the end of the seven weeks to describe how the information/conversations have impacted a change in your professional practice AND what you see happening differently with students (including some specific examples.)

You will receive a certificate at the end of the 7 weeks once the above information is received.

This week we are reading the Introduction, Chapters 1, 2 and 3.  Here are some possible “comment” starters but feel free to reflect on what struck you as you read.

On page10 the author says “ Our conversations and discussions during Friendship Workshop help us reach academic standards; they don’t pull us away from these goals.”  Do you agree with this? What assumptions does the author hold? What do you want to argue about this?

If you are not a classroom teacher, what pieces can you take and use from the book?

The author speaks of young children still being self-centered. What can you be modeling from her suggestions? What can you be doing until they are developmentally ready to participate deeper in Friendship conversations?
Happy Reading!!! 

Welcome to our blog, this will start on October 26th. Looking forward to great discussions. Beth