Fourth Week of School - Wednesday, Sept. 23rd, 2009

I took a short break from 5th/6th grade duty to visit a kindergarten class, where I got to read one of my all-time favorite children's books to the class.

This is a book that my mother used to read to me when I was four or five, but she was also a kindergarten teacher who used to read this book to her classes as well, so there seemed to be the requisite amount of karmic energy in the air.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this was to make sure that I was not getting "spoiled" or isolated by my initial student teaching experience, namely working with high-achieving fifth and sixth graders. I wanted to make sure that I could derive pleasure as well as communicate effectively with a much younger class of students, and also that I was adaptable and flexible enough, as a prospective teacher, to be able to switch grades effortlessly. I thought it went reasonably well, and both the master teacher and one of my fellow student teachers thought I did an excellent job reading the story, relating it to myself, as well as getting them to participate as I read. Although I am fairly sure that I do not want to teach kindergarten or 1st grade, at the end of the day, teaching is teaching, and wherever the winds may blow us, we should be prepared not only for the challenges but to know that we can "teach" whatever, whenever and wherever students may need us the most.