Kindergarten

A common question I get as an Elementary Education major is "What grade do you want to teach?" To be completely honest, I will take a job in whatever grade there is an opening, but if I could choose, I usually say 3rd grade. This is because by 3rd grade, nose picking isn't as prevalent and I won't be asked to help tie shoes or zip zippers consistently. Along with my response, I usually say, "anything but Kindergarten." I think I made a big mistake by telling my teacher these words this semester in a pre-semester interview. A few days later, we got assigned a school and a grade and I suppose I signed myself up for Kindergarten with my big mouth. I was quite disappointed with my placement, but have tried my best to grin and bear it. 

This is my 3rd week with my Kindergarten class. (I spend all day at the school on Mondays and Wednesdays.) It has definitely been a big adjustment for me, but I'm surprised by how much I actually like it. I don't know that I would say I would choose it at this point, but who knows. One of the biggest perks of working in Kindergarten is the fact that school is only half of the day. So, you basically get to teach the same thing twice which makes planning MUCH easier. On the first day, learning 41 names of students seemed pretty daunting, but I have most of them down now. (Let's not talk about the time I called a student Cadence in the middle of teaching and asked her to come to the board. She came to the board without hesitation. No, there is not a student by the name of Cadence. What a good student for listening even when being called the wrong name. Luckily the teacher corrected me.)

Something I didn't realize is that things that seem like they should be common sense to students are not at all at this age. You really have to explain every little detail and even then you still have kids that don't write their names and ask what to do when they're done. I taught the students the game "4 corners" and they have now played it twice. Even after reviewing every rule the second time we played this game, the children still don't understand why everyone shouldn't go to the same corner.

I love the compliments kids this age give though. They notice all of the little things and make sure to tell you. One thing that surprises me is that most of the students still don't know my name. In fact, they don't even know their classmates names. They refer to friends by what color shirt they are wearing. It's quite funny.

Based on the 3 weeks I've spent in the classroom, the biggest setback for me in Kindergarten is content. I have been taught numerous fun ways to teach multiplication, and other math topics. By the end of Kindergarten, they will just barely be introduced to a plus sign. It is sometimes difficult to come up with activities for this age group when the material is so simple. I teach daily, and I have taught the Letter U, the Letter R, P.E, etc. There are only so many ways to change up how to teach a letter. It needs to be done though. Just like we need to go over the day of the week daily because many students still struggle with that.

Although I would NEVER have chosen to be placed in a Kindergarten class, I'm grateful that I have been. I don't know that I would have gained the experiences I'm having now any other place. Part of me thinks that after putting so much work into lesson plans, it would be easy to just take a job teaching Kindergarten, but then my gut says no. All I know is that I won't be placed in Kindergarten for Student Teaching next semester. I'm anxious to know what grade I'll be working with... Regardless, kids are kids and there are cute ones no matter where I go.