For this blog post, I decided to interview a teacher who teaches at the elementary school I attended in Wilmette, Illinois. Her name is Emily and is currently a kindergarten teacher and teaches both morning and afternoon kindergarten. She grew up down the street from me and went through all of the same schools as I did so I decided to give her a call to conduct an interview for my blog.
I prepared questions about how her students are choosing to be in her class, and how the school decides which students are enrolled in varying first grade classrooms. Emily told me that there is an extensive process before the previous school year ends to picking what children she will teach the following year. This process consists of multiple get-to-know-you days, parent meetings, trial run days where students sit in on a few lessons, and orientation. All of these factors lead into which teacher and which time slot (morning or afternoon) each student will be assigned.
There are 4 kindergarten teachers at Central Elementary School and Emily is the only one that teaches both the morning and afternoon time slot. She says that communication between her and the student’s parents can get very tricky since she has double the workload. Sometimes she says that dealing with the parents is even harder than dealing with her 5 and 6 year old students because their parents are very quick to judge her teaching tactics. The reason for all of this she says is because parents of young children have a hard time letting go of their child for a large portion of the day and they think that their views are the best for their children. When this happens, Emily has to take the complaint to the administration because she does not have the full authority to override a parental complaint even though she is the primary teacher. This she says is a big complaint of hers because she feels like she should have the power to advocate for herself and her teaching methods because she has put a lot of time and effort into what her students are leaving the classroom with.
A common misconception is that elementary aged students are randomly assigned to their teachers, but when it comes to the student’s next step in schooling, that's when Emily’s life gets hectic. First grade is an even bigger step in a young child’s life because it entails a full 8 hour day of school instead of a half day. First grade teachers are very different from one another and it is Emily’s job to analyze her students to see where they would fit best. This requires her to monitor all 46 of her students for the duration of the year and fill out a lengthy report for each student in April. She says that this process is very long and tedious, but it is crucial for her student’s future success in school. She is in contact with all 4 of the first grade teachers throughout the year scheduling times for them to stop in the room and observe their potential future students.
Speaking with Emily really opened to my eyes to how significant her role in all of her students lives are. Without her constant attention and effort into their lives, they wouldn’t thrive in their future classrooms. The early elementary years are imperative to a student’s future and it is Emily’s job to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible.
-Jenna
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