There’s a First for Everything – Fargo SQL Saturday #SQLSat175

This past weekend, we had the first ever SQL Saturday in Fargo, North Dakota. It turned out to be an awesome event, in more ways than one!

I was fortunate enough to be part of the organizing committee for this SQL Saturday event with Jason Strate (@StrateSQL|blog), Jes Borland (@grrl_geek|blog), and Ted Krueger (@onpnt|blog). Although all four of us have experience planning SQL Saturdays, this one was unique in that we were planning it completely remotely. Jes and Ted are both on the East/Southeastern side of WI, Jason and I are in the Twin Cities in MN. Microsoft was generous enough to not only offer us the facilities for the event, but also took care of many of the details for us. Being that the event was at one of Microsoft’s Executive Briefing Centers, and there was going to be a certain important visitor later, they had pretty high security in place. The staff printed hard plastic name badges for everyone registered. They had them all laid out, and had lanyards for attendees to grab. They also told us they’d be printing signs for each of the rooms with the schedule for the day. I expected a printed sheet of paper, instead, they printed very large, very professional signs for us!  They also printed out Event Evaluation forms for attendees to complete. There were two staff members, Star and Kelly, available to help us. They were amazing!

When we got there, we got right to work setting everything else up. Paul (@mnDBA) and Jen Timmerman (@JenUMN) were extremely helpful volunteers, in that Jen “manned” the printing station for those who did not print their Speed PASSes. Paul helped with that as well, I cut the tickets once they printed, and made sure people got their swag bags with information from the sponsors, and their SQL Saturday lanyards, courtesy of PASS. We tweaked the process once or twice, and it went as smooth as I’ve seen registration go! That was a good way to start the day.

Once sessions start, the organizers got to sit back and just let the day flow. Over lunch, Karla Landrum (@karlakay22), Community Evangelist for PASS, Jason, and a few other Regional Mentors and Chapter Leaders met with some locals who wanted more information on getting a user group started in the Fargo area. The goal of holding this SQL Saturday, was to get a user group going in that area. It sounds like it’s really going to happen soon! As they say in the twitterverse, “#winning”!

The second session after lunch, we were asked to make sure everyone was in sessions. We were on the second level of the Briefing Center, and could see a stage set up just below us. We knew Bill Gates happened to have a Q & A session scheduled for his employees and their families that day. We didn’t realize we’d be able to see and hear him! Microsoft expected about 900 employees to come hear him talk, that’s why they wanted us to clear the area. Some of our attendees were disappointed. Shortly after Bill Gates began, they told us that our attendees were welcome to watch him talk as well. They said community is very important to him, and he would not want anyone to feel they weren’t welcome. I think the fact that it wasn’t as crowded as they had expected also helped with this decision.

A quick aside that’s very exciting for PASS: There were two smaller “Executive Briefing Rooms.” We were using one for sessions. Bill Gates was apparently in the room next to it, waiting for his turn to go on stage. He saw the signs, and asked what SQL Saturday is. The employees told him a little about it; that it’s day of free training for SQL Server professionals, etc. He asked how often they have them, and couldn’t believe they are are happening almost every weekend all over the world. He thought it was really cool. When we heard this, we got very excited! There were a few “You guys, we are on Bill Gates’ radar!!!” exclamations going around!

Bill Gates wrapped up shortly after the session got out. Most attendees got the opportunity to listen to him, at least for a few minutes. Then it was time for the last session of the day to begin. Jen and I left during the last session. We wanted to make sure we got the signs picked up, and got back to the Hampton Inn where our social hour was to be held. We wanted to make sure everything was ready when SQL Saturday attendees came. We ordered pizza, pasta, and breadsticks from Pizza Hut. Dinner was sponsored by PASSMN. We figured pizza was the easiest thing to order when we didn’t know how many people to expect. It would be easy to order more if we had more than the estimated number of people came. It ended up being a good thing, we ended up needing to order a few more pizzas!

