Kindergarten at the beginning of the year can be sort of chaotic. There are tears, both on the student side and the parent side. There are students who’ve never been in a classroom before or never interacted with another adult other than their parents. Some students come into school already able to read, while others working at their own pace, don’t yet know the alphabet. It serves as an interesting scene!
A few short months later, January rolls around. The Kindergarten world is turned upside down. A group of students work with peers to use shapes to complete tangram puzzles. One student asks another for help with adding basic math problems, and the other student responds by providing a conceptual context for the whole thing. The teacher, keeping a watchful eye over all of it, works with a small group using ten squares. Students come and go throughout the room, with a curiosity for learning.
Each student goes about their business independently. They are five and six years old, and they have work to be done, after all. Do some students still need assistance and support? You bet. But even many of those students recognize the need to ask if they don’t understand.
Just four short months. It is truly a magical transformation.
Rich (@RACzyz)