I have been a happy blogger since 2005. But I found that the more time I have devoted to teaching (and constant Facebooking to be honest) the less time I have had to blog. There is just so much reading and writing to do in order to keep up with the latest in teaching. Plus, when every thought I have can be expressed as a Facebook status update, the urge to blog longer posts dwindles.
However my mind has been racing with marvelous ideas, questions, emotions, fears, joys, and excitement ever since I found out that starting in January I will be the new full time kindergarten teacher at Cold Spring.
Even the name Cold Spring Elementary School is wonderful. And it is in America's Hometown of Plymouth Massachusetts. Speaking to students about the Pilgrims, Wampanoags, and Thanksgiving, takes on a whole other level when you can smell the ocean from the school front steps, and the Forefather's monument looms above you.
Cold Spring is a little area not far from the Mayflower replica. Even before the Pilgrim's landed the local peoples' sipped water from its wonderful stream that meandered to the ocean. The school itself is over 50 years old, a small brick school that serves just over 200 student's from K to 5. Its annual open house boasts of over 90% family participation. Many of the families are new immigrants and one of my goals is to learn Portuguese! This little neighborhood school has affordable and safe rental properties nearby, and there is something very touching about Plymouth still being a welcoming place for newcomers looking for a better life.
They were certainly welcoming to me when I joined the staff last Fall as a Title 1 teacher. It was tough leaving Carver school after being involved in one way or another for more than 20 years. But the staff, children and families could not have been more supportive and I eagerly rush into school every day. Not many people can honestly say THAT about their jobs!
Being a classroom teacher will be a new experience for me, although I must be the oldest most experienced 'new' teacher ever! I have substitute taught prek-12 for years, and have been everything from the high school behavior teacher sub, to the sub lunch lady! I served as a long-term sub preschool teacher working in the same classroom with some amazing ladies!
But the experience that made me fall in love with full day K was working with 3 amazing kindergarten teachers. 2 of those amazing women retired this December and countless students in Plymouth and Carver got amazing beginnings from them. I certainly learned a tremendous amount and am indebted to their patience and skills. Both women who retired were far quieter and more reserved styles, as compared to my bombastic theatrical style. I am sure I entered their classrooms like an over eager Labrador, jumping on the furniture and muddying everything with my paws.
Both ladies claim I was a breath of fresh air when I came in to do my afternoon shifts in their classrooms. But I think they are just very tactful women. The third kindergarten inspiration is currently in a second grade classroom this year, but should be returning to kindergarten in the Fall. She has patiently answered my nonstop queries, and generously shared all her material with me.
I stand on the shoulders of these wonderful women plus all the great teachers I was lucky enough to have...hi Aunty Maria! I am thrilled to be helping my young friends finish their second half of kindergarten.
I wanted to use this blog to share some of my discoveries and document the curiosity and excitement of our classroom. I want to explore the thought process of lesson planning and assessments, the bulletin boards, and trainings, and evaluation tools and all that goes into a classroom.
Perhaps posting in this teacher blog will get me back to my HerMajesty blog as well, who knows.
I am thrilled to be having my own classroom. As amazing as it was to do push in and pull out of Title 1, and see all the different grades and classrooms, kindergarten is my first love. It is where a students' educational career begins. We are all lifelong learners. I want my students to feel curious and amazed and competent. They will discover in our classroom a place where they can be readers, writers, mathematicians, historians, and scientists! It shall be as peter Pan says "A great adventure!."
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