I've kinda been hung up on this post.  I feel like before I can begin to "blog" about my classroom transformation I need to lay the groundwork.

 The class that I am currently enrolled in, Action Research for the Educator, was in my mind the worst class I was going to take.  I dreaded the research part! I'm going to cheat for a minute and steal from my own class discussion post, so that you can get an idea how the first week in this dreaded class panned out:
"As I pondered this class and wondered what it would have to offer me, I honestly thought that I would be bored with the content;  research does not sound like something that I was looking forward to learning.  However, my mind was quickly changed as I watched Kevin Berry, elementary school teacher in the “Dial A Researcher” portion of the class resources, speak about the changes he was able to influence on a higher educational level because of the research he was conducting.  He stated that one of the benefits of teacher research is that it results in positive changes in the teaching practice, and that it can influence policy change on not only the school level, but all the way up to the state level (LEI, 2010a).  At that point it dawned on me, that this is the class that takes us beyond being well educated educators and makes us educational professionals.  Research professionals Dr. Nancy Dana and Dr. Diane Yendol-Hoppey affirm that so often teachers are expected not only respond to all the needs of the children in their classroom, but they are also expected to respond to all the changes advocated by professionals outside the schools. “Teachers’ voices have typically been absent from larger discussions about educational change and reform” (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, p. 1, 2009).  It is time to change this stigma.  Teachers voices should be the first ones heard when change is at hand.  Teachers should be the professionals advocating necessary changes.  Action research will not only inform my teaching and classroom practices, but it will also inform future change.
I think that the general public sees teachers as just that- “just teachers”.  We are in the classroom instructing, and grading, and teaching, but that’s all.  Sadly, this is the case too much of the time.  In light of the realizations that I have already come to (I am ready to play a larger role in the inner workings of educational change), I would like for the public to see that teachers are not only instructors,  but that we are researchers striving to make necessary changes in the world of education.  There are so many decisions made in the state government level regarding education that I do not always agree with, or that need to go further.  I am not content anymore to just sit back and watch.  I want for the public to see that teachers, the ones who are in the classroom 8 plus hours a day implementing these policies that the government puts into place, are also making a difference in policy and changes.  It is important to not just sit and complain about the way things are, but to take a step toward influencing that change."
(Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010a). Dial-A-Researcher:Week 1-  Introduction.  [Video webcast].  Action Research For Educators. Retrieved from  http:// www.courseurl.com
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2010b). Student Course Introduction.  [Video webcast].  Action Research For Educators. Retrieved from  
 http:// www.courseurl.com
Dana, N.F., Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2009). The Reflective Educators Guide to Classroom  Research. Corwin Press: Thousand Oaks, CA)

Ok.  Let me start with my "wandering"


“How can learning centers be used to improve literacy among kindergarten students?”
"Moving my classroom from a lecture based class to a centers based class room will take a few major changes to accomplish. The first and most obvious change will come in the way that my classroom is set up- they physical make up of my small class. I have a small classroom with 2 doors, and no windows.  It is divided in 2 areas, the learning area and the play area. Currently, the focus in my class is the chalkboard.   All desks are pointed to the board,  all posters and game boards are taped to the wall directly in front of the desks on the wall beside the board.  For this study, and the upcoming school year, I am going to do away with the division between the learning area of the class and the play area.  These two ideas are going to mesh into one.  The entire classroom will be devoted to learning and fun.  I am going to have to continue to use the chalkboard for group instruction, however, the instructional posters, and game boards will be spread around the room.  There will be tables set up to use for center play.  I am also going to create a reading center in which the students will feel comfortable laying back and practicing their growing literacy skills.  All centers will be organized in baskets at kid level.  I will create a physical environment in which all students are able to find something that catches their interest.
As far as my actual teaching is concerned, I am going to revise my daily schedule.  There will be a time for the typical instruction in which I will stand in front of the class and teach and they will answer questions.  This time will be reduced by half.  The remainder of the instruction time, plus some, will be used as center time.  I will give the students instruction and allow them to explore the centers to practice the new skills, therefore,  the amount of student worksheets will be reduced.
In the midst of all these changes, I will be collecting data and researching the benefits of these changes with my students.  I plan to gauge the effectiveness of the study by analyzing the standardized testing scores, the reading levels of students, and over all academic grades. "

Ok, now that the groundwork is lain, we can get down to the fun stuff.  I am going to use a lot of pictures to show the transformation.

These pictures are how my classroom looks right now.  All my stuff is in the hallway.  You could look at it as bare and empty but I look at it as a clean slate.

So the transformation begins!!!

So don't expect me to be a blogger who logs on everyday and creates a new inspirational, witty post.  I just don't have time for that!! But I will post as much as possible.

