Building Community
9/6/2019
The primary work we are doing right now is building our classroom community. Although we do this work all day long (and will continue to do it all year long), it is our main focus during Inquiry Workshop, where we actively study and investigate, "How can we make the best kindergarten community?" Throughout the first few weeks of school, we have come to the conclusion that WE (the students and teachers) are the most important part of the kindergarten community. Students have listened to many books and participated in discussions about being ourselves and letting others be themselves in our classroom. It is US that makes our community so special. One of my favorite books for this is, "The Day You Begin." In it, Jacqueline Woodson perfectly sums up the work we've been doing these past few weeks: "This is the day you begin to find the places inside your laughter and your lunches, your books, your travel and your stories, where every new friend has something a little like you - and something else so fabulously not quite like you at all." Within the social-emotional framework we are currently establishing, students will feel comfortable to be themselves and share their stories with others, try new things, and take safe risks throughout the school year. This work is truly the essential foundation for everything else we will do this year. One way that we have been celebrating each individual in our kindergarten community is by inviting them to teach us about their families and some of the things they love and that make them special. Students have been enjoying not only sharing with the class, but learning about their classmates as well. They are respectful listeners during presentations and have many good questions and comments afterwards. I have loved seeing their confidence as they stand in front of their peers to teach. Sharing about themselves provides a meaningful way to establish the fact that they are teachers in our classroom and will teach and learn from each other throughout the year. These lessons that we are learning through literature and play will become our classroom guidelines and mission, those values that guide us throughout the year, helping us all learn from and teach each other as the year unravels. We have a delightfully wonderful, diverse, interesting, and creative group of students in our kindergarten community this year, and I am so excited to watch them grow and put their unique spin on our studies and time together.
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Saania AliMs. Ali graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelors of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies. She specializes in Early Childhood Education, ESL, and Special Education. Her hobbies include traveling, reading, and painting! Archives
April 2021
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