well it's october and feeling like august. thanks a million, ohio weather!
i've been teaching kindergarten for a couple months now and i've learned a few valuable lessons. 1. do NOT tie shoes if the laces are in ANY way wet. it "may be" pee is not a gamble i am willing to make. 2. 5 year olds are like teenage girls on their period: they are constantly crying and they don't know why, they are eating EVERYTHING and they don't have a lick of sense. 3. emergency pants are absolutely positively indispensable. despite the newly found grey hairs and inability to stay awake past 9 pm on a school night, i truly feel i have found my people. one of the parents in my class told me i seemed like the perfect fit for kindergarten because i get as excited as they do about pretty much everything. accurate. i took that as a compliment and i love teaching these little sponges, not only about math and reading, but also about empathy and integrity and curiosity. i have found that kindergartners are my spirit animals and it is truly a privilege to get to do life with them. on most days, my classroom is wild and loud and bursting with energy. we are "those people" and i am perfectly ok with that. we are messy and goofy and loud and at times downright ridiculous, but isn't that exactly what a kindergarten classroom should be? last week in math we were discussing "same" and "different" as they relate to numbers and objects. i had the kiddos do several different activities which asked them to identify similarities and differences as we worked through the week. for fun, i had them look at one of my family pictures and identify what makes my family members and i the same and what makes us different (everyone agreed, i am like dad and marge and emmy are like mom). i also had them identify similarities and differences between each other, bringing two or three up at a time and having the rest of the group observe them. do you want to know what i found downright lovely? they never once mentioned race. they never once mentioned gender. they brought up things like favorite colors and hobby differences. they talked about how "o" runs fast at recess but "v" is really good at jumping. they talked about character attributes. in short, they talked about the important stuff. the stuff that matters. it was really profound for me as a teacher watching them do these activities. it reminded me that things like hate and racism are not innate. they are taught. differences don't have any meaning until someone decides they mean something. i choose to teach love. i choose to teach respect. i choose to teach that differences make this a more beautiful, colorful and diverse world. and if you ever find yourself losing hope in this broken and sad state of things, come spend a day in kindergarten. i promise it'll put just a little more happy in your heart. until next time. xo, ld
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