Welcome Back to School

• by Debbie
• April 12, 2016
• 3 comments

Welcome Back to School

It was great be back today.  As we laid down for nap one of the little said ” I’m glad you’re back Ms Debbie. ”  I needed the rest and a schedule free from obligations but I am certainly glad to be back too. It’s nice to come home to a job that you sincerely love .

What was amazing also was to come home to a yard that had been beautified by our preschool family.   What a wonderful wonderful way to show us your love .  As we get older those bags of mulch get heavier and heavier so thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  It looks great!

While gone I read a book called ”  The Importance of Being Little .”  It challenged me as a teacher to look more closely at how I do things and why I do them. For the most part, for my peace of mind, I do feel like we are on the right track. I feel like our intentions and how we teach are what is right for children.  The book focuses on little children and what they REALLY NEED from us.  Through out the next few weeks I am going to feed you pieces of this book a little at a time to remind you why I teach the way I teach.

” It’s sobering to realize now many children go through preschool and kindergarten  without having the chance to exercise their deductive  muscles  through meandering  conversations with people they like and , instead, seem to subsist on a lean diet of passive instruction about inane subjects.  ” We all have goals in mind for that we want for our children.  We say we want them to learn all the social skills necessary to be functioning little humans  when they go to kindergarten yet when we get to the end of the year  we test them on 26 letters upper and lower case and counting and how they hold a pencil.  We get concerned if they don’t know all the letter sounds.  I struggle with this myself.  I think it is pride.  I know I, or my program, will be judged when a child enters a room and the teacher does an assessment.  But , but .. but…. They know so much more . Constantly throughout our classroom I listen as children navigate their own problems through conversation and reasoning.  I watch them as they pick up prisms and explore how light filters through them.  I offer support as they stack block after block outside to reach a high ” swinger ” branch and they beam after taking the risk and being successful.  I laugh as they tell jokes that literally make no sense at all but to them they are a comedian extraordinaire .  Relationships are what matter.

My relationship with them.

Their relationship with each other –

And maybe more importantly their relationship with themselves.  Self talk can build or break a person young or old.

This week as you have quiet time say a little prayer for me , for Dallas and for Randy that we can be the teachers your children need. Even more than that.. that we can be the people that they need in their lives during this time.  I know it’s hard to believe but children can almost teach themselves as long as they environment is set up for learning and the teachers are open to listening and being led.