New Beginnings

I am so excited to be in the elementary classroom once again! Seeing them playing outside at recess and having a few of them always want to run up to say hi really made me realize how much I missed them. Even though they can be frustrating, it is so rewarding to realize how much of a relationship I have built with some of these children. After not seeing them for almost a month and still be able to slide back into that role shows me how much of a relationship I do have with these children.

My goals for this semester are fairly similar to last, except this time I truly want to advance myself. I want to be able to 1) use language that children understand, 2) learn how to be more patient with children, and, primarily, 3) I want to learn how to discipline a child without being harsh. An example for each of these are: 1) I did a lesson last semester about the northern lights in the preschool. During it, I had trouble explaining science in a way that they could understand, and I don’t want to make that mistake again; 2) I understand that children make mistakes or don’t understand, but I am fairly quick to get a little heated when children do not listen to what I’m saying when I am trying to teach them something; 3) when I see the elementary boys running around I tend to ‘yell’ at them to stop running, rather than stopping them and asking them to walk.

These goals are all something that I want to develop over my college career, and I think that this class could be a great place to start. I am excited to see how the book ‘Choice Words’ will help me, and that we are doing more of an independent class, which I think will benefit me more than a more lecture-focused course.