Hey Folks - I successfully completed my first day of kindergarten, as a teacher! Considering I never even went to kindergarten as a kid in VT, I guess you could say kindergarten itself was a first for me today!
So today was in actuality, a ton of fun! 19 5-years olds gearing up for first grade, with a short summer school stint to prepare them! My team of 4 - Mr. Orrick, Ms. Siwa, and Ms. Dawson and myself have been paired up with a veteran teacher who actually happens to be the lead kindergarten teacher in our school! Ms. Callahan is a super-pro and has been sharing various tricks of the trade over the course of our short time together. It is rather hysterical though to watch her get the kids attention with a catchy song the kids know by heart, in comparison to our feeble attempts to implement a new attention-getting procedure - one of the many we have been tasked to execute in our training. Oh well, I suppose we will one day be super-pros just like Ms. C., imparting our own catchy songs to rookie teachers!
The day started out, like all other days, at the crack of dawn. I have timed my alarm to coincide with the rising of the sun over the mountains of Phoenix and at the raw morning hour of 5, the thermometer reads a mere 90 degrees, winter! The dining hall is buzzing by 5:30 with 800 of us zipping between the cereal bar, scrambled egg buffet line and always-seems-to-be-empty coffee pot. Our buses depart at 6:10 and if you're not on the bus when the minute hand strikes 10, you're SOL and have to quickly find a taxi to the SW side of Phoenix. Fortunately that hasn't happened to anyone on my Southwest Elementary-bound bus but who knows, we still have 3 1/2 weeks to go! We all dress professional, which ranges from business suits (for real!) to quasi flip flops (the kind women wear that look somewhat nice, I am guilty of this indulgence) and skirts and t-shirts. I don't think anyone is keeping tabs on our attire but it's important to be aware of skirt slits, low neck shirts, and other eye-catching fashion pieces. Especially if you teach 10th grade boys! Fortunately 5 year olds haven't reached that phase of cognition yet.
Once at school we have about 1 hour to scramble together any last minute lesson plans, manipulatives (aka: counting/lesson materials - I just spent 1 hour cutting out mine for tomorrow's sorting shapes lesson), and taking care of anything else we need to do before kid-time. The kids roll in around 8 and the day starts with a reduced-meal breakfast (government subsidized) in the cafeteria and then off to class! Needless to say, we spent much of the morning in tag-team mode, teaching our students the basics of, what to do when snot is running out your nose (use sign language to ask for a kleenex); when is it okay to use the bathroom (preferably before you've actually gone to the bathroom in your pants); lining up at the door and walking in the hallway (and not stepping on wayward cockroaches); and the most important lesson of all, how vital to your survival it is to wash your hands! Believe me, 4 1/2 hours with kindergarteners and you too will be sold on constant hand washing!!
We have 19 cuties in our class, mostly Hispanic except for 2 white boys. Most kids appear to speak English but there are definitely some English Language Learners (ELL students for all you people in the Ed world). AZ law forbids class instruction in Spanish so we're left to our own non-espanol devices to translate and explain confusing words, phrases and directions. The day ends at 1 for the kiddies, but continues on into the afternoon for the rest of us. Teaching in the am, learning in the pm is how I like to think about it. Plus, all the lesson planning, photocopying, printing and running around in the late pm. Most people stay up past midnight, in the computer labs, TFA stocked resource room, or in their own dorm rooms (like me), cutting out shapes, finalizing lesson plans and thinking 3/4 days ahead about the literacy lesson we're supposed to teach next week!
I'm getting ready to do it all over again tomorrow, which happens to be my 29th birthday. Celebrations will be limited as we have evening sessions on specific grade level instruction. I'll just have to wait until I'm back in the Big Easy to live it up a bit, 29 style!
Photos and stories to follow shortly. Till then, enjoy the taste of kindergarten, minus the smells :)
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1 comment:
hee hee what fun! keep that great energy going xo
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