Latest / The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District / Episode #18-Julie McKenzie, Kindergarten Teacher

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Episode #18-Julie McKenzie, Kindergarten Teacher · The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District

• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: Hello and welcome to the Recess Podcast.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: Alan Spaciotti, the proud superintendent of the Auburn School District.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: And the Recess Podcast is a place where we tell stories about the incredible people and programs and students of the Auburn School District so that we can share some of the great things that are happening.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm just so proud of this district and of our schools and our kids.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: They really are amazing.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: If you watch the news or social media, right, you just see a little sliver of it, and it's usually our worst moment.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: And the truth is, day in and day out, I get to see our best moments connecting with families, helping students, and just the amazing brilliance of our students.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Today we're going to tell another one of those stories.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, we ended last year with our graduates.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: We had graduates from all four of our high schools.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: We're going to go all the way to the other end of the spectrum with a kindergarten teacher.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: Today's guest on the Recess Podcast is Julie McKenzie, kindergarten teacher who is new to Jildo Ray and uh for the past six years or so taught at Washington Elementary.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: And Julie, welcome.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: We're glad to have you on the podcast.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, um, we're gonna start with uh my my favorite question, which is uh tell us about your favorite teacher.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: So uh in thinking about this, the teacher who stuck out the most to me actually was a college professor.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I went to college planning to be an elementary teacher, but changed my mind because I loved her classes so much, and I you may not know this, but I actually started my career teaching high school because I took family consumer science classes and loved them and wanted to teach that content, and so that's what I actually started my career doing.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that college professor and I we would still get together after I was graduated and we go out for coffee, and she just believed in me and she encouraged me in my career, and she would invite me back to be a guest speaker in her classes, and so I just felt like she cared about me, invested in me, and believed in me.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So she was my favorite teacher.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: That is awesome.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm trying to remember since we started the podcast, I don't believe I've had a college teacher named.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but those themes of believing in you and supporting in you and opening doors, um, that's really great.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: And the relationships, obviously.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: So you obviously had a connection with her and continued to have a connection after you uh moved into K-12 and you taught at the high school level.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: I did not know that.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: So if we are in uh some kind of an emergency shortage, now we know we can uh ask Julie McKenzie to pinch it at the high school because she has that experience.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, this is administrators.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: We're always thinking.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um tell us uh that's how you started.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us about the journey to kindergarten.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so it's been probably kind of different than most kindergarten teachers because I did start my career.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I taught two years of junior high, and then a long time I taught high school family and consumer sciences.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: I taught a variety of classes, but my focus really was child development.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I taught personal choices, I taught psychology, but mostly I taught child development.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I taught a class called Careers with Children, where I trained high school students to work with young children in an early learning setting.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it all kind of flows together, but that's what I did for a long time.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then I had four kids in five years, and I took a little time off.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I started just subbing one day a week while my kids were really little.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: And when I subbed, I subbed in elementary school, and I enjoyed doing that.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: So then when my kids started at Washington Elementary, I started volunteering at the school, subbing at the school, and long story short, that led to an opportunity to teach kindergarten at Washington.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't have my elementary endorsement, so I had to go back to school, get my elementary endorsement.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I did that, started teaching kindergarten, loved it so much, thought I wanted some more training.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I went and got my master's in early childhood education so I could feel that it was really a specialty for me.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of been my journey.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like it's come full circle because I used to teach um, you know, physical, emotional, social development of young children.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now I teach young children.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And a cool side note is that there's a preschool teacher in this district who was one of my high school students, so that's fun for me to see her doing that too when I taught her long.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: That is great.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's really rewarding.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, all right, I will not tease you about going back to secondary anymore.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we are glad that you are in kindergarten.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: You do an amazing job.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: I've had the chance to be in your classroom and also um interact with you in other settings uh talking about the profession.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna get into some of our reading uh professional learning in a little bit.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um you've kind of talked about this.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: You want to say anything more about why kindergarten?
