Kindergarten Klassroom Konnections
About Kindergarten Klassroom Konnection
Kindergarten Klassroom Konnection is dedicated to sharing with you my 25 years of experience in teaching kindergarten, first grade and second grade in the public schools of Ohio, Michigan and Arizona. This sharing will include parent communications, assessments, curriculum resources, instructional materials, classroom procedures and routines, learning links and a blog. It will also be focused on a weekly letter, sound and word study program including all the stations needed to teach letters and words from the start of the year to the end of the year. Kindergarten Klassroom Konnection was founded by Thomas W. Washburn in 2015. To learn a little more about our founder Thomas W. Washburn, please read below.
About Thomas Washburn
Hello! My name is Thomas Washburn. I am a retired public school teacher with 25 years of experience teaching children in kindergarten, first grade , and second grade. I came to Arizona from Michigan nine years ago with the desire of teaching full-day kindergarten at a school implementing Conscious Discipline on a school-wide basis. As a former Certified Conscious Discipline Instructor with Dr. Becky Bailey’s Loving Guidance, I wanted to teach at a school where my teaching colleagues lived by the same teaching philosophies that were of such critical importance to my life. Two sayings that are at the very core of this philosophy are “Children don’t care what you know until they know that you care” and “Teach only love for that is what we are.” I tried not only to teach by these philosophies but live by them as well. With Arizona switching to full-day kindergarten and having always wanted to teach full-day kindergarten, I found my perfect fit here in Arizona and have been quite happy in my time here.
Prior to coming to Arizona, I received my bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan (M GO BLUE! GO WOLVERINES!) and my Masters of Elementary and Early Childhood Education from the University of Toledo and taught pre-school, first and second grade in the Ohio and Michigan public schools for fifteen years. In addition, one distinction that I hold that very few other kindergarten teachers hold is having dissected a human cadaver as a first year medical student at the University of Cincinnati, before deciding that I much preferred to work with children in education rather than on children in medicine. Having also been a CPA in my prior life, I am also pretty handy in balancing my check book and preparing my tax returns.
In January of 2014, an incident occurred while teaching my kindergarten class for which I was charged with aggravated assault against a minor and voluntarily resigned my teaching position with the Mesa Public Schools. This charge was later dismissed by the courts as no evidence of “intention to injure, insult, or provoke” as required by Arizona law for a charge of aggravated assault could be found. In hindsight, I acknowledge that it was a mistake in discipline and an error in judgement on my part; something that all parents make at one time or another in disciplining their own children, but it was never a crime. I have always tried to put the best interest of my children (students) first. I have always believed that my job as a teacher was to keep the classroom safe, so kids could learn. This was something that I thought my principal knew about me as she acknowledged it in the recommendation that I received from her in May of 2013. In her recommendation, she stated “Tom’s intentions are always for the best of the children and he would never do anything to harm a child mentally, physically or in any way that would be detrimental to a child. He takes his job very seriously and spends countless hours trying to plan and decide what is best for the students in his classroom. Please consider me a valid and reliable character witness for a gentleman that truly cares for the students on our campus. His motives are always in the best interest of these kids and he strives to provide them whatever is needed.” I just wish the principal would have thought about this that afternoon and had been able to relate that to the police and the press. Needless to say the aftermath of this incident has drastically altered and changed my life both personally and professionally and taken a tremendous toll on me.
On a personal note, I have been a foster parent for two boys ages 1 ½ and 3 for over a year and also enjoyed the opportunity of taking care of several children on a respite basis. In my spare time, I enjoy swimming, kayaking, fishing, boating, playing cards and reading at my family’s log cabin off of Lake Superior and following college football and basketball. My favorite author is John Grisham and my favorite TV shows are “The X-Files” and “The West Wing”. I also enjoy spending time at the Ann Arbor Summer Street Art Fair, one of the largest art fairs in the United States. But, most of all I enjoyed watching the growth in my students and having the opportunity to play a significant role in their lives.
Prior to coming to Arizona, I received my bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan (M GO BLUE! GO WOLVERINES!) and my Masters of Elementary and Early Childhood Education from the University of Toledo and taught pre-school, first and second grade in the Ohio and Michigan public schools for fifteen years. In addition, one distinction that I hold that very few other kindergarten teachers hold is having dissected a human cadaver as a first year medical student at the University of Cincinnati, before deciding that I much preferred to work with children in education rather than on children in medicine. Having also been a CPA in my prior life, I am also pretty handy in balancing my check book and preparing my tax returns.
In January of 2014, an incident occurred while teaching my kindergarten class for which I was charged with aggravated assault against a minor and voluntarily resigned my teaching position with the Mesa Public Schools. This charge was later dismissed by the courts as no evidence of “intention to injure, insult, or provoke” as required by Arizona law for a charge of aggravated assault could be found. In hindsight, I acknowledge that it was a mistake in discipline and an error in judgement on my part; something that all parents make at one time or another in disciplining their own children, but it was never a crime. I have always tried to put the best interest of my children (students) first. I have always believed that my job as a teacher was to keep the classroom safe, so kids could learn. This was something that I thought my principal knew about me as she acknowledged it in the recommendation that I received from her in May of 2013. In her recommendation, she stated “Tom’s intentions are always for the best of the children and he would never do anything to harm a child mentally, physically or in any way that would be detrimental to a child. He takes his job very seriously and spends countless hours trying to plan and decide what is best for the students in his classroom. Please consider me a valid and reliable character witness for a gentleman that truly cares for the students on our campus. His motives are always in the best interest of these kids and he strives to provide them whatever is needed.” I just wish the principal would have thought about this that afternoon and had been able to relate that to the police and the press. Needless to say the aftermath of this incident has drastically altered and changed my life both personally and professionally and taken a tremendous toll on me.
On a personal note, I have been a foster parent for two boys ages 1 ½ and 3 for over a year and also enjoyed the opportunity of taking care of several children on a respite basis. In my spare time, I enjoy swimming, kayaking, fishing, boating, playing cards and reading at my family’s log cabin off of Lake Superior and following college football and basketball. My favorite author is John Grisham and my favorite TV shows are “The X-Files” and “The West Wing”. I also enjoy spending time at the Ann Arbor Summer Street Art Fair, one of the largest art fairs in the United States. But, most of all I enjoyed watching the growth in my students and having the opportunity to play a significant role in their lives.