Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Help

I've always worked with toddlers (age 1-2). I love this age; they are funny, sweet and they change so much! This is the year children start to talk, so a lot of the day is teaching them how to communicate and use words properly. When children don't know the word to express themselves they will typically scream. This has always been a sort of pet peeve of mine so I spend a lot of the day teaching children to use their words. Other than 'No' I believe the most important word in a child's vocabulary is 'help'.

When a child brings me a container of crayons to open, or their jacket I always say, "help me, help me," then I open the container or put the jacket on or whatever the situation is that causes a child to need help. I had one little boy who every time he wanted a particular toy that was hanging on a hook, he would go over to it, put his hand on it, wave and move it around and scream. My co-teacher and I would always go over to him and say, "say help me or help please," then get the toy for him. One day his dad came in to drop him off and asked me if we had taught him to say 'help.' I explained to him what he did with the toy and how we would encourage him to say 'help.' The dad said thank you and told me how the child had been saying it at home and how it made things a lot easier.

For some reason as we get older we stop asking for help whether it be because of pride, we're taught not to ask for it or our need to be independent. However, I believe it's always all right to ask for help. There will always be times when we need help because there will always be things that take more than one person to do or more explanation is needed in order to understand something. My own child as she has gone through school has had teachers who get mad if help is asked for. They seem to have somewhere along the way forgotten about the teach part of teacher and that asking for help is part of a child's job in order to learn. I have always taught the children that I work with to say 'help me,' or 'help please,' because I think this is a self-help skill that will help children accomplish many things in life and one that is important that they have.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Arrogance

I've worked with two people whom have acted like they are the ones who hold the walls of the center up. One of them spent more time up front in the foyer area of the center talking to the director and assistant director than in the classroom. She did this because she was one of those people who needed to always know what was going on and have it look like she knew things others didn't and have it look like she was so close to the administration that she was the only one whom they would tell things to. She also did this so that she could 'tell them what to do.' She would always speak really loudly just after she had been up front and say things like, "Yeah so I told the director that this is what they should do about that problem, or it was my idea that
(fill in the blank.)

This co-worker hardly ever took a day off because "her room would fall apart without her." She would always talk loudly about how if she ever left, the administration wouldn't know what to do and how they were always asking her to stay, yet constantly declared how she was going to go work for the public school system and how much better it was.

One day her arrogance caught up with her. A substitute came to work in the classroom that was the age group just above the one she taught. She had two little children that came with her, one of which was placed in this co-workers room.  In her need to control things and prove what a 'good' teacher she was she reached out grabbing this child by the arm and leaving a bruise and it also popped out of place. The substitute left the center early that day and took her child to the ER. Then lets just say the building continued to stand.

FYI- Everyone is replaceable!

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

What did she say?

One day I was putting the children in my classroom down for nap. I had put a little girl who wouldn't go to sleep unless you sat beside her and patted her to sleep on her cot and told her I'd be right back.  I then went over to another child and laid them down and went to put his blanket on him when I noticed the little girl had gotten off her cot and was standing beside me. I said, "Go sit on your cot and I'll be there in a minute." I then went to put the blanket on the child when I heard, "NO!" I stood all the way up (I had been leaning over the child's cot to help settle him on it) and  looked at her. I then looked at my co-teacher and asked, "Did she just tell me no?" My co-teacher nodded and said, "Yup!" then hid her laughter.
I put the blanket on the other child then took her to her cot and laid her down on it and patted her to sleep.

When she was asleep I got up to help clean up lunch. I was still in shock that she had told me 'no'  and looked at my co-teacher and said, "I can't believe she just told me 'no'. I didn't know whether to get mad at her or how to react to it."
co-teacher- "I know. You should have seen your face." She started laughing again.
me- "Co-teacher she told me 'no'!"
co-teacher nodded and laughed. This made me finally start to laugh because on a certain level, it was funny.

I've worked with people who don't think it's appropriate for a child to tell them 'no' and some have even gotten in the child's face and told them not to tell them 'no'. "You don't tell your teacher 'no," they say. I on the other hand think it's ok for a child to tell an adult 'no.' Not all the time, but in certain situations I think it's ok for a child to tell an adult 'no.' I think it's the most important word in anybody's vocabulary but particularly a child's. Adult's will tell children to do things that are wrong and we all know adults do things to children that are wrong and it's ok to tell them 'no' and I think children need to be taught when it's appropriate to tell an adult 'no.'

Many disagree with me, but it is my opinion that in certain situations it's ok for a child to say 'no.' I think children should be listened to and it bothers me when adults think dealing with children is all about 'I'm the adult and your the child, so you have to do what I say,' because it's not. People who think this is what dealing with children means don't know what it means to deal with children (in my opinion.) Children should be listened to and respected because respect is a two-way street, not a one-way that leads from children to adults.