I Teach K Conference

I requested more training to improve my Kindergarten Teacher Toolbox. A teacher toolbox is a figurative toolbox containing all your teacher knowledge and know how. If you come across a problem or your students aren't responding to your normal procedure/instruction, then you reach into your toolbox and can pull out another method to try.

It doesn't mean that I don't know how to teach, it's just maybe there's a better method to doing something that I can try. 

And I will be honest with you: I do not enjoy teaching the beginning part of Kindergarten. 

It's not just the fact that I have to focus on the procedures of being at school, I don't enjoy what I am supposed to be teaching, namely introduction to the alphabet. I have been teaching it the same way for the last three years and I think there's a better way out there. 

Typically, after Winter Break is when I start to love what I teach. Yes, the children have the procedures down by then and are more independent but we also move from whole group instruction to Guided Literacy Groups and I have my stations going with different activities while I pull small groups of students and work with them at their reading level because if you don't know, some children come into my classroom not knowing the alphabet and some come in already able to read. I love my Literacy Groups because I can meet my students where they are and take them to the next level. 

I want to start my groups earlier in the school year. I want to spend time teaching the independent activities so that it my students will know what to expect before they go on Winter Break. But to do this, I have to completely change how I have been structuring the beginning part of the year, but at the same time, I am totally excited to do this since I need to make changes anyways. 

I went to my principal and we talked about what I want to do in my teaching. She was so supportive that she is sending me to the National I Teach K Conference in Las Vegas this summer. So many tools for my toolbox!

I feel like this will help me really zero in on teaching Kindergarten. After teaching 2nd Grade for so many years, there are some aspects of Kindergarten that I would like to be more aware of. I feel like my eyes are being awoken to all the possibilities!

Here are the sessions I am signed up for: 

*Fabulous Fine-Motor Fun (a total Kindergarten thing)

*Bringing the Outdoors in & Taking the Standards Out (toolbox)

*The Magic of Music & Movement (granted, we sing a lot but there's so much more!)

*Teach Sight Words So They Stick! (I hope to move away from relying on homework)

*Kick Learning Up a Notch with Literacy Center Fun (more activities!!)

*Phonemic Awareness & Phonics Fun (toolbox)

*Interactive Read-alouds through Deliberate Instruction (not covered in my teacher college)

*How to Re-Tool Your Busy Day to Get Everything Done (YES! PLEASE!)

As I've said before, I'm a good teacher. I can and do teach children to read, write, count, add & subtract. I am the best teacher that I can be at this moment. I have even won a local radio station's Teacher of the Month.

Me rocking R2D2 on the front page

But my goal is to be an amazing Kindergarten Teacher. 

Three years ago, I was handled materials and told, "This is how we do it in K." Well, hang on to your hats, cause I'm about to shake things up! 

Pintrest Teacher Bloggers

I've been teaching Kindergarten (K) for three years now. There are aspects I truly love about K, but there are also aspects that I don't love. I like my end result but I think there is room for improvement. 

Looking to make some changes/overhauls in my teaching, I went looking for inspiration. I turned to the internet to see what other K teachers around the country were doing. 

And there I met the Pintrest Teacher Bloggers. 

The Pintrest Teacher Blogge

Their classrooms are immaculate, beautifully decorated and organized, and their lessons/projects are delightfully created with cute images and sweet fonts....and all of the lessons are available for purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers! (And some actually have stores where you can buy the decor!)

Now, I love Teachers Pay Teachers, because my classroom is not immaculate, beautifully decorated and organized and when I created a lesson/projects it tends to be very linear and handwritten with a sharpie. But I can go on this site and I can look like I am a Pintrest Teacher Blogger. 

And I love my Pintrest! I get ideas for organization, decor, anchor charts, and projects. 

These are all great resources that let me fake being a Pintrest Teacher Blogger, but I wasn't finding the inspiration that I needed. Because there is more to teaching than decor, organization, projects, and worksheets....and any teacher will tell you that. 

I wanted to dive in and be inspired by everything K. I checked out blogs that showed 5 year olds writing like Second Graders the first 3 weeks of school. Oh, really? Pictures of every child behaving and following directions....

These teachers remind me of images of the perfect housewife of the 50's, vacuuming in pearls and heels.

I'm so prepared and organized!

I like to think of myself as a good teacher but next to these teachers, I'm quite inept. 

So I've decided to embrace my role as an Inept Teacher Blogger. 

JUST like the teacher guide!

Like today, we built 2D and 3D shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks. And I posted a picture of one of my students building beautiful shapes, like right out of the teacher's manual! But I didn't take a picture of the marshmallow that was stabbed with 20 toothpicks. I should have in retrospect, because there SO MANY toothpicks...it really was a feat actually. That little boy was quite proud. 

Well from now on, I will show both sides of my classroom! The brilliant and the WTH! 

And maybe one day, a teacher looking for inspiration but not perfection will find my site and get one or two (or a hundred) good ideas that they want to try. Maybe other teachers will find this site and give me a great idea to try. 

I have nothing to sell but I will give credit when credit is due and send you over to other teacher's stores.

I've got big plans for next year and I will be heading over to the national I Teach K Conference in July this summer. 

Maybe one day I will be a Pintrest Teacher Blogger but given my preference of a blank paper and a black sharpie over cute fonts on my computer, probably not.