Final Reflections

Being the webmaster for this site was a very humbling experience in that I realized the strength and richness of other programs. If I had completely focused only on my own classroom, I know that I could have celebrated it far more completely. As it was, I seemed to be pulled into each of the other classrooms vicariously, appreciating and living in that moment to the neglect of my own program's experiences. I know that what is written for my program is a shallow litany of intermittent events, whereas in in reality, it was far more rich and far more interesting than it seems here.

I came to a dichotomy, once again, in reflective practice - between knowing and wanting what is the right thing to do for children and being unable to do it. Having an emergent curriculum, that is, following the lead of the children, depends on flexibility and spontaneity. Many times I was able to implement rich literacy experiences, especially with text - fiction and non-fiction. But response time to create beautiful poems and pocket chart activities was not there. I wanted to extend their learning and experience in this area, but time ran by too quickly. "Run, run, as fast as you can, You can't catch me,..." Operating two full classes that were demanding and challenging ate away at my creativity and energy resources needed to prepare materials.

By the end of the year, I realized what a golden opportunity I had missed with the exceptional parent help I had this year. They are so committed to the quality of this program, that they would have helped me prepare anything I needed. This is an area that I intend to improve on in the next few years.

I believe that this web site offers so much encouragement for kindergarten teachers everywhere, because of its simplicity and honesty. These summaries are not the "theoretical" of the ideologists, nor the "prescriptive" narrative of the publishers. These literacy events happened in classrooms and they were successful. I believe this web site will encourage other teachers to trust themselves more and not be swayed by the push and pull of others.

Involving the children in this web site development became an unrealistic hope and dream. The reality of a kindergarten day is that there is not enough time to coach individual children to input ideas with technology. We are forced to use more generalized and prescriptive types of technology because of time. 

This site will continue to develop as ideas walk across our paths once again, and I would welcome any suggestions to help it become more user friendly.

Carol