Shadowing Mrs.

Galloway 1

Teaching Experience in Kindergarten

Ashley Diana Simms

PJC
Shadowing Mrs. Galloway 2

For my education class, I had the opportunity to observe at Anita Scott Elementary

School in Royse City. The class that I was selected to observe was Kindergarten. I had the

pleasure of shadowing Amanda Compton. She now goes by Mrs. Galloway since she has been

recently married. In October I was able to observe sixteen hours in the kindergarten class. There

are many wonderful qualities a teacher should possess, and I was able to see that while

shadowing Mrs. Galloway. Mrs. Galloway has so many responsibilities as a teacher of fourteen

students. She is also very patient, and attentive with every single one of her students. While Mrs.

Galloway is only a young teacher at the age of twenty-eight, she has seven years of teaching

experience.

I was able to have a positive experience while observing. Shadowing Mrs. Galloway has

made me want to choose to teach kindergarten more than any other grade level. She has taught

Pre-k and First grade, but the grade she teaches now is her favorite so far. The students in

kindergarten seem more eager to learn and want to do activities, which makes teaching them a

blessing and a joy to work with. My first day with the students was also picture day, which was a

blast to do with the students. The interaction between the teacher and the students is a very

positive one. I see that the students can come to the teacher for any help, or if they seem to be

having any issues whatsoever. The teachers are doing a great job teaching different learning

styles so that the little children learn more efficiently. Some of the learning tools that the teachers

implement in the classrooms are flash cards, and educational videos. In kindergarten the students

are taught a lot about literacy since that this grade level is the steppingstone to know how to read

and write. Every morning the students start the day with the literacy station. This includes using

tablets, rhyme cards, reading, and writing their own sentences. One assignment they had was
Shadowing Mrs. Galloway 3

cutting and gluing the alphabet letters by matching the uppercase and lowercase letters. The

teacher taught both student and teacher centered. As a group they had carpet time for things such

as learning shapes, going over directions, and writing a story as a class. Each student also had

independent work such as writing and illustrating their own book. Shadowing Mrs. Galloway I

saw how hard she worked with the students; she also spent a lot of her own personal time after

school hours which made for long days at work. I really enjoyed sitting in with the teacher’s

while they had the staff meeting on my last day. Principal Atkins brought together all the

kindergarten teachers to make sure that they knew the correct way to correctly evaluate each

student literacy and concur what grade level each student is at.

I asked Mrs. Galloway if she had any advice for an aspiring teacher.

“Two years ago, I use to work at mesquite ISD, and took a $10,000 pay cut to transfer to

Royse City. Teaching is not about the pay; it is about the students. It is important to be their role

model, and to come in to work each day with a great attitude. “

Overall, I enjoyed my 16 hours of observation and I am thankful I had this opportunity. Mrs.

Galloway was a fantastic teacher to shadow and learn from. This has motivated me to have the

same hard work and skills to implement in my own future classroom.