Observation 2

I again observed in the Kindergarten classroom but also observed in the Preschool classroom room at the elementary school where I live. While I was in the Kindergarten classroom it was during the math lesson that the teacher had prepared for them. They were to cut and paste cars to match the number they had at the top of the paper. The students seemed to enjoy this lesson and was being very attentive to the teacher and raising their hand to answer questions that the teacher had asked. When the lesson was over it was time for them to go to their special, special is a time during the day where the students go to another classroom for either music, art, computers, or P.E. The day I observed was when their special for that day was P.E. The children loved going to P.E. They like it because it is a chance to play and not have to do sit down to do work. While the children were getting ready I asked one of the children if they were enjoying Kindergarten so far. His response was "Yes, I do, but it's a lot of hard work!". The reason I spoke with this child is because I knew this child was in preschool last year and I worked in the preschool classroom as a paraprofessional. I asked him if it was as much fun as preschool, he said, "Kindergartens if fun, but we don't get to play very much." This was a change for this student because in preschool they did do work but they also got more free time in the classroom to play more than they do in Kindergarten.

The Kindergarten teacher was the preschool teacher last year. I talked with her about how the play time is different in kindergarten than what it is in preschool. She said from preschool to Kindergarten is a big change because as you know in our classroom last year we had at least four times during the day where we had free time, then they transition into Kindergarten to where they only have one free play time, but they also have two recesses in Kindergarten just as they do in preschool. The children do miss playing indoors with their toys, but we are so busy in Kindergarten that they just do not have the time to get to play as they did before.

I also talked with some of the parents of the kindergarten class, they like the fact that their child is doing more work because they think their child is at school to learn and not play. Some of the parents feel as if their children are being worked a little too hard in Kindergarten. I explained to them that I don't believe the Kindergarten teachers enjoy pushing your children so hard but they do it because of the mandates from the state that push them to push the students.

It's a tough decision for teachers to make but if they want to have students who excell in school and want to be able to keep their jobs, they need to do what is required of them.