I know, I know....I shouldn't rant and rave like a crazy woman.
Right?
Well....apparently we haven't met. My name is Mrs. Teacher. Aside from teaching, ranting and raving is what I do. I am rather good at it.
I have been thinking about all the times I am having a polite, casual conversation with someone I have just met and they inevitably ask me what I do. It usually goes something like this....
"So, Mrs T....tell us, what is it that you do?"
"Well, Gertrude (or whatever), I'm a teacher."
G: "Wow! A teacher! That is so great! I just really think that like, teachers are like, super important to like, society. That is just so cool that you are a teacher! So, like, what do you teach?"
(I'm not sure how or when Gertrude turned into a valley girl, but she did. Get over it.)
S: "I teach Kindergarten half-time and Music half-time!"
G: "Oh.....wow....so you don't like, teach then...."
People. I can't even tell you how many freaking times over the years I have had this kind of response from others when I answer that "what grade" or "what subject" question. Countless times.
The other most popular response is something along the lines of "oh wow, that must be so fun! So you just get to play and read stories and make crafts with your Kindergarten class!"
Two things;
1.) I will save my rant on the importance of music education for another time. This is specifically about Kindergarten.
2.) Yes, it is so fun. And it is so hard. And it is stressful and busy and challenging and exhausting and heartbreaking and amazing and crazy. Fun is only one of the things involved in being a Kindergarten teacher.
It upsets me that society has the idea that early childhood education and the primary grades are not "teaching". They are just "fun" and "cute" and "isn't-that-nice". To be fair, it most certainly is not everyone that shares this erroneous view, but enough in my experience that I would say it is prevalent!
Now, did you know that I have the exact same qualifications to be this nice, fun little Kindergarten teacher as a High School English teacher has? And feel free to replace "High School English teacher" with ANY other teaching position in the public school realm. That's right. The same. Oh sure, we had our focus, our specialty, our major, if you will. But when it comes right down to it, my Bachelor of Education is what got me my Teaching Certificate, and that is what qualifies me to be a teacher of anything. There is NOTHING stopping me from transferring into teaching any other grade, other than the simple fact that I don't want to.
Kindergarten is a child's first step into the formal education system. They learn what it means to be a student in the Kindergarten classroom. They learn important routines that are sometimes taken for granted later on....like listening to the teacher without constantly interrupting, following instructions and getting into a line. Do you know how many children I have taught to write their own name? Zip up their own coat? Put their shoes on the right feet? Blow their own nose? How about the letters of the alphabet and the corresponding sounds - do you think that might be important? How about identifying numerals and counting? How about helping a child to get over their fear of school so that they don't scream and cry at the beginning of every single day? I could go on and on and on and on....
The fact is, every grade, every age level is important right from Kindergarten. To assume that the teaching of young children isn't important or isn't considered "real" teaching is incredibly ignorant. Kindergarten and the primary grades provide an important foundation that other teacher's can build upon down the road.
And these jobs are not for the faint of heart.
Sunday 22 March 2015
How It All Started
When I was very young, before I went to school, I had a number of different career aspirations. Most notably I wanted to be a Firewoman, a Taco Dancer (from some commercial for a Mexican restaurant??), and one of Santa's Elves.
I'm not sure if it was my new-found knowledge of the fraudulency of the whole North-Pole thing, or if it was my kind and Grandmotherly Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Tait (her name made me think of Scotch tape), but by around age 6 I knew I wanted to be a teacher.
I spent my Grade 1 year painfully shy, slightly terrified of my teacher, Mrs. Duggelby, and borderline obsessed with chalkboards, marking things with red pen, and pocket charts. Oh yes.....the pocket charts. I do believe I asked for both pocket charts and laminators for Christmas. No joke. I could picture myself having a blue pocket chart up on my bedroom wall, where I could keep track of the date, the word of the day, and other important information all neatly printed in black marker on little rectangular cards....ah....sounds great, doesn't it?
