The perennials of the garden

 This entry I am going to talk about another perennial of the garden besides the cone flower.  But first of all, why are they called perennials when they bloom every year and annuals don’t…like shouldn't annuals bloom every year? They annually bloom, haha. 

Ok, meet Stella.  I taught Stella a couple of years ago.  She is now in second grade and flourishing.  Every day she drops and picks up her brother from my classroom; he is an amazing young boy so maybe in a couple of years I’ll be writing about him too.  She is another why–my daisy why.  Back story before I talk about Stella.

Kindergarten graduation for Stella with Mrs. Griebel, myself, Magdalena and Profe Ana

A few years ago kindergarten classes were located with 1st-4th grade classes.  5th grade was across the street with preschool.  Then the administration decided that it would be better and more appealing to families if we moved the kindergarten across the street and had a kinder center (preschool and kindergarten).  This move and transition was extremely hard for me (I mentioned it in my first entry).  I loved being a part of the community–seeing my past students every day, seeing my co-workers who some of them were my best friends and feeling a part of something big.  This also was during COVID where teaching was different.  We wore masks, we were teaching remotely some of the time, we had half the size of classrooms, it was just hard.  But last year and this year I truly have felt the isolation.  COVID is not much of a thing anymore so we were back to normal teaching. So fast forward to this year, 2023/24 school year.  I am at the kinder center and have a student who has a sibling I had a couple of years ago…Stella.  Oh Stella (I asked her parents if I could use her real name and they said yes).

Every day Stella drops her brother off at kindergarten; well most days unless she decides to jump in the line to head right away across the street.  When she does drop her brother off, Stella talks to me.  Like really talks to me.  Our conversations are all in Spanish and it’s amazing.  She is another why–my daisy why.  I planted that seed a couple of years ago and every year she blossoms even more.  She asks how I am, she asks if I am going to Florida soon, she talks to me about school, her family and of course she asks how her brother is doing (this one makes me laugh because if I say something he needs to work on she says his name just like how a parent would say it), she truly asks about me.  Co-workers often say it looks like I am having a conversation with another adult and that is exactly how it is.  Stella has not only blossomed with her Spanish and obviously with her social interaction skills but also her academics.  It has been fun to see her grow to become a tall, beautiful daisy.  

So why does this second grader care so much about me?  Because I care about her so much.  I care about all my students sooo much.  They are my children. People often ask do you have kids?  I respond and say I have 20 (or however many I have that school year).  They are my why’s.  My past students.  My daisies.  I have a past student who now attends college where I went (Gusties will shine tonight, Gusties will shine).  I have a past student who stopped driving and yelled out of his car Srta. Becky cómo estás? I have past students who now work at LILA in the before and after school program.  I have a past student who was a para in my classroom.

Thank you Stella.  Thank you for taking the time to talk to me.  You truly are going to do something great in this crazy world–along with all of my other past students! You all are my why’s. My daisies.

Week of February 5th-9th My why continues to bloom in this garden full of whys.

 I am overwhelmed with the amount of views, messages, and comments I had last week from my blog post.  I had a good friend of mine let me know that my why story is motivating not only for teachers but for others in different professions.  That is certainly true–we all have our whys and my hope is by sharing my why rediscovery, I can help others find their why in either their professional or personal life.  I have always thought well we spend a lot of our life working so why not find a profession that you can find joy in, that makes you happy.  Teaching does that for me.  Yes, I don’t make a lot of money, yes I understand people leaving college who start in different professions may make more than I make even after 17 years of teaching, but I can’t imagine doing anything else! And like I shared last week I did think about leaving but I’m so grateful I stayed! Ok onto what made this why fully bloom this week.  Let’s call this why (Ramen y dulces) my coneflower in the garden of my whys.

After a nice weekend without getting sick. Phew! I was ready to take on the kids and the restaurant. Our goal this week was to define each role so we could play responsibly together.  Last week I wrote about all the beautiful things that were happening but trust me it wasn’t all sunshine (even though it was 50 degrees in MN!) and rainbows.  I noticed kids not truly understanding their jobs–what was the role of a chef, restaurant manager, cleaner, server and customer.  So that was where they led me for this week. My coneflower was planted last week and started to blossom and bloom this week.  

We started with the restaurant manager.  While we were talking about that of course random questions came up because they are 5 and 6 year olds.  “What if a customer has to go to the bathroom?”  “What if a worker is sick?”  I wrote those down so we could answer those at a different time.  Then we made a list of to do’s for the restaurant manager and that night I made an easy to read check list. 

