Kindergarten is more about more than just teaching the curriculum and teaching the students about different content areas and academics. It’s mostly about teaching kids how to learn how to follow routines, how to regulate emotions, how to interact with others, how to be students. You are setting the foundation for the rest of their educational career.
~ Zeba from Ep. 86 of The Kindergarten Cafe Podcast
Episode Summary
Are you wondering if Kindergarten is the right grade for you? I have taught several grade levels so in this episode I share the differences between Kindergarten and upper grades. Kindergarten has some unique challenges but also so many rewards! For those unsure about their right grade level fit, I offer strategies and support for building student independence. Ultimately, it is so important to align your passion with teaching to ensure fulfillment and success in the profession.
In this episode, I share:
- Understanding Kindergarten Teaching
- Acknowledging Tough Years
- Comparing Grade Levels
- Teaching Independence vs. Foundation
- The Magic of Growth in Kindergarten
- Preparing for Future Challenges
Connect with Zeba:
- Instagram – @kindergartencafe
- Facebook – @kindergartencafe
- Website – www.kindergartencafe.org
- Tik Tok – @kindergartencafe
Read the Transcript
[0:00] Hey, teacher friends. It’s Zeba from Kindergarten Cafe. And I got a question that I thought would be really good as a podcast episode. So if you ever have questions, reach out and maybe I’ll do a full episode on them. This question I got was, how do I know if kindergarten is the right grade for me? And, you know, in the season of changing grades or getting new jobs, I thought I would do a podcast episode to help people figure out if kindergarten is the right grade for them. Let’s get started.
You’re listening to the Kindergarten Cafe podcast, where kindergarten teachers come to learn classroom-tested tips and tricks and teaching ideas they can use in their classroom right away. I’m Zeba, creator and founder of Kindergarten Cafe, and I help kindergarten teachers with everything they need from arrival to dismissal in order to save time, work smarter, not harder, and support students with engaging and purposeful lessons. I’m here to cheer you on through your successes and breakthroughs and offer support and resources so you never have to feel stuck or alone. Ready to start saving time and reducing your stress all while using effective and purposeful lessons that students love? Let’s get started.
[1:27] So I have taught kindergarten, first, second, and third grade. So I do think I am more qualified than other people to answer if kindergarten is the right grade for you, because I can talk about the differences between the grades. But really, the only person who can answer that question is you. So I’ll give you some things to think about and to decide for yourself about if kindergarten is the right grade for you. Kindergarten is more about more than just teaching the curriculum and teaching the students about different content areas and academics it’s mostly about teaching kids how to learn how to follow routines how to regulate emotions how to interact with others how to be students you are setting the foundation for the rest of their educational career. So because of that, it does need a little more hand-holding. The kids need a little more emotional support. They’re not independent when they start kindergarten, so they’re going to need more support in general. And so because of that, it really is not the grade for everyone. And some grades, having experienced them myself, if they’re not your favorite grade, they’re still manageable.
[2:47] They’re still doable. Kindergarten, if you are not in love with teaching kindergarten, it’s going to be really hard. And so I think that’s something important to consider. Of course, some years are harder than others. And so if you’ve had one year of teaching kindergarten and it was a tough year, I would encourage you to give it another try. Because first of all, the first year teaching any grade, any new grade is tough when you’re trying to figure out the grade level. You’re trying to figure out the grade level expectations and child development aspect of it, what kids are supposed to be learning and changing throughout the doing and changing throughout the year. But also you’re learning about the curriculum and you’re making stuff for the curriculum and it’s overwhelming. Add on that, some years in kindergarten are just tough because of the makeup of the class. Depending on how your school does it, for the most part, has very little information about who the students are that you’re putting in the class. Whereas in other grades, teachers or principals, like they do placement and they try to make the classes really balanced. In kindergarten, you don’t know as much about the kids. So sometimes you have very balanced classes and sometimes you have classes that are really, really challenging.
[4:02] So if you had a tough year and it was your first year teaching kindergarten, I would encourage you to try it one more time before you make this decision. I did work with a colleague who this exact situation happened and they really wanted to change after one year and weren’t able to. And then in their second year, they were like, oh, this is so much better. I don’t know. I’m so glad I didn’t change. I love kindergarten now. So something to think about. Sometimes it is the group of kids you have, and it very well could be better the next year. If after that you’re still not loving it, it might be time to think about changing grades. Because like I said, if you don’t love teaching kindergarten, it’s a really hard grade to be in compared to other grades.
I didn’t love teaching second grade or third grade, but it was manageable. I didn’t, there were things I enjoyed about it I could get through, but kindergarten, if you don’t love it, is definitely tougher. The other grade, the older grades, first grade is kind of in the middle, but definitely second, third grade and up, you are way more focused on teaching the content, academic content and the curriculum. And so it’s more about like managing the curriculum and academics versus teaching the foundational skills of how to be a student. And so it’s definitely less emotional labor. It’s less tiring.
[5:28] Physically tiring than kindergarten. I think it’s more paperwork heavy because you’re doing a lot more of the curriculum. They’re writing a lot more. So you’re reading a lot more of their work and they’re you want to give feedback on their work. They’re filling out more worksheets that you have to correct and grade and give feedback to. It’s less hands on learning. They’re reading longer books that you want to read and make sure if you’re doing book clubs or, you know, groups like how to what questions to ask them. So personally, I found it more work outside of school to do the older grades, but it was less physically tiring than kindergarten. So it’s a tradeoff. But for me, bottom line, I loved teaching kids how to be students. I missed that in second grade. I missed that in the older grades when I would say at the first day of school, OK, come to the rug and they would do it in whatever way they had learned from the teachers before them. And I was like, oh, Sad. I don’t get to teach you that. I mean, yeah, you can reteach and teach it the way you want, but the focus was just on so much on the content.
