by Donna Swagerty Shreve
In March of 1977 I started my maternity leave with what I thought was going to be a month to get ready. Brad had other ideas. My first day of leave was the day Brad decided to enter the world.
Because of the expansion of our family, we needed a bigger home. Brad was a fussy baby and his middle of night feedings woke up his older brother. Aaron had been diagnosed with severe asthma and the middle of the night wake up set off an asthma attack. There was many a night where all four of us were awake. John and I finally gave up our bedroom to one of the boys and slept in the living room to keep the peace and let at least two of us sleep. With a nine month old and a four year old, I went house hunting.
By a series of lucky events, we moved into our bigger home in January 1978. Our housing issue was solved, but now we needed my salary to afford it. I started the process of job hunting, I was on leave from Lodi and there was a mid-year opening. I then interviewed for a kindergarten at Elk Horn Elementary School where I had started in Lodi several years ago.
I never thought I would be a candidate for teaching kindergarten, but that was where the opening was available. Fortunately for me, the teacher, I was replacing was part of a team. Most all of the curriculum had been planned and I just had to make some supplies and carry out the planning.
To survive teaching kindergarten, a teacher needed a well-planned and well-paced school day. I am so grateful for all of the other teachers’ planning and their willingness to include me. I did come to work early and spent a bunch of time preparing needed materials.
The day started with rug time. Each student had a specific assigned spot on an area rug. We were located in the former kitchen area for rug time and our activity tables were set up in the rest of our space which was shared with another kindergarten class. Suffice it to say my discipline methods were not in sync with hers. Her class was quite noisy so I learned hand signals to communicate table rotations, which were timed. Any quiet time was done inside the kitchen area behind a closed door.
I inherited quite an army of parent volunteers, so maintaining the activity tables was possible. The students were grouped by their reading readiness. I had a group of students that were actually reading. They were in contrast to a group of four boys who could only identify three letters of the alphabet. To make my task more of a challenge, none of the boys knew the same letters.
In my obvious naïveté, I really thought that I could teach these four boys the alphabet. We all learn differently so I tried everything I could think of that would break through to understanding. I had them make the letters with their bodies. The boys traced the letters made on sandpaper. The boys made alphabet letter puppets to make the sounds and we even combined a few for words. Nothing was working. The boys were just not developmentally ready.
I had each of the boys’ mother in for a conference. One of those mothers stood out and I still remember her all of these years later. I went through my concerns about reading readiness and gave some examples of many of the ideas I had already used and should be repeated. I then suggested the TV program “Sesame Street.” This mother had not heard of it. I explained how entertaining and beneficial it could be. She then asked when and where she could find it on her television. I gave her the information and she replied that it would interfere with her favorite soap opera. There wasn’t much more I could say at that point.
I had the mistaken idea that kindergarten students enter school like blank slates. Within a week I heard the “f” word from several little guys on the playground. I had to make a conscious effort to keep my hands behind my back so I didn’t automatically swat some of those little butts. Realize I had a four year old at home who could expect a good swat when he did something against our established rules of behavior.
One thing that I refused to do was to adopt a “kindergarten teacher voice.” Several friends somehow thought I would. I had never talked “baby talk” with my sons so I am surprised they would think I would change now. I ended the school year with a much greater appreciation for kindergarten teachers and how important a good beginning is for each student. When the next school year began, I had obtained a teaching position in an upper grade. I felt my talent was much better used with older students.
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10/16/2020
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