In light of my 25th birthday on April 13th, I
want to share TWENTY-FIVE things that I have learned (so far) in
Full-Day Kindergarten! The following list is in no particular order;
each message of learning is unique and meaningful, and reflect the
experiences I have been exposed to.
25. Not having the answers to everything is totally okay!
In June, I was overwhelmed with information about where my life was
headed in regards to working with 4-and-5 year olds. Despite the
information overload, I continued to dive into the resources,
conversations and networking opportunities that were available to me. I
didn’t – and still don’t – know everything about the journey I am
embarking on, but every day I continue “trying” to learn as much as I
can so I will be able to “know” more by the end of the day! The phrase
below is also a key message I try to share with my students on a regular
basis so that they, too, don’t feel that giving up when they don’t know
something is appropriate. Believing that we are capable will help us
reach great achievements.
24. My job is about way more than a paycheck.
I am a firm believer that doing what you are passionate about is so
much more powerful than choosing a career path based on money. I need to
be in a career that sets me free and allows me to
learn and teach
at the same time. The adventures that our students take me on daily is a
testimony to how much I have come to value FDK and believe in the
program. My Kindergarten adventures have strengthened my passion for
developing early year learners, and being able to support and extend
learning every day has been more important than a paycheck.
Working together to thread needles through our hand made quilt.
23. Social Media is powerful. With
encouragement from my administrator, Andrea (@micheluttia), I joined
Twitter a few days into the beginning of school. I use Twitter as a
documentation tool in our classroom every day and also as a way to
connect with other professionals in the early years field. Knowing that I
can share pieces of our students learning with their families while
they are away from their child has enhanced our classroom community and
made the accomplishments that are achieved exciting because we get to
tweet it out! Children often ask us, “Please, can you tweet this so my
Mom and Dad can see it?” Connecting this way is second nature to me
because I grew up with social media all around me, but I am always
willing to assist someone who may be less experienced in the area since I
recognize its positive effects.
22. The walls in our classroom don’t need to be fancy! What
makes our bulletin boards purposeful is that everything on them, aside
from the black borders, is directly made by the students and is on
display for them, their families, their classmates/schoolmates. Coming
into the school year, I knew this piece was key, but part of me still
wanted to add pictures to the boards that may be relevant to learning
but did not capture the students in any way. To be more specific, I
wanted to add pictures of tall towers to our bulletin in the blocks
centre, hopefully inspiring students to create their own structures.
What I quickly realized was that resources such as ipads and books from
our library can easily speak to those provocations and saving our
bulletin space for documenting learning way much more beneficial.
A
caption of the rich conversation that occurred about sinking and
floating, cups that were used in an experimentation accompanied by
prediction writing and photographs
21. Outdoor learning does not need to end when the recess bell rings.It
is so important that our students are interested in what they are
learning. For example, if someone finds a rock and wants to search for
other ones so that they could compare them inside, we do this!
Similarly, weather permitting, bringing a small group outside to build
towers using natural materials is always a possibility. Of course, this
is a benefit of having multiple educators in our classroom. It is
important to have a routine and schedule as a guideline in all
classrooms. Outdoor exploration is a beautiful thing and we can always
find a way to incorporate more opportunities to investigate our
surroundings and bring learning outside.
Classifying, sorting and ordering loose materials that we found outside at recess
20. Forget the phrase “use your words”. Telling
a child to “use your words” may not always be the best response when
they approach you with a problem because they may not know how to form
their feelings into words. Knowing the children is key to realizing when
a child may or may not need assistance. Sometimes, children may need
help sorting out their thoughts so that they could put them into words
that will make sense to someone else. Kindergarten students’ brains are
growing rapidly and when they approach me with a problem, it is crucial
that we spend time together to understand what exactly is going on and
talk about possible solutions.
19. Technology enhances Kindergarten if used correctly.
We have a document camera that we use almost everyday for multiple
purposes. Whether we are showing a video clip, pieces of work from a
student, photographs, yoga sessions, etc., our document camera has been a
great learning tool that engages our children. We also use two
microphones that have speakers around our classroom that we use to
enhance our soft, whisper voices so that students’ can still hear us
without us yelling, as well as for confidence building experiences like
karaoke and speaking in front of the class. Our classroom ipads have
become useful learning tools that children can explore in many ways. Our
teaching team uses the application
Evernote to record anecdotes and learning observations of our students to refer to when writing report cards.
