Thoughts so far…

Before starting long practicum, I did not think it would be much different from the Thursday observations or the two-week practicum we had back in November. But as the weeks are passing by, I am noticing a lot more; small things that I did not notice before or know about.
Something that I was not aware of before was that in my kindergarten classroom, the students are more focused in the mornings and up until about 11:30 am. After this, a lot of them struggle to pay attention. Therefore, after lunch, we usually have lighter stuff planned for them such as art, story, centers and music.
I have also come to realize how difficult it is to assess kindergarteners. You cannot always rely on worksheets, and have to try to do more hands on activities with them. But how do you assess this? I have been recommended to use more one on one assessment strategies with them so that I can know where they are standing and what they know. The only downside of this is that it is very time-consuming but this is when you can make use out of centers and call out students one by one.
All I can say for now is that many people believe that Kindergarten is an easy grade to teach or that K’s do not do anything. But this is not true at all. Yes, the content is simple but teaching K is a challenge on its own.