Author: Janis Sexton

Retired elementary public school teacher; all thirty-eight years in Florida... Now spending my time advocating for our children, and their right to strong public school education...With an appreciation for the arts, and the magic in each day✨...
Posted in Reflections, Thoughts About Children

Begin Again…

Posted on by Janis Sexton

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Summer will soon be over for me, as I always like to start back early to set up my classroom…

Starting back earlier than the required time, gives me the much needed time to plan, organize, and utilize my creativity hoping to make it a “great year”…

I have found through my many years of experience;

Setting up a well organized classroom is fundamentally crucial to the success of the beginning of a new school year…

Supplies are essential, and I do hope my new students will be able to contribute…However, because our school has such a diverse population, I do realize, and understand many will not be able to help…We teachers do receive a small  budget, so in order to provide for our children, we do have to pay for much of our supplies out of our own pocket…

I can always hope after the many years of teaching, we would have the necessary funding and support for our precious children and our public education system…

I do love utilizing my creativity in decorating the classroom…I do believe a classroom, especially with young children, should be warm and inviting…one that will inspire
learning…

My hope is to have such a classroom, even with all the rigors and demands…My children will want to learn, and want to return each and every day!

Summer… Time for reflection…

This 2013-2014 school year is over…With each year, the summer gives me that chance to reflect…

My first thought, this year especially, is acknowledging how exhausted I am; All the extra demands of testing and keeping up the pace of a more challenging curriculum…While striving to keep the children motivated and engaged…

I do also worry how my children spend their summer’s free time…

Throughout the school year I spent my teaching time encouraging them the “love of reading”; encouraging parents to take their child to the public library…And now with this extra time, I so do hope my parents “if” they have the time in their challenging lives… to take their child to the public library… to become the owner of their personal library card, that will open up their “World” to all the joys of the Public Library; SummerPrograms..Movies…Reading Books…And free Computer time!

I will most definitely worry about my children; and how regularly they will eat…So many of them come from such chaos, and our classroom providing them that safety net.. At school they would have their breakfast, lunch, and many snacks that I would routinely provide…

Most of all, I too will be able to come back to school in August ready and recharged to be the best I can be… even with all its demands and rigors…Our children deserve no less…

Summer…A Time…to Reflect…

Quote• Posted on by Janis Sexton
Posted in Reflections

Final Stretch…

Posted on by Janis Sexton

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We are now nearing the end of our 2014 year… This is an extremely busy time… Lots to finish up with the children; testing, meetings,cleaning up and record keeping; and all of this, of course, while keeping the children engaged…

We enjoy taking field trips, especially the end of the year field trip to a park; where we celebrate our year with parents and family with a cookout…. Thanking them for supporting our program…..

I am always utilizing my creativity and still find ways to keep teaching until the end, hopefully my children will have the foundation to be ready for second grade…. I will miss them and of course, worry….For them the summer is a long time….

Posted in Reflections

Spring Break…2014

Posted on by Janis Sexton

A week to rest and recharge…  My Children need that time for a break too!

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I do have concerns with many of my children… They have a week off to be in very unstructured lives… Many do  not eat well, nor sleep well…  I do try to instill and empower them with the desire to make safe choices, I try to provide reading and math work to do over this break….But of course they are little ones, and I do worry…

We love the month of February…We have so much to look forward to besides the stressors and rigors of curriculum and testing....

With my planning and organization, I do find creative ways to allow time for celebrating Valentine’s Day, and President’s Day through creative writing, reading ,and art… Might even utilize math activities, as well...

The children wrote a Valentine’s Day poem to their family, with illustrations; decorated Valentine’s bags, and brought in cards for their classmates that were to be done by themselves….We had a Valentine Social sharing our love and exchanging Valentines….

The children loved learning about our Presidents; George Washington and Abraham Lincoln…We learned about the history of our Flag….

We will celebrate this patriotic unit with a culminating activity for our parents; a patriotic program that will include songs that we learned in our music class….All our first graders will share in this exciting performance, and our wonderful music teacher directing…

Teaching should really be about making learning fun and interesting…. It really is so much more than tests and collecting data….

(more…)

February… a Busy Month…

Posted in Reflections

Celebrate…100 days!…

Posted on by Janis Sexton

Monday, February 3rd  will be our “100 days”  of the school year celebration… This is a milestone for us… On this special occasion, learning activities, especially in math will    commemorate this special milestone…

” What can we count using the magical number”100″?

“If you were given $100.00, how would you spend the money?”

At this time, first graders are realizing they can do  more learning becoming active in their learning; listening and following teacher directions; becoming more independent…I can read!

Now, we  are more than half way on the path to becoming a second grader!

Continue reading “Celebrate…100 days!…” →

Posted in Reflections

We Value Working Hard…

Posted on by Janis Sexton

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I have learned over the many years that I have taught, children who come from challenging homes, do have the same potential and capabilities as those of my students who are blessed with parents that have the time to support their child’s education…

Yet…this value of working hard must be taught and appreciated… As a teacher, I would have hoped to have all my children ready to learn and work hard….

However, many of today’s children living in these challenging homes, I have found, have a difficult time accepting and achieving this value…I believe it is because they have learned early in life from their role models, to give up when challenged or not even to try…

This is where my role as their advocate, teacher is there to love and understand their lives….The difference is, I will not enable their “learned helplessness”….I provide a safe, strong, hardworking classroom… I will be a strong role model….that values who they are…We will always try… “Never Giving Up”!

Posted in Reflections

Second Chances…

Posted on by Janis Sexton

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Many of my children come from homes without structure…Some may even come from neglect and chaos…I have always believed children are precious and innocent, hearts filled with love…

Yet, because of dire circumstance, some can exhibit instability and anger…
So much of my day is teaching my children how to operate safely, hoping to enable empowerment and inspiration….

What makes our teaching more challenging is the lack of funds in Public Education and Title I schools; our resources are fewer, however expectations are more demanding,

Now more than ever, funding is critical!!!

We must be able to teach with a smaller class size, to be able to provide more one to one help for our children from these unstructured home situations ….

And moreover, the benefit of having a well trained paraprofessional assigned to aid in those special demands of children who are in need of extra attention …

Our school does have a guidance counselor however, he or she is so tied up with RTI data and coordinating meetings….Because of this lack of funds, there is a need for more counselors who can give all those special children the benefit from a strong guidance counseling program…

However, they may fall through the cracks!…It is our hope to give each child their opportunity…to be a success…

Even as many teachers try with all their efforts, in spite of these challenges…

It is so heartbreaking that because of fewer resources and funding…We may not able to provide some of our children their chance… deserving that chance to become their best!!!