Kindergarten Crew | The Gift Of Joy

This is my second year at DAA, but during my first year, I have to say I was a little nervous starting over at a new school, with new staff and new students. As the first day of school began to approach I found myself a little anxious and I remember thinking this is how my students probably feel on their first day. I went home and did some thinking about how I can make this transition for both myself and my students smooth and easy. I came up with taking it back to the basics. I thought about my first year in education and the journey. I decided that it was important for my students to enjoy the journey and I had to make their first real school experience memorable, fun and joyful. It’s easy sometimes to get lost or caught up in teaching, scores, testing and data that sometimes we fail to see the beauty in the journey. It’s very important to me that each student comes in and leaves with a feeling of love, happiness and joy not only personally but academically. It’s one thing to come to school, teach, give assignments, tests and instructions but it’s another level when the students find JOY in coming to school and engaging in everything that you do. 

Joy is a feeling of great pleasure and happiness and I try to infuse joy in everything that we do from the morning door greetings, to how we do different ninja poses in the hall when lining up. I’ve learned in my years of education that it’s ok to be a little silly. Playfulness helps to foster a love for learning and builds a connection with students. Brain research also reveals that the brain increasingly opens to learning when learning is joyful. 

I remember one day during morning crew I asked the students to come back to school the next day with a joke and we would share them the next day. It was so fun and the kids got such a kick out of being silly and laughing. Some of them couldn’t get the joke out because they were laughing so hard. Laughter in the classroom is contagious and helps to build a strong classroom community, it enhances learning and it’s also just good for the soul. Joy also helps to decrease stress and positively impacts the students /teachers attitude in the classroom and toward learning. Joy is infused in my classroom day to day by being intentional with what I share and the different experiences we have together. A lot of times it’s the small things like in the middle of the week have a themed day (ex. Hat day) where students have something to look forward to. I make a club up for everything! We have the hundreds club, the count by 10’s club and a sight word club where students work hard and take pride in being apart of something they worked hard to achieve. Joy in my classroom is taking silly selfies and having dance battles with your teacher. Joy in my classroom is having an instagram page that highlights our crew and in turn brings joy to our families. I recently read a quote by Henri Nouwen that reads, “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it everyday.” Joy in my classroom is constant and intentional experiences that will last with my students for years to come and as their teacher, that brings me JOY!