It's officially the end of our 5 weeks in the field and I can honestly say that I have learned more in these last few weeks than I could have possibly imagined! I'll be the first to admit that I was a bit hesitant about being placed in a kindergarten classroom, I don't have much experience with such a young age group, but it was so incredibly rewarding! My favorite thing about being around 5-6 years olds, is that they make such progress over such short periods of time. When I started at the very end of October, many kids were struggling to write out their full name, but by the end, they were all so good at it! I also had the opportunity to assess students individually, so I really got to see a lot of progress in that area as well. These kids are seriously smart!
I used to think that kindergarten was kind of like a glorified daycare, where teachers watch students as they play games, learn colors and shapes, but these kids were identifying nouns, pronouns and verbs in sentences that they would write! Friday was a tough day, we had a sub so everything was a little more stressful than usual, but by the time I had to leave and say goodbye to the students, I broke down in tears! I didn't realize how attached I had gotten to each and every one of them. Luckily, my CT said they has an open door policy, so I'm more than welcome to visit anytime :) I am so thankful for this wonderful experience!
Kiley, I had Kindergarten too and I couldn't agree more! I have been in a Kindergarten classroom before but every school is different, of course. I think my classroom was a little slower paced because of the amount of ELL students, but I could still see all of the successful progression! It is cool that your class was learning verbs, nouns, and pronouns. That would be fun to work with them on.
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