Kindergarten Parents Night

Last night I had the opportunity to attend "Kindergarten Curriculum Night" at Manchester Elementary where the parents of my future Kindergartners were able to meet with their child's teacher and get a feel for how the school year was going to go. Many of the parents were very nervous to be sending their child to school and looked for reassurance that everything was going to be alright. What they didn't know was that I was just as nervous and was looking for the same reassurance throughout the night.   As I walked through the long hallway back to my classroom there was a moment between the nervousness and excitement that I began to realize this was my future. This is what I have been working towards for three and a half years. All the lesson plans, thematic units, research papers and tests came down to this very moment of calm realization that I was home. My short revelation was broken by introductions to the other four kindergarten teachers and then we walked down to the gym to meet and greet our parents. As the six of us took our seats I saw parents taking out cell phones to take pictures of us to send home to their children.  I felt like a celebrity and a caged animal all at the same time, parents staring and taking pictures, pointing and whispering as they glance at you out of the corner of their eye. All in all it was quite intimidating and somewhat humorous. After the brief explanations of lunch, drop-off, and the infamous "rest time" aka nap time to many, we lead the crowd of anxious parents down to our classrooms where we would discuss classroom procedures and the expectations of their child. 

I learned a lot on how to handle questions and how to be supportive of a Kindergarten parent (and parents are very protective of their little angels). I am very fortunate to have a very experienced teacher that will be guiding me through my Student Teaching and the best part is that her classroom is an inclusion classroom! Which means we will have both special needs students as well as high ability students all in the same classroom.  The closer school gets the more anxious and nervous I get, and for some reason the same question always seems to be running through the back of my mind... " Am I really ready for all of this?".  I guess we will find out won't we. :)