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Kindergarten is such a unique and and a lot of us would think, wow, what a demanding job.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so but then the people who resonate with it are just so special.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh so tell us a little bit more about why kindergarten.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so passionate about early learning.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: I just feel like kindergarten sets up a foundation for the rest of an academic career.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: I it's I think about that book that if you give a mouse a cookie, if this happens and then this and then this and then this, and I can go down this whole rabbit trail, but for me it's my why.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's like if kids aren't reading at the end of first grade, they're 90% more likely to be a struggling reader in fourth grade.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that reading failure is tied to academic failure, which is tied to delinquency and violence and crime, and on and on it goes.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I just feel like if I can have the opportunity to get kids reading by the end of kindergarten, then that equals success in their life.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that's a big like trajectory, but that's my why.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: I really have a sense of urgency that every single child needs to be given the opportunity to learn to read in kindergarten, and they can do it.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's the other thing, is that they can do it.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: They can do it, and that wasn't always the prevailing thought, right?
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we're worried about developmental appropriateness and especially, you know, should boys be playing in the mud and all that kind of stuff.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and we want our kids to play, and we value recess, and that's learning too.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: But um, but we know that that kids are ready and and they can have all those advantages uh if we teach them all.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, we're gonna put a pen in reading for a minute.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we will come back to it, but um tell us a little bit more about being a kindergarten teacher because I know you don't teach reading all day long.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what do you enjoy?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: What's your favorite part maybe outside of the I know you have the passion for for literacy, but what what do you enjoy about the rest of the kindergarten?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's just so fun.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Five and six-year-olds are excited about everything.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even matter what it is if I tell them something's going to happen, their eyes get wide and they have anticipation and they're just excited.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: So that's really fun to just be around that all day long.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: They say some really unexpected things which are just enjoyable to be a part of.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I can be really silly.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: I can sing songs and be silly with them, and they think I'm great.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So all of that's really fun.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sometimes, like an example of that, one time I said to my whole class, Are you ready?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a student exclaim, I was born ready.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it just it caught me off guard, but I thought it was so funny.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so now, years later, that's what I teach my class to say.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I say to my whole class, Are you ready?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And they all say, I was born ready.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And things like that are just so fun.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I just enjoy being around the young learners.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: So you described your college experience, uh, a teacher who helped you believe in yourself, and you're helping your students believe in themselves and have fun at the same time.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great story.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so I would imagine you have lots of success stories, but just you know, for people who don't live it every day, what does a success story look like in kindergarten?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, again, it is there are so many, but I can think of a student who came into my class who was had not been exposed to English, speaks a different language at home, and so the first real exposure to the English language is in kindergarten, and he came in shy and quiet and unsure, and then throughout the course of the year, you know, he starts raising his hand and answering questions by the end of the year can read a book.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so that is just so exciting because his story is going to be one of academic success.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so that just makes me so excited.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I I can think of other students who maybe it's not challenges in language or communication, but I have had a student who just didn't know how to act like a student who just will, you know, get up and run across the countertops and go to the sink and throw water around when it's supposed to be learning.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And those are challenging moments, but in working together with the student's parent and with support staff we have, like behavior specialists and things, we worked with the student to incentivize being a student.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the student learned how to be a learner and to be engaged in the learning, and again, by the end of the year, was ready for first grade, acting like a learner and reading.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: So those types of things are really exciting.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: That must be so incredibly rewarding and and very real, right?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: We're a district that uh is increasingly linguistically diverse, and uh I think many, if not most or nearly all of our teachers uh have experiences like that.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: And it's so exciting in the early grades where these brains are just so pliable and kids can make so much progress.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I I think that was a great story to share and to start with, and also uh it's incredibly satisfying to have that kid who uh needs a little help getting focused for the academics and and to have that kind of success is great too.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: So two good examples, thank you, Julie.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um think about um we we now have invested a lot in preschool and I wanna wanna shout out all of our preschool and and uh transition kindergarten, all of that.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um but kindergarten is that first exposure to uh you know K-12 education and um thinking partly developmentally, but also at any age, uh if you have a great culture and environment and you know things are a little bit fun, uh it it can be easier to get your work done, right?