Miss Green (that’s me)

I, Carolann Green, have made it to my second placement. Now it’s just eight weeks and 19 third graders standing between me and graduation!

Let me tell you, they’re just such wonderful third graders! I have spent about four weeks with them now, and they are so great. If student teaching was supposed to help me determine what grade I wanted to teach after graduating it’s not helping! Although second graders and third graders are very different curriculum and behavior wise they are both just wholesome and pure ages to work with.

Anyways, these third graders really are just a great bunch of students. I know I keep repeating myself, but they deserve the praise! One student has gotten me into Harry Potter, and we discuss it every morning. Another tries to teach me how to floss — although I'm not very good at it — I get to see him laugh at my horrible dance moves!

Another student makes it a POINT to say good morning to me every morning. I want to cry! They are so amazing!

Also, I thought I learned a lot from my first co-op, but here I am with my third grade co-op and she also has so much to offer. She taught me this teaching strategy called whole brain teaching (it’s AMAZING, you must google it) that just gets the children so engaged by using motions and repetition.

I have my plate full with lesson planning and teaching too! I dressed up in a ridiculous Albert Einstein costume to kick off multiplication. I made a mess of the classroom having children trace their spelling words in flour, and I got to teach the children about some local history for social studies!

— Carolann Green, a senior early childhood education major

So happy this is my life

Did you ever have one of those moments where you sit in your car and just have a good cry?

Well, that was me around 3:45 yesterday in the school parking lot. I was not crying out of stress or anger, but I was ugly crying because I had to say goodbye to 19 second graders that have a permanent spot in my heart.

Yesterday was my last day in second grade, and I move onto third grade tomorrow. I mean I'm staying in the same school — and when it really comes down to it — I'll see them in the hallways but STILL there I was blubbering like a baby in my car (I'm a rather sensitive person so just bare with me.)

Reflecting on how they started in the beginning of the school year and how they ended yesterday, they have progressed so well in my opinion. I went from saying “shh” 100 times a lesson to giving them a verbal reminder twice a day to raising their hand and turning around in their seats!

One of my students who would cry about something every single day has shed ZERO tears in the last two days! Another student who shows NO emotion whatsoever gave ME a hug and invited me to his birthday party!

I’m tired and coffee is running through my veins, but it was all worth it. The constant reflecting and my 47-page unit plan were all worth it.

I was immersed in topics and activities like:

• exploring maps and globes
• the ever dreaded common core mathematics (which actually isn’t that bad and has immensely improved my own math skills)
• the butterfly life cycle

... and I even got to meet a famous children’s author Marty Kelley.

I can’t forget to give credit to my wonderful teacher who I worked under. She is such a wonderfully organized teacher that I have no excuse NOT to be on top of my stuff when I get my own classroom. I’m just so happy this is my life. I may have grey hairs, but my heart is truly full!

— Carolann Green, a senior early childhood education major

It's finally here!

I'm finally a part of a real, fun, chaotic, and happy classroom! I have about 19 children in my second grade classroom I so graciously get to student teach until mid-October.

I'm in my second week, and all I can say is what a joy! Of course, it's a little crazy and I feel like I have to wash my hands every minute but let me tell you I'm sure happy to be here. Already, I get to grade the children’s homework and their tests. I have my own little desk and when I actually have down time I find myself daydreaming of what my very own classroom is going to look like and what posters I will be hanging on my walls.

Before even getting into the classroom I felt myself becoming nervous and feeling unprepared. I mean, yah my professors did all they could to better prepare me for student teaching, including the ever-long lesson plan writing and the abundant amount of group projects but nothing really prepares you until you’re actually in the classroom. Nothing could have prepared me for the fact I'm going to have to remember what I'm teaching that day on top of all the other little things that come along with this career.

For example, there’s one child who needs to take his water bottle to lunch because he can’t drink milk, and there’s two children who are going home at 1 p.m., so they need to have their homework ready in their folders to go home and do not forget to keep an eye on that child because they just sneezed all over their desk, so they need to get up and wash their hands and you have to clean their desk off.

Oh! And don’t forget that child because he needs to go to the nurse, and OH there’s a fire drill today that will interrupt our math lesson? Okay, let me just put that on my list!

