Blog Entry 2

The responsibilities of a Kindergarten teacher seem endless! 

Every day you have to have lessons planned for your class in many different subjects.  Math, writing, reading, p.e., and more.  Fairly often the teacher has to give assessment tests to each child individually.  There are parent conferences which can be very time consuming.  Sometimes there are concerns or special needs where the teacher has to contact a child's caregivers on their own time to discuss the issue.  Every week homework turned in has to be graded and recorded, and the new homework sent home. And of course before sending it home it has to be prepared and put together! 

At the school where I'm observing, each grade level's teachers form a team and everyone has team duties. It could be ordering and dividing lesson material, preparing homework for coming weeks, recess duty, or any number of other things.

The teacher I am observing right now also has a student teacher in her classroom so on top of all of her regular responsibilities she has even more!  I believe she attended a meeting at UVU regarding her student teacher last week and she also observes and gives comments and suggestions to the lessons the student teacher gives.

This past Monday she had to attend a district OEK (optional extended-day Kindergarten) meeting as she is teaching OEK at her school.  She is also honored to have been selected by Alpine School District to attend the Reading Recovery Conference in Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 1-5.  Today she was filling out a paper for each day she was going to be gone.

There are so many more duties that I haven't mentioned, and surely even more than I don't even know about yet, but this does not scare me away from wanting to teach.  The positive difference you can be in a child's life is well worth it all.  Think of Ruby Bridges and her year at school where it was only herself and her teacher, Mrs. Henry.  What a wonderful relationship came out of that situation!  Even in the midst of a great trail many blessings came to pass.

I have not been a stranger to trial in my life, and the duties and responsibilities of being a teacher, while great, are worth the end result.