A Thank You

When I first started teaching, I'd just gotten out of five years of preparing to teach band, which is pretty much a 5th-12th grade subject.  But then I started teaching K-12 and had to figure out how to work with K-4 students on a daily basis.  While I'd like to think I work with them pretty well and I've improved over time, there are just some things that are taken for granted when working with older students.  We don't think often think about all of the basic skills that our littlest students have to learn not only for school, but life!

My total 90 minutes per week with Kindergarten makes me think that K teachers should be nominated for sainthood.  Here are a few things that have helped me gain a healthy appreciation for what they do all day, everyday.

1. "Line up."  Such a simple statement.  Naively I told my first group of kindergarteners to line up at the end of class...on their first day of school (my first day of school too).  Chaos.  While some students may have experienced this in preschool, not all kids go.  Plus it had been MONTHS since any with preschool experience had even done this.  Do you know how long of a time that is for a five year old?  This is something that someone has to teach and practice with students.
2. Bathroom stuff.  Public bathrooms can be a fairly new and adventurous experience!  Kids have to learn things like peeking under the wall at your neighbor is not OK or that they have to ask if they need to go potty.  (I still have one that just shouts "I gotta go pee!") I've also learned that I have to walk kindergarten to the bathroom during our first class to show them where it is.  Otherwise, they'll walk all the way back to their room on the other side of the building if they have to go during class.
3. "We don't pick our nose and wipe it on our friend's pants."  This is an actual thing I had to say this year.  Also, if one student needs a tissue, everyone needs a tissue.
4. The definition of an injury or emergency.  I can't tell you how many times a student has come up to me asking for a bandage for the an invisible spot that only they can see.  
5. I once watched two kindergarten students dragging a small table down the hallway after using it as a prop for their end of the year song.  I was confused as to what they were doing until their teacher showed them how to carry it together.  It didn't even occur to me that they really didn't know how to carry it like that.  Another one of those things that you have to realize that someone once had to show you how to do.
6. While doing some observations for a class last year, I got to witness show and tell.  Many blessings on the teacher for being so amazingly encouraging and enthusiastic.  The student stood there with the classic "deer in headlights" stare with a small plastic toy no bigger than her hand.  With the help of the teacher, the toy had a name, friends, and did special tricks by the end of things.  The level of patience it took had to have been off the charts, but the student walked back to her spot smiling and confident.
7. The whining voice.  You know the one.  I don't know if it comes standard on all little kids, but they all seem to capture that same tone.  Not only dealing with this, but teaching better ways to communicate is a daily occurrence.  

Early childhood teachers are amazing people.  It's not a flashy job and it certainly doesn't get the recognition it deserves in the wide world of things like "college and career ready" focus.  But these awesome people are the ones who start them all.  They show them how to hold their pencil and teach them how to read their first words.  They provide the huge amount of emotional support that such young students need daily and they do it with a smile.  So to you, early childhood teachers, thank you.