You owe it to yourself, just once in your lifetime, to sit in on a remote classroom with 20 kindergarteners (all of whom cannot read yet and haven’t learned how to navigate Google classroom).
For the first week of school, about 15 kids sat on the Meet NOT on mute. So we heard 15 households’ conversations. Everything from parents’ arguing in the background to Grandmas telling kids the answers.
Once everyone got the hang of the computer, the kids got really comfortable really fast with their teacher, sharing all sorts of things. Now, I know this sort of uncensored sharing goes on in schools all the time, however, parents are never privy to what’s said behind the classroom door. Now, we have a front row seat.
And kids share everything, especially when they don’t have a grown up next to them who can jump on that mute button to save face if need be.
Overheard in the kindergarten classroom:
“My parents are always yelling at me. So I scream back.”
“The only thing I like to do is watch Youtube.”
“I’m bored. When is school over?’
“Why is your hair like that? What did you do?” (to the teacher!)
“Can you pause the video? I have to pee!”
“I don’t like this part, can we do something else?”
“HEY! PAY ATTENTION!” (a parent, to their child)
We are on live learning for almost 5 hours each day (with breaks). Kids do not have an attention span for that long. And when their minds start to wander, all of the verbal gold comes out.
Though, I feel as adults we can learn a thing to two from these kids. I have been on more than one video call just this week alone where I wish I could have unmuted myself and asked, “I’m bored. When is this over?”
Life of kk 
It’s certainly interesting to hear what kindergarteners will share – but I also think it’s great to see how unbelievably patient their teachers are! They must have a good handle on not taking comments personally, too.
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