Using the document camera to sort buttons
18. My teaching team has quickly become “my family”.
My first blog post spoke to this already but to extend the team to
others that are involved in our classroom will help to justify the
support and passion that flows through our classroom. Irene, our
planning teacher, is extremely patient and reflective. She learns
alongside the other educators in our classroom and has really delved
into our environment in so many ways! Andrea (admin – mentioned above),
shares my passion for FDK and has really pushed me as an educator in our
school. Having thoughtful adults working together is remarkable!
Myself and teaching partners: Val and Nicole
17. Yoga is not just for adults. I practice
yoga frequently outside of work so being able to share an interest in
yoga with our students has been very exciting! Nicole (one of my two
teaching partners) started basic yoga poses in the fall with our
students and it has grown into a quiet activity that many in our
classroom cherish! Our students know so many poses, can refer to them by
their name, and even take turns leading yoga to a whole group. We have
even practiced yoga with our grade 4/5 buddies and many of our students
have brought yoga into their homes.
Our students and grade 4/5’s doing the triangle pose
16. Not all children are ready for everything we throw at them. Full-Day
Kindergarten is a two year process and the curriculum provided in the
FDK document guides the program over the course of this time. There is
no need to rush anybody into writing a sentence in their journals or get
frustrated with a child because he/she cannot get ready for recess as
speedy as we want. Being patient and allowing children to grow at their
own pace is much more meaningful than expecting too much. I value the
patience I have developed this year and owe so much of it to my
wonderful students!
15. Literacy and Numeracy are present without worksheets.
A common topic in FDK and growing into higher grades also is the use of
worksheets. I have not been in the field long enough to have experience
providing a child with a worksheet, but I do remember having them when I
was in Kindergarten. Being able to trace over the letter “E” on dotted
lines is nowhere near as purposeful as drawing out the letter in sand
with a paintbrush and eventually making those strokes on paper with a
pencil. There are so many tools to practice literacy and numeracy
without using worksheets and this incredible resource speaks to many:
Journey to Literacy: No Worksheets Required.
14. All children do not need to be doing the same thing at once.
In our classroom, sometimes you need to do things that you don’t want
to do, however, as a teaching team, we have worked very hard to be
respectful of our children’s interests and self-regulating skills. For
example, if we are doing yoga and a few students would prefer not to,
they may choose another quiet activity that has the same outcome we are
looking for (i.e. relaxing, calming body, ready to move forward with the
day). Similarly, lunch time is not the only time to nourish our bodies
with food and water. We have worked closely with our students’ this year
to ensure they are being able to recognize when their body is hungry,
full, tired, or needing to let our energy. This is so new to me coming
from child care settings where lunch was served at a certain time and
children needed to wait based on the schedule.
“Children become empowered when they are allowed to make decisions and take responsibility for these decisions.”
– Susan Gingras Fitzall
13. Purposeful documentation is essential to a well thought out Kindergarten classroom.
When you display a child’s work in a frame, portfolio, or on a
bulletin, you are demonstrating to them that their work is valued, has
purpose, is meaningful and cherished. My favourite piece of
documentation is our portfolio binders that we created in September with
the purpose of allowing children to add pieces of work such as
paintings, writing, drawings, pictures of something they did, etc., into
them so that they will be able to look back at the learning they did
throughout the year. We often sketch a date accompanied by a note that
explains additional learning or curriculum expectations that occurred in
the piece so that those viewing the portfolio can gather a deeper
understanding of what actually went on. These portfolios are respected
by our students and they often take them out to look at and share with
others, saying things like, “Look how little I was back then!” and,
“It’s so funny how I drew that picture of myself”
:).
12. Not everyone is familiar with the role of an Early Childhood Educator.
I am extremely content in sharing who I am as an educator with others
and am always willing to have conversations about this new education
role. Early Childhood Educators and Full-Day Kindergarten is still being
implemented across Ontario and it is reasonable that such a shift in
education takes time to grasp. Being in my first year of FDK has been a
blessing because I have been able to introduce new ideas alongside other
incredible educators in Kindergarten about the program and its purposes
during the roll-out of Phase 4 at New Dundee Public School. An
important part of my job is observing children and analyzing the
findings. Here is a quote that is meaningful to me as an Early Childhood
Educator and represents a major part of my role:
11. Extended-day is a time that I will always cherish! When
I first learned I would be working in extended-day, I had no idea what
to expect because I had not had any experiences in this position. I have
been enlightened with the special moments where I am able to learn
alongside a small group of 7-8 children while awaiting their families at
the end of the school day. I look forward to this part of my day just
as much as my students do. Sometimes I will hear extended-day students
make remarks like, “I can’t wait until it’s extended-day!” or “Remember
at extended-day yesterday when we made that painting together?” I value
the time that I have with this group of students and their appreciation
for the program is visible in their busyness while exploring and
investigating in a variety of activities.
