Talking AND Listening

Like most, I had mixed feelings coming back to school on such a beautiful day after a week long vacation.  However, I am so glad that I did.  I loved the energy, excitement, and the rejuvenation that the students brought in.  We had a long morning meeting, but it was so worth it.  Hearing their excitement about the Easter Bunny, their vacations, the teeth that were lost, the relatives they saw, and goals they accomplished was so heart warming.  I loved the difference I saw since our winter break.  When we returned in January, students just wanted to blurt out what they did and never really listened to one another.  This time around it was much different.  It's funny how you don't see the day to day changes, but you do see it after a period of time.  As we sat around the dark blue and I facilitated each student sharing something they did using complete sentences, I quickly found myself not being the only one asking questions and wanting to know more.  Students were chiming in, in conversation speech, asking questions, prompting their friends to "say more" and to explain more.  It was great to see the conversation prompts that we have learned in reading and writing come out, but not in a forced way.  Their patterns of speech, conversational skills, and listening have all changed over the past few months.  As I sat and told what I did, I didn't have to blurt everything out, instead, I could give a little information and students took turns asking more to hear about what I had done.  Learning to communicate and listen is such an important skill, and they are not just rote skills that students pick up.  It takes a lot of modeling, reinforcing, prompting, and guiding.  But, by golly, these kids in room 3 are on their way!

I love that now the students are engaging in conversations with the cafeteria workers, paraprofessionals that are not in our classroom, and other adults in the building.  Not only are they entering their essentials saying "good afternoon" or asking how their teachers are, but they are giving unprompted compliments towards other students and adults.  They are listening to each others' words, truly playing cooperatively and making me laugh more than I ever thought possible.  It's amazing how such a basic skills, such as asking someone how they are or what did they do that weekend, can be so gratifying when it's not being pulled out, tooth and nail.  I know as some of you read this, you're thinking, "yeah my kids talk all the time" or "what's so special," but here in Kindergarten this is a big shift for them.  I have some students that called each other "him" or "her" for a better part of the year, but finally they have names!  Some students will respond to questions, but never answer (or listen to an answer), but it's all changing.  My little guys are growing up.  In a matter of 10 days, some of them have changed more than I thought they would.

It's the little things in life....