After the social hour was all cleaned up, those of us who remained decided to head out to a local karaoke bar for some #SQLKaraoke (yes, it IS necessary to put the hashtag first). We went to Divas & Rockstars, a pretty cool little place, located in a strip mall. Some of us sang a few songs, but it was a hopping place, so not everyone got to get through all the songs they put in. What started out as mostly country when we walked in, ended up a good mix of rock, pop, and a hodge podge of other styles of music. This was a good thing, as far as we were concerned! Oh, did I mention, they had a decent sized dance floor, so some of us got a little dancing in too. It was a perfect way to end a great day. I’m pretty sure everyone who came with had a great time too!

A Lesson on Seeds

I recently discovered a book called Sunflower House, by Eve Bunting. I have fallen in love with this book!

The story is about a boy who plants sunflower seeds in a large circle. The book follows the boy’s adventures in watching the sunflower plants grow (and shows what’s happening in the ground before it comes up too). Soon, the mammoth flowers make a perfect fort for the boy and his two friends. They play in it all summer, and even have a sleep over in it one night. In the Fall, the flowers die off. The children discover the seeds in the center of the sunflower, and collect enough to plant more next year.

Besides the wonderful pictures, the story is told in a way that got children very excited about the sunflower house. There are many rhyming words, but it doesn’t have a Dr. Suess feel to it. We learned some great vocabulary words too: “sow” (to which one 5 year old asked me, “Then, we didn’t he just say they planted some seeds?”, “guaranteed”, and “mammoth.”

Some wonderful conversations started spontaneously as I was reading this book to my preschoolers. In the first class of 4-5 year olds, one girl commented that, “Kids don’t drink ice tea.” I then asked the group what they thought the mom should bring instead. Only one child said pop, and none said Kool-Aid. I was surprised! Most of them said juice, milk, or water. Orange juice was the clear winner. They also commented on the “gingerbread cookies” the mom brought, and they said the kids couldn’t eat those, because it’s not Christmas. Another conversation that we had in every class was around the wish the boy made on the stars when he was sleeping in the sunflower house. The children had some great ideas about what he might have wished for. The older classes thought maybe he wished for more sunflowers, or that they wouldn’t be scared sleeping outside. Every class mentioned snacks. Also mentioned, was a pink 4-wheeler, Lightning McQueen, a table, a dog, a teddy bear, and many more random items.

As I mentioned, at the end of the story, the children collect sunflower seeds to plant again next year (though, some children thought maybe they should eat them, make bread with them, or paint them and put them in their candy jar). Last year, I saved some seeds from my zucchini plants in my garden, and from a couple of pumpkins from the pumpkin patch. After letting them dry out, I put them in an envelope. I brought these to show the children. We noticed that some of the pumpkin seeds were pretty shriveled up, and brittle. I told them that I didn’t think they would grow, so I bought some more seeds at the store. I opened the seed packet, and we looked at the seeds.

I brought in several different kinds of seed packets that I plan on planting this spring. In addition to the pumpkin seeds, I brought in  cucumber, snap peas, green beans, eggplant, and carrot seed packets. Before I opened the packages, we talked about what we thought the seeds might look like. My assistant teacher noticed that the sound of the seed package shaking was a good predictor of how big the seeds might be. This was a GREAT discovery! I pulled out one seed from each packet and showed them. Everyone was surprised by how small the eggplant seeds were, and how tiny a carrot seed is! During my lunch break, I photocopied all the seed packets, taped them to an index card, then taped the seed to the back of the card. I didn’t have a seed packet for zucchini, but I happened to have my laptop with. I had several pictures of the zucchini plant in my garden, so I printed one of those off for the zucchini seed card. I put these seed cards on our Science/Discovery table for the children to explore.

One more way we talked about seeds today was that I happened to have a half a bell pepper that I cut to put in my lunch. I noticed that most of the seeds were still attached to the inside of the half I brought to school. I showed the children what the inside looked like, where the seeds were, and gently pulled it off the pepper so they could get a better look.