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: So how do you create a positive and fun learning environment in your classroom every day?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one thing I do is I smile a lot, and I feel like smiling translates over every single language.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: A kid who speaks our language or doesn't understands a smile.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: So as a teacher, if I can smile all day long, even if I have to say something that's maybe a little more direct, like something correcting behavior or something, if I can say it through a smile, then everything comes across better to kids.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's one thing.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: Another thing is I truly just love my students.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: I really love them and I tell them that I love them.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And earlier in my career, I thought, I don't know if I am allowed to do that.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: That seems like weird, or I don't know if that's crossing a boundary, but I decided I can tell my students that I love them.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I tell my kindergarten students I love you so much, and they say that they love me, and when I see them from far away, I show them that I love you in sign language from across the the schoolyard.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I think my students, we we build kind of like a family and they know they're cared for.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so in that, then the learning happens, and I make the learning engaging, and I have an expectation for all of the kids being engaged all of the time.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think they'd also just don't want to disappoint me because we have a relationship.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: That is tremendous.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I just think about how foundational kindergarten is uh for students, and also it's it's where everybody enters a K-12 system.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and one of the things that I learned pretty quickly as an elementary school principal and you know as a longtime administrator is uh this is also a place we're welcoming parents into the system.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: So give a little advice to parents to help their children have a smooth and joyful transition into kindergarten.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Some some of my ideas are probably more obvious and then some maybe not.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So the obvious ones are things like they need to get a good night's sleep.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's important to have a bedtime routine and to have a good night of sleep because kindergarten takes some stamina, some physical and mental stamina.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So sleeping is important.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's important for parents to talk positively about school at home because they kids pick up a lot from just what their parents say and feel, so that's important.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's really great if parents can read to their kids or have you know expose kids to books and literacy.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's important.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's important for kids to play, play with toys and just use the creative part of their brain.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: So those are things that maybe are more obvious.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the less obvious are kids need to be independent in the bathroom.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so, as kindergarten teachers, we can't help kids in the bathroom with anything.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's really important that kids come to school completely independent in the bathroom.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other one is this is newer to me, figuring this out as a kindergarten teacher.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I have done a lot of working with our occupational therapists at our school in the last couple of years, and I've noticed that we do a lot of sitting at the carpet to to learn.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: We sit up, kids hold their body, we sit crisscross, however you want to say it.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: And kids don't have the core strength to hold their bodies up.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of that is probably because they do a lot of leaning back on a couch or um on a bed or not holding their body up.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: So when kids are um sitting at the carpet to learn, if they don't have the core strength to hold their body up, they get distracted and they start doing different things to try to compensate for their muscle strength.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so kids need to practice sitting up.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that might just look like if they're watching TV, sit on the carpet and don't sit on a couch.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or another really good thing is that even five, four, three-year-olds need tummy time.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: They need to be on their tummy and hold their core up.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if they're playing on a tablet, looking at a book, playing with Legos, if they can play on their tummy and hold their body up, it builds core strength.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: So in my classroom, sometimes we'll get in a whole circle and everyone will lay on their tummy and we'll all have a book in front of us and we'll do a reading but doing it on our tummy so we can build up core strength.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it's really interesting because you'll see some kids will end up flopping over to their side because it's too hard for their core to hold themselves up.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that doesn't seem very obvious, but the core strength leads to muscle strength, which leads to fine motor strength, which is needed for writing.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: So all of it's related.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a thing that I would tell parents.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: Don't let your kid constantly be leaning back on a couch or a bed.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: They need to hold themselves up.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: That is an awesome explanation and great advice.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think of the importance of child development in our work and uh most of my experiences with older kids uh and some of those things I hadn't thought about.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: That's really great advice.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're listening to this podcast uh and you know a parent of a kindergartner, please uh share the advice and uh maybe even go a step further and share this podcast.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it has great application at all ages because uh shout out to the adults.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: We need to get a good night's sleep and pay attention to our core, also.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: So uh some things you never outgrow.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: Well, how fun.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um also think about how important reading is to quality of life.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna shift back into reading here.