One of my good friends, who graduated from this program a year ago, just got a job teaching Kindergarten. I was so excited for her when she told me the news. Immediately, I started to dig into my children's books at home to help her supplement her classroom library. As I was organizing my books, I was getting so excited for her and it gave me little hope for next year.
Then, as I started helping my friend, I was listening to her talk about about all the things she had to do this week and then I started to feel very nervous for next year. Because she is starting late in the year with a new Kindergarten class, the Kindergarten parents were very concerned about the move. They expressed a lot of concern over my friend's credentials. After all, she was available for a job in November, and she was new, she must not be very good was the general consensus of the parents. Also, one of the IA's informed my friend that everyone wanted her to be the teacher except that she is not certified. Certainly, not everyone is cheering for my friend to succeed. It is a bit intimidating to think of all of it.
Fortunately, my friend has reported that all has so far been going well. Her first day of classes involved no lost children, no bathroom accidents, and no crying. A success in my mind!
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3 years ago
1 comment:
This sort of parallels my wife's experience as a new kindergarten teacher last year. The IA had been there a while, and worked closely with the previous teacher. She began telling my wife what she ought to be doing in the classroom, and singing the praises of the former teacher. She seemed to believe that she should be making most of the decisions about activities, choices of books, etc. It was very awkward.
I finally concluded it was just hard to be the "new kid on the block," and the difficult IA was merely one manifestation of this syndrome. Now that she's in her second year, things are getting better. There are still rocky roads sometimes, but she's kind of earned a place there, and has gained the self confidence she needs to press ahead with what she believes to be right, even when challenged by her IA or another teacher. It just took getting through that first year for things to start coming together.
This sort of surprised me, because she'd already taught at other schools for several years. But being the new kid must always bring some struggles, no matter who you are.
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