Today, I headed over to Mrs K's K1 class for observation. She started off with the usual morning exercise, followed by the good morning song and attendance taking. She also started checking the fingernails of the children to make sure that they are short and clean. She then proceeded to teach phonics, mainly focusing on 3-letters words, such as ten men, fun run, and red hot. After teaching, she assigned them written assignments that include them writing words and drawing.
While I was observing them, the principal came over and pulled me out of the classroom. Apparently, there seems to be an emergency in the other kindergarten. One of the teachers was late and parents of two children were waiting to meet her. I followed her like a little lamb, thinking that the other kindergarten was just a stone's throw away. It was only awhile did I realize that she was actually trying to flag a cab down to bring us to the other kindergarten. I informed her that I drove as I did not want to travel from the other kindergarten back to the original kindergarten to retrieve my car. She hitted me lightly for not informing her earlier. I guess that broke the ice slightly as she started to share more about her duties as a principal in the car.
When we reached the other kindergarten, it was slightly more run down than the original kindergarten. Apparently, for that kindergarten, it will be closing down at the end of the year and converted into a centre that offers enrichment courses. The principal brought me to meet the teacher who explained the conflict situation to us. It appears that a boy has bitten a girl, which angered the girl's parents. As such, the girl's parents scolded him. This resulted in the boy's parents being unhappy. Intertwined with the entire story were some of the lies told by the boy who was afraid of telling the truth.
After listening to the teacher's explanation, I helped out with another teacher's filing of portfolios for individual children. The teacher was quite nice as she patiently explained to me on how I should go about the filing. Through the portfolios, I am able to grasp an idea of what the children have learnt and done for the term. While I was working on the portfolios, the teacher even served me coffee and cake. The coffee was nice smelling and the cake was quite nice, considering that I have not had my breakfast.
Next, at 1020 am, I followed her to observe how she teached her class in identifying shapes. She read to them books before assigning them worksheets to identify the different shapes. In the meantime, she pulled some of the students out to rehearse their dance for their graduation ceremony. Both the principal and I watched the teacher directing the dance for the children. We then discussed on how we could further improved the dance with the usage of props such as masks or flowers. Nonetheless, I think the plans are shelved due to shortage of resources and time. I hope to be able to create the masks for the children to wear though.
While the children were working on their worksheets, the teacher was discussing tips on how I could manage a class properly by asking the children to settle their own conflicts. She also shared some teaching tips like how to make the environment works for you while teaching instead of against you. For instance, she brought in different types of sand for the children to have a feel of the different textures.
Soon, it was 1130am. The principal went out to meet the parents in conflict. I did not go along as I felt that the parents might think I am an intruder in their conflict. The principal passed me the storybook, "Goldilocks and the 3 bears" to read to the Nursery class and plan for their lessons. I helped to take over the K1 class while the teacher freed herself to meet the parents of both parties. They were learning about weathers such as rainy, sunny and cloudy. I taught them more weathers in that brief session. Soon, it was time for them to end school and the teacher returned to wrap things up.
The principal happily told me that the matter was settled and I sent her back to the original kindergarten. On the way back, she shared with more about the kindergarten, such as the kindergarten fees and the budget for the concert, which was actually quite limited, considering that the parents only paid 30 bucks for the graduation ceremony. It was really a tight budget constraint as part of the money was also used to book the concert hall.
In all, today was an enlightening day and I learnt quite abit of the role of a principal. FINALLY! When I went home, I searched online and found some interesting ideas such as making a bear puppet and teaching them the "Pease porridge hot" nursery rhyme.
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