I've recently started volunteering at a kindergarden class in the lower income area of my town. I do this through a Spanish course I'm taking. Each week I spend an hour and a half in a Spanish Immersion class. I went through a Spanish Immersion program and it's not that much fun. What's worse is many of the children speak better spanish than I do and I've spoke it for about 19 years now.
The thing that bugged me the most was the teaching that was happening. I went to the P.E. class and the teacher was yelling at kindergardeners for running. KINDERGARDENERS? Isn't that what we all did when we were 5 and 6? I was confused. She sat them down and told them they were being bad children for running around the gym. Then we got back to class and the teacher became frustrated when the children wouldn't listen to her explain what they were doing for snack. She was waving a box of cookies in front of them, what did she expect?
Well, I've gone about 6 times now and I've only seen the real teacher three of those times, the children have had subs (who don't speak spanish) for almost 3 entire weeks now. Does anyone else see a probably with this? And for some reason the subs can't figure out why these kids aren't listening and misbehavin? Well i'm not a qualified teacher and every time i've come I've taught a lesson. The kids listen to me and i'm just a senior in high school. I'm just sad because I like these kids and I don't want them to suffer because of incompetent teachers. Do I have any standings here or am I just a nut case?
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
This is not a good atmosphere for the children. Although it is important for them to be learning rules such as 'running is not always allowed' and how to behave during snack time, but there are much better ways for these teachers to be communicating to five and six year olds. The kindergarteners will begin to resent school and probably get into more trouble in the long run. Does the principal know what is going on in his classrooms? If not, you should let him know. Why is their teacher gone so much, three weeks is not normal? The kids are really lacking appropriate structure which is so vital for their current age.
i have no idea if the principal knows but it's frustrating to see these kids have to put up with so much inconsistancy.
I think you should let the principal know what is going on. He/She may be able to help.
this late in the school year the children should not be acting this way, they will be in first grade in a few months. I could see if it was the start of the year but not the end but this is JMO