Its that time of year !
As I was sitting this morning doing my usual , catching up on facebook, pinterest, Good Morning America and eating a light breakfast , something occurred to me . I guess I have known this but it just popped in my head and made so much sense that I felt the need to blog about it !
In our classroom we dont do worksheets . We dont spend a lot of time telling the kids what to do or where to go. Most of their day is spent in free play where they make choices about what they want to play, where they want to play and who they want to play with. We even take it a step further and as social interactions get a little tricky we dont step in and solve the problem for the kids .We ask them ” how it makes them feel ?” or ” do you like it ?” and we coach them through how to deal with the problem by using their words and being responsible for themselves.
We encourage them to be courageous and try new things.
We provide ways they can be creative with open ended materials .
We allow plenty time for relationships to grow and flourish .
We love each of them and make them feel safe enough to grow.
This year we have 13 five year olds that will be going to kindergarten in the fall. Our classroom has been a little ” tricky” the past couple weeks. The kids are keeping us on our toes.
As a teacher this can get exhausting and frustrating at times as you try to keep a positive environment in the classroom and help things remain ” somewhat ” calm.
This was my epiphany :
We have spent a whole year growing these little preschoolers into independent little people that can make choices, stand up for themselves and be uniquely who God created them to be. Why am I surprised that I have a room full of leaders? What happens when you get a room full of leaders ? Sometimes it can be chaos ! Sometimes it can be loud as they all struggle to be heard.
We have about 9 weeks of school left. I will try my best to remember that my classroom ” struggles” I am having right now are are direct result of our teaching . This is what we wanted. This is what we wanted. This is what we wanted. I will be proud that we have built a room full of leaders that have opinions and know how to express them. I will be proud that my students feel safe enough to practice those skills with their school family.
KUDOS to us ! We have done a great job ! I think Ill stock up on tylenol.