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Portrait of a Learner: Academic Proficiency
By: Ms. Elizabeth, Kindergarten Teacher
"School days, school days
Dear old Golden rule days.."
Does anyone else remember this song from your childhood? My mother used to sing it to me on the first day of school each year. I don’t know who was more excited for the school year to begin – me, as a rising elementary student looking forward to meeting my new teacher and class, or my mother to have me back at school!
With the beginning of a new school year, there is not only a lot of excitement and joy, but also worries and anxieties. Both for kids and adults!
This is one of the many reasons you will hear teachers say “Go slow to go fast.” We work hard at the beginning of the year to set up routines, adjust to schedules, adapt to our classrooms, teachers, and classmates, and work on expectations. The academics are of course a major part of our day, but we cannot get to these until a collaborative and cohesive group is created. And this takes a lot of planning, modeling, and practice.
This work we do at the beginning of the school year can help members of the school community develop responsibility, a sense of well being, and effective communication and collaboration skills: three parts to our supervisory union wide “Portriat of a Learner.”
The way classrooms and teachers address this learning is through a variety of practices. You will see silly games and movement breaks happening; fun stories read and discussed; scavenger hunts around the school or playground; and lots of exploration, discovery, and reflection.
In the kindergarten classroom this work continues for many days and weeks into the school year. These students who are new to the school are learning all about how to transition and change from class to class; how to navigate the lunch room, playground, forest school, hallways, and dismissal; learning so many new names of adults and kids; and working to make it through a very long day without a nap.
There are many conscious choices as a teacher knowing when it is time to take a break, move bodies, quiet down, play a game, or go outside to run around. Although we all have weekly schedule, as the beginning of the year this becomes more of a suggested guide from which to work from, but with understanding that the needs of the kids will dictate how each day truely goes.
At this point in the school year we are now three weeks into the school year. Hopefully our routines and schedules are becoming more secure and known by students, and we are able to go deeper into our learning with greater perseverance. As the year ebbs and flows, all classrooms will revisit this early work of defining expectations, reviewing protocols and reminding each other about responsibilities. And we will continue that important work of creating community, trust, respect, and appreciation for the many wonderful classmates and teachers we have in our lives.
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