For many children, kindergarten is their first school experience. A child should be comfortable sharing what their interests are. They should feel that what they admire is valuable and of interest to their teachers and peers. Through comparing and contrasting, I model an appreciation for what a child likes, the child feels important and their peers become curious. Curious peers will ask questions. If I listen to those questions, they will tell me what it is they are excited to learn and what they need to learn. It is then up to me, as the teacher, to take what I need to teach the children and make it relevant to them. I must connect their interests with new experiences.
Kindergarten is an overwhelming time for many children. There are many different concepts that build onto other concepts. There needs to be a flexibility that allows for growth of confidence and skill. A child needs to feel proud of success and be able to move on from mistakes. I must provide them with a record of their accomplishments and an eraser for their failures.
Kindergarten is a time of identifying boundaries and making decisions about which ones to cross. It is a time for discovering what to do when we have crossed the wrong boundary. I must create an environment that relies on logical consequences to decide how to repair what has been broken. I must help the children be proactive and establish methods and techniques that prevent future errors. I must demonstrate how we can be successful by finding the lesson in our failures.
As a teacher I must be willing to be a learner. I must be willing to be stumped by my students. I must be humble enough to say, “I don’t know,” and then possess the constitution to investigate and present answers to my children’s queries. I must realize that I am a part of a bigger picture. I have valuable resources in my administrative staff, fellow teachers and teaching assistants, maintenance and custodial staff, and the community that possess all types of expertise.
I must guide the children’s learning by scaffolding concepts in such a manner that they are empowered to choose the path of their learning. I must make resources such as literature, peer assistance, teacher assistance, special needs, and the ever more important technological piece available to the children in a way that is developmentally appropriate.
How does it happen? This is my philosophy applied to our Daily Writing Program (DWP).
The children begin the year using whiteboards and markers to copy their names, very relevant and challenging to a four year old, from a template. As they become more comfortable they use the template less and take more pride in spelling and reading other’s names. Now is the time to use logical consequences to build routine. If the child erases the whiteboard before showing a teacher what will happen? How can we prevent it from happening again?
Next they begin copying three words (from simple one word and a picture on a page flip books) onto their whiteboards. They can choose the words and feel empowered and more confident. They work with and are encouraged to “read” their words with peers. Now they must read the three words they have written to the teacher. They will be praised for their writing and we will discuss what the words say. We will compare and contrast sounds and letters in words to decide what it is they have really written.
Next they will write three words that they choose about a picture I have drawn. They will still be using whiteboards so that mistakes vanish easily. On the flip side, a photocopy is not only an efficient way to collect data, it also doubles as a great way for a child to capture successful writing. My teaching assistant and the reading specialist review the children’s writing periodically and devise strategies to implement that will help the children write better.
In the final stage of our DWP, the children will be given a picture on an elementary lined paper that they must write a “story” for. By this time, there have been a number of strategies modeled for the children to use in their writing and they are ready to be authors independent of a teacher. Their peers are now partners in the writing process. As a culminating project, we illustrate slides and type captions for our end of the year PowerPoint slide show.
My professional goals include continuing to create and to publish educational flash games relevant to the classes I teach but accessible to many more students; involve my colleagues in my classes technology based learning; make connections with people in the field to stay up on the newest forms of technology; continue to be an exploring learner myself; and to continue to reflect objectively upon my teaching practices.