I almost feel as if every single day, I learn more from being around children than I ever have being around anybody else. Today was just one of many days where I really had to take a step back and really assess how I try to solve life's problems. Thought this was a great learning lesson for me and I hope it can bring a smile to your face, it sure did for me :D
Today as I was picking up my second group of kids from their half day kindergarten class, the three kids that I picked up were all trying to get into the van. A boy and a girl were starting to get into an argument because they wanted to get into the van first, and they just couldn't come to an agreement. The third child, a girl, started to get annoyed and told them, "You guys are always fighting! Just get into the van!"
As we all piled into the van, the two kids now argued about something different. The first girl was arguing with the boy about a time when she had yelled at him because he wasn't listening to her, while the boy was telling the girl that it was actually the day before yesterday, which once again (*sigh*) CAUSED ANOTHER ARGUMENT... :/
Well, the third girl started to take initiative by stating to the other girl, "Since you guys keep arguing, I decided I don't want to play with you because you're not being nice to one another." This immediately made the girl upset and said that she really wanted to play with her. So, in order to get her to have the opportunity to play she said that the BOTH had to apologize to one another. The boy started by saying, "I'm sorry." The ringleader (the girl NOT in the argument) said that he wasn't being specific enough, so the boy emphasized by saying, "I'm sorry that I yelled at you."
The other girl said, "Thank you," and then said, "I'm sorry too for arguing with you." To finish off the compromise, the ringleader said that when you guys start arguing, you guys need to talk about what they are upset about first before they start arguing again. And if that doesn't work, then they need to apologize, which is exactly what happened. To finally end this, she stated, "See, now you guys can be nice to each other again and now I can play with you both!"
In all honesty, this is kind of my recollection of what happened today, so it isn't completely accurate ;). But it really put a smile on my face, and helped me to realize how fortunate I am to learn just as much from children as I try to teach them.
*ON A SIDE NOTE!*
I think my storytelling skills are improving because today I was trying to read a book to a few children (four to five years old), and they were very interested into what I was reading. The group was fairly large about 17 kids, and I first started off with about 5 kids, which wasn't bad at all considering the rest of the children were quietly reading to themselves. As the story started to pick up, more children started to come to the group and were interested in hearing the story. In about 5 minutes, I had the whole group around wanting to hear the story! I was even able to get through two picture books without too much problems, except the children kept insisting that they couldn't see the book, which was obviously wrong because the were RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME :P!
Just though I'd share a little bit of joy into each of your lives so hopefully you too can find something to smile about :)!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013
Spreading the Word!
Oh boy, the day that I had planned for through the Academy, which is the NAEYC conference. I can't say that I'm not a little bit nervous, but I do feel as if this is an opportunity that I feel is something that I can truly learn a lot from. I'm so sorry for not keeping up with the posts by any means, it's sort of embarrassing, but the idea of maintaining a blog while trying to be a worker and a student has truly started to take it's toll on my life! (BLAH...)
Anyways, I am hoping to explain to others about the purpose of my project and hopefully others who are interested in what I have to say can help me further my idea and hopefully spread the word of what I'm trying to do. I'm certain my male presence will be enough to draw attention to my project so me being there will give me plenty of ideas and opportunities that I know will be greatly beneficial to helping others know of what I'm doing.
With my path to becoming a teacher being more clear the closer I get, it starts to dawn on me that I am going to have a lot of responsibility in terms of what I have to prepare for. It seems a bit overwhelming with all my teachers telling us how difficult our first year as teachers is going to be, especially in terms of literacy and other core areas, but I'm hoping with the group of children I'm going to teach *cough* *kindergarteners* :), it won't be as bad, but I guess only time will tell! More on that to come, for sure!
Before I end this post and try to calm down this paranoia, I'll end it with on a happy note!
