Lately we’ve been doing positive affirmations before school because I started my new practicum placement and anxiety like a MOFO. So I NEEDED us to both have amazing days especially since he’s been missing his class buddy.
My anxiety was misplaced because my practicum teacher is AMAZING. Her students are awesome 👏🏾 and there is one little guy in particular who just zoned in on me right away. I am discovering that I get more out of hands on practicums. So far, I’ve helped/practiced doing minor assessments, led a group word counting activity, supervised three phonetics puzzle groups and assisted two students with staying on task(won’t say more for privacy reasons). I am having a ball.
Her class is really interactive and it flows. It’s not chaotic like preschool classrooms but it’s not ridgidly structured like some kinder classes I’ve seen. Her students clearly LOVE her and respect her because they don’t misbehave. If they even sense she’s disappointed they come clean and correct their bad choices.
Even when the students are doing their table work their is some type of background song to go along with it. For example today they were working on the sight word “and” so there was a cute song about the word “and” playing on the overhead thingy.
I also got to go to art class with them too. The art teacher was just as nice. They learned how to properly use paint brushes and started painting a watercolor rainbow. In each class, the objectives are clearly displayed and labeled. The rules are clearly illustrated for the kids to see(and consistent in all classes). I think it makes for productive classes.
And here’s the kicker, not once have I seen a teacher raise their voice or use an angry/agitated tone with a student. 😳 They are always super calm and mellow. I’ve seen teachers from two other classes not including the ones I mentioned and everyone is always super cheerful. I LOVE IT.
That vibe is really allowing me to BE GREAT and learn a lot. I’m so greatful to have favor because this is really an amazing opportunity.
Final thoughts: The Quote below was in a book I read to Ezra tonight called “ A sweet smell of roses” by Angela Johnson. It really is a great way to start the conversation with small kids on freedom, equality and race. Plus REPRESENTATION MATTERS.
Quote: “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streetseven as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
- Martin Luther King Jr
