Interested

Are you interested in the best way to keep a Kindergarten student on task during this time of year? Well it's funny because it is a method that never worked for me while teaching third grade. Maybe because the children were too old to care about such things or it was not cool for them to care. Either way this never worked. I happened to be in a teacher's classroom. One child was crying because she did not have a chance to complete an activity before it was time to switch centers. The teacher and students tried to ignore her and continue with their next center. She started to get louder and louder until she was screaming about it not being fair. The teacher did not say anything directly to the student; instead she went over to the list of things that they made telling Santa what they wanted. Then the teacher says in a calm voice, "I guess I'm going to have to tell Santa that 'Taylor' does not want that special toy that she said she wanted since she's crying and scream. Maybe I should call him on my cell phone now and let him know." In the time that it took the teacher to walk from the list over to grab her phone, the little girl stood up, stopped crying, and moved to her next center.

The lesson that I learned from this moment was that it not force that will make children mind an adult. Instead, it is finding something that they care about to make them listen. That child really cared about Santa coming to her house and bringing the things that she wanted. We are allowed to have corporal punishment as a consequence at our school. It has been nice that around this time of year I don't hear or see children crying and screaming down the hallway headed to the Principal's office. Instead, within each classroom is the simple reminder that one special night this month there is a possibility that if they are good enough they might just receive something that they hoped for.

Giving

It is that time of year where giving is on the minds of people. As I walked around school I started a list of things that I noticed people giving...

* time to talk

* books to share

* pictures of family

* advice about how to work with children

* meetings that help improve instruction

* taking a child that is lost to see the nurse

* copies of activities to try with their class

* time to conference with parents

This just proved that there is more than one way to give. Sometimes the giving of such things as time and advice are lost amongst the things that people can physically put in someone's hand. It was nice to have to take a moment and find those things that were given at our school that did not involve "gifts." Perhaps though the most important thing that was given was this very tall Christmas tree put up in the front of the library. It was completely awesome to walk past this tree each time a student was around. They stopped and stared with open mouths, and you could see the sparkle in their eyes. It was if they were at the actual North Pole visiting Santa Claus in person and not at school. One child was walking towards me as I passed the tree and he pointed and said Wow Wee Wow that's some tree. He stood beside it and looked up. He was so tiny next to such a large tree. He jumped as high as he could hoping to touch the top. It was perfect. In that moment he gave me the gift of joy. Sometimes we count down the days till school is out for winter break with grand enthusiasm and forget day to day wonderful moments. This child's enjoyment gave me a chance to reflect on my job and think about how much I love what I do. And, the tree brought him and other children joy as well. Who knew that something so small could mean so much.

Encouraging

Picture this- It is the first Monday back after a nice relaxing holiday week. The children are excited to be back and want to tell you everything that they did over break. They also need time to warm up their brains to get back into the swing of learning. So, as a teacher you try your hardest to focus their attention, contain their energy, and allow them to express their excitement. It is the typical first day back to school.

So, when the bell finally rings from a long, exhausting, but completely enjoyable day- you are ready to rush your little ones to their cars so that they can go home and rest as can you. Then you hear something outside your window. It is the sound of rain drops. In your hear you are starting to dread the rain because you have to take your children to the front of the school and wait outside - under a covered but still wet sidewalk -for their parents to come. Who could use a little encouragement to get through this type of day? EVERYONE!!!!

And, that is exactly what the principal committed to doing. He was outside with the rest of the staff and students waiting on cars to pick up children. He had is umbrella standing on the non-covered side opening and closing car doors. It meant something to the staff to not be alone outside on a day such as this one. The principal could have simply chosen to stay in his office and watch car pickups from his warm office. Instead, it was encouraging to see him in the trenches with the rest of the crew!

In my opinion it was a very great example of the NCATE standard of professionalism in that he was offering support and guidance in a simple yet effective way. I can learn from his example that sometimes it is not policies or words that effect people, but simple actions!

Concerned

I started putting together ideas for a power point that I would use for my mentor meeting. I found the following websites helpful in giving me ideas for what to include on the power point:
http://apps.mentoring.org/training/TMT/index.adp
http://www.mentoring.org/
http://www.middleweb.com/mentoring.html
http://www.opi.mt.gov/SpecED/Mentor/

As I admitted earlier I had hesitations about completing this project. I was concerned about not being informed enough in some ways to be able to train mentors properly. What I discovered from reading information on each of those sites was that the words that I have worked to define thus far were a connection to mentoring. Each word was a quality that a mentor needed to exhibit in order to be the best fit for the mentee.

