Getting Ready

I thought I would blog about play, a topic near and dear to my heart, but realized that I really needed to get ready for school. It is almost time to start a new school year for me.  The more I saw people blog about what they were doing to set up their room, to work on innovative ideas, to attend conferences and more, it dawned on me how we are always getting ready for something: work, school, bed, play dates, movie and then some of the milestones: ready to get married, ready to give birth and for final good byes.  Sometimes getting ready can be overwhelming, numbing and debilitating. But then, getting prepared can help one ease into the unknown.  Whatever works for us as we deal with getting ready, is the way to go. I also thought of getting ready in terms of children and their readiness for school.  Since I teach Kindergarten I am interested in the thinking of educators and “experts’ about kindergarten readiness.  I saw this post that about readiness And I came across this article
My cautionary note is not to accept everything you read hook, line and sinker. I need to reflect and see what works for me with my kids at my school.  We make a commitment, not only to our students but to the institution we work at to provide the children the best education we can. Given all that, I am back to getting ready. What is it I need to do to get ready? Although I know there is so much to do at the start of a new school year, I would love to shout from the roof tops I AM READY, ready to meet my Kinders, to get to know them, to let them get to know me. I will tell them this is a journey, our Kindergarten year together; let’s explore, share, work together and be kind.  Be kind to our classmates, teachers, school community, family and yes, to yourself.  This is ready enough for me, the rest will fall in place.
Wishing us all a good 2013-2014.