Today I’m grateful for my Kinder(garten) Crew.

11.17.2022

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Tonight we had Kindergarten Round-up at my school. For those of you who don’t live in the elementary school world and may not know, Kindergarten Round-up is a recruitment event. Prospective Kindergarten families come, tour the campus, and hear a presentation all about our school and what to expect as a Kindergarten parent. Tonight the other Kindergarten teachers (Allison, Teresa and Katy) and I gave tours and answered questions. We each gave a small portion of the presentation as well.

After the evening was over my teammates and I breathed a collective sigh of relief in the hallway, locked our classrooms, grabbed our purses, and walked out to the parking lot together. I was very present in that moment as to how much I really love this group of amazing women I get to work with every day. This certainly wasn’t new news to me. I knew how lucky I was to land on this team about 10 minutes after meeting them all, 5 years ago, but I had all the warm fuzzy feels tonight as we walked out together.

When I started at my current school, I was new to teaching Kindergarten. I’d taught a lot of 1st grade before and assumed it would be similar. Oh, how wrong I was! Kindergarten is its own unique experience, and there was definitely a bit of a learning curve for me those first few weeks/months in Kinder. My sweet, friendly teammates kept me afloat though – handing me activities and pre-prepped projects left and right, giving me tips and pointers, and answering my many, many, many questions with patience and kindness. With their help, I eventually found my footing in Kindergarten and settled in.

I’m now in my 4th year working with these awesome ladies and I’m as grateful for them as ever. They’re my go-to people if I need 8 more popsicle sticks for a project, if I need to use the bathroom at recess, if I need a quick read-aloud recommendation to address a tattletale problem happening in my class, or if I have a student who needs a little break from the classroom. But even more than that, they’re also my go-to people when I’m having a hard day and I need to talk, when I’m out of ideas on how to help a student, when I’ve got a funny story to share about something cute that happened in my classroom, or when the pressure and weight of teaching during (and now after) a pandemic seems too great to shoulder alone. These ladies – they’re the real deal. They’re great teachers, but they’re also great humans and have become treasured friends.

We’ve laughed together, cried together, joked together, commiserated together, celebrated together, and even risked our lives together on what was probably the most turbulent flight I’ve ever been on.

My non-teacher friends are sometimes surprised to hear me say that teaching can be kind of a lonely job. Even though I’m surrounded by a classroom of people all day, it’s easy to feel isolated when you’re the only person over age 6 in a room. That’s why I feel so blessed to be surrounded by my Kinder Crew. Even though we spend most of our days in our own classrooms, it’s so comforting to know that they’re right down the hallway, ready and waiting with kind hearts, lots of love, and extra popsicle sticks.