Is Anyone Out There?

Ahhhh, the dog days of summer. Time to relax. Time to break away from the hustle and bustle of the daily life of a busy classroom. It is well enjoyed but I actually get bored quickly! I find myself wondering what my kids are doing and wishing I could take them to the beach with me! I’ll never forget Peanut when I took her… “Miss Joyce, how did you make this pool so big?!” She was referring to the ocean, like I made it myself! I always had a little pool on our front porch of our row home in Northeast Philadelphia that we all played in.

Try to imagine babysitting 25 eight year olds, then showing them how to love reading, writing and math, enough so they want to try it all on their own. That, is my philosophy on teaching. In a nutshell. Oh yeah, now imagine someone watching you and taking notes on what you’re doing wrong, or how to improve.

It is hard, since every child has already formed their own impression of it all. If they can’t do it and get frustrated, they hate it and don’t feel like failing again. It’s my job to get around that and find the one thing that they can do and take it from there. That is what I do. It’s my passion, it’s my job. That is the one reason I keep going. I need to find that switch in each little human in the making.

What people don’t understand about teaching is the mental anguish. It’s literally like you are on stage, being watched, so you better get it right! How about that one kid that just doesn’t want to hear you, he/she doesn’t like you because you are always telling them what to do! Jeez! Can’t she just leave me alone? I have to work past that and keep searching for that switch… where is it? I know I saw it somewhere… While you are still trying to keep their interest on what point and standard you are trying to communicate!

Anyway, just missing my kids. I’ll make centers or read a book to share with them, or maybe even do some lesson plans for the first week of school.

Thank you to my wonderful husband who gave me this idea today, who puts up with my ups and downs…