A few days ago, I was dropping off one of the little girls to her kindergarten class, and at times, she can be a little rambunctious in the mornings. The lead teacher started to notice this and told her that while she walks to the vans, she has to hold my hand so she doesn't venture off. The little girl made sure to tell me, and grabbed my hand and explained to me that because she runs around all the time, she has to hold my hand because she was instructed to. I was totally fine with that, so I followed along. We're in the van now, and she asks me a question that I wasn't really able to hear very well, so I didn't really pay a ton of attention to it. When we finally got to the school, I ask her, "What were you trying to ask me exactly?" She asked me, "Is Ms. So and So here (Ms. So and So being the lead teacher that instructed her to hold my hand). I asked her for further explanation, and she said, "If she's not here at the school then, I don't have to hold your hand anymore." I looked at her and laughed and said, "If you don't want to hold my hand, you don't have to anymore then." She was ecstatic with that response, and jumped out and ran to her classroom. Kids will be kids, I guess :D!
Blessings to each one of you!
Anyways, I am hoping to explain to others about the purpose of my project and hopefully others who are interested in what I have to say can help me further my idea and hopefully spread the word of what I'm trying to do. I'm certain my male presence will be enough to draw attention to my project so me being there will give me plenty of ideas and opportunities that I know will be greatly beneficial to helping others know of what I'm doing.
With my path to becoming a teacher being more clear the closer I get, it starts to dawn on me that I am going to have a lot of responsibility in terms of what I have to prepare for. It seems a bit overwhelming with all my teachers telling us how difficult our first year as teachers is going to be, especially in terms of literacy and other core areas, but I'm hoping with the group of children I'm going to teach *cough* *kindergarteners* :), it won't be as bad, but I guess only time will tell! More on that to come, for sure!
Before I end this post and try to calm down this paranoia, I'll end it with on a happy note!
A few days ago, I was dropping off one of the little girls to her kindergarten class, and at times, she can be a little rambunctious in the mornings. The lead teacher started to notice this and told her that while she walks to the vans, she has to hold my hand so she doesn't venture off. The little girl made sure to tell me, and grabbed my hand and explained to me that because she runs around all the time, she has to hold my hand because she was instructed to. I was totally fine with that, so I followed along. We're in the van now, and she asks me a question that I wasn't really able to hear very well, so I didn't really pay a ton of attention to it. When we finally got to the school, I ask her, "What were you trying to ask me exactly?" She asked me, "Is Ms. So and So here (Ms. So and So being the lead teacher that instructed her to hold my hand). I asked her for further explanation, and she said, "If she's not here at the school then, I don't have to hold your hand anymore." I looked at her and laughed and said, "If you don't want to hold my hand, you don't have to anymore then." She was ecstatic with that response, and jumped out and ran to her classroom. Kids will be kids, I guess :D!
Blessings to each one of you!
Thursday, January 10, 2013
The Introduction: Where It All Starts!
Ah...the start of a new year, and the attempt at maintaining a blog! I honestly have no idea how long I will be able to maintain this blog once school starts, but at least I could say that I gave it a try right? For some reason, I have always wanted to write about my daily happenings, or at least interesting little tidbits that occur in my life, but I just seem to be too lazy to really make it official. So, with this blog, hopefully it will drive me to continue to update those who wish to know about me and the interesting life that I continue to live on a daily basis.
One of the reasons that I have started to write this blog is that I am currently part of this Leadership Academy, which is an organization that helps to create leaders within the field of early childhood education. What makes my involvement with not only this Leadership Academy, but within this very field, is the overwhelming discrepancy there is as a male. Honestly, I have no real idea as to why I joined the leadership academy, and even to this day, I still try to figure out why I joined. As I continue down the path that I have taken, and gone through the experiences that I have within this profession, I have to say, I really do love what I do. Being a male in the field of early childhood education brings about so many perks that many other professions could never have. I get to play as my job; who can honestly say they do that for a living? It may not be glamorous, but at least I know that I am making a difference (or at least I hope I am) in somebody's life!
