IAEYC Favorite Quotes & Key Notes

Soften yours eyes.  When your eyes soften, your pupils dilate.  In the animal kingdom, this means:  I'm not going to eat you!

So last Friday I attended the IAEYC Early Childhood Conference (2013).  It's the first ever early childhood conference I have attended.  Other than trainings hosted by my work and CPR/First Aid training, this is my first ever workshop/training session.  I live a little over 3 hours away from Indianapolis.  My husband and I had intended to drive down Friday morning and stay the weekend as a late celebration for our 3 year wedding anniversary that was on the 31st of March.

Well, with his new gigs doing DJ and karaoke, we ended up cancelling our hotel reservations for the weekend.  Me, the hubby, and my little brother were up at 3AM on Friday...out of the house by 4:30AM.  I rode backseat all the way there with a comforter and pillow.  Well, except for when we stopped at McDonald's and I stuffed my face full of a bacon, egg, and cheese McGriddle.

Speaking of McGriddles, why don't they have more syrup?  Just a touch.  Not, like, drowning in it.  I feel like it's just a little too little.  Can you make McGriddles at home?  If so, somebody please share a recipe with me.  I will be eating breakfast 24/7.

Then I think I woke up about three times when we had to pull over on I-69 across who knows how many lanes because we were just doing 80MPH (and getting passed) and my hood latch decided to f*ck up and my hood kept popping up.  Each time I sat straight up, terrified that we were being pulled over for who knows what, because I was sleeping so I had no idea.

Poopyface is not an intentional teacher. Poopyface is the keeper of the keys to the cupboard.

Anyway, I'm glad I slept all but the last thirty minutes of the drive because the drive home made me realize how nervous the hub's mad driving skills and road rage make me.  His confidence is scary.  Where I'd be all careful and end up trapped in the wrong lane and have to turn around umpteen billion times, he just manages to find a crack big enough in a line of traffic and zooms right in.

The conference was amazing!  I rolled in just shy of 8:30AM and found myself smack in front of Lisa Murphy (aka the Ooey Gooey Lady)'s workshop, who happened to have been recommended to me by a coworker.  So, of course, I stood lounging in the doorway until some seat Nazis come and ordered us to find a seat, which I did, because Lisa was cracking me up and I wanted to stick around.  I ended up going to her afternoon session Let's Go Outside, too, and was extremely inspired by my experiences!

Also, I saw keynote speaker Dr. Becky Bailey, did a workshop on the MindUP curriculum, and sweat my butt off with Don Monopoli.  So, I want to share with you (finally) what I have scribbled in my little note pad and what I found moving and most important about my experiences at my first ever early childhood conference.

Lisa Murphy: Child Centered Classrooms

The secret to good teaching is controlling the environment.

• Tell children what you want them to do, not what not to do.
• One rule: People are not for hurting.
• Routinely ask: Who needs something?
• Engage all senses.

When it comes to learning, ask yourself: Can we bring it to them or them to it?

• Needs to be there.
• No abstract.
• Literalness.
• Ask why. Why do we do it? What is this for? Who is this really for?
• Don't do it/buy it just because it's cute.

Play = Learning. Make a binder with proof for the nay-sayers. Must read articles first!

Dr. Becky Bailey

A 1300% higher expulsion rate in preschools than primary schools.

• Preschool can and often does hinder social-emotional development.
• Preschool increases language and cognitive development.
• Accept how it is and solve the problem.

My job is to keep you safe!

• Empathy is impossible without safety and composure.
• STAR: Smile, Take a deep breath, And Relax.
• Know that the child is calling for help and not trying to make you miserable.
• Downloading = Mirror Neurons = Children learning from us.

Switch from seeking control to making connections.

• Connect outside = Connect inside.
• Must have: eye contact, touch, playfulness, and both people present.
• More face to face.
• Give them empathy when they're upset.

Lisa Murphy: Let's Go Outside

35% of our country's elementary schools have eliminated recess.

• Ball + paint + slide
• Blocks outside.
• Chalk + blocks outside.
• Straw bales - books outside
• Spools
• Tires (drill holes in top & side and paint inside with white, acrylic, waterproof paint to keep nay-sayers at bay)

Outside time is NOT wasted time.

• Dress up outside.
• Do not lift to equipment. False sense of mastery.

Ask: What's your plan? DO NOT SHUT IT DOWN!

• Is it life threatening?
• Weaving on a chain link fence
• Use chain link fence as drying rack
• Paper on/taped to walls or fence
• Squirt painting
• Fly swatter painting
• Foot print painting
• Swing/upside down painting

Not everybody needs to do. We need watchers, too.

