My kindergarten class often acts as my students' first introduction to formal schooling. The opportunity that I then have to affect how they view education is never lost to me. I want my students to feel safe, loved, and supported at school as they grow confident in their abilities and apply themselves to try new things. This is part of why the first thing I try to teach my students is empathy. Building a classroom culture where students are invested in their learning and enjoy working together as a team would not be possible without empathy.
Every rule in our classroom serves one of two purposes - to help us be safe, or to help us learn. These two ideas are my guiding principles. To promote social-emotional development and encourage "being safe" while being part of our community, I plan activities that focus on student communication like group projects and use of Kagan Strategies. I also teach my students starter sentences that they can use to explain themselves when they are upset such as “I didn’t like it when ______" and "Could you please ______?”. This helps students develop verbal communication skills that encourage speaking in a kind and productive way to solve problems independently.
I employ a variety of activities to encourage student engagement in learning as well. I use puppets, facial expressions, and visuals to help grab students’ attention. These strategies encourage a sense of fun and enthusiasm, but I also use verbal and non-verbal cues to help students calm down and refocus on learning when necessary. My students think of learning as fun and they also know when to take it from “silly to serious”.
When I first began teaching and was given a scripted curriculum, I quickly realized that the assumption that all students would remain engaged throughout a sometimes dry lesson was unrealistic. Since then, I have learned to appreciate the arts as a form of engagement. My students need movement every few minutes, so I began incorporating “brain break” games that were related to content. I also use arts-integration to encourage direct academic development by combining content lessons with art skills, like using egg shakers to make a steady beat while counting the number of words in a sentence. There are many benefits to incorporating quick arts-integrated elements into a lesson. Students remember the content more clearly and are eager to try new art and content skills. They also learn new arts skills simultaneously which can give them a variety of ways to express their learning such as through drawings or songs.
One of my favorite educators once told me she wanted her students to know that whatever was happening in their lives outside of class, in her room it was “sunny and 75” every day. I think that providing that calm, consistent, atmosphere for my students that is built on love is my most important mission, especially considering the population I serve. I want my students to grow and learn, but following Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I know they can only do so in an environment where they feel safe and taken care of. I strive each day to provide that for them.
I try to react to each of my students as individuals. If I notice a child looks upset, I help them talk through whatever is bothering them to find a better solution. If I notice my students seem bored, I add a new element into the lesson to try to keep them invested. I work each day to refine my teaching however I can. I believe that teaching should always be a learning experience for the teacher as much as for the child. I hope to prepare my students for first grade but beyond that I try to give them skills, such as an inquisitive yet empathetic nature, which will support them through their academic lives and beyond.