No Place for Coloring...

Hi Everyone!  Right... all one of you.  And by "one" I mean, me reading this post in a couple minutes...   =)  I'm Sam and I'm starting up this Teacher Blog right about.... now.  I've been blog stalking for a while now and I lurk all over the internet for awesome teacher blogs and classroom ideas.  I'm just starting to blog on a regular basis and I'm definitely a straight up beginner with fancy blog stuff.

My plan for this blog is to share cool ideas I find (giving credit where it is due, of course) or awesome ideas/strategies that I might have, and share the occasional "Tale From the Trenches".  I love telling stories about my class since I usually have some interesting characters in there.  Names are with-held and replaced with oh-so-clever nicknames to maintain anonymity.

Tonight I thought I would start this blog off with an explanation of it's title.  "Rigorous Coloring".  What does it all meeeeeeeeeaaaaan???  Well, I've been all over my district.  Lots of us have due to budget cuts in California and an especially cautious district.  In five years I've been at four schools, had five principals, and taught 1st, Kinder, 1st, K-1, and 2nd grade.  Whew!  Anyway, a couple years ago I was placed at a Reading First school to teach a K-1 Combo (criminal, I tell you).  My principal ran a tight ship and was very concerned about the "rigor" in our classrooms.  Having never taught at a Reading First school before, it was a rude awakening to say the least.  No - you may not use anything that isn't Houghton Mifflin.  No - you may not stray from the script in your T.E. No - you may not color in your classroom.  WHAT?!  Yup.  One day I was pulled into my principal's office to be told, "I had to physically remove myself from your classroom today because I was so angry.  You had Kinder students coloring."  Annnnddddd....????  I explained to him that my students were completing a Houghton Mifflin worksheet that asked them to color the vowel with the short u sound before they were using a yellow crayon to highlight sight words in their Phonics Library with a partner after Buddy Reading.  They were then allowed to color the pictures in their Phonics Library as a May Do.  "Well, next time tear up that page and think up another activity because there is no place for coloring at this school."  Oooookay.

I did my time there.  One.  Day.  At.  A.  Time.  So here it is.  My "take that" to the farr away place where coloring is frowned upon.  Let's do this then.  Gonna get some good ideas and fun stories flowing through here.  I hope you come back for more and see how this blog grows!  =)