The reason I created this blog is in response to a masters course assignment.  The class is Action Research for Educators. I thought I would hate it, I mean an entire 8 week course about research...BLAH!!! But, one day into the class and I was hooked! (I know I'm a dork!) So for this course we are creating an action research project (research that takes place within the classroom with the teacher as the researcher).  The project is a 24 week study. So my project is "How do learning centers affect literacy in kindergarten students?"  When I started my beginning research I came across several blogs where teachers had blogged and documented classroom centers.  So, I am going to take this opportunity to document the changes that are going to take place in my little kindergarten classroom over the next 5 weeks until school starts.  And then the effects of those centers during the year.  And of course I'll throw in my kids antics too :)

(One of my two year olds today told me "Mommy, I want to be grown up so I can go to college, drive a car, and chew bubble gum"   least he has his priorities in line :)

This is where it all began

Ok, here goes.  I am a wife to a loving, caring, supportive man; mom to 5 EXTREMELY energetic little boys (8, 6, 4, 3, 3 years old).  I am a teacher, and a student.  My life is crazy busy, hectic, tiring, but I am "pressed down, shaken together, and running over" as my dad would say.  In other words, I AM BLESSED!!!

A little about me to get started.  I am 32 years old.  My hubby and I have been married for almost 10 years.  We met in college.  I looked across a crowded cafeteria and saw this guy dancing on the table.  That was it for me.  I told my roommate and best friend  that I was going to fall in love with that guy some day, and that' s just what I did.  It took him a little longer to fall in love with me, but he fell!  We married in 2003 and our first son was born 18 months later.  Two years later another little blue bundle of joy came along.  Then 2 years later, another.  Then we got our twins.  And here we are, almost 10 years and 5 boys later.  The BIG question we get asked almost once a week-"Are you going to try for a girl?" I answer the same way every time (I'm sure my hubby is getting tired of hearing me say) "We were trying for a girl and got twin boys.  I think that was God's way of telling us to stop" :)  And we stopped :)

Now that I have my body back and am not concentrating on being pregnant or caring for a baby, I have been able to focus some of my attention on my career.  I started my teaching career when I was pregnant with my first Bubby.  My bachelor's degree is in English.  Not a mistake, but not a very lucrative degree either.  So I began my teaching degree in one day care center after another.  I was miserable, underpaid, and felt insignificant (now that I am a mom who's kiddos are in daycare, I can tell you that day care teachers are NOT insignificant).  It just wasn't what I needed to fulfill the teacher within me.  After Maddux was born, the mom within me emerged and all I wanted to do was be a mommy.  My inner teacher shriveled and almost died.  We did not have the money for me to be a stay at home mommy, so I settled for daycare so that I could be near him everyday.  Baby #2 came along.  After Gavin was born I did not end up going back to work.  I wanted to (needed to) but the center that I had been in had not openings for him.  So I continued praying about what God wanted me to do, and started sending out resumes.  Lo and behold, a private school (k3-12, that had a daycare) called me for an interview.  It was a k5 position.  I was on cloud nine.  I got the job, and my 2 babies were right there in the daycare.  I took over for a teacher who was moving to another state, so I came in in January.  That inner teacher that I mentioned, well, she was being nourished!  And started to grow.  I sat at my desk the afternoon before my first day, scared out of my mind, over analyzing everything, and wrote a journal entry.  I believe it went something like this "I love my desk, I love my chalk board, I love my grade book, I love my classroom" HEHEHE.

I taught k5 there for 4 years until the school unexpectedly closed. Very quickly after putting out resumes, I was offered a position at another small private school as the 4th grade teacher, and part time middle school Bible teacher.  That was a very challenging year.  In November I got pregnant with the twins, and dealt with the physical strain that put on me.  But in the classroom I had several boys who wanted to try to bully me.  As a fairly young, inexperienced teacher who only wanted these kids to accept me (mistake #1) I took this very hard.  One of the boys had documented anger management issues (had an anger management counselor shadow him 3 days a week), and the other boy was following in the first's footsteps because the first was a cool kid.  Admittedly, they were both trying to get me to quit.  Eventually I had to start my maturity leave a week before school ended, and I did not return the following year.  I took a year off to be mom.  Unlike before, it was not my intention to find a way to become a stay at home mom.  By this point, that teacher within me had become a huge part of who I was.  But I knew that taking a year to be only a mommy was something that I would never regret.  My kids were getting big and wouldn't need me to be home with them much longer.  I knew that I would have the rest of my life to be a teacher, but my years of mommy were flying by.  So I took a school year to be just that.  I loved every minute of it, but by February I had already called my administrator to be sure that she would save a position for me.  The following year I went back to the same school, this time as the middle and high school language, history, and Bible teacher.  After all, I had gotten my degree in English because I wanted to be that middle school teacher who reached out to all the kids who just needed someone to listen to them :) I had some good kids, but they were all middle schoolers...and all that that entails.

During that year I also made the decision to continue my education, and enrolled in Walden University to earn my masters degree in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment.  I began to feel about private school as I did about daycare.  It wasn't the final landing place for my career.  I knew that God wanted more from me. Public school was the next logical step.  The problem was, that my English degree did not earn me a teaching certificate.  So I can not move on to public school until I finish my masters and earn my South Carolina teachers certificate.  I have 3 classes left to complete.  And plan to go straight into my doctorate.

Last year I moved back to a kindergarten teaching position.  This is where I am most comfortable, feel most successful, and most in tune with that teacher within.  Kindergarten is where I feel at home.  And I am back there this year.

I feel that blogging may become my stress release.  So hold on- here I come.