The next day we defined what a wait staff person does and what tools they use.  One of my assistants Profe Andrés and I role-played (I wish we would have gotten a picture or video of this!).  He was the chef, I was the server and we had two customers.  I modeled what it can look like (boy I am not meant to be a server!).  Afterwards we reflected and yes I asked the question did I forget something?  Oh yes, I did according to the kids!  Haha!  “You forgot to ask if they needed a box to take home, you forgot to tell them to have a nice day, (mind you I did however if you didn’t know this already I teach everything in Spanish so sometimes they miss some things) you forgot to clean up the table after they left.”  They were ready to take on the wait staff role the next day.    

Thinking hard on what to order!

“Let’s pour our drinks into a cup so it’s fancy!”

The following day we dove into what a chef does and what tools they use.  We ended up thinking about a system for RD (Ramen y dulces) so that the chefs don’t feel overwhelmed.  I heard a kid say “this is so hard, I can’t keep up!”  The system we decided was one wait staff would put in the food order to one chef and that chef would only focus on that food.  Great idea coming from the kids!  It’s just amazing the ideas kids have.  If only we asked more of their ideas this world may be a better place. 

The last ‘job’ they said for a restaurant is a maid (truly that was what they called it!).  We talked about what cleaners do and one student said ‘it’s the most important job.’ I asked ‘why,’ and they responded that if there was food on the floor rats would come and the restaurant would shut down.  Well there you have it—cleaners are the most important at a restaurant! My dad would like this one because he always told me all jobs are important and make sure you show appreciation towards others.  He would say write a thank you to someone, that small gesture could make someone’s day–thanks dad for that piece of advice! We all do want to feel appreciated in some way or another.

Our last day consisted of making art for our restaurant.  We learned about what an artist does, what materials they use and why people make art.  I gave them papers with frame templates on it and they created art for a collage wall.  Last week a kid mentioned making sunsets for the restaurant and the class agreed so that’s what we created.  I was impressed with their creativity! Our restaurant is now complete….at least for now.

Beautiful sunsets made by my students.

We celebrated Lunar New Year on Friday–here they are below our Ramen y dulces sign.

My why coneflower fully bloomed this week. One of my students told me they were playing restaurant outside during recess and I even received a couple of emails from parents that their child was playing restaurant at home.  I am so glad the past two weeks I listened and heard my students.  They planted my why and now my why coneflower bloomed—wonder where I’ll find another why for my garden next week….

The beginning of my why...

Have you ever lost your why?  In teaching everyone always talks about their why.  Why I teach.

Why I get up in the morning. Why I plan fun and engaging lessons.  Why I collaborate with my team. 

Why I have fun with my students. It’s the why!  Well a few years ago I lost my why.  I don’t want to blame it on one

particular thing; it was a cumulation of things.  I missed a few past co-workers,I was moved to another building

across the street, I lost my father unexpectedly, I wasn’t taking care of myself physically or mentally, I was seeing

behaviors I had never seen in Kindergarten; the list goes on but those are just to name a few.  So last summer I was

contemplating working a new job (Target?--I can look good in red) maybe just for a year to figure out my why, but I

was scared of change even though my why was gone I held onto hope I would find it again in my teaching.  

Then the school year started.  My classroom was ready for the kids and they were ready to learn! Eager to learn.

They came to school with smiles on their faces and said things like ‘this game is so fun,’ ‘I love this project.’

Not all of them had that attitude but the majority of them did and that positive attitude spread.  I found a little bit of

my why.  Was it coming back this year?  Then at the end of January when a lot of teachers lose their why because of

the Winter, cold, snow, no daylight, my why fully came back!!!  Here I just wanted to share how inquiry, student-led

learning can be the most powerful tool for a teacher (besides maybe wine after a week of hearing your name being

said 200+ times).  

We were starting our How we organize ourselves unit.  The central idea is “A community is made up of people who

live and work together.” Our provocation is having our students dress up as what they want to be when they grow up. 

As they walked in the door you can see the excitement.  We had a parade with all of the Kindergartners and it was

fun to see all the professions from the typical jobs (doctor, police officer) to the unique jobs (DJ, YouTuber).  We had

some different activities planned for them but what really gave me the why was when the students had free play. I

looked around the classroom and saw magic happening.  Some kids set up a beauty salon and pretended

(thank goodness) to cut each other’s hair.  