To wrap up our day on seeds, we planted green bean seeds in a ziplock baggie, with a damp paper towel. We had already talked about how plants need soil, water, and sun to grow. We were using the paper towel sort of like soil, and we taped them to the window of the classroom. I have also done this with cotton balls, which I might do with the three-year-olds, so we can compare the differences in how they grow. We attempted to explain how this would act sort of like a greenhouse, but our explanation was confusing, and I’m not sure they understood the concept. I am hoping that when today’s class comes back to school on Monday, they will see roots starting to grow. We did also talk about the fact that in order for them to grow all the way to having beans on them, they would need to be moved to soil. We talked about putting them in a pot with some soil and putting them near a window if they didn’t have any garden our other outside place to plant them.

The children left today very excited about their planting, and about seeds in general. One mom stopped as they were leaving, and said, “This is a very big deal!” We are SO doing this at home!”  Her son had not stopped talking about the planting and seeds we looked at the whole time she was there picking him up and getting him ready to go. In my book, that is enough to say this was a very successful lesson, and a very successful day!

Kids Say the Darndest Things…

Here’s the late-winter edition of things kids say that make me laugh…

A girl in our 4-5 year old class told me that she does plays in a local theater. This was news to me, so I was asking her about it. She told me that since she’s 4 now, she gets to learn lines. She told me all about how excited she was to finally have lines in the show, etc. When I later asked her mom about it, I found out she had made the whole thing up! WOW – she sure fooled me!! How does a kid come up with so many accurate details?!?

I’ve been having an issue with my dryer shrinking clothes lately. That, on top of gaining a few pounds, pulls out the honesty in preschoolers. The other day, we were doing some stretches at the beginning of class to wake up our bodies… one of the preschoolers told me my belly was getting bigger (and no, I’m not pregnant). The upside? Motivation to start working out again!

A 5 year old girl noticed my wedding ring the other day. She said “Oh, a diamond ring – it’s nice. It looks just like the one I have!” LOL – I certainly hope no preschooler has a ring as nice as a wedding ring! That would require some serious spoiling!

On March 19th, a boy came and said, “Tomorrow’s the first day of summer, and there’s still gonna be snow!” I groaned and said, “Well, tomorrow’s the first day of Spring, but I certainly hope there’s not still snow on the first day of summer!” He asked why not, I told him that would make me sad. He shrugged and went on with whatever else he was doing.

NO more winter updates!!! I’m tired of snow, I’m tired of cold… on to spring and summer fun!

Related posts:
Peeing in the Snow
Heard in the Classroom – Part 2
Heard in the Classroom

Heading to Fargo – #SQLSat175

In just over a month, I’ll be heading up to Fargo, ND for another SQL Saturday (#SQLSat175 if you’re following twitter hashtags). It’ll be the first one I’ve been to in a while. I’m excited to see some friends in the SQL Community, and to make new ones.

I have been a part of planning this event with Microsoft MVPs Jason Strate (@StrateSQL|blog), Jes Borland (@grrl_geek|blog), and Ted Krueger (@onpnt|blog). We are looking forward to hosting a SQL Saturday in an area that does not currently have a user group. We hope that the spark created by bringing this free training event to the area, gives birth to a wildfire of excitement from the community up there. Wouldn’t it be great if a new PASS user group starts up after this?!

The concept of SQL Saturday is all about being able to offer a day of quality training for free. That’s what this event is all about – the training. The speaker schedule will be posted soon. We have great speakers coming from different parts of the country to share a lot of great information!

We are so grateful to our sponsors. We literally couldn’t hold this event without them! The Microsoft campus in Fargo has generously donated the space for us to hold this event. Other sponsors include Confio, PASS, PASSMN, Steve Stedman (blog sponsor) and Aaron Stanley King (blog sponsor). There are many different levels of sponsorship. If you or your company would like to sponsor this day of training, please visit our site to determine which level you are interested in.

Registration is still open. While the event itself is free, there is a $10 fee for lunch. We’d love to see many SQL Server professionals attend this event, whether you are local, or traveling in.

