Student Teaching-- Week 9... KINDERGARTEN

Welcome to KINDERGARTEN ADVENTURES!!! I started Kindergarten on Tuesday and it has really been an adjustment. At first, I wasn't too excited about going to Kindergarten, but it's slowly growing on me. It is a BIG transition from 4th grade, where I felt I had really built good, strong relationships with the kids. With young kiddos, it's more difficult to build relationships. The kdis are still getting used to being in school all day and don't really understand sarcasm (which I LOVED about my 4th graders). Needless to say, the first day in Kindergarten was REALLY overwhelming. Wednesday was a bit better, and I started picking up on the very silly/innocent things the kids say. Let me set the scene for the first silly thing:

The teacher was reading a book called "Nature Spy" which is about a girl who takes a closer look at things in nature. This was the second day the kids had seen this book so this day was about discussing taking a closer look at things. There is a picture of a bird on one page of the book and on the next page is a picture of a close up of the bird's wings. While discussing birds and feathers, one student said "we eat birds!" another replied "no we don't! that's mean!" Then we got in to the discussion of eating animals. The teacher compared people eat birds like lions eat... and a kid said "PEOPLE!"... I could not NOT laugh! It was so funny and unexpected. I know laughing at what a kid says is not the professional thing to do but sometimes you just can't help it... and this was one of those times.

The second silly thing (not as silly, but still...)

The class was discussing bats and things bats eat. One student said confidently, "Bats drink your blood." That's not ENTIRELY not true but we redirected that statement to talk about vampire bats and how they drink the blood of cows and other animals, but not people.

I've gotta tell you, kids say the silliest things.

I'm hoping, and I know, Kindergarten will get better. I have to constantly remind myself these kids are only 5 and don't master concepts as quickly. My patience is being tested, and I'm learning how to approach teaching moments from different angles to help out different kids. I know Kindergarten will be a challenge, and I'm hoping it will make me a better teacher. Do I see myself teaching Kindergarten in the future? No, not ever. That's my answer for now... I'll revisit that question at the end of my time at Huckabay. The answer to that for 4th grade was also no... and now that's what I want to teach, so we'll see.