Kelly McLean's Interview with a K/1 teacher

Elisa is a teacher at a small school in medium sized town. The school is fifty-six percent White, nineteen percent Hispanic, and ten percent Asian, with other ethnicities including African Americans and Filipinos. She is one of eleven teachers at the school and teaches a kindergarten/first grade combination class.

Elisa got into teaching as a second career. She worked in insurance for many years before becoming a stay-at-home mom to her two daughters. When her daughters started attending elementary school she became involved in their classrooms as a volunteer and found it to be very rewarding. She got her teaching credential and immediately began working as a bilingual teacher for five years, in kindergarten and first grade.

Elisa is a native of Panama and thus a native Spanish speaker, so the bilingual classroom was an obvious choice for her starting out. After five years, she realized her views on bilingual education did not match with what she was doing, so she moved to her current school and has now been teaching there for five years. When I asked her what her thoughts were on bilingual education, she said that “true bilingual education should extend through high school…doing it for a few years isn’t enough.”

While she has only been at her current school for five years she is an integral part of the leadership team, helping to make decisions about curriculum, meetings, and staff development. She works closely with two other teachers and the school’s principal to make decisions about how to handle the small amount of resources they have available to them, and takes this job very seriously. She is well respected by the teachers and staff of the school.

Upon transferring to her current school, she taught fourth grade for two years, then a four/five combo, and then sixth grade. She is now teaching another K/1 combo upon request of the principal, who wanted a strong teacher in the lower grades. She is getting readjusted to the grade level, and says that she hopes she will get to stay in it for a while, as it is the grade where you really the kids grow quickly. She was excited for me to come back after the break, because the students “finally understand the routine, understand what you expect from them, and are growing so that you can do more with them.”

Elisa’s philosophy of education is that “you have to concentrate on where the students are developmentally and who they are as individuals to be successful.” This has become especially important to her over the past few years when the curriculum has become incredibly fast-paced and the tests have become harder and harder. She feels “you need to teach to them, not to the curriculum” and this is her constant struggle in the classroom.

 Although she has to follow the pacing guide exactly, Elisa does her best to stay true to her philosophy of education. She seats the students in three long rows of ten, with student placement varied so that they are interacting with other students that may be above or below their level. She allows them to work together and ask questions of each other when they are working on their own, and feels this classroom arrangement allows them to learn from each other when she cannot be right there to help them all. Whenever possible she separates the students into reading and language groups so she can give more personalized attention to the students that need it. This is very hard in a large class of five and six year olds, but she has created a very structured time schedule in the classroom, and sticks to the routine every day so the kids get used to it. She does this in hopes that they will be accustomed to the schedule, be better able to work in groups, and allow her more time to cater the material to their level of understanding.

When I asked Elisa what she thought the purpose of public education was, she said, “to give everyone equal footing and a basis for success.”  After a minute of thinking she added, “I also think it is partly indoctrination into the expectations of our society.” This was very interesting to me, because it is not something many people say, but it is very true. School not only gives students the knowledge we think they need to be successful, but shows them how we expect them to work and think, how we expect them to interact with their others, and how we expect them to treat people. It is easy to see that Elisa realizes she is not just a teacher to many of the students – she incorporates manners, health, hygiene, and social learning into teachable moments throughout the day. Her philosophy of teaching to the individual extends to their social and emotional health, and this is obvious in the way she treats her students and encourages them to make good decisions.

I asked Elisa how she stayed excited about teaching. I was especially curious to hear her answer, because she has a lot on her plate, and has told me many times how frustrated she is with the pacing guide and the amount of material that has to be taught.  She instantly responded, “The kids! They’re so funny and keep things interesting. And especially at this age, you see them grow and learn so quickly… I like the process of planning how the classroom will work and the materials for each day. I try to think about how it will go in the classroom, almost like a running film in my head, and then seeing if it actually happens that way. It all depends on the kids.”  Elisa also mentioned that she loves being able to create a community of learners. No matter what the kids are like when the come in the classroom in September, they often come together by the end of the year and really care about each other. This is something she loves to see, and something that keeps her motivated year after year.