Truth: It can be taught

There was a huge milestone for my class today.  Like, so big it was almost EPIC! Seriously. Wait for it....drum-roll please!!!! All of my students walked from our classroom to the gym for PE in a straight line, WITHOUT talking. Seriously, it was so amazing. The best part was that three other teachers saw my kinders walking in their most awesome line and were impressed!! e even got a shout-out from another teacher-"kinders, you're rocking the hallway today!" It was mind blowing! I did not know that something as simple as teaching kids how to walk in a civilized manner in the hallway could be so incredibly rewarding. Oh my goodness. I am still elated just thinking about this HUGE milestone that my students have passed.
Okay, so maybe there is the possibility that I am enjoying kindergarten way more than I ever thought I would. It really is enjoyable.  I am to a point now that I can do a little breathing and think about my classroom as a group of learners that I am going to have for the whole entire year!! They're all mine! That might sound a little creepy but  having subbed year after year after year and never having a group of kids long enough to see if I was even effective at my job was frustrating.  Knowing that I have the opportunity to apply what I have been learning, through formal education with my Master's Degree and classroom experience, is absolutely mind blowing to me.
I honestly feel like I won the lottery with this job.  The community of professionals I work with are top notch.  Everyone I interact with really wants to be at school and a part of the community.  I have never really been able to articulate what I was missing as a substitute as far as teaching but now that I have it, I am struggling to describe it.  The community.  It is that good.  Having a principal who supports me 100%, checks in on me on a regular basis, and follows through with what she says she is going to do, AND visits my classroom is outstanding! I've never had a principal come in and just want to observe.  It doesn't bother me at all to have people visit my classroom. In fact, I like it when people check in because they are another mind I can glean information from in order to improve the learning that is happening in my class!
Speaking of visitors, I had a big one in my classroom last Thursday.  Actually, it might have been Tuesday. I can't remember. I am sitting down at the carpet with my students, in a circle.  It is the first day of our new science unit and I have just brought out the worms in their bins and am giving instructions on how to hold the worm in addition to introducing vocabulary They are very excited to get new critters to hold and observe. I have quite a few scientists in my class. :) The students are anxiously awaiting a turn to see what I have in the dirt and worm filled containers.  In walks the superintendent! She is very nice and had a badge on so I knew she was someone important from the district.  She promptly sits down in my students' circle and dives right into the lesson as I take a roundworm (the ones that get really, really long and skinny in the rain), and ask "who wants to hold a worm?" and the class erupts into screams of surprise, glee, joy, nervousness as they wait for their chance to hold or look at a worm.  I wasn't quite sure how she would take the loud excitement but she just hung around, asked the kids questions, held a worm and said thank you for letting her visit! I love visitors!

I feel I can't close this post without a shout-out to all have supported me and encouraged me while I have started this new job.  It has been amazing to be surrounded by people who genuinely are excited that I am teaching kindergarten in my very own classroom. It's still a bit surreal that I get to wake up and go to the same classroom every single day, until the end of the school year.  Really. It's happening.

Learning curves, Kindergarten style

Hello! This and the forthcoming posts are a dramatically different approach to teaching that I was experiencing four years ago at this time.  Four years ago, I was juggling five grades, in a culture I knew nothing about, with very little constructive feedback that was useful.  I left feeling bitter about teaching but not yet ready to give up.  After all, I had started my master's program at SPU and figured that continuing to learn would give me a shot at landing my dream job.  It took four years but I think I have landed my dream job.  Though kindergarten is not a grade I would have told you I would voluntarily teach, it seems it was the job that I needed to break though and gain the experiences I have been craving.  I am finally putting all that conceptual, textbook knowledge to good use.  Further I actually see the impact of an effectively run professional community looks like.  I did not know what a professional community looked like as a participant.  As a sub and a student at SPU I gained all sorts of factoids and concrete data about what works in a school, what doesn't work, and the many types of professional structures that can exist in a school.  I'm experiences it and it is a thousand times better than reading about it.  When you read about something, you tend to think, "awwww, that's nice," or "sounds good in theory but what about practice?" There is no reading and doubting here.  It's real.

 In the first two weeks of my job I have set goals, attained them, critiqued them, reflected upon myself as a teacher and the skills I have and need to learn.  A huge factor in this is the fact that I have a mentor who I work with on a weekly basis, who helps me by walking me through the evaluation process, providing feedback, and answering my questions (about anything!!).  The second critical factor is that I have a principal who wants to be in my classroom!! This is one of those conceptual things that I knew was supposed to happen but had never experienced it knowing I would get feedback that would help me improve.  It's amazing to come out of a meeting with my principal feeling as though I am not failing as a teacher and that it's absolutely okay to not be perfect at everything.  I was also told I am very intuitive towards what I need to learn and the amount of reflection I can provide about myself and teaching is incredible.  (Thanks SPU!) I thank SPU because my entire program consisted of reflecting upon myself as a teacher and my teaching experiences.

My principal is also a hoot. She is hilarious.  She is also one of the most straightforward, honest, and caring people I have met.  She truly wants me to succeed as a kindergarten teacher.  Even when she hired me, she told me that she knew my experience was not in kindergarten and that she would provide the support I needed to scaffold my knowledge of kindergarten instruction.  In my feedback today, she reiterated that she is keeping my learning curve in mind.  It's incredible.  I cannot say that enough.  To finally have a professional community where rambling on and on about teaching is acceptable and you feel supported and welcomed is the most amazing thing ever.