You would think that with a mere three weeks to go, that we as kindergarten teachers would be marking a lot of progress. I would imagine you would picture us hunkered over a child, body tense, our mouths working over and over to stress the importance of fractions or vowels, maybe a pencil is bering hammered onto the paper to drive home a point or an incorrect answer. Yes, you might imagine this scenerio, and it does happen on occasion…but these days you are much more likely to see us coaching through emotional growth versus academic. Instead of championing a burgeoning child to read, we’re cheering on the kid who finally, finally, takes the initiative to tell a friend that they were accidently hit by their lunch bag. Time and time again I find myself having the same conversations about respect and listening and “well, how would you feel if someone sat on YOUR hand on purpose?” Over and over again, throughout my day I find myself having to raise an eyebrow at a kid who’s wiggling, pause during a read-aloud and wait for a certain child to stop talking, and actually having to ’shush’ the kids from time to time–I HATE shushing! You know, we’ve been doing this all year, I don’t know why I’m tiring of it right now, perhaps I thought they would all grow up and miraculously cease being children.