Information for registering for WRDSB Extended Day
10. Professional development is purposeful and necessary. I recently attended the
Early Years Conference at Conestoga College where I had the pleasure of listening to
Tracy Pickard (
@TracyPick),
a Kindergarten teacher that has inspired me in many ways this year, and
my thoughtful and supportive Designated Early Childhood Educator
Supervisor, Sarah Andrade (
@SarahAinFDK)
speak about “covering and uncovering the curriculum”. Witnessing their
incredible partnership has continued to inspire me to value my
partnership with
Valerie
(@UrquhartVal) and Nicole because when you share the passion for
learning and child development with other educators, the reflection will
come across in your classroom. There are so many opportunities to grow
as a professional in this field and I am just getting started!
This
diagram represents the child centred in the middle of covering and
uncovering the curriculum – adapted from Sarah and Tracy’s presentation
8. When children get dirty, it’s a sign of a “hard day at work”.
With respect to parents perspectives, we have strongly advised that
children come prepared to get “dirty” at school so that nothing is
holding them back from their learning. Children learn by touching and
manipulating materials and sometimes that means they are on their hands
in knees in the sandbox using sticks to explore the waterhole that is
circulating them.
7. Less is more. When we first set up our
classroom in August, our teaching team had come up with evidence that
having less “things” in the room would allow for more opportunities,
experiences, learning, etc. to occur. When we add too many choices, our
children feel overwhelmed and it can be exhausting and intimidating to
look through and decide what materials they want to explore.
A
snapshot of our classroom in January 2014. Bulletin’s have been filled
with self-portraits and white board magnets have been removed for
document camera background.
6. Every day is a new day. Realistically
speaking, sometimes children – and adults – experience an “off day”
where things just didn’t go as they had planned, frustration got the
best of them, etc. I have learned that when this happens, it’s okay. I
have come to learn that it is important to let go of a problem or
frustration once it is dealt with in our classroom. For instance, if
Johnny acts in a “mean” way to Lizzy, this does not mean that Johnny is a
bad student or a mean person. Teaching forgiveness with young children
is part of understanding self-regulation. When we teach children that
sometimes we make mistakes and sometimes others make mistakes, it will
become easier to learn the concept of forgiveness and set up an
environment where all children and adults feel respected, loved, and
welcomed.
Important points to consider when dealing with young learners
5. Implementing Full-Day Kindergarten through phases takes times and not everyone is at the same place in the experience. Like
I’ve mentioned many times before, I am learning and so are the many
Kindergarten educators across the province who are undergoing this
wonderful transformation into early years education. What’s important
about recognizing all of this is that there are many individuals to turn
to that can support and share ideas. I am fascinated by the amount of
educators that come together through so many different networks to do
this.
4. Dancing and learning go hand in hand! In
our classroom, we often have dance parties in our classroom to feed the
energy that is within our Kindergarten students! Since I love to dance,
this is one of my favourite times in the day. Students are always
asking to have dance parties and we value using music as a tool to
explore the way our bodies can move and exercise! I have learned that
our children, like many children, are so interested in dance and
motivated to move to music. Dance parties have brought our classroom
closer together and everyone who has come to a dance party has had a
giant happy face while seeing our students so engaged!
A Kindergarten Dance Party!
3. Partnerships with parents is key to a child’s success.
I have been SO fortunate to be in a classroom where family involvement
is so apparent. I have had many experiences working with parents and
guardians of children through different organizations and continue to
witness the benefits of developing purposeful relationships with them.
Something that is new to me this year is the use of a “Communication
Book”, which I’m sure is not new to many Kindergarten educators, but
being in my first year with the school board, I had never used one
before. This book allows for us to share relevant messages with families
and allows them to do the same with us. We have other ways of
connecting with our families using technology this year and the feedback
we receive is outstanding!
2. I have so much to learn and that excited me because I love to learn new things!
This year has provided me with my opportunities to strengthen my
philosophy of education and take on some leadership roles through
sharing my knowledge with others. In March, I spoke for the first time
at Conestoga College in a class I was once a student in about using
Twitter to document and capture learning in early year environments.
