A good kindergarten teacher ignites excitement in hers students as she develops lesson plans that advance their perception of how to the world works. The teacher must personally connect with each student and make each moment a teachable moment.
The kindergarten teacher has an important responsibility of positively shaping the youngest of minds.
In order to excel in the kindergarten arena, a teacher must possess a number of effective skills and qualities, including establishing intimate relationship with parents via personal blog, phone calls and progress letters.
Most Preferred Qualities
Passion and Patience
In addition to accelerating the learning of the little ones with best practices, the excellent kindergarten teacher must possess the qualities of passion and patience. Every kinder garden must be engaged with passion. Plus all interaction and communication should be performed with a sense of inspiration and enthusiasm. Great kinder garden teachers would agree that the classroom and the atmosphere must reflect excitement.
Bright colored posters, learning stations, reading corners with attractive book collections, rows and patterns of manipulatives, and colorful, learning carpets should all contribute to an inviting kindergarten classroom. Such classroom should help generate a passion for learning.
A kindergarten teacher without patience for her students should reconsider remaining in the profession. No other grade level needs for a teacher to have more patience than the kindergarten level. Because the students are just beginning to interact with others outside of their homes, the teacher must be super sensitive to the diverse needs of her students. Many students will have to be helped almost in every step of their kindergarten journey, at least in the beginning.
Be a Master of Best Practices
Every great kindergarten teacher keeps up on the latest research and findings regarding the education fields. The master the best practices. They master the theories, strategies and creative techniques that have brought success to other teachers and schools.
Skillful Use of Manipulatives
One of the greatest skills kindergarten teachers can possess is the use of manipulatives. Transforming the minds of little people requires that they thoroughly understands the world of concepts. This includes mathematical, language, historical and social concepts. Using manipulatives is a way to driving those concepts into clarity.
Manipulatives includes letters and number shape, building blocks, and other tangible craft intended for handling with hands. For example, if the lesson plan is to teach children about tigers and bears. Then the kindergarten teacher must design cutouts, coloring schemes and reading demonstrations just to name of a few strategies.
Grade and Assess
Good kindergarten teachers must be able to grade and assess every student in order to develop a unique teaching strategy that will accommodate the learning style of that student. Using multiple intelligence strategies to assess and generate excitement in student learning is a great approach. Multiple intelligence teaching includes using seven intelligences to reach students:
Visual-Spatial– teacher utilizes such tasks as drawing pictures, handling physical imagery, reading maps, graphics, charts, photographs, visual text and various multimedia.
Bodily-Kinesthetic-teacher utilizes this strategy to connect with those students who learn through movement, touch and other forms of body language. Role playing, hands-on-learning and physical activity is the hallmarks of this strategy.
Musical-teachers us the musical side of multiple intelligence approach to her student’s sensitivity to rhythm and sound. Studies show that many students learn more effectively when soft music is played in the background, especially doing seatwork. Teachers can also turn lessons into songs. Students sing, clap or stomp to the rhythm of an instrument, CD-ROM, radio or live musical instrument.
Interpersonal-teachers use this approach in order to see which students are good socially from those who are not. Students are put in small groups and taught the principles of collaborative learning. They learn how to be empathic, to share and to communicate with one another to problem solve or get a project done. Tools may use manipulatives such as telephones, audio conferencing, writing, and video conferencing.
Intrapersonal-this approach allows teachers to pinpoint those students who learn best independently. Such students may be more focused on completing task alone. They are those ones who are in the corning reading a book, writing in a diary or working with creative material. Usually these students don’t need much help once they understand what to do.
Linguistic-this strategy of multiply intelligence teach students how to work with words more effectively Students read, play word games and create stories. Books, computer games, and other multimedia are utilized to reach these students.
Logical-mathematical-teachers discover students who are inclined reasoning, calculating. Such students think more conceptually, understand patterns and relationships. Experimenting, solving puzzles and asking deep questions characterize such students.
Uses the multiple intellence approach to assess students requires that kindergarten teachers identifies student and the category in which he or she learns more effectively. Once this knowledge is obtained the teacher must design lessons plans that will utilize many of the intelligences at the same time.
Therefore, a lesson plan may include but not limited to, music, physical activity, visual stimulation, reasoning, story creation, group and independent learning. If necessary, teachers can discover a struggling student’s dominant learning style and arrange for a more one on one approach in order to get the student’s education up to par.
Insider’s Warning Advice
In the beginning, most students will need help time and time again in understanding concepts, routines, writing, following directions, and dressing properly. A kindergarten teacher must be willing to wear many hats, including teaching, mentoring and nurturing. If a kindergarten teacher is willing to surrender herself to the betterment of her students at all cost, then she is well on her way to becoming that kindergarten teaching who stands out above the rest.
