Sunday's Lullabies

This is just a short glimpse into what I did on Monday for my second observed lesson. My advisor came to observed me and basically grade me on the way I teach, interact with the children and how I work with the class management.

On Monday, I introduce the children to the Thanksgiving week, by teaching them five "tier 3" sight words related to the topic. The vocabulary words used were : Thanksgiving, Pilgrims, Native Americans, Feast, and Harvest. The chosen words were part of the book I read, Thanksgiving Day Thanks by Laura Malone Elliot and Lynn Munsinger.



During the pre-assessment, I was able to learn about the students' previous knowledge of Thanksgiving and implement educational objectives for which the children had to recall information from experience or familiar topic to answer the questions and speak audibly to express their thoughts, feeling and ideas about the topic. Some children were aware of words such as; Thanksgiving and Harvest, but most didn't know about the other words. These vocabulary words were explained during the read aloud by showing pictures. The sight words were reviewed and read aloud at the end of the lesson for a summative assessment and better comprehension.

(This happened on the week of Oct.24 . I have been so busy that I haven't had the time to publish this post.) 

Today, I introduced the color white by reading Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by James Dean & Eric Litwin and singing the white song. It was a success from the song to the book,  the children were laughing and singing along, I tried to make the lesson as fun as possible by adding movement. During the reading, I did my best by singing the song in the book and although the children thought it was silly they truly enjoyed and laughed every time I sang it. The afternoon class even sang it with me and later throughout the day. I felt both happy and excited that they liked the lesson and learned from our small story sequencing activity and measuring activity, the children measured their lunch bags and other toys during snack and center time, which served as an assessment for myself and the students as I knew that they understood what was taught.

Nothing makes you feel better than when a lesson goes as plan and when the children truly get and understand what you have taught and hear them talking about it during snack time and center time or even singing the silly song you made up to go with the book, it made me so happy and honor to be part of this class and have these children. This is a short conversation that I had with one of the students at the beginning of the day, that really marked the whole day for me and it's amazing what preschoolers do to you. Their smile, appreciation, and excitement to learn new things really fills you up and pushes you to create better lessons and activities that can motivate and create new experiences for them.



He smiled at me, such a sincere smile from a boy who is full of energy and knowledge at such a young age. They truly are my first class, I have come to love their mismatch personalities and made-up stories that sometimes doesn't make any sense but cracks you up. These children are exceptional and they tried their best in their own way. And, just like them, I have to try my best all the time to teach them, motivate them, inspire them, and create new experiences for them.

(This happened on the week of Oct.17 . I have been so busy that I haven't had the time to publish this post.) 

Today I felt like the first day again, in the sense of teaching the lesson. I was tired and nervous and not prepared to take the challenge of teaching the lesson. I wasn't aware of how important learning preschool songs was, I mean I knew these songs, but at the same time I didn't and I felt discouraged by it. Ms. L asked me to do the routine with the children and although I have been observing her for four weeks now and knew the routine and what to do, I froze and forgot what I was supposed to do. I felt discouraged by the fact that I couldn't do a simple task like that and felt that Ms. L was a bit disappointed. In the afternoon, it was a bit better, but I couldn't sing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song or read the book using the rhyme of the song either. I did ask the children to help me out and they were surprisingly happy to do so and that made me feel grateful to them, but I know that I need to prepare myself before I do  my student teaching experience. I'm not there to only observe but to also take charge of my performance as a future educator and learn from my mistakes, and I sure did learn from today's experience. I think that teaching involves more than loving to teach children, you need to know your content and feel confident. It's alright if once in a while you need to ask for help, even if has to be from your own children. If there is something that I learned today is that they are willing to help out and even excited to do so.
Although I felt discouraged and insecure, I learned that to be a better teacher, you must first evaluate yourself based on your performance and knowledge and then create a plan to deal with this and change or create a strategy to make the experience a learning one for both the students and yourself.