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On teaching kindergarten

I have a healthy fear of small children, especially the collective "consciousness" of 17 of them confined to one room in a school. It is a small miracle that I survived my afternoon of subbing in a kindergarten class.  "How bad could 2.5 hours be?", was my rationale for taking the job.  And I need the money.  Actually, it wasn't that bad.  I learned a few things.  My necklace impressed the girls.  They oo-ed and ah-ed at it's sparkling properties and wanted to touch the thing that reminded them of "lovely jewels".  Except for that one girl who could spot a knock-off for a mile. "That's not real jewels - it's fake.  I bet it is made from beads", is what she proclaimed across the classroom.   Another kid said I talk funny, but I get than from any class I teach. Apparently I just could not quite say Ethan's name properly.  "It's Ethaaaaaan, Mrs Pen".  I knew I should not have told them my name rh
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Mr Anderson

My favourite teacher will always be Mr Anderson. I had him for both grade six and seven. He was crazy yet instrumental in many areas of my life. As a teacher who wants to make an impact on kids lives, I often refer to the things that made an impact on mine.....and re-use them. If I remember something I learned all those years ago then it must have been taught well. So, what was it that he did right? 1. My love for running, playing sports and being outdoors was affirmed by his passion for it as well. He gave me permission to start becoming me. 2. He never did anything in halves. Once we had a pirate theme and he filled one half of the classroom with sand so we could have a beach. 3. He loved to teach. He always seemed to be having fun. 4. He took learning outside of the classroom and the books and made it real. We did an archeology dig on the field (apparently he got in trouble for that), constructed stuff in science, and went on excursions. 5. He made everything into
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