Teacher for a Day

Last Wednesday I taught Kindergarten. When the tutor was out for the day, our site director approached Lily and me before work and asked if one of us wouldn't mind teaching the kids for the day. "Sure, no problem" I said. "What do you need me to teach them?"

At that point, she informed me there was no lesson plan to be taught. Fortunately, I had been observing all of the classes the past couple of weeks and was up-to-date with what the kids were learning.

One of the kids got sick at the lunch table, and so began my day of teaching. The odds of that happening in a class of 6 in the first few minutes I figured were minimal, but it happened, and the first thing I did was laugh. Of course, I cleaned after the little guy looked as me with a confused face.

The rest of the day was filled with the usual: Math, reading, numbers, letters, and the introduction of shapes, of which I taught the triangle and the square. I instituted a game where everyone got to be the teacher for a few moments, showing each other triangles and squares on the chalkboard, and they loved it. The hard part was transitioning to the next lesson of the day because everyone wanted another turn to teach.

Next came clubs, where the kindergarten and first grade classes combined and headed over to the poetry/performance instructors. Currently they're learning a remixed version of "You Are my Sunshine":




The day finished off with independent reading, something I've found Kindergarteners love to do... for two minutes. Bouncing attention spans left me wanting to recite the phrase, "Reading is fundamental", something that had been etched in my brain from my elementary days. But I realized it probably wouldn't make any sense to them, because it never really did for me until today, now that I'm reflecting.

School ended at 6pm and the parents came to pick up the little rascals. "Bye Mr. Jay!" was the collective (I decided against MacFadgen; I can't do that to them), and then my exhaustion kicked in. Another day completed; another day of learning; both student and teacher.