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I am ready to start to make changes - baby steps for me as I am a "toe in the cold water" ease into things slowly person.  I have been so focused on state testing the last 7 years - that's how my former district looked at teacher performance. They were heavy on standardized testing - every quarter, analyzing results and asking why didn't you do better.  I want to make my lessons more engaging - I want to engage in my lessons!  This year has been all about learning the curriculum and delivering the prescribed lessons just so I can stay afloat.  I'm ready to change things up!

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I am so ready to make a change. While I truly believe that Lucy and Bridges are amazing programs that help children develop amazing skills, I have been feeling so bogged down by the scripted nature of both programs. I became a teacher in part because it is a space to let your creative ideas out. However, I find myself reading the lesson and presenting in the exact same way that is presented in the curriculum. I am bored and I can tell that my boredom is rubbing off on my students. I am ready to try new engagement strategies to make my classroom more exciting. I recently bought cheap hard hats and caution tape to use as accessories in our civil engineering unit and everything changed. Even though I was delivering the same lessons as before, the kids were so much more engaged just because I made one small change. I hope to find ways to incorporate these same ideas into other areas of my day.

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I agree with what many others have said in their posts. I feel like I have changed how I teach these last few years, and I miss "the old me." Like everyone else, I have felt the pressures of time constraints, curriculum requirements, assessments, managerial tasks, PD requirements, and SLO's. We are constantly talking about closing the gap and raising test scores. I've let these things take some of the enjoyment out of my teaching. I used to love teaching reading and writing, but now I feel like I'm trying so hard to meet the standards and getting kids ready for fifth grade that it is not as much fun as it used to be. I'm ready to bring the fun back to my reading and writing class. I want to try some new activities to get all of my students engaged in class and to make it fun again.

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When people ask me what I do for a living & I say I teach kindergarten, typically people say, "how fun".  My response now is "it used to be."  Academics are such a HUGE part of elementary school now that the age appropriate "fun" stuff is getting pushed aside.  I still do a Thankful program in the fall and a play in the spring, we have parties to celebrate  throughout our school year and learn to be proud of all the hard work we are doing and the gains we are making. Some small & some large.  I also make sure we have play time everyday, so those social skills are being taught & learned. If they don't learn it from me, where are they going to learn it?  I wish we could go back to the way kindergarten was about 8-10 years ago. We are now what first grade used to be. We need to let kids be kids because they aren't  for very long.

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I am feel that the Lucy reading and writing curriculum is basically like being a robot. I do not like being able to read word for word of a curriculum in the learning target. Now that I know the curriculum deeper I would like to navigate and change some of the lessons to better student need. I also would feel comfortable teaching  the way I am most comfortable. I would love to add more engagement and activity to each lesson to make it a little bit more fun. I would like to be in my class. However, I would not like all that is required of kids now days. These are the things I think about.

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I feel that so much of what we teach is academically based, that it often becomes boring, stale, regimented.  I want kindergarten to be fun again (as it was until about 8 years ago).  That means being able celebrate leprechauns and St. Patrick's Day and Valentine's Day and spend more time simply doing art projects and other age-appropriate activities--things that the students will remember as adults and say "My favorite memory from kindergarten is when we built leprechaun traps", versus "I had to write how-to stories".  Kids need to do age-appropriate activities--it is critical for their brain and fine motor development!  If we push them too far, too fast, there are too many gaps that aren't filled.

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I am definitely ready to make some changes.  Although I feel like I am generally engaging and that kids want to come to school, I know that I can do and be better.  I definitely want to incorporate more music into my classroom!  Both for the movement aspect and just for the fun.  I am also going to work on greeting my kids individually daily as they come in (just like Mrs. Maus) and requiring an actual response in return!  I can't wait to hear more about suggestions because I realize how important it is to work out of your comfort zone.  Being in a rut and doing the same old/same old doesn't help you grown or learn!

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I am definitely ready to make some changes.  Although I feel like I am generally engaging and that kids want to come to school, I know that I can do and be better.  I definitely want to incorporate more music into my classroom!  Both for the movement aspect and just for the fun.  I am also going to work on greeting my kids individually daily as they come in (just like Mrs. Maus) and requiring an actual response in return!  I can't wait to hear more about suggestions because I realize how important it is to work out of your comfort zone.  Being in a rut and doing the same old/same old doesn't help you grown or learn!

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I want to get back to teaching out of my comfort zone. For many years I was doing it and I was excited about coming to school and excited about what we were doing. The past two years I haven't been teaching the way I want to teach and in a way I know is more engaging and better for my students. I have been in a rut for many reasons and I am ready to get out of it. I am also ready to bring all of our ideas to the next level to infuse engagement in our tier one instruction.

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I used to do some mini-room transformations and lots of themed cross-curricular units with class. My students were so engaged and I was having as much fun as they were. I will be first to admit that all of the "stuff" in our curriculum left me making excuses for not continuing with some of these engaging, authentic experiences for my learners. Now that I know the curriculum and feel more comfortable infusing some "extras" into the non-negotiable I want to go back outside my comfort zone and infuse our curriculum with more engaging activities and experiences. This book has been a great starting point for me.

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To be honest I'm not sure what changes I'm ready to make. I think my students enjoy school and being in class. I plan on giving my students a short survey asking their thoughts about my class. I know that students who are engaged and enjoy my class will achieve more. I have no problem stepping out of my comfort zone if it's for the benefit of my students.

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About a month ago, I started saying, "Good morning so-and-so" to every single child as they came in the classroom and made them say "Good morning Mrs. Maus" back to me. I called it March Manners. Even though it felt forced, it is a life skill that not every child knows or practices. It made me feel more connected to each and every student in March when I felt like February was just putting out one child's constant fires that he was setting. In April, I am going to add a subtle walk around shoulder touch as they are playing during choice time. Saying good morning and smiling at them as I gently give them another appreciation of attention will strengthen our relationship and make them even more eager to come every day. I'm also going to sit with them for 5 little minutes after I drop them off for lunch, bouncing around the tables to chat.

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Most days I would like to be in my class but I know other days I tend to talk more than I planned. I started gamifying my math class this year and I have seen engagement rise which is wonderful , but still struggle how to make the day to day lessons fun and engaging themselves on a daily basis. One of the things I have done already is moved my classroom around to be more of an open and inviting learning space. Another thing I want to do is get out of my comfort zone and make videos for lessons and videos for challenges and quests for students to conquer and go on. I want them to experience learning and become problem solvers without having to spoon feed them the information.

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I am ready to get out of my comfort zone and get kids excited about school again!  I want to make my students feel excited walking into my room! I want to look through the curriculum and find places to infuse creativity and fun!