Miss Ruark, Kindergarten Teacher

This is my focus wall/calendar

I don't write about my actual teaching on this blog. Which is funny because teaching is what I spend the majority of my time doing. But I don't want to write about what I am doing in my classroom and how I have decorated it, or organized it...even though I am proud of my classroom. And I check out many different teacher blogs and am grateful those teachers posted their ideas and what works for them.

But I thought I would devote a post about me being a teacher. 

I want to be a great teacher. I want kids to shine when they are in my class. I want to help them improve not only their weaknesses but also their strengths. I would love to be the kind of teacher that newer teachers will be inspired by.

I think I do well by my students however, I don't think my teaching style is very exciting. 

You see, I am a very laid back teacher. I teach like I am about to be interrupted. Which I mostly likely will be. And not just by the 5 year olds, because other adults interrupt me constantly. Other teachers, parents, parents of other classrooms, issues from the office...and I have 23 mostly 5 year olds. I will be interrupted.

The worst interruption of my career happened a couple of months ago. I had taken my students outside on the bench and was about to create an eruption of a paper mache volcano. I had filled the volcano with the proper ingredients and was just about to pour in the magic that would make our volcano erupt. 

Now, I should also point out that I was a drama kid in high school and can be very theatrical. I also teach like I'm on stage, entertaining the crowds...not only does it make for a more engaged classroom, but it gets out my need to perform regularly. 

My Word Wall 

So, I have presented my lesson with the gusto of a side show magician and I have the kids on the edge of their seat as I am about to pour in the liquid from the beaker in my hand...

...when a parent from another classroom comes to me to inform me that she has the box of tee shirts that I will need at the end of week and where should she put them? 

I guess my response of, "Just set them down there, please." wasn't enough of a response. Because she then went into how she was going to set them down in the classroom and how the shirts were arranged. My "OkayThat'sGreatThanks!" seemed to miff her and she huffed off. 

My students who were once in rapt attention were now fidgeting in their seats and whispering to each other. The moment was lost....thank goodness for my acting training years ago, because I was able to bring them back to a new moment and not act like I was totally irritated.

I teach with my gut. I feel what my kids need, whether that be what they need from me emotionally or if I need to change gears in the middle of a lesson because I'm losing them and I need to try a different approach. 

And despite my love of the theater, I don't do well with scripted lessons. I don't plan out my lessons that way. I know the scope of what I want to teach but if I am teaching the math vocabulary words, will my kids understand with the math video alone? Should I demonstrate with stuffed animals? Or will I have to be really dynamic and stand on a chair to demonstrate something? Or will the energy of my class be so off that standing on my chair would create too much silliness that I would lose the effectiveness of the lesson? Or will I simply have to use a real life example of that vocabulary word that will spark a class discussion of when my students used that vocabulary word. I wing it. 

If you think my math lessons are theatrical, then you should see me read a book! I use voices and expression to "act" out the book. I love reading books to my students. I read silly books, sweet books, and books that make me cry. There's one book called The Two Bobbies that makes me cry every single time I read it aloud. And I read it every year.

Lara Ruark 1982
Kindergarten

Before I tell this next story, I need you to know something about me: I tear up when I laugh. And when I laugh hard, I will cry....but when I am trying to hold back my laughter, then tears will run down my face.

Once a week, the special person of the week brings in their favorite book and I will read it to the class. Last year, one of the boys brought a Batman book to share. Now, I do voices when I read...and the only voice I could possibly do for Batman was that deep graveling voice from the movies but better yet the Batman voice from the web cartoon: How It Should Have Ended. Check out a clip here. 

This was by far the silliest voice I had ever done. Not even my gingerbread man voice could top this. And I was cracking myself something fierce. I even had to stop reading a couple of times to get my control back. All the while, tears are streaming down my face.

Of course the kids noticed. "Miss Ruark, are you crying?" one of them asked. I nodded, hid my face with the book, and shook with laughter.

They thought this was terribly funny. One of the boys started imitating my "Batman" voice, saying things like "I'm Batman." Which made me laugh even harder, but all the while trying not to laugh and still crying about it. I got through the book, but I don't think I did the story justice at all. 

It's interesting to notice that my students tend to be strong in their math skills and love books by the end of the year with me. I think it's no coincidence that those are my two favorite things about teaching. So, it's no surprise to me. 

Don't get me wrong, I also enjoy teaching reading and seeing my students improve their skills. But learning to read is based so much on the developmental connections in the brain that sometimes despite constant practicing the brain isn't ready to make that "click" until the student is a little older. When I taught 2nd Grade, all of a sudden the student's reading would take off and as much as I would have loved to take the credit, it was really their brain making that connection. 

I feel the best thing I can do to teach reading is to keep giving them that foundation and give the brain more opportunities to make that connection. I didn't start out a strong reader until I was older and I can remember looking at the other reading groups books in 2nd Grade thinking that they had the better stories to read. There was this girl in my 4th grade class who was the best reader in class and would make these fantastic book reports for these amazing books. I kinda "stalked" her and would read every book she did a report about all because I wanted to be a good reader too.

If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook, or Goodreads, you'd know that I grew up to become a total bookworm and I read a lot. This year, my goal was to read 37 books and I am almost up to 50 books for the year 2014. Last year was a slow reading year with my move and I think I barely read 25 books.

Miss Ruark 2014
Kindergarten Teacher

So, I love to see improvement in my students but I don't think how good of a reader you are in early elementary defines a future bookworm. I figure as long as they love books and practice, their brains will catch up. Look at me. 

Wow, I had a lot more to say about teaching than I thought I did. 

I guess the real truth about my teaching style is that while my class may look cutesy and we sing silly songs and sometimes it looks chaotic, is that I am very aware of the end result. I may not be the most polished looking teacher, or use the proper teaching terms (I didn't use the term realia once, but I mentioned it!) but I know where I want my students to be at the end of the year, and you know what? We get there. ;)