I watched the following link on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzAcldp1LcQ&feature=related

It is a short clip about what not to do as a mentor. What is interesting about this clip is that the person portraying the role of mentor is more concerned about himself and what is important to him and less concerned about ways that he can help his mentee. When I explain the meaning of showing concern at the mentor training, I would like to think about this clip as an explanation.

Caring

"Feeling and exhibiting concern and empathy for others" (retrieved from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/caring).

That is the definition of caring as found on the web. The perfect example of that came today from such a great group of people to work with. Friday evening, my little girl started having breathing problems and we rushed her to the ER. They were completely wonderful working with her. It was such a blessing. They discovered that she had difficulty breathing because of the amount of congestion built up in her chest and nose. They gave us medicine and sent us home very reassured that things would get better.

Today we had a follow-up visit with her doctor to make sure things were going as they should. I decided to not go to work today and instead stay home and take care of her and make sure that she got to the doctor's office. I sent an email to the principal and all of the staff that I work with explaining what happened. I expected responses that said -"OK, that's fine" or "thanks for letting us know. But what I got was so much more. People told me they were praying for her, they hoped that she felt better, not to worry about being at school but to worry about my little girl, they told me to take care of her the best that I could that she was precious, that they understood how hard it could be to deal with situations like this, that they had similar experiences with their children and could relate, and that I could call to talk to them if I needed. How in the world did I get so blessed to be part of such a caring staff.

The NCATE indicator of professionalism suggest that it is the ability to develop positive relationships amongst students. I felt that if I remove the word students and think of this in terms of teachers or staff that I feel that I am making positive connections. For them to reach out to me with such kindness brought a smile to my face.

Consideration

Friday the principal called me into his office. He wanted to talk about our mentoring program at school. We have 7 new teachers and they each have a mentor. He had heard from an unnamed source that there might be a problem with our mentor program. When we started our conversation, I started to ask him questions about type of training and expectations of the program that were set for the mentors and mentees. He mentioned that the only training that each had received was at the start of the school year from Central Office. We did not personally complete any training at our school. He felt that we needed to back track and offer a training that could benefit both groups. He asked if I would like to be part of the process.

As I pondered the question, I took a deep breath, smiled big, and said sure I would love to help. But, inside I was thinking, please no not me I am already overwhelmed. (But who isn't). When I walked away (with heavy feet I might add) from his office, I headed to my working office room and started to think. In the process of thinking I realized that this provided me with the opportunity to put into action everything that I originally wanted to do with this project for the practicum. I wanted to build relationships, but became lost in the process because of some factors outside of my control. Then I started my life vocabulary lessons that have allowed me to see the great and wonderful things about our school. I kept thinking about ways that I could share my vocabulary life lessons in a meaningful way. The mentoring program would allow me to work in some of the wonderful things that are happening in my learning and build relationships.

So, the word for Friday was consideration. It turned out to be the perfect word for such a day. I was considerate in listening to the principal about his need for help. He was considerate for considering me for the person who could help with this project. I can now consider how as I grow in my personal learning experiences and social experiment to build relationships from the bottom up how that can effect and help others.

“Optimism is "an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome".[1] It is the philosophical opposite of pessimism. Optimists generally believe that people and events are inherently good, so that most situations work out in the end for the best.” (Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism November 19, 2009)

I would love to tell you with optimism that the child in the picture showed the same favorable desire to work with me today as he did running from our small group to join his class outside, but he did not.

I had to pull him away from his social time on the playground to work with him. He tried to hide behind the rock climbing wall and when that did work, he pretended he didn’t hear me call his name. My heart just about broke because I enjoy working with this child. I get to pull him one-on-one. He is a quiet child and if you did not have the chance to get him by himself then you would miss that he has important thoughts in his head. He is also very quiet smart, which means that people tend to not realize just how much he knows because he sits back and stares at things or does not seem to pay attention.

So, he came (not with much optimism on his part that he would enjoy our learning time) and sat down. We started practicing our letters, syllables, and letter sounds. Eventually he really started to enjoy the lesson. He quickly forgot about the children playing outside and worked just as hard as if I had pulled him from his least favorite activity.

In working with him my belief in optimism was renewed. I could have easily told myself to leave him on the playground and skip our lesson today. That would have been a pessimistic attitude setting in to believe that he could not adapt and move forward. I am glad to that I had this experience today because it brought forth this idea that I need to approach my day with a little more glee. I might not always be where I want to be when I want to be there or sometimes I might even be pulled to go somewhere I do not want to go. Regardless to that, there are good things that can come out of the things that we do not necessarily want to do if we give it a try.