[6:37] And I just missed teaching them how to be a student. So I think that’s the main difference for me.
[6:44] And that’s sort of where it’s going to come down to for you about if it’s the right grade for you. Do you enjoy teaching kids how to be students and laying the foundation for their academic journey and focusing on more of the social emotional aspects of teaching? Or do you prefer to focus more on the content and seeing kids already ready to learn the material? And so you can dive into teaching kids, you know, how to read chapter books and, you know, big science topics and history topics and math strategies and having discussions about all this stuff. Some teachers much prefer that, and that’s okay. It’s just about figuring out which one’s for you.
[7:26] Another question for you to consider, do you prefer focusing on delivering content to students who are already independent? Or do you enjoy guiding young learners through their very first academic experiences? When I taught second grade, I was told, you are going to love it. You get to tell the kids to read, and guess what? They all go read for like 20 minutes. They’re just sitting there reading. And you’re going to be like, what do I do with myself? This is amazing. And this is coming from another kindergarten teacher who had switched to second grade.
[8:01] And it’s true. If you sell a bunch of kindergartners to read, they don’t all go and read. And they certainly don’t sit there quietly reading for 20 minutes. And that is kind of mind blowing. But I just felt a little bored. I don’t know. I felt a little bored and felt a little like, oh, they really don’t need me. They’re already doing it. Okay. So like, and I’d find things to do. I’d find kids to sit with and read with. But that was something that I didn’t like. But so many teachers love that, that older kids are more independent, that you can say, go read, and they all go read. Like, that is great.
[8:38] I think for me, the growth in kindergarten is why I keep coming back. It’s the kindergarten magic that I talk about. to see kids starting school, not knowing at all how to be a student, how to be a learner, not knowing how to read, not knowing how to hold a pencil, sit on the rug, and then to see them at the end of the year where they really are students and they are learners and you can say go read and they read just not for as long as the second graders. Like that is mind-blowing. And like to sit back and be like, I did that. I taught them all those routines.
[9:17] I helped guide them through that and helped them practice that and learn all that. That’s crazy to me in a good way. That’s mind-blowing. So in second grade, when I was like, okay, go read, and then they all went and read, they did it at the beginning of the year, they did it at the end of the year. There wasn’t that much growth. There was growth, obviously. There’s growth in every grade, but there wasn’t that mind-blowing light bulb moment, having just crazy, crazy growth that you see in kindergarten. The kindergarten magic is not there for the upper grades, obviously. It’s kindergarten magic. It’s not second grade magic. So I think you need to sit and think, if you’ve already taught kindergarten and you’re having these doubts, what was it that you liked about teaching kindergarten and what was it that was difficult?
[10:08] If it was the students, maybe you’ll have a different group next year. Maybe there’s different things that you can do over the summer to prepare for your, like, classroom management or prepare your routines. And if that’s the case, stay tuned because I’m going to be offering some summer challenges and workshops for you that could be really beneficial to sort of reset the way you think about teaching kindergarten.
[10:33] If it was teaching the curriculum was hard for you because you’re doing more foundational stuff and you missed teaching actual content and less routine building, then maybe it’s time to start thinking, maybe I do want to teach older grades. If you are exhausted and drained from having to help kids with every little thing in the classroom, yeah, maybe kindergarten is not the right grade for you. But also at the same time, there are things you can do to mitigate that.
[11:04] There are things that you can do to make kids more independent and less reliant on you. I have resources for that. And like I said, I’m going to be coming up this summer with a bunch of summer challenges and workshops that can help you set up your routine so that kids are way more independent and less reliant on you. I’m happy to talk about this with you and talk about, you tell me the things you liked and the things you didn’t like about teaching kindergarten, and I can help share my thoughts. But at the end of the day, if it’s not the right grade for you, it’s not the right grade for you. And it’s okay to try other grades. In fact, there’s definitely a great benefit to teaching other grades. I didn’t want to switch grade levels, but I am really glad that I did because I have really good linear vision and knowledge of what comes next for my students and where they need to be. And when I was teaching those grades, I had really good understanding of where they were coming from and how to support kids that weren’t meeting grade level expectations.
[12:03] So there’s absolutely benefits switching grade levels and sometimes that’s what you need to try it out and then see like no I actually miss teaching students how to be a student like you don’t really do that in the upper grades or thinking to yourself wow I love that I can say go read and everyone reads I love it and so then you know this is the right grade for me so I feel like everyone has a special sweet spot where they’re like this is the grade I love and like I said if it’s not kindergarten that’s okay but it is a tough grade to teach if you don’t love love love love what you’re doing because year to year it’s so different and year to year you have different groups of kids and so it’s important that you really love it in its core so yeah reach out if you have more questions about if kindergarten is the right grade for you and stay tuned for the summer challenges and things that I’ll be offering thanks so much!
Thanks so much for listening to the Kindergarten Cafe Podcast! Be sure to check out the show notes for more information and resources or just head straight to kindergartencafe.org for all the goodies if you liked this episode the best ways to show your support are to subscribe leave a review or send it to a friend i’ll be back next week with even more kindergarten tips see you then.