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, as adults, you read for pleasure, you read for information, uh it is uh a a gateway to so many employment opportunities.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um talk about uh as a kindergarten teacher, talk about the importance of reading, and I think you did that and learning to read, uh, and then we'll get into how we what our approach is to teaching reading.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think kind of like I said earlier, it's it is it's the gateway to everything.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's what opens the doors in life, it's what allows us to have more choices for our our ourselves and our future.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it starts at a very early age, and it's so much harder to catch up because when we're young in school, we're learning to read, but eventually we're reading to learn.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if we haven't learned to read, it's really hard to read to learn.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: So um as a person who's been really involved in uh learning to teach reading, can you explain how we teach reading?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it doesn't maybe look like a lot of people would expect it to look because it starts very foundational with just our letter sounds.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: So not even talking about letters themselves, but sounds.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: So on the very first day of school, when I introduce myself to my students, I say, My name is Mrs.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Mmm, Mackenzie.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Did you hear that sound?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: That first sound in my name.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Mmm, did you hear that?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: That's a letter sound.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Mmm.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about your names and we'll talk about their names.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I have a wall that's a sound wall in my classroom, and every one of their pictures is underneath another picture that matches their letter sound.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: So Jose's picture is under the hammer, and Aliy's picture is under the umbrella because we talk a lot about the sounds.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so we start with first sound, but as they start to pick up first sound, we talk about all the sounds in a word.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: So we say, we're gonna go get in the line.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: What are the sounds you hear in line?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: I hear l, I do you hear those sounds?
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so all the time, every single moment is a learning moment all day long.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not just during the curriculum time, it's all the time.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I do a lot of finger stretching.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: So finger stretching is when we we put literally put up our fist and we break down the sounds in the word, and each finger that goes up represents a sound in the word.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I say to my students, we're gonna finger stretch, and it's like a Pavlovian response.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Then their fist goes up.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: They've been trained to put their fist up to finger stretch, and I'll say, you know, we're going to come to the rug, finger stretch that word, and their fists go up, and they say, er, uh, g.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: They finger stretch all the time.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: We also do, I do the opposite, where they have I say the sounds and they have to blend, and I'm doing this all the time.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'll say, uh, lunch is over, we're going to go to the trash can and d, uh, mmm, puh.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then they'll say, dump, the blend the word.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: So in doing that, kids are learning to hear the sounds and blend the sounds.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of kids, once they're looking at a page and saying each sound in a word on the page, might be able to say each sound, but to blend it is a struggle.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the more we can start just saying the sounds and having them blend without even looking at letters, it prepares them for actually the decoding and the reading on the page.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: So in our curriculum, it doesn't start with showing them letters.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the graphemes.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't start that way.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: It starts with all the sounds.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually, as they've gotten familiar with sounds and breaking sounds out in words, it introduces the letters and starts to connect the letters to the sounds.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: So in my classroom, as all year long we're talking about sounds and breaking words apart, when they start to learn those graphemes or those letters, then I'll say, Oh, we're going to we're going to put on our coat.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: What sound did you hear?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: What letter could that be?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I start to then introduce the letters with with the sounds.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: But we're we're doing manipulation of sounds all the time.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: One of the reasons I was excited to ask you about reading is uh a few years ago you were at the school board meeting, and I think we had a presentation about science of reading and the training that we're doing, and you just had this wonderfully clear explanation of it, and I think we've heard great examples over the last 20 minutes uh of that as well.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um can you talk about what we're doing as a district and uh you just what a little bit of what the theory is behind science of reading, and then you what you do such a great job of is is is demystifying it, is like taking the jargon out and just making it accessible.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: So in your own words, talk about what we're doing for early literacy.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know if I can articulate the way some other, you know, Evelyn or Ryan could do.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: But it's just about the there's been a lot of research and science studies that have shown how our brain best learns how to read.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And since we know how our bet our brain learns how to read, we're taking that and teaching reading in that way.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of it has to do with going down to the very basic foundation of starting with the sounds, not starting with what a letter looks like or what a letter name is because really you don't even need a letter name to know how to read.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: I don't need to know that letter B is called letter B to know how to read anything.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really going back to the very, very basics and just building up from the foundational sounds from from there.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then at what point does comprehension come in?
