So I’ve been mulling over the change to take place.  The truth of the matter is that I’ve taught first grade before, but I was a new teacher and it wasn’t my best teaching experience.  But as a friend pointed out, that was then and most experienced teachers look back and their beginning years and say oh, yeah – I’m so much better than I was then!”   As we grow and mature we get better at the art of teaching.

What it comes down to it, there are two things that I get stuck on: One, I have fully accepted the identity of a kindergarten teacher.  In fact, when I fell in love with teaching kindergarten I felt that I came home, that I’ve always been a kindergarten teacher at heart – so  now who am I if not a kindergarten teacher?

Second, I know I’m a really good kindergarten teacher, I know that sounds conceited, but I know and love and live and breathe kindergarten – I really am good at it – the way a confident teacher who loves her job is good.  I have a fear.  What if I’m not as good as a first grade teacher as I am a kindergarten teacher?

Well, this is it.  The change has been made.  I’ve new curriculum to learn.  I have a new team teacher to teach with.  I’m delighted that I’ll have my returning students – we had a fabulous year last year and I’m excited to continue to grow with them!  So – I’m using this process to expose my fears and face them head on.  I’m ready to begin this new school year with a Can Do attitude. 

My principal has faith that I will do a great job, my close friends and cheerleaders have perfect confidence in me.  Now I just need to grab hold of that faith that I will do everything in my power to be the best teacher I can be.  I have a lot at stake, not only my reputation as a teacher, which I take very seriously, especially in the private school community, but my daughter will be in my class again this year.  I owe it to all my students, parents, administration and co-teacher to begin the school year with a positive and enthusiastic attitude.

We’re going to have a great year!

 

I find myself with a totally different kind of school year.  Wonderful, but somewhat technology limited so far.  This year I team teach with another K teacher.  You would think that it would give us extra time, but actually, it does the opposite.  Strange, yet true.

Daily, as I log onto my computer, I see my iGoogle account, and look longingly at BeTwittered.  How did I find time to check it so often last year?  How can I find some of that time, and search for some more technology to use in my classroom? Good question.  Do I need more technology than what I used last year?  Better question.  Is it just the time of the year and it will naturally progress as the children continue to develop – more food for though.

So what have I done so far?  Well, I actually keep up on my classroom blog weekly.  That is a good start.   I’m finally writing a post on my professional blog – once again using this rambling as a way to verbalize my scattered thoughts and work through them.

Hmmm.

This week for instance, I have found some little resources that I am incorporating rather nicely:  a little interactive book of The Gingerbread Man, activities from starfall.com and janbrett.com.  Of course, I also used an older piece of technology – a video of Jan Brett’s The Gingerbread Baby. That brings me to another technology tool I’ve been using – my public library’s website.  I choose items from the database, request them online and then pick them up – they’re ready and waiting for me – hooray!

As a side note, I found this great link for interactive stories that I’ve just got to share!  It’s from the UK, so many of the recorded voices have a delightful British accent.  Interactive Stories for Kids!

Now I found myself doing something else this year for the first time.  I have purchased a webkinz for my classroom.  We introduced it yesterday.  Around half of the children already have a webkinz and are familiar with the concept.  We voted on the gender – it is a girl, her name – Chica, and created a kinder friendly log-in and password.  During our Friday free play, we had the sight up on my computer and visible on our big screen television.  It was actually really cool to see my kinders work together to play the “CashCow” game, one child learning how to use my remote mouse to click, and his friends at the screen pointing to groups to click on.  Ok.  So now we’re playing video games in the classroom.  Is that technology at its finest, or is it going down a slippery slope?  Hmmm, interesting question – one I’m sure could be debated from either side.

So, maybe I’m doing ok so far.  Perhaps I need to remember pacing.  Also, it’s not just about the gadgets and gizmos but the content.  I do know that I’m getting the content across to my students, so perhaps I need to be satisfied with that for now.

Is there ever enough time in the day?  Of course not!  Today is an incredibly busy day for me.  I have things I need to do before I leave for my conference tomorrow  at home – I’m taking my husband and kids with me for a mini vacation so I have to pack for me and them.  I have to leave substitute plans and unfortunately my students will be having two different subs.  I am still putting the finishing touches on my presentation – nothing like waiting until the last minute. 

OK, so everything I mentioned really has nothing to do with my actual job of teaching today.  Isn’t that how it often is.  Our administrators give us extra jobs and reports to do.  Here, tour this parent around the building, and by the way, during your prep time, test this child and see if he is ready to start __next year.   Hello!  I’m a teacher.  I need to teach! 

You may not have the same exact situation as me but I bet you feel like you never have enough time.  I had some unfortunate circumstances collide at the same time and became unavoidably busy.  But isn’t that life.  Something is always coming at us out of the blue.  We are teachers, perhaps we are parents and spouses.  That’s life.  So now what do we do?

When you find our please let me know!

Meanwhile, when I actually stop to take a breath – which is what I’m doing RIGHT NOW – I can notice that my kindergarteners did an absolutely fantastic job writing three sentences about morning, afternoon and evening in their journals.  When I listened, I heard them say; “Hey, there’s the phonogram ‘oo’ as in boot in afternoon.”  “Yeah and there’s our new phonogram ‘ar’ as in jar . . .” Some really great learning is going on and once I can take a breath I can really enjoy it.  I am very lucky – I have a job I love, how many people can say that?  So, in spite of my busyness and my braining whirling, I am taking this break to readjust my thinking for the day, and I am putting myself back into teaching mode and am ready to enjoy my kindergarteners . . .as soon as they return from recess!