Comforting

This is the last vocabulary life lesson that I will use on this blog. It has been a terrific journey to find uses for these words everyday at school. Where do I go from here? Well these words have helped me to love my job and find enjoyment in what I do each day. These words have also brought me a deeper understanding of ways that I can reach out in little ways to build communication with adults and students.

As I mentioned on a previous blog, I started this project in hopes of building staff relationships throughout the entire building. But found that was a challenge that I was not successful at achieving. Instead, I had to focus my attention inward to what I could and could not control. As I started to focus on one word a day, I started to find ways to communicate with people. I started to find ways to listen, respect, and enjoy others. It helped me become a better person.

Now, with this wealth of knowledge that I have acquired over time, I can help build a stronger mentoring program at our school. The language of the words that I have discovered along the way are insightful.

Curious

In our school building you can walk into any classroom and see children curious to learn. I love reading time the most because you see children working in small groups. They seemed to be more engaged as they work in their groups.

In one classroom, I walked in and the children were sitting on the floor working on reading activities. I could tell which children were curious and wanted to complete their activity and which were not involved in learning. But, for the most part they were all very into their activities.

Inspirational

Have you ever taught a lesson and wondered what just happened? You thought you were doing the best job ever and then you look up and look into the faces of those who just did not understand. Now that I pull small groups it is even more apparent when my children do not understand the lesson. Well there is this one boy that I worked with constantly on letters. We cannot seem to get past L and R. Everyday we work on one letter until I think that we get it. Then the next day I ask him the name of the letter and he cannot tell me.

Well as we were going through our normal dance routine of what letter is this, he had a moment. He looked for a few seconds and gave a heavy sigh and then, said the letter. That was a truly inspirational moment for me. I showed him another card and he was able to do that one too. I could not believe how the letters just started to fall out of his mouth. I wish I could tell that he knew them all, but he was only able to give me 8, which was better than the 2 he previously knew. I was proud of him. He was proud of himself. It was a great moment for both of us. Maybe as we continue he will learn a few more letter and more still until he learns them all.

Support

When you have the type of flexibility that I do, then you are able to be in and out of each classroom. Therefore, as I am hearing and seeing different things that arise, I have time to offer advice and other ideas. One teacher came to me saying that she is worried about one of the students that I pull. Apparently this student has some autistic tendencies. She asked if I would sit down with her and complete a behavior checklist of concerns.

I found myself torn. Part of me wanted to help support her and part of me feared that we were classifying this child without the proper ability to be able to do so. Therefore, I reached out to someone who could support me. She is our preschool special education specialist. She has a wealth of knowledge about working with children who require special attention. When I went to talk with her, she told me that at this age most children tend to display autistic tendencies. And, more so now than ever because the checklist of autism increases every year. She suggested that instead of the teacher and myself sitting down to just list which behaviors the student exhibited that were autistic, that we instead list the behaviors and chart when he does them, why, and what the teacher's response was. She further suggested that we try different strategies to fix those behaviors- explaining that if the behaviors could be fixed then that would give more insight into if her were autistic or not.

Her suggestions and support made me feel better and when I talked with the teacher she agreed. It was nice that we were trying to solve the problems without skipping to the step of diagnosing that there was a real problem.

Eager

Do you know what a Smartboard is? It is a technological invention that allows you to project computer images on a large screen. Already been done you say? Well with a Smartboard, people can touch the board so that it becomes an interactive technology tool. It is really great to have one in the classroom. It allows for every child to have access to the lesson being taught and to participate with technology in a more hands-on way. The following link will take you to a demonstration of how to use a Smartboard:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqmrIqWQiAw








Today I walked into two classrooms and saw them using their Smartboard. One class was working on sight words and circling the sight words that the teacher called out. The other class was connected to the Internet visiting a website that allowed them to practice their letters. Wow! I can truly tell you that in each class the children were very eager to learn. It was refreshing watching such high levels of student engagement and motivation. One of the most remarkable events was that the students were very patient awaiting their turn and watched intently as other took a turn. It is not everyday that you can wait for a group of Kindergarten students to wait patiently.






Each child's eager face made me reflect on several of the NCATE indicators:



learning environment- those two teacher were providing a safe and stimulating learning environment for their children by doing something just a little different



assessment- it was great to have immediate and visual feedback for what students understood during the lesson



technology- they were not at individual computers but were provided a tool that could allow for whole group work







Overall, they were great lessons to watch. I have used Smartboards with older students, but never knew that Kindergarten students would becomes so involved in using them.

Delighted

We have a great maintenance staff at our school. They are friendly to everyone especially the children. One of the ladies that works with us always takes a few moments to come to my room and check on me and chat about the day. It makes you feel great knowing that people are there to take care of you. The vocabulary word - delighted- can easily describe how they feel about working at the school.

I can remember one of the men who helps to keep our school clean working on the glass doors and windows. He was scrubbing finger prints off the doors where lots of tiny hands had touched. I said to him, I bet you have to do that so often many times a day. He remarked that he did but that it was worth it to see such sweet small hand prints on the glass. I have been at schools where that same conversation would have gone in a different direction. There would have been a lot of complaining about children touching things and the need for teachers to control them. It is nice to have a group of people who really understand how kindergarten students are.

On Friday, they were also delighted to add additional holiday decorations around the school. Three of the five maintenance workers were in the hallways hanging Santa dolls, blowing up a sponge bob Santa, and placing snowmen around the school. I could see in their faces that they were really enjoying their job. When I asked them about what they were doing, they said they were bringing Christmas joy to the little ones. They were just as delighted to do that as the children were delighted to see all of the fixtures in the hallway.

Encouragement and Confidence

A first year teacher whom I usually talk to daily came to me about feeling overwhelmed. She has a student in her class who has anxiety. There isn't a clear defined thing that sets him off. Instead, he happens to just have moments where he goes into fits of crying, screaming, and/ or completely shuts down and can not function. As she walked him out to his car, she talked with his mother about setting up a conference. His mom panicked and started to cry saying that she thought this were getting better. Her reaction completely dismayed the teacher, who lost her confidence in herself. She felt that she had upset the parent and maybe even harmed the student's chances of being successful.



I gave her words of encouragement and tried to help her feel better about being such a good advocate for this child. But I could still tell from the look on her face that she still did not have confidence in herself. So, I sent her an email that had a link to a confidence website and a poem about encouragement. The next day that I saw her she said it meant a lot that I took the time to think about her problem and found solutions for how to help her. We also brainstormed some ideas together about things that she could try to help that child cope in the classroom. We also reached out to other teachers that could help her. As I was working to build her confidence, I noticed that I was also working on mine. It is a great responsibility to be able to help someone. It is also very rewarding to help someone who really needs it. It does not happen everyday that you can reach out and help people; so when someone came to me because they believed that I was able to help that made me feel better. It made me feel confident.

This website takes you to the page that I sent her:
http://www.mindtools.com/selfconf.html

This the poem that I sent:
Anonymous Encouragement Poem:
"When things go wrong as they sometimes will,When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,When the funds are low and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,When care is pressing you down a bit,Rest if you must, but don't you quit.Life is queer with its twists and turns,As every one of us sometimes learns,And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;Don't give up though the pace seems slow--You may succeed with another blow,Success is failure turned inside out--The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,And you never can tell how close you are,It may be near when it seems so far;So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--It's when things seem worst that you must not quit."~ Unknown
http://www.inspirationalspark.com/encouragement-quotes.html