Learning and growing at Lax Kxeen Elementary was a wonderful experience. I really enjoyed working with my Kindergarten students and learning from my coaching teacher.
My coaching teacher is extremely skilled in her literacy methods. She has incorporated the science of reading into her style of teaching. Seeing how much the students already knew in terms of sounds and reading CVC words, I was very impressed and intrigued. My goal is to learn as much as I can about the science of reading and incorporate the literacy techniques that my coaching teacher has been using.
Literacy centers were fun and engaging with a variety of games where students were able to read 3-4 word sentences and match words to pictures. It was interesting to see how the emphasis was on the students learning sounds and not letters. As students learn how to read by sounding out the sounds and not saying the letters as they read the words. I liked how there was a set routine and schedule for literacy centers and writing time. I noticed that all the students were really great at writing the words in lowercase letters and only capitalizing letters after a period or that began the sentence. My coaching teacher said that she set the expectations in the beginning of the year and the students knew what was expected when writing in their writing books.
I also noticed how my coaching teacher would pull students for less than 5 minutes during center time to do some assessments for report cards on their sounds. It was interesting to see how the students were excited to go out and show their teacher what they knew. Although this class spends a lot of time learning sounds, how to read and write, the students seem to really enjoy it as my coaching teacher makes learning fun for them, through phonic songs and a variety of literacy center games, I observed students engaging in stimulating literacy vocabulary words and activities.
I loved connecting with the students in this class. They were all so welcoming. I noticed that there was a neurodiverse student who preferred to play alone during centers time. He had great imagination in building and constructing with Lego. He also seemed very intuitive when asked about his thoughts during the water filter activity and the skittles experiment. During the kindness lessons, students were able to reflect on which actions are kind and unkind. I loved hearing how a student complimented one of her peers kindness on the playground as she stated that this student is always trying to include all of their peers.
I loved planning activities for these students and seeing their excitement when they would see me prepping for the afternoon activity. They were always intrigued and did a great job following my directions. I also noticed there were quite a few leaders in the class that were great at helping their peers and took pride in helping their friends. I often took the chance when those students would finish their work early, to encourage them to help those peers still working on their activities. I observed how those students excelled in leadership abilities.