In the end, I wouldn’t want it any other way! The moment when you’re in front of the classroom teaching addition or on the floor reading to the children and you get to see them laugh or smile or think is what makes it all worth it. I am constantly finding myself feeling an overwhelming amount of pride and joy when I can see little George or Amy finally understand a concept or when they get excited whipping their hand up in the air because they know the answer to a problem.

I can not wait to see what these next seven weeks hold for me!

— Carolann Green, a senior early childhood education major

Leaving a lasting impact

Well, it seems 14 weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye! As our days staffing the BU Toy Library come to a close, I cannot help but get emotional! The BU Toy Library has been my home this semester and all of our projects hold a piece of my heart, but I cannot help but be excited for the future of the Toy Library.

I am most excited for the Friends of the BU Toy Library Early Literacy Program. The response we received from the five preschools we visited this semester has been overwhelming and very rewarding. All five classrooms practically begged for this program to continue throughout the whole year!

It was so gratifying to see how thankful the teachers were and how much fun the children had.

The second thing I am most excited for is the Say Y.E.S. Program. It is amazing to see a project which focuses on teaching children about giving back and actually enacting it in ways they know how such as crafts. The possibilities and potential of these programs are endless and to know that we were the pioneers of them is so exciting! Of course the smiles on the children’s faces and gratitude of the Say Y.E.S. recipients were meaningful, but it was everything for Dr. Mary-Katherine Duncan to thank us and tell us we were part in creating a legacy.

It is great to know the lasting impact of all our hard work this semester and to have the ability of coming back several years later and still see our work in progress.

Leaving a lasting impact to something bigger than myself was a huge goal for me this semester and it feels amazing to have achieved that. I could not be more grateful or the opportunity provided to me for personal and professional growth in so many ways. I have grown in my organizational and leadership skills, my diplomacy and professionalism, and knowledge of child development.

These are skills I will be able to use throughout my life and I am excited to see when, where, and how. Graduating this semester is bittersweet. BU has been my heart and soul for five long years, but knowing that a part of me will always be here and in the community makes moving on a little easier. I am beyond excited to see the great accomplishments of the Toy Library and its practicum students in the future and how they will grow our students and community!

— Ashlie Hess is a graduate assistant with BU Toy Library.

#CollaborativeLearning

Say Y.E.S. to literacy learning

Mary Katherine Duncan, Ph.D., professor of psychology, and myself have been chugging along on the BU Toy Library’s Say Y.E.S. (Youth Engaged in Service) program. It is a program designed to utilize the BU Toy Library’s Y.O.O. Rock Columbia County: Youth Outreach Opportunities, which lists dozens of local nonprofit organizations and agencies, as well as outreach opportunities to benefit each site.

A Service Club was created at St. Columba School for a group of students enrolled in the afterschool program who opted to participate. Like most BU Toy Library initiatives, Say Y.E.S. is committed to honoring all of the ways that individuals process information and to fostering their cognitive competencies, thus service club focused on interpersonal intelligence, spatial intelligence, and linguistic intelligence.

Say Y.E.S. emphasizes interpersonal intelligence, or children’s ability to relate to people, by selecting community projects in service of others to elevate them. For each project, the children are learning about the site, its function, how it helps people, and why they would benefit from the crafts we would gift them with.

Say Y.E.S. targets spatial intelligence, or children’s ability to visualize things by incorporating drawing, sculpting, coloring, and constructing things into our projects.

Through the use of the BU Toy Library’s die cut machine, Say Y.E.S. builds upon children’s spatial intelligence through craft projects.

Say Y.E.S. also encourages the children’s linguistic abilities—specifically, reading and writing, through activities like handcrafting banners to adorn the rooms at assisted living facilities and cards for hospitalized children.

The projects we are working on this semester in service club include:

• decorating grocery totes for the Bloomsburg Food Cupboard to provide to local patrons
• making mosaic Easter sunrise banners for citizens of the Maria Joseph Continuing Care Community
• putting together care packages including hand-crafted book marks and cards for children and families at the Ronald McDonald House
• making diaper bags for new and expecting mothers at Your Loving Choices, including hand crafted Happy Birthday cards, door hangers, and mobiles

— Ashlie Hess is a graduate assistant with BU Toy Library.