“Srta. Becky I’ll do your nails while they cut your hair.”

Others took the classroom stuffed animals and played Veterinarian, the Yoga teacher even joined in the play

because she wanted to teach Yoga to the animals to help calm them down.

“I’m helping Clifford calm down before his shot!”

  Then I looked over at the kitchen area and saw the chefs making food, the construction worker hammering the

restaurant’s table to fix it and the artists painting the restaurant a mural.  

“I am measuring for the restaurant”

“This is a painting for the restaurant” 

I was in awe.  They were coming together to create that restaurant.  During our reflection the architect said

“I can build a lego model of the restaurant and the construction worker can build it.”  The Field of Dreams quote

entered my head “If you build it they will come.”  So what did we decide to do—make a restaurant in our classroom. 

My why was alive!

I went home on a Friday and my head was spinning–there was soooo much we could do.  We could connect it to math

, literacy, writing, oh my!  I had to slow down and truly think about how this could work but also allow my students

to take the lead.  On Monday I assigned the two chefs to come up with a name for the restaurant–they decided on

Ramen y dulces (Ramen and sweets), RD for short.  That day I allowed more play to happen and listened to what the

kids said.  I wrote down what they were saying–I heard things like ‘it’s crowded in here’ ‘I want to be a maid so I can

clean the restaurant’ ‘who is going to be the customer.’ On Tuesday I allowed more play to happen, we reflected,

looked at different pictures of restaurants and talked about our plan.  We would have the architect be in charge

(he would verbally give us directions instead of building a lego model) and we would help the construction worker

to build it.  So Wednesday we were ready (unfortunately this week the flu was going around so the construction

worker was sick) but we kept on going.  The kids said ‘we can help Bob (I’ve changed the name of the construction

worker) since he is sick.’  So this part was hard for me….I usually like to be in control but nope I let a 6 year old

take over.  The 6 year old architect gave us his plan.  He would say ‘move that tree over there,’ ‘move the tables

like this,’ ‘Srta. Becky hang the plants above the tables,’ ‘Oh we need our St. Lucia lights’ (we learned about

St. Lucia during our celebrations unit so we had candles).  I was in awe.  Here were these 5 and 6 year olds all

working together to create an amazing restaurant.  

Afterwards we circled up and reflected again–what went well, what did they like, what did they notice.  Then I told

them to go home and think about who else works at a restaurant besides chefs.  Thursday came and I had 5 more

kids gone, but we kept on going!  I listened to them again in the restaurant and wrote what they were saying down

‘we need menus, decorations and a sign so people know what our restaurant is’—this would keep driving our inquiry.

  After free play we talked about who else works at a restaurant.  They said ‘maids, servers and a manager.’ I asked

how many do they think we need of each.  We decided together how many we needed.  Side note for the servers they

were saying numbers like 100, 50, 10 and then I noticed a girl stand up, count the tables in the restaurant, sit down

and raise her hand.  I called on her and she said 7!  I asked why, she said because there are 7 tables.  A few students

stood up and started to count and one student said yep that’s right 7!  We defined each role and talked about their

responsibilities.  We even discussed how customers ‘should’ act at a restaurant.  That afternoon I made necklaces

for the different jobs and planned for Friday where we would make decorations (connect it to math), menus

(connect it to literacy) and the sign.  

Well Friday came and guess what?  I had 8 kids gone so only 12 kids in the class but we kept on going!  For

decorations we made paper chains. Students worked in groups of two to decide what pattern they would make

(AB, AABB, ABB, ABC), then they picked colors and worked together to make the chains.  For the sign I had them

vote the day before what images they wanted on the sign and I drew it up (my best teacher drawing) on a big piece

of paper and the kids worked together to color the sign. 

 

For the menus I printed out clipart pictures of ramen, desserts and drinks.  One of my assistants

(picture below–gracias Profe Anna!) made a cover for the menu and the kids cut and glued what they wanted in

their menu.  

I saw a little girl giggling and I asked ‘what’s so funny?’ She responded ‘I’m just so excited, I love this!’ 

There’s my why.  I don’t know what Monday will bring, how many kids will be sick or what the kids will say

while playing in our restaurant. But I do know I found my why again and this Friday night my teacher heart is full

(and my tummy is a little wonky as well).