Amanda Stephens-Kindergarten- Blog #5- Teach with a Sense of Urgency-Routman

Amanda Stephens-Kindergarten- Blog #5- Teach with a Sense of Urgency- Routman

     Teaching with a sense of urgency is something that I would love to improve on within my classroom.  It is so important to “seize the moment” to teach and reflect on a subject or topic when the moment arrives.  Unfortunately, the difficult part of teaching with a sense of urgency is that you don’t always get to. 

        Routman focuses on areas that I love to focus on as a Kindergarten teacher.  Working toward independence, promoting joy in learning, modeling, integration, language, and making connections are just a few of the areas she touches on in this chapter.  I find myself doing all of these things but never actually getting to focus on them explicitly.  I really enjoyed reading Routman’s views on Promoting Joy in Learning and Working toward Independence.  It is so important to teach children how to be responsible and make decisions about their own learning. As a Leader In Me school, we encourage our students to guide their own learning.  There is nothing wrong with a teacher-directed program but self-directed learning is way more fun!  It gives students a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment when they see themselves become successful all on their own.  It is also gratifying for me, as the teacher, to see my young students who are just beginning in education go from “holding my hand” as they learn new things to “flying solo” by the end of the school year. My students surprise me every year with what they accomplish and learn.  I can only imagine what they will go on to do as they become adults.  When you encourage your students to take chances and read things they enjoy you can see a major difference in the way they perform. 

        So, if I have my students thinking, reading, and asking questions, what next?  What better way to teach with a sense of urgency than to stop and talk about something that my students need or something they find interesting right away?  I mean, Kindergarten students always have a million questions that they want answered right away. So why not stop and answer them?! I never really thought about it this way before. I think that I can get stuck in a routine of we have “x” amount of time to teach this and then we need to move on. Routman states that “With continuous demonstrations, practice, and support, we make it possible for children to proudly assume the role of confident reader and leader. (Routman 2003). I think doing this is going to take more than a given amount of time. It is a long term process. It is continuous.

        This second semester I look forward to watching my students become independent readers and “risk takers”.  I am going to try to teach more with a sense of urgency and “seize the teachable moments.” I am going to try and put aside the feelings of guilt that come when you know you need to do five hundred things but your students really want to learn more about one thing specifically.  I am going to take more time to stop and focus on areas of weakness as they arise in the classroom rather than wait until later.  I am going to really try and become the reading teacher that I know I can be and that is buried deep down under years of “you need to do it this way” rubble.