Speaking publicly hasn’t always been my forte but now that I have found a
career that I love and feel passionate about, I have so much to share!
Stay tuned for updates about upcoming workshops I will be speaking at.
1. And finally, the number one learning I want to share is not so
much a learning experience I have had, but one that I’ve seen others
have throughout the year. Here it goes… “Play” does not mean “free time”
and being an educator in Kindergarten is not “easy” or “less work”. In
the fall, we had an educator come into our classroom for a brief time
and she asked, “Do these kids just play all day?” I felt honoured that
she recognized our children were playing but felt compelled to describe
the exploring, investigating, creative thinking, problem-solving, social
experiences, etc., etc., etc., that was actually going on during her
visit. It was a pivotal moment for me where I learned that not everyone
yet realizes the benefits of play-based learning, so to complete this
post, I have evidence of the benefits that occur in a play-based
environment from the Ministry of Education in their
Statement on Play-based Learning.
In March 2013, I applied to Waterloo Region District School Board
with the hopes that I would be able to share my passion of teaching and
learning with young minds and exceptional educators. After successfully
completing the application and interview process, I was assigned to New
Dundee Public School, a place where I have grown tremendously as an
educator since the school year began.
Before September rolled around, I was introduced to my two teaching
partners, Valerie and Nicole (see photo below). We met alongside other
Phase 4 (2013-4) FDK educators and began to discuss how our philosophies
might interact. Since that moment of our first interaction, Valerie,
Nicole and I have continued to have powerful conversations about our
students, full-day kindergarten implementation/news, the learning
environment, “covering and uncovering curriculum”, and implementing new,
less “traditional” aspects to kindergarten that are engaging and rich
in nature. We each bring very different, but strong experiences to our
team. In fact, the best part about our team is that we are so
different!
Valerie, our classroom Kindergarten teacher, has been working with
WRDSB for approximately four years. The enthusiasm, generosity, and
encouragement she has demonstrated in her teaching and partnership with
others this year has changed me as an educator and an individual. Not
only does she put everything she has into our classroom, she finds ways
to support others along their FDK journey by inviting them in for
visits, explaining our processes for choosing certain designs and
materials in our classroom, live tweeting (@UrquhartVal) about the
learning that occurs with our students, and captures beautiful stories
that she displays through documentation on our bulletin boards and using
the classroom blog (
kindergartenatnewdundee.wordpress.com/).
Valerie’s communication skills have exceeded my expectations. There has
never been a moment that I feel “less than” or “unequal to” in our
classroom because we constantly discuss and collaborate in our team. In
many ways, Valerie has been my mentor this year and we have developed a
beautiful friendship!
My other teaching partner, Nicole, has a kind and open attitude
toward the growth of our classroom and the experiences as an Early
Childhood Educator thus far in her career. She has been working with the
WRDSB as a Designated Early Childhood Educator for approximately 2
years. Nicole and I graduated together from the Early Childhood
Education program in 2012 at Conestoga College and were exasperated when
we learned we would be working alongside one another through the 2013-4
school year! What a treat it has been to have her at the tips of my
fingertips to “show me the ropes” of our individual roles. Nicole makes
our classroom a fun place to be with her sense of humour and patience.
She enjoys communicating with our classroom families and sharing
anecdotes about our students with them. In our extended day program,
Nicole and I have partnered in creating exciting experiences for our
students and sharing our learning with other DECE’s in our board on
professional development days and networking occurrences. I feel
fortunate to have had shared so many learning opportunities with Nicole
so far, and I truly value the partnership and friendship her and I have
established throughout this year!
I have been extremely fortunate to work with both of these educators.
It seems as though each day we encounter together, we are teaching and
learning from one another as well as with our students. Learning – from
one another, our students, families, administration, and other
educators – is truly the only “theme” that occurs in our classroom!
This is why I think a team environment in education is so powerful! We
play off of one another’s ideas, push each other to our limits, and we
support decisions and choices that are made in our learning environment.
With a class of 27 students, it has been so beneficial not only to the
educators, but especially to our students to have three of us in the
classroom to ensure optimum learning opportunities for each of them. I
couldn’t be more thankful to be undergoing the experiences I am having
this year in FDK and I especially owe gratitude to my wonderful teaching
partners.
Nicole, Valerie and I on Anti-bullying Awareness Day
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