• Spaghetti paint/throwing
• Bike painting
• Sand in balloons. Same color and one for each hand.
• Hand washing bucket (for more 'neat' or picky children).
• All you really need is water, dirt, and a couple good books.
• Water painting.
• Sensory walk... Walk right through it.
• Ramps and pathways
• Sheets and tarps
• Watercolor on snow

Fast Mini Pizzas

 

When creating my Letter P Lesson Plan, I really wanted to make pizza with the kids.  However, I wanted something a little simpler, personal, and relatively quick.  I discovered similar recipes online whole searching for personal pizzas.  We created a class sign up sheet and put it on the door to the classroom.  The response was amazing and I think most of our 13 kids brought in something; whether it was pizza sauce or cheese or toppings.

Each child was allowed to make their own personalized pizza, which was later cooked and served to them.  All the kids were very excited to eat the pizza they made.  The response was so good at school, and I liked the pizzas myself, so I decided to try it at home too.

I do think the pizzas are a little sweet, but I'm not sure if its the sauce I'm buying or the sandwich thins.  The pizzas were a hit at home too.  Gabriel was only interested in helping with one or two and then he left the rest for Talon and I. To be honest, Talon did all the work on the second batch.  Now he's asks me almost every day if there's something he can do to help with supper.  It's too cute!
 

Ingredients

• 8oz Shredded Cheese
• 1 package Pepperoni
• 1 package Sandwich Thins
• 1 jar Pizza Sauce

Instructions 

1. Preheat over to 375 degrees.
2. Use 1/2 a sandwich thin and add pizza sauce, cheese, pepperoni and any other desired toppings.
3. Repeat step 2 for all sandwich thin halves.
4. Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until desire crispiness.

Notes

Each bag makes 16 mini pizzas. You may choose not to use 1/2, but use the whole sandwich thin for a thicker crust. This makes 8 per bag, and serves approximately 2 people.

Find this recipe and more on my ZipList.

Accidental Teacher

In October I shared that I had started a new job as a substitute teacher at a local preschool.  Ever since elementary school, two professions have drawn me to them.  No matter how I tried to fight my desires or reroute my life plans, I've always ended back where I started.  It's like, I can't fight what I'm suppose to do or who I'm suppose to be.

I've always been passionate about writing, though I often have to kick myself in the butt for my lack of effort anymore.  I rarely write the things I used to (and still do) love to explore in print.  Fiction, especially fantasy, has always been appealing to me.  Every time I read an amazing novel, I am a little pained by the fact that I haven't took it upon myself to explore such wonderful things.  I mean, it could've been my mind that thought of such great things.

Other than writing, I have always had an unexplainable desire to be a teacher.  I seek out knowledge on my own and truly love learning.  However, over the years I've had influential teachers of my childhood tell me it wasn't worth it or I could do better.  As a waitress, I also served several retired teachers' reunions and was always told the same thing:  don't do it.  This was a little sad to me.  I can't lie; it crushed my spirits a little.  I had intended to redirect my career path, though I'm not even sure to what now...I had considered so many options (massage therapist, photographer, computer programmer, web design, etc).

My job at the preschool was, in all honesty, a complete accident.  I was not seeking work in the field, though I was desperately seeking work in general.  I stumbled across the job posting online and couldn't think of a reason not to apply (you'd think the forty minute drive would have been reason enough, right?).  After applying for the job, I called a lot.  I was pretty sure I had it, but I needed to be offered the job before I could have any rest.

Obviously, we know I was offered the job.  At the end of December, I was working full-time (more or less) at a newly opened gas station and subbing at the preschool.  Lucky for me, I had been hounding the assistant director and director about my desire to be full time.  When the assistant Pre-K teacher accepted a new job, guess who was the first to find out?  Me!  You're so smart.  How did you know?  I, literally, knew first.

I never expected to love my job as much as I have.  Even before I accepted the full time job, I was loving it so much more than I had thought I would.  I came into a classroom that was struggling in more ways that I can explain, but the root was behavioral issues and lack of respect for the head teacher.  I have been very aggressive in my attempts to help turn the class around and (not to toot my own horn or anything but) I think it's be a success.  Is my classroom perfect?  No.  Am I always happy with the way situations are handled?  No.

At the end of the day though, I know that I have come into my class giving 110% and left satisfied that I did my best that day.  Expect to hear about some of the trials of day to day life as a Pre-K teacher.