A History of One Kindergarten, 1995 to the present

It's hard not to think of the father when I'm teaching the son.  The father of the little boy with the angelic face and soft blonde hair curling over his ears was in my first kindergarten class. His son is in my last. Twenty-three years have passed.  So much has changed.

In 1995, kindergarten in our district was half-day, two and a half hours.  I had so little time with my students. Opening and dismissal routines took up about a half hour.  PE was thirty minutes every day, and either Music, Library or Technology accounted for another thirty minutes four days a week. So, I had little more than an hour of instructional time most days. This was barely enough time to read a book, do a project, and run a combination of academic and developmental play centers.  It was a fast-paced, rushed program, for sure. However, expectations were simpler back then and I did have quite a bit of autonomy in what I taught.  I created special programs like Pretend Trips Around the World, A Country Fair, The Wedding of Q and U, and Birthday Parties for American Heroes (topics for future posts!)

The Wedding of Q and U

Finally, in 2005, thanks to the initiative and hard work of a couple of my kindergarten colleagues, our school board approved full-day kindergarten.  For several years, I was able to slow down the pace, allow student choice in some activities, include snack time, and explore new trends in kindergarten education such as phonemic awareness training and balanced literacy. The district purchased an actual math curriculum so math evolved beyond what could be learned by studying a calendar. A new principal offered further professional development in guided reading, The Daily Five, and Writers' Workshop.  By 2010, our full-day program was...full.

Here I am in a guided reading group with my Royal Readers.

Then, in 2010, rigor came to kindergarten.  We began implementing the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.  I began teaching kindergarteners how to describe the main idea and identify key details in narrative and informational texts.  I tried to assess whether a five-year old understood the difference between present and past tense. A few years later, Common Core State Standards for Mathematics were also adopted.  I experimented with Engage New York Math for a couple of years before our district purchased Bridges Math.  Now we have math lessons twice a day for a total of about 60 minutes.

A couple of years ago, our kindergarteners rebelled against all of this rigor.  They let us know what we already knew; "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."  We were witnessing more acting out behaviors.  So, brain break videos and activities began to loosen things up a bit.  And last year, I brought STEAM and developmental play centers into my daily schedule (subject of future posts, too.)  Now, each morning ends by letting the kids 'blow off a little STEAM." Each afternoon ends with kids constructing small worlds and playing imaginatively.

The Science center during STEAM involves making and recording observations of our aquarium.

These girls are creating a zoo during developmental play centers time.

I really do think of the father when I'm teaching the son.  And now that the little guy got his curls clipped off, he really reminds me of his dad!