#CollaborativeLearning

Having fun with literacy learning

We recently kicked off the BU Toy Library’s Early Literacy programming!

We are visiting Children’s Country Cottage, Magic Carpet Preschool, 5th Street Head Start, and Town Park Head Start. For Children’s Country Cottage, our main focus for our six-week programming is vocabulary development. Each week we bring in a book and activity from our Elephant and Piggie shelves, which are books developed to increase children’s vocabulary. The themes we have covered so far are outer space, health, and weather.

As for our other locations, we are focusing on one early literacy skill a week and tailor them to the themes of the preschools. For phonological awareness, which is a child’s understanding of a words sounds and syllables, we made our own interactive game with the children focusing on rhyming.

We created mats with pictures on them and when we held up a picture (which was our target word), the children had to hop to the word that rhymes with the word we held up. The children loved this activity, because it got them active and moving and it really enhanced their knowledge about rhyming.

For narrative skill, which is a child’s ability to sequence events and tell stories, we reinforced the concepts of sequencing with the children by singing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” along with a bulletin board that mapped out the story. As we sang the song, children came up to the board and placed each event that occurred on the board in order.

Afterwards, we created our own spider puppets using cut outs from our Ellison Die Cut Machine so the children could have a character to sing their song with. The children loved being a part of creating our storyboard and enjoyed being about to create their own spider to take home with them and sing the story along with their parents and guardians.

For print motivation, which is getting children interested in reading and writing through play, first, we read the book “A Closer Look.” This is an interactive book that encourages children to guess what an object is when looking at it very close up. The children had to visualize what the big picture looked like, or what the object actually was when viewing farther away.

Afterwards, we used materials from our Explorer play costumes and our Naturalistic Intelligence Tote to explore close up a variety of seeds that grow in the spring. The children studied the seeds and had to make guesses about what plant they thought it grows in to.

The kids loved guessing the objects within the story and were very active. They enjoyed being able to take their time and examine the seeds with the magnifying glasses and other materials we brought. They had very interesting guesses and they had a lot of fun!

— Emily Haines is an intern with BU Toy Library.

#CollaborativeLearning

A unique play and literacy resource center

The BU Toy Library exists to support the academic and professional development of undergraduate and graduate students across departments and programs. It gives them access to hundreds of literacy and play resources that support and expand their interactions with individuals of all developmental ages and abilities.

The BU Toy Library is unique among other toy lending libraries insofar as it serves as a vehicle for mobilizing an entire community of scholars in service to others through outreach initiatives and volunteer work.

The BU Toy Library is a resource, training, outreach, and research center. Our resources are available for students and professionals involved in teaching, practicum, internship, clinic work, course projects, and volunteer work.

As a training center, we provide online tutorials, guidebooks, classroom presentations, and professional conference workshops. As an outreach center, many professionals within the community use our resources. This semester we are implementing the “Say Yes! Program” which is Youth Engaged in Service to teach youth volunteerism using our established “Y.O.O Rock Columbia County” Guide. The BU Toy Library is also research center where students and faculty alike can develop, implement, and assess innovative resources and programs.

Check out our biannual newsletter to see all the different ways that the BU Toy Library has served our campus and our community!

Feedback from toy library members includes:

• “I wanted to thank you for the amazing resource of the Toy Library and how much it has supported our program.” –Speech Pathology Graduate Student
• “The children loved the magnetic board animal habitat, they wanted to play with it the entire session!” –Speech Pathology Graduate Student
• “Children and parents loved the play-food we used [for a healthy eating Educational Expo]!” –Community Elementary School Teacher
• “The puppets were very popular and well received” –Early Childhood Education Student
• “Elephant and Piggie books along with puppets were used and the children absolutely adored them!” –Early Childhood Education Student

Give us a call at 570-389-3915, send us an email at butoylibrary@bloomu.edu, or stop by MCHS 3213 for a visit or to learn more about the BU Toy Library. We’re open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Membership is free!

— Emily Haines is an intern with BU Toy Library.

#CollaborativeLearning