Kindergarten

Yesterday, I had my very first visit in the Kindergarten class I'm observing. If I said little snippets of three hours there, I would sound like I had been to a zoo! But it was absolutely perfect, and very reassuring. You see, I was extremely anxious about my school visit, although none of my friends seemed to be. To me, this was really scary because what if I hated it? What if I realized teaching wasn't my thing? What if what I wanted to be my whole life wasn't actually it? What if my "mentor" teacher was mean? But alas, none of that was true.

I saw kids act out. I saw the teacher call a child's parent. I saw math lessons. I saw centers. All of the imperfections made it that much more perfect. In my ELM classes, we're watching all of these clips and videos about teachers and their lessons. In them, no kids act out, and the teacher has a perfect plan that works out and helps everyone learn. I was intimidated and worried about being a failure. But seeing a real class and a real teacher reassured me so much. This is what I' m meant to do. I distracted many kids. One sweet girl told me she'd cry when I left. The kids didn't want to go home because they were worried Mrs. K would have her baby while they were gone (she's appx 4 months pregnant I think). A boy kept sniffing my hair (he also used it to make a moustache on his face). I helped J with math. We played 4 corners. They screamed and laughed. They told me about their families. We read. They learned. I learned (different things of course!). I saw forms of discipline, forms of homework, and lightbulbs went off.

But let me tell you, teaching is hard work. I went to bed an hour and a half early last night after drifting off all evening. And according to one little boy, teaching is hard because "teachers have to know the answers to everything." Amen to that ;)

Now, can I start teaching yet?!