The Hampton Inn in Fargo has graciously offered a discounted Microsoft rate for those coming in from out of town. To book your room, just follow this link to the SQL Saturday personalized booking page. This hotel is just miles from the Microsoft campus, and will also host a Mixer on Saturday evening for attendees and speakers. PASSMN has agreed to sponsor hors d’oeuvres for the evening. Details for the mixer will follow as they are finalized.

I hope to see you on April 27th in Fargo!

Let’s get registered!!

Why I Like Conferences

This past week, I did preschool conferences with 59 parents in 3 days. There would have been at least 15 more, but Tuesday was a Snow Day. Those conferences are in process of being rescheduled for the week after Spring Break.

I really enjoy having the opportunity to meet with the parents one on one. I enjoy hearing how things are going at home, and I enjoy being able to share all the great things their children are doing in preschool. I enjoy being able to give parents ideas of things they can be doing at home to expand on what we are doing at school. My favorites part is when I get to show them just how far their children have come since September.

As teachers, we know that some conferences are going to be tougher than others. It’s hard to be the one to tell a parent if their children have difficulty listening, focusing, or following rules. Even more difficult is when you have concerns about where they are at in comparison to other children their age. There are always positive things to say, that is where I strive to spend most of the 15 minutes I have with them.

Conference time is not only a great time to touch base on how the children are doing, it’s also nice to hear the parents’ take on how we as teachers, and our program is doing. I love hearing the parents say things like, “You really know my kid.” and “Yup, we see the same things at home.” It’s nice to know there is consistency between school and home!

While conference week can be a lot of work to prepare for, and exhausting to get through, it is also a wonderful week. By the end of the week, I feel so affirmed thanks to the many compliments I receive about our classroom, my co-teacher and I, and our program as a whole. I hope the parents feel just as good about their children and the wonderful things they are doing to prepare for kindergarten and a lifetime of learning.

To Kindergarten or not to Kindergarten?

With kindergarten registrations happening all around the state of MN, Miss Kim and I have been getting questions from many of our parents on whether or not they should send their children to kindergarten. The parents who have been asking this the most have been those who have boys with summer birthdays.

I remember 7 years ago when I taught in MN, it seemed to be a trend to keep summer birthday boys back until they were newly 6. In the district I worked in, there were many options available for kindergartners. Parents could choose from half-days; all day, every other day; or all-day, every day (for a fee). As a parent, I can understand what a big decision this is, as I had to go through it with my daughter. It’s hard to know what is the best choice for your child. Many factors go into such a big decision. In the end, because of how academically-ready my daughter was, we opted for one of the all day choices. I think we were going to send her every day – I don’t remember for sure, because we moved to WI a month before kindergarten started for her.

When I taught in WI, pretty much everyone sent their children to kindergarten when they were 5, no matter when their birthdays were. There were no “options” for kindergarten. They went to school all day, every day. It was a big adjustment for my daughter. She was still taking naps at home. The first couple months were rough, because she was so tired at night. Once her body adjusted to the schedule, she did great.

Now I am back in MN, in the same district I previously worked in. I only had a couple parents ask me last year whether or not they should send their children to kindergarten. In the end, most of them sent their children. One or two held them back for one more year of practice in preschool. This year, I have had at least a half dozen (or more) parents asking me what they should do.

I believe the reason that more parents are questioning what to do, is because Kindergarten is largely moving to an all-day, every day program. It’s becoming more and more academic. Children are now doing in kindergarten what we did in first grade back in the 80′s. They are learning to read, doing simple addition and subtraction, etc. Our district’s policy is that the schools will “meet the child where they are at.” As preschool teachers, we are doing our best to find the balance between following age-appropriate guidelines, and preparing them for the academic world they will soon be entering.

Here are some of the skills your child ideally would have before going to kindergarten:
*Being able to sit in a large group without disturbing other children, and listen to the teacher. This includes being able to raise their hand before blurting out answers, and is probably the biggest thing that is difficult for many children heading to kindergarten (or at least are age-eligible).

*Being able to follow multi-step directions. In preschool we mainly practice this at the art table, and in small groups.

*Participation in group activities.

*Being able to share and take turns.