We had a chalkboard in our basement at home and I spent hours down there (and our basement was CREEPY so this is saying a lot) playing school, usually alone since my big sister wasn't interested in being the student and clearly I needed to be the teacher! I had a few old spelling books and readers that my Dad had scrounged up from the school where he was a custodian - likely from the pile of stuff teachers were getting rid of - and I would copy things onto the board, look out at my imaginary class, and it was bliss.
I remember watching my teachers like a hawk. I wanted to know everything about them - who they were, what they did, how they spoke, how they wrote on the chalkboard....everything. I can still list every teacher from my Kindergarten year all the way to Grade 8. High School is a bit trickier, but if you gave me a few minutes, I bet I could remember most of them, too.
I had brief thoughts of other career paths, but that is all they were - thoughts. Truly, there was never any doubt. I remember a teacher in high school, after I read something aloud in the Remembrance Day Ceremony at school ask me if I had ever considered a career in journalism. He told me I had "the kind of charisma money can't buy". I took it as a compliment and thought "yeah, I could go into journalism". But would I? No.
In University I started with general studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, obtaining all my required courses for admission into the College of Education. I enjoyed History, Political Studies, and Literature most of all. I thought about Politics, Psychology and Law. But, there was never any doubt, any real option. It was always Education.
I look back now after nearly a decade in the classroom and I love it. It is humbling, inspiring, motivating, and rewarding. It is busy, demanding, challenging, exhausting, stressful, like a wild maniac juggling 800 sharp knives and fiery torches at once....or something. Mostly I just love it.
I feel like I have a lot to say and a lot more to give, beyond the four walls of my classroom. Though I have resisted joining the blogging world for some time, I think it might be just the format I need to help me begin to sort out my thoughts and start sharing them with the world. : )
I'm not sure if it was my new-found knowledge of the fraudulency of the whole North-Pole thing, or if it was my kind and Grandmotherly Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Tait (her name made me think of Scotch tape), but by around age 6 I knew I wanted to be a teacher.
I spent my Grade 1 year painfully shy, slightly terrified of my teacher, Mrs. Duggelby, and borderline obsessed with chalkboards, marking things with red pen, and pocket charts. Oh yes.....the pocket charts. I do believe I asked for both pocket charts and laminators for Christmas. No joke. I could picture myself having a blue pocket chart up on my bedroom wall, where I could keep track of the date, the word of the day, and other important information all neatly printed in black marker on little rectangular cards....ah....sounds great, doesn't it?
We had a chalkboard in our basement at home and I spent hours down there (and our basement was CREEPY so this is saying a lot) playing school, usually alone since my big sister wasn't interested in being the student and clearly I needed to be the teacher! I had a few old spelling books and readers that my Dad had scrounged up from the school where he was a custodian - likely from the pile of stuff teachers were getting rid of - and I would copy things onto the board, look out at my imaginary class, and it was bliss.
I remember watching my teachers like a hawk. I wanted to know everything about them - who they were, what they did, how they spoke, how they wrote on the chalkboard....everything. I can still list every teacher from my Kindergarten year all the way to Grade 8. High School is a bit trickier, but if you gave me a few minutes, I bet I could remember most of them, too.
I had brief thoughts of other career paths, but that is all they were - thoughts. Truly, there was never any doubt. I remember a teacher in high school, after I read something aloud in the Remembrance Day Ceremony at school ask me if I had ever considered a career in journalism. He told me I had "the kind of charisma money can't buy". I took it as a compliment and thought "yeah, I could go into journalism". But would I? No.
In University I started with general studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, obtaining all my required courses for admission into the College of Education. I enjoyed History, Political Studies, and Literature most of all. I thought about Politics, Psychology and Law. But, there was never any doubt, any real option. It was always Education.
I look back now after nearly a decade in the classroom and I love it. It is humbling, inspiring, motivating, and rewarding. It is busy, demanding, challenging, exhausting, stressful, like a wild maniac juggling 800 sharp knives and fiery torches at once....or something. Mostly I just love it.
I feel like I have a lot to say and a lot more to give, beyond the four walls of my classroom. Though I have resisted joining the blogging world for some time, I think it might be just the format I need to help me begin to sort out my thoughts and start sharing them with the world. : )
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