Here Comes Peter Cottontail

   
     Does anyone remember the song "Here Comes Peter Cottontail"? You know "Here comes Peter Cottontail, hoppin' down the bunny trail. Hippity hoppity Easter's on its way. Bringing lots of boys and girls, baskets full of Easter joy..." Congrats. Now it's stuck in your head. I love Easter. It's one of my favorite times of the year. I love celebrating our Lord and Savior's death and resurrection. I love the colors and the excitement of the Easter bunny coming! (Why yes, the Easter bunny still comes and visits me :))
     There's no better way to start the Easter season than by watching the children at my church performing their musical, "Hallelujah, What a Savior!". It was the most precious thing I have seen in a long time. You could absolutely feel God's presence. There just isn't a better way of hearing the Easter story.
     What I was most impressed with was there learning. One of the ladies at my church does dance and sign language. I admire her for her sweet and loving spirit, and most of all her love of God. She taught the children, ages 3-11, the songs and motions to perform. The cutest little girl down front, and the youngest, was singing her little heart out! She knew every sign and every word. I thought about how cool it was that she just ran with it! I sat in awe as she was praising God. If you start a child out young enough, you can teach them anything. We have that capability as teachers, to help them be the best people they can be. It may seem simple, but when you have a small child in your class, or even in your presence, it's important to help them to become better people. I won't have the privilege of teaching elementary school, but by the time they get to my classroom, I will expect a lot out of them.
     We've been learning about teacher expectation in one of my classes. It's important that we do expect a lot out of our students. ALL of our students. Not just the already high achieving ones. Everyone needs that fair chance to succeed. If we act as if they're all little, and all mold-able, then we give them equal opportunities. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying treat them as if they are little, I'm saying give them all an equal playing field, a clean slate. Give everyone the same leadership opportunities, the same responsibilities. It's easy to give the good students all of that, but if we do that, what makes the others want to achieve. We have to encourage and support!
     Challenge: How can we, as teachers, give the support that students need? How can we make make sure that we support ALL students equally?

Happy Easter!!

Look Ma! No Adjectives!

A friend of mine posted this on her Facebook, and I found it so incredibly fascinating. (Wow this lady would NOT like me :)) Go read and see what you think of her ideas!

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004270.html

I get where she's coming from. Kind of. I mean it's wrong to "judge" people. However, how boring would life be without adjectives?? Just a little food for thought. : )

Grown-Ups and Sight Words

     For my very first post, I couldn't think of a better subject than my best friend's son, Wyatt. He's my favorite 6 year old in the WHOLE world. He asked me the other day with big eyes as he was eating his lunch, "P?" (He calls me P and has since he was old enough to talk : )) He said, "P? Am I your only boyfriend?" I said, "Why yes darling for now." He always makes me laugh. Later on that day we had a discussion.

‎"P? How old are you?"--Wyatt
"I'm 19..."--me
"You're almost grown up."
"How old do you have to be when you're grown up?"
"20."
..."P? How old are you gonna be when are you get married? 30?"
"I don't know baby..."
"Who are you gonna marry?"
"Well that's a good question."
"Well I'm not getting married til I'm 30."

As cute as his 6 year old questions are, it got me thinking. What really makes you grown up? I mean gets who decides how old, old is? 

Wyatt was given an award a couple of weeks ago for knowing 100 sight words. Now I was totally confused when he told me this. I was like, "What is a sight word and how do you know them??" Haha well after his mom explained it, I was like oh, ok. He had to know a list of 100 words, and be able to recognize them on the spot. I was so proud that he knew ALL of them! It just confirmed that he would forever more receive books from me on his birthday (don't worry, he always get something cool too). 

I got to thinking. It's awesome that teachers now begin in kindergarten teaching kids to be better readers. It's so important that they get that good foundation early on. I don't know how many people I come across everyday that don't like to read, because they aren't good at it. I don't just mean it bores them. They struggle with it. What if we taught kids to love it? What if we showed them what books could do for them? Who says we can't? 

It's a hard task. I mean we have to compete with cell phones, Facebook, T.V., and a million other things. 

Challenge: What can YOU do as a teacher to help you students love to read? 

 This is one of my favorite pictures of Wyatt! : )

"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter..."-- Mark Twain