*Being able to enter a group of peers and have meaningful interactions with them.

*Being able to ask for help when they need it. This includes both self-help skills (i.e. asking for help if they can’t zip their coat), and social skills (i.e. being able to ask for help if there is a problem between peers).

*Being able to recognize at least 30 out of 52 letters (combination of upper and lower case letters). This is our goal for preschoolers getting ready to go to kindergarten, though many children go knowing more or less. Addition on 2/2/13: After looking at the benchmarks for kindergarten, your child will be even more successful if he or she can identify 40 letters at the beginning of the school year. This is not the expectation, but will help in the overall goals of the year.

*Being able to point and count 25 objects. This is a different skill from being able to count from memory to 25.

This is just a sampling of things we take in to consideration when parents ask us if their children are ready for kindergarten. I wrote a post a while back on some of the reasons you might want to send your child to preschool in the first place. We work on the skills above, and more.

For parents who still aren’t sure, I recommend signing their children up for both kindergarten and preschool for the following year. As it gets closer to fall, they will have a better idea on whether or not their child is ready to move on, or needs one more year of practice. They can always drop their child from whichever program they are not going to go with. It would be a bummer if during the summer, they did not see the growth they had hoped in their child, only to find out the preschools are full.

One more thing to keep in mind, a child who is naturally cautious, slow to warm up, or otherwise incredibly shy, may not necessarily “outgrow” it with one more year of practice. If that is your child’s temperament, another year of preschool might not help. True, they will have an extra year to learn and practice social skills, but he or she will likely still start out kindergarten very shy and quiet. Hopefully, as the year goes on, your child will open up more and have a great year of school.

On a Personal Note:
Miss Kim and I both have boys with summer birthdays. Kim kept her child in preschool until he was 6. She’s never regretted her decision. I sent my son. We lived in WI, where that’s just what everyone did. He was already reading some, and academically was ready. I never regretted sending him as a newly 5 year old, until this year. He is in 2nd grade.

He has always been a very active child. Every year since preschool, I asked his teachers if they thought he had ADHD. They all said, “No, he’s just a busy boy. He’ll outgrow it.” Well, at 7 years old, he still hasn’t outgrown it. He gets in trouble often for fidgeting, and having a hard time paying attention. Academically, he is doing quite well. His behavior is, unfortunately, getting in the way of being completely successful in school. Whether or not an extra year before kindergarten would have helped him, I will never know. The down side is that he is feeling bad about getting in trouble all the time, but can’t seem to help it. My challenge as a parent is now to help him learn new strategies, and to keep his self-esteem from taking a further hit.

Every child is different. The decision to send your child to kindergarten or wait a year, is yours. Ultimately, you get to decide what is best for your child. Talk to your child’s teachers, explore all your options.

Girls Playing with Blocks

I love when I look in our block area, and I see girls working to construct masterpieces. Maybe because it goes against the norm, which is that the block area is usually filled with boys.

Preschoolers never cease to amaze me with their ingenuity. I have seen children make all kinds of things out of blocks. They build walls, roads, castles, “buildings,” you name it, they’ve probably tried to construct it. I just love their creativity!

Today, we read the book Dinosaur Bones by Bob Barner. The children led a wonderful discussion about seeing bones in the museum. Some of them didn’t think the Brachiosaurus bones could fit in a museum, some of them had seen dinosaur bones in a museum. One page of the book had a boy looking up at a huge skeleton. The children gave all sorts of commentary on how the boy thought the skeleton was going to fall over, etc. It was one of those moments where, as a teacher, you let them go with their discussion. It related to the story, made them think about it on a deeper level, and enhanced other children’s understanding.

Later in our class period, it was free choice time. A group of three girls were working really hard to make something. They plotted it all out ahead of time through discussion, then put their plan into action. Imagine my surprise when they excitedly called me over to see their museum! They used blocks to make the structure of the building, then used smaller blocks to create a defined area for each of the dinosaurs to be on display. They took the people out of the doll house area, along with some furniture, and had the people in the museum looking at the dinosaurs. It was VERY cool!!!