Now, on to the reason I brought up the Leadership Academy. We are required to come up with a project that we create ourselves, and it can be on any given topic that is related to making strides in the early childhood field. Interestingly enough, I had always wanted to bring about more awareness of male involvement in the field of early childhood, and as I got to thinking about it more, I decided that my project would revolve around bringing about more male involvement and awareness within the field of early childhood education.
Just to give each one of you an idea of the craziness of being a male in this woman dominated field is that within this field alone, the population of males that works in this profession only constitutes about 5% or lower!! With the trend that continues for this field, this number continues to stay consistent or reach the lower. Personally, it really doesn't surprise me that many males decide not to pursue early childhood because males who decide to choose early childhood education as their profession may be seen as "weak" or "gay" or "feminine." It is really sad that this number continues to be so low, and as I continue to work within this field, I see that there is a HUGE need for males in this field! As I write this blog, I want to give each one of you the opportunity to realize that most children who are part of the early childhood age group may never have had the male influence in their lives. Since women are so heavily dominant in this field, when children see a male figure come into the setting, they immediately gravitate towards the male because of the lack of male involvement in this field. This is why I feel it is so important for my project to not only help those understand why I believe this to be of such great importance, but to help males who have no idea what to do with their lives and to possibly suggest that they could choose a profession in where they can truly make an impact in a child's or individuals' life.
If you have taken the time to read this blog, I thank you for reading this! This is the start of what I hope can give each individual an awareness of an issue I believe needs to be addressed. If you are involved in early childhood and understand what I am talking about, please let others know of my project and I would love to discuss more in depth of why I am doing what I am doing! Hopefully my blog will plant the seed, and hopefully it will continue to grow and spread to others who wish to know more about my project!
LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN!
One of the reasons that I have started to write this blog is that I am currently part of this Leadership Academy, which is an organization that helps to create leaders within the field of early childhood education. What makes my involvement with not only this Leadership Academy, but within this very field, is the overwhelming discrepancy there is as a male. Honestly, I have no real idea as to why I joined the leadership academy, and even to this day, I still try to figure out why I joined. As I continue down the path that I have taken, and gone through the experiences that I have within this profession, I have to say, I really do love what I do. Being a male in the field of early childhood education brings about so many perks that many other professions could never have. I get to play as my job; who can honestly say they do that for a living? It may not be glamorous, but at least I know that I am making a difference (or at least I hope I am) in somebody's life!
Now, on to the reason I brought up the Leadership Academy. We are required to come up with a project that we create ourselves, and it can be on any given topic that is related to making strides in the early childhood field. Interestingly enough, I had always wanted to bring about more awareness of male involvement in the field of early childhood, and as I got to thinking about it more, I decided that my project would revolve around bringing about more male involvement and awareness within the field of early childhood education.
Just to give each one of you an idea of the craziness of being a male in this woman dominated field is that within this field alone, the population of males that works in this profession only constitutes about 5% or lower!! With the trend that continues for this field, this number continues to stay consistent or reach the lower. Personally, it really doesn't surprise me that many males decide not to pursue early childhood because males who decide to choose early childhood education as their profession may be seen as "weak" or "gay" or "feminine." It is really sad that this number continues to be so low, and as I continue to work within this field, I see that there is a HUGE need for males in this field! As I write this blog, I want to give each one of you the opportunity to realize that most children who are part of the early childhood age group may never have had the male influence in their lives. Since women are so heavily dominant in this field, when children see a male figure come into the setting, they immediately gravitate towards the male because of the lack of male involvement in this field. This is why I feel it is so important for my project to not only help those understand why I believe this to be of such great importance, but to help males who have no idea what to do with their lives and to possibly suggest that they could choose a profession in where they can truly make an impact in a child's or individuals' life.
If you have taken the time to read this blog, I thank you for reading this! This is the start of what I hope can give each individual an awareness of an issue I believe needs to be addressed. If you are involved in early childhood and understand what I am talking about, please let others know of my project and I would love to discuss more in depth of why I am doing what I am doing! Hopefully my blog will plant the seed, and hopefully it will continue to grow and spread to others who wish to know more about my project!
LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN!
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