So, "bi-lingual kindergarten" I found out isn't really bi-lingual. The teacher is bi-lingual but the classroom is not. She does all of her teaching in English. The only time Spanish is spoken to a child from the teacher is when the child is not understanding or is not listening. It is not quite the experience I was expecting, but I am still learning. Within the school as a whole the largest demographic contributors are 10% are Caucasian, 35% are African American, and 40% are Hispanic. The class has 14 students. One Somalia student, one Vietnamese student, and I believe the rest are Hispanic.
I am aware that throughout my life, I have not experienced an extensive amount of diversity. My public schooling was not very diverse, our college is not that diverse, and I have lived in the same area my entire life. Even so, I feel as if I must have experienced some diversity. It never dawned on me that there were no "white" kids in my class until the end of the day when my cooperating teacher and I were talking about the school as a whole versus other Catholic schools and public schools and the demographics of them all. I know that I am comfortable with diversity. I do not know if it is because I have experienced it or because it is simply my nature. I have always had the desire to work in public urban schools because, to me, they have the most diversity. Seeing that a private Catholic school can have such great diversity causes me to second think where I might want to teach.
It was really...weird and interesting. As the day went on, I continued to notice theory and practices and strategies that we have been learning lately. I realized that most of the things I already did, I just never knew the reasoning for them before. She definitely modeled "good reading skills" during read-aloud! We also did holistic learning! It was a very eventful day!
Today I mostly helped. I was a reading buddy and led a few small groups in math and reading. I also walked around during work time and helped the kids as they needed me. On Tuesday, I am doing the math lesson and on Wednesday, I am doing the entire 90 reading lesson! I am really excited for it. She told me that tomorrow will be a very exciting day and I will be able to have more "teacher" time. I do not know if it is because I was not teaching as much and more of observing and helping or because it is kindergarten, but I do not know if I want to teach kindergarten when we graduate. Up until now I have always thought I would teach 1st grade, I know there is a big difference between kindergarten and 1st grade, but still, I am going to have to really think about that. I guess we do have a lot of time to figure it out as well!!
I am really excited to go back tomorrow. I definitely feel comfortable in a classroom and in a school. There is no doubt in my mind that this is what I was born to do.
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Sounds like you are having a party of a time. It is too bad that there isn't more spanish involved. But maybe it is also good that they understand english very well. Maybe see if you could teach your lesson in spanish. That would be exciting.
I am glad you are already getting to help. Good luck on your lessons Tues. and Wed. You will do a lovely job I am sure.
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