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_00: All the time.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: So comprehension is it's all overlapping.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: They're happening on top of each other.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: So our curriculum breaks them apart and they're taught separately in the curriculum.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: But in the learning that's happening in every moment all the time, it's comprehension is always happening.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I find that with especially with young learners, a lot of them haven't been exposed to very many life experiences.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so their vocabulary tends to be limited.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so even just as we make conversation and we build our vocabulary, that's building comprehension.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I do a lot of having kids speak in full sentences because when I ask a student a question, they tend to just want to answer in one word.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: But if I say I'll give them a sentence frame like, um, what did you do this weekend?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then they'll have to respond with this weekend, I I'll give them the starter and they'll say the whole sentence because all those things are building their ability to comprehend when they read.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: If they can say and speak in sentences, then they can read sentences more easily, they can write sentences more easily.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of it happens orally through conversation and speaking.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: Perfect.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, well, I hope uh you enjoyed indulging a little bit of going into the weeds on reading because it's fascinating to me.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_02: And again, you have such clarity of uh making some really nuanced instructional decisions accessible for uh a lot of people who are listening to this podcast.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you, Julie.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I know there are people who listen to this class who are fans of mathematics and other subjects.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: Literacy is foremost uh first without equal, I think, in in the content that we teach in kindergarten.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um but can you just say a word about what else are kids learning in kindergarten?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so in math, we are counting to 100 by ones and tens and fives.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're adding, we're subtracting, we're uh working with teen numbers, composing and decomposing, knowing that there's a group of ten and then some extras, so there's some place value work that happens in there.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot that happens in math as well.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but even when I teach math, I'm always teaching literacy, even during math.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Where you know we see something that's the color red and we're saying er, eh, d while we're learning math.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: So all the time, the literacy is like this big umbrella that is over the entire day, and then science and math and these other pieces happen too, but the literacy is happening really in every moment.
• 25:17
  unknown: I do a lot of that.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's very intentional.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think I think that comes through.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, you've been an incredible guest, and as you know, because uh you mentioned you've listened to some episodes, the last question is a fun one, uh, especially for an elementary school teacher.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: What was your favorite thing to do at recess?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: I had two favorite things.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: I loved to play four square and I loved to jump rope.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: So those were my those are my things, four square and jump rope.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: So depending on my mood for the day, or maybe who was gonna be the competition in the four square, I would choose one of those.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: And did you have tricks or jumps?
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I think with a jump rope, uh any Yeah, we had a lot of songs, you know, just a lot of the jump rope songs that you would do, and we did double dutch, and yeah, that was that was fun.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: The ones that you can do with your friends and yeah, yeah, and you see how many times you can jump before it drops, and that's fantastic and great memories.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: Do you ever pick up a jump rope uh now?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have four daughters, so I've jump roped with my daughters and sang some of my old jump rope songs with them.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's the best kind of exercise where it's fun and enjoyable, and you really can't.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it is a legitimate exercise, and something you can do.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I think um I I like to throw that question out there, do you still, you know, play kickball or whatever?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: And most people kind of wistfully say, no, I wish I could.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh in jump rope, especially it, you know, it's it's a very low entry point.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you gotta get a jump rope, and then if you have kids, you can get out there and do that with them.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm glad to hear that you are still uh enjoying a little bit of recess in what must be a very busy life with four daughters and teaching all of our wonderful five-year-olds.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: Julie, thank you.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: You've done an amazing job explaining reading and kind of painting a picture of what kindergarten looks like in the Auburn School District.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thanks for having me.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: All right, my guest has been Julie McKenzie.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: The Recess Podcast is a production of the Auburn School District.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Vicki Alonzo is our producer and she makes us sound great.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks to Vicky and thanks to all of you for listening.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: If you enjoyed this episode, please uh do all the podcast things, like and subscribe.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: But mostly we're trying to get the word out, so share this with a kindergarten parent you know, uh, maybe an aspiring educator, uh, really any elementary school teacher, I think, would probably at the least feel validated and maybe pick up a tip or two uh from from what we just heard.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: So this has been the Read Studs Podcast.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you spending some time with us, and I look forward to the next one.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: See you next time.