Hi there!
This is my first year in Kindergarten - don't let that scare you away! I come from the wonderful world of third grade. Ever since my student teaching experience 5 years ago, I wanted to teach Kindergarten. In my last year of college I hit up all of the big sales with books, teaching materials, office supplies, all that I could find - everything geared towards Kindergarten, because I mean, come on... I was GOING to teach Kindergarten. I was going to have my cute little classroom with flowers all around it, my picture books displayed neatly, my animal prints hung in picture frames, and of course, all of my buckets of manipulatives ready to go for one-to-one counting, etc. I had painted my dream classroom - dreamed about it in my sleep, drew it out on paper - it was time. Time for those wonderful interviews to begin. I was ready... ready for my chance to teach my dream grade... Kindergarten! I was pretty certain I would get it - had many interviews lined up for specifically Kindergarten, but I kept on getting turned away... It was nearing the end of summer, I was in a complete depression thinking "what have I done wrong?" "maybe this isn't what God wants me to do.." until the call came... I was offered a position... at a prime school... 5 minutes from my house... to teach... THIRD GRADE. Of course, I was extremely thankful and excited to have my first teaching job, but of course still a little disappointed to not be in the position I had prepared so well for! Through the years of teaching third grade, I still continued to hold on to that dream. I tried every year to move down to K, but it never seemed to work out. I had accepted that third grade must be where God wants me and I was going to have to figure out a way to make it work... or move on to another job that was more satisfying to me.
As I was nearing the end of another third grade year, my Dean caught me in the middle of the hallway as I was heading to pick my kids up from PE... he stopped me and said "well, I have some news"... immediately I was worried I had done something wrong (typical thinking), so as I stared and waiting for him to tell me what I had done wrong of what I needed to do better, etc. the words came from his mouth... "You are going to be a Kindergarten teacher next year!". OH MY GOSH! I was so excited - my heart raced, I held back the tears, ran off to the bathroom - stared in the mirror, took a deep breath and said... "Hello Kindergarten!".
Let me tell you - this year has been the best year of my teaching career! There have been ups and downs but I have grown so much. I have fallen in love with 15 little kiddos who have stolen my heart and I am not sure how I am going to get my heart back at the end of the year... Kindergarten...
It has been fun reading about your lifelong preparation for Kindergarten and then knowing you taught 3rd grade for three years. :-) I loved being able to tell you last year that you would be moving to Kindergarten this year. You have done a great job and been very agile, nimble, and responsive to the many opportunities and challenges thrown your way this year. Thanks for being a great teacher - I know this year has been successful for you and your students!
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