Hanging out with Kindergartners!

“I wil help cleen the erth by pikng up trach for the aenamols.”

Could you easily read this the first time through? I know I couldn’t when I mentored with Mrs. Vanvleet’s kindergarten class on Thursday. The kids were writing pieces about how they would help keep the earth clean because it was earth day this week! I’ve been so used to reading the writing from my first graders that it was a shock to me that I could barely read the kindergartners writing! I had to ask the kids to read their papers to me to understand what they were even writing. It was definitely an eye opening experience to compare the educational development of only a year difference between first grade and kindergartners. It also made me realize how difficult it must be for Mrs. Zawisza to start over with a new group of kids every year that come in with spelling like that, knowing she has to fix it and teach them to write and spell properly. Compared to how well Mrs. Zawisza’s kids write now, I have to give her kudos because there is a ton of improvement. It makes me wonder what it would have been like if I mentored at the beginning of the year instead of the end.

Furthermore, I thought it was neat that Mrs. Vanvleet had a student teacher in her classroom that had taken over teaching the class, with Mrs. Vanvleet staying out of the way working on the side. I felt like I could relate with her as we are both armatures in the field. When I compared her to Mrs. Zawisza though, I could see she needed some more work and practice that only years of experience can really form. But I liked seeing what it would look like if I decide to go into education and have to become a student teacher. Overall, I liked the kindergartners and working with them but I could tell even though it’s only a small difference, they are a bit more work than first graders! The Friday I came back to Mrs. Zawisza’s room I felt much more comfortable!

The rest of the week in Mrs. Zawisza’s room was great! In math the kids are working on how to measure things accurately using items such as tiles, cubes, paperclips, and dominos. Then, in social studies they have finished gathering information about their countries and are going to create a fun poster about them now! I helped one girl get more caught up on her ST math because she does better working one on one, then I worked in some problem solving groups to help my students. It made my day though when one of the boys I was helping said, “Miss Coleman, I hope when you become a teacher and get your certificate you’ll be my teacher. Maybe you can be my 5th or 6th grade teacher!”

Altogether I had a great week and am excited to work with fourth graders next Thursday!

From my video of the week, I think I gained some simple advice for teaching. I can

definitely see Mrs. Zawisza does this.