Week 2- Restrictions in my teaching beliefs

         This past week, I had the chance to teach a math lesson on shapes....three-dimensional shapes. My initial reaction when I heard that I would be teaching the concepts of spheres, cubes, and cylinders to kindergarteners was shock and disbelief. My own thinking and beliefs about what to teach interfered with what I believed these students were capable of learning. As Fisher and Frey express in their text, the gradual release of responsibility (GRR) is based on the idea of creating students who are responsible of their own learning. 
         I've realized that my fear as an educator is that I am going to teach concepts that may be too challenging for some students (like, in this scenario, the ones who don't know the names and characteristics of two-dimensional shapes). However, the text reminded me that students need appropriate scaffolding in their zones of proximal development (based on Vygotsky's theory). My limited thinking causes the thinking of my students to be limited, too. How can they learn new vocabulary and concepts (even if I believe they are not developmentally ready) if I don't place the concepts in their hands to ponder, learn, and explore for themselves?
        My wondering for this week has transitioned from a particular student to my own "restricted" thinking as an educator. I feel concerned that I won't know what to teach each age group or that they won't be able to understand the concepts (especially if they are not well-versed in the fundamentals). How can I change my own thinking about what and how to teach students based on the standards and their own experiences? I'm not sure where this wondering is going specifically but I do know that I need to change my words and mentality about the types of things that students are learning now.

I guess in my mind, kindergarten is supposed to be focused on social interaction and enjoying being a kid because that was the kind of experience I had in kindergarten. I remember being read to a lot, playing with playdoh and on the playground, putting on plays for my parents, and just playing with toys and manipulatives at my leisure. In this practicum experience, students are engaging in workbooks for whole-group instruction, are only read to when there is extra time in the day (which is rare), and fill out worksheets related to phonics instruction. Rather than seeing the new standards for kindergarten as challenging and developmentally appropriate for these students, I see it as overloading their mental capacities with unnecessary vocabulary. When I found that they learned with the word “vertex” meant, I felt that this was completely unnecessary. However, I do not know enough about child development to know whether this is appropriate or not. I know from my reading course that many students’ success in school is dependent upon their exposure to academic-style vocabulary. I should not be afraid to use this vocabulary in the presence of my students but, rather, act as a model and encourage them to follow my lead (Fisher and Frey, 2).

How can I stop relating content from my learning experiences to the content my students are learning now? How can I find out more about how students’ brains develop at the different grade levels and how to scaffold appropriately? How can I accommodate the students with my lesson, especially between the ones who don’t understand the fundamentals and the ones who don’t feel challenged?