100 Posts in 100 Days
It’s the end of the school year, which brings many celebratory events and graduation. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve listened as speakers at student performances and sporting events have acknowledged and honored families for their support. Graduation on our campus is Saturday, May 28. Students will be proudly walking across the stage and families will again be recognized for their role in contributing to their child’s success.
Also this week, I was presenting to our school board. During one of our conversations about parent participation in the school, a board member commented, “We are sharing the most precious part of our lives with you.”
That comment instantly brought me back to the years when I was a kindergarten teacher. I was always struck by the fact that over 50 children, almost all of them strangers, walked into my classroom on the first day of school (we had a ½ day model, so I had a morning class and an afternoon class). Some of them came bouncing in, bright eyed and curious. Others were more cautious, only venturing through the door holding hands with a trusted family member. And then there were the small number, so uncertain that they clung to their families and cried. No matter how they crossed the threshold into the classroom, within 20-30 minutes, their families were gone. They had left their children with me, also a stranger.
I suspect that students and families remember what it felt like to step foot into my classroom for the first time. What I remember, though, is the moment that the last parent exited the classroom and I turned my full attention to the sea of small, expectant faces looking at up at me. My own sense of excitement and anticipation for the year ahead was coupled with the utmost respect, awe, and responsibility that these children were now “mine” for 10 months. I mean, 10 months in the lifetime of a person 5-6 years old is a significant portion of their life.
These children were looking to me for a rich learning environment characterized by interesting and impactful learning experiences, a mix of play and challenge, and a safe space to explore learning and themselves. Their families were counting on it. Some days, everything fell right into place and other days were a challenge. In the end, the events of any one day didn’t take precedent. What mattered was that on day 180 of school, the children had stories of learning to tell and the parents never doubted the trust that they had given me on day one.
This is the first post in a mini-series about lessons learned from working with parents.