Communication

I wonder who is the most important person in parents lives.  I would think it would be their family, at least that would be my hope.  When my children go to school I hope that I keep clear communication between the teacher and myself and I do not rely on my Kindergartener to communicate with the teacher for me.  I received a note from a parent stating their student was to be a car rider until further notice.  I began sending him to the car rider line.  After about a week or so he started getting in my bus rider line. I showed him the note from his mom and reminded him he is to be a car rider.  I asked if he had another note from his mom.  He didn't even have a backpack, much less a note so I sent him to the car rider line. His mom called school later that afternoon and wondered why he didn't get off the bus. We assured her he was a car rider because that was the last note we received.  She quickly informed us he was now to be a bus rider.  If she would have called an hour earlier and told us that or not relied on her Kindergarten son he would not have missed the bus.

Needs Vs. Wants

I know it's been a long time since my last post, but since my last post I found out I'm pregnant!  My first trimester was full of normal pregnancy stuff...morning sickness and extreme tiredness.  I am hoping I don't take that long for my next post.

Last week I was reading a book and it was describing some of our basic needs.  We covered this in class at the beginning of fall, so I stopped and asked my class "What are some other things we need?"  One of my little girls raised her hand and when I called on her she said, "We need to learn to read because you said we can't have any jobs if we don't learn to read!" She did not list one of the basic needs we had discussed in class, but I did tell them you have to be able to read to have a job.

Signing Papers

I have a great story to tell today.  I missed school Friday and then Monday morning we had release time so we could grade common assessments collaboratively as a grade level. The guest teacher (substitute) was a lady who I am familiar with and she must have told her my class I wasn't in class because I was grading papers.  I met my students on the playground at lunch recess and several of them came running up to me and hugged me, (I love teaching early childhood!) After hugging me one of my students said, "It took you a long time to sign those papers".

Think Time

Today as we were developing our fine motor skills through coloring. As I was walking through the room I looked at a students desk and he had drawn on his desk.  On his paper he had colored one car of the train green and another car yellow.  His desk had a 2"x4" section of green and yellow scribbled on his desk. I asked him what happened and he said, "I don't know." I tried to reason with him and show him how the colors on his desk and the colors on his paper were the same colors.  Of course it was not him who created the mess on his desk.  I asked him to sit in the safe seat until he could be honest with me. About 10-15 minutes later I stopped by his safe seat to see if he knew what happened to his desk and he said, "I colored on it."  I was amazed that just a few minutes to think about what happened allowed him to be honest. 

During center time one of my boys was writing at the writing center.  He asked me how to spell I love you.  As I was helping him we got to the letter y. He asked me how to make a y. I showed him the alphabet on his name tag.  He began pointing to the letters of the alphabet and instead of singing the ABC's he started singing the letters in his name. That is when I realized how new all the information I am teaching is to my students. Being a Kindergarten teacher I have to teach everything like it's brand new information and sometimes I forget that.

Tears

Tears are common in Kindergarten: mommy's cry when their babies come to Kindergarten, Kindergartners cry when they bump their stomach on their desk, etc. Tonight I unintentionally made a mommy cry. During parent teacher conferences I shared with a mom that her child can't zip his own pants, put on his jacket, zip and unzip his backpack, or write his name. I explained to her these are all things we want Kindergartners to be able to do on their own before they go to first grade and if things don't improve he may need to do Kindergarten again.  I assured her that doing Kindergarten over is not a big deal, or uncommon, we have a student in our class this year who is doing Kindergarten over and nobody knows who that is except me.  Mom began to cry and I felt horrible.  I assured this mommy that the things I teach in Kindergarten will never be retaught and if he doesn't learn these things now he will never have the chance.  This mom wants her son to be successful and my job will be to help him to be successful and if he's not my job will be to show mom his best chance of being successful is by doing Kindergarten over.

Kind Words

Since I spent yesterday talking about what an awful teacher I am I think I can brag on myself today.  We have parent teacher conferences today and tomorrow and on the table outside my room I left a note for the parents and asked them to write some encouraging words to their child.  At the end of my night I was looking through the notes so I could put them on the desk of the students they belong to and was surprised when I found a note for me. It says, “Mrs. Wilkerson you’re a great teacher and I love being in your class!  -Maiya”  Then the next note said, “Mrs. Wilkerson you’re a great teacher and Natalia loves you and always talks about you at home. –Natalia”  These notes melted my heart a little.  These notes are always very meaningful, but they are especially helpful after yesterday.