Teaching From the Eyes of a First Year Teacher
The journey I took to become a teacher was not easy, but it has been well worth the challenges that I faced along the way. The teaching profession is not anything I expected it to be. The expectations students are held accountable for in kindergarten are far more than I ever imagined. My memories of kindergarten are very different than what kindergarten has become today. The level of growth my students have experienced from day one until now is incredible. When I pictured teaching kindergarten I did not think about the fact that this is many students first exposure to a school environment. There are some students who come in knowing how to read at a level 4 and others who do not know more than 3 letters of the alphabet. I am handed a class of 20 students I know nothing about. There are no previous year teachers to seek advice from. The gap in literacy is tremendous from the students who come from families with low socioeconomic status and high socioeconomic status. The academic levels of students vary tremendously and it is my job as their teacher to make sure all 20 of them are being challenged and supported in the exact way they need. That put a lot of weight on my shoulders, but I had no time to panic and fear. It is day one of kindergarten and I have my 20 students looking up at me waiting to soak in as much knowledge as I can provide them. The toys and the coloring may not be a part of kindergarten anymore but there is some rich learning occurring. The levels of academic questions my students formulate and the ideas they communicate to the class and I is incredible. I learn more from them each day. The most important lesson of mine being that student centered learning and student facilitated learning is far more beneficial than a teacher standing up and lecturing all day. I never knew how much students could learn from each other until the day I stepped into the classroom.
Another thing I firmly believe in is that all students are capable of learning. It is the teachers mindset that can make or break that belief. Teachers need to change what their definition of learning is. Learning is not meeting all the state standards requirements and check points throughout the year. Learning is coming to school knowing 3 letters from the alphabet and after the first 9 weeks knowing 15 letters. That is success in my book. While the checkpoint may say your students need to be reading at a level 4 by the first 9 weeks, my baby who now knows 15 letters is just as much of a success story as the reader who is on a level 4. I will never forget during the 3rd nine weeks one my students who came to kinder garden only know 3 letters of the alphabet and no letter sounds wrote a story during the writing unit block. From an outsider, the story would make no sense and they would assume the child has learned nothing. His story said this "I w t t p w m d. I w f" which says "I went to the park with my dad. It was fun." This was a HUGE success! Not only did this student pull out the correct initial sounds of each word, but he used finger spaces and punctuation. The little things in my class are the biggest success stories in my book. I am so glad my vision of teaching is so far off than I imagined because it is so much more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. These small success stories are what make me love this profession!
Another thing I firmly believe in is that all students are capable of learning. It is the teachers mindset that can make or break that belief. Teachers need to change what their definition of learning is. Learning is not meeting all the state standards requirements and check points throughout the year. Learning is coming to school knowing 3 letters from the alphabet and after the first 9 weeks knowing 15 letters. That is success in my book. While the checkpoint may say your students need to be reading at a level 4 by the first 9 weeks, my baby who now knows 15 letters is just as much of a success story as the reader who is on a level 4. I will never forget during the 3rd nine weeks one my students who came to kinder garden only know 3 letters of the alphabet and no letter sounds wrote a story during the writing unit block. From an outsider, the story would make no sense and they would assume the child has learned nothing. His story said this "I w t t p w m d. I w f" which says "I went to the park with my dad. It was fun." This was a HUGE success! Not only did this student pull out the correct initial sounds of each word, but he used finger spaces and punctuation. The little things in my class are the biggest success stories in my book. I am so glad my vision of teaching is so far off than I imagined because it is so much more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. These small success stories are what make me love this profession!
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