2 weeks.

It has been 2 weeks since the school started and it has been rollercoaster like to put it simple.

I can see the new personalities I will have to deal with, the hidden gems I'll have to polish and the challenges we will have to work on.

Now that I've met them I can set extra goals and rearrange that ones I had already set, I can see the plans working themselves out, the activities that I will need to do and how to start.

Beginning

I'm getting together my first plan of the year.

Planning and making lists, getting the new goals together.

I love the beginning of the school year; it's so full of possibilities, so many things to achieve, it’s very exciting, the ideas float on my head, the activities begin to form and I can see them happening, it’s a change to improve from what was learned the year before, to organize in better ways, to plan ahead.

Needless to say I’m more than excited to begin.

Going Back

It's almost time to go back, I miss teaching, I miss my children.

I'm excited, nervous, freaked out, happy, ready to go back, I'm still waiting to hear about which age I will teach, who I will work with and even which classroom I'll be in, this is stressful for me, it prevents me from preparing, I like to start early, it helps me develop a more accurate plan of my goals.

So while I wait I'll enjoy the wonder of where will I be and consider the different scenarios.

Vacation.

One of the perks of teaching is our vacations, not every job gets as much time off as we get.

I don't know how to handle time off, sure I enjoy sleeping more, I enjoy having my head worries free, I enjoy not having to plan (though I love planning), I enjoy the freedom, I have time to read, to discover books, music and movies. But I don't handle it well, managing it is borderline impossible to me.

There are other teachers that know how to enjoy it far better than me, they run errands, they sleep in and don't feel guilty, go on trips, get out of bed, are absolutely content with the wonders of having vacations, someday I will learn to be like them.

Even if I get anxious with the time off and feel guilty for not getting out of bed, I welcome the vacations every year, because my head needs to be away from planning, from breaking up fights, from staff meetings and all the responsibilities that the every day bring. So, while I learn how to deal with them I will just be glad and thankful that they exist.

A vacation is like love - anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia. ~Author Unknown

Blues

It has taken me quite a while to compose this post. I hate saying goodbye and I hate dealing with the end of the year, but alas here we are.

That dreadful yet wanted end of the year, it brought tears, sadness, joy, laughter, it wasn't easy.

End of the year brings a lot of changes.

For the children is the fact that you will no longer be their teacher and the adjustment that this will bring, they feel confused at times, it makes them sad and upset, sometimes angry at us, at the change, it's a perfect opportunity to do one last lesson and work on adjusting to change and the benefits of it.


For us though we understand, it's still hard, no anger, just sadness about letting them go and expectation about the next year, the new children, we forget how much we repeat this pattern, but we think will they make laugh as much as this and that, will they have clever little comments like my little F. So the end of the year blues attack us and we go back to the wonderful memories we shared, we get a little down, shed a tear or two and move on.

I will miss my little apples that is for sure, but I am excited for my new challenge.

Family

Working as a preschool teacher involves many families.

The families of your children, the family that your classroom becomes and the one with the longest run the one that you and your co workers become.

The family of your chidren involves anyone willing to be there, to help with the progress of their child and as a teacher a good and healthy relationship with them is necessary, afterall they trust us with ther child and we should understand that this can be very hard for some, most and sometimes all of them. Nothing more wonderful than a family willing to help, to be there and be part of the learning.

The one you become with your class, not only with the children but between the teacher and assitant, this is a family that takes time into forming, there's a trust that builds in day by day, something that by the end of the school year feels like a given, the simple routines that by the end we take for granted, this lovely routines will be missed and they took time, patience and love to be established the hard part of this family is that it ends, we carry them with us, they carry us, but it changes.

Now, as for the coworkers, they are people we sometimes see more than our relatives, friends, significant others. We share time, we share stories, we share memories, we share. So without a doubt friendships form and from these friendships the bonds get deeper, it's impossible not to, you get to know them, for better or for worst, you get to love them, because it's impossible not to.

Magic

One of the biggest assets to childhood is magic, believing everything is possible, in Santa, the Easter bunny, fairies, witches, ghosts (though still when there’s an odd sound in the middle of the night I hide under my covers) there is a mythical believe that goes away as they grow but while they still got it, it’s wonderful to see how everything can be fixed with a kiss, a hug or fairy dust.

To them we’re magical, we know everything and we whip butterflies out of nothing and nowhere, every time they gasp or utter “Wow” I know it happened, I know they just had a magical moment.

I’ve heard many times magic is as powerful as the belief behind them, if that is true then magic must be real because there is nothing more powerful than a child believing.

Trust

I am amazed of the level of trust we are given.

To the children our word is golden, that is a gift we should be careful with, the fact that everything is new to them makes our information that much more important, it's the first time they hear it they can't compare it, they can't tell when we're lying or embellishing the truth and because of this sometimes we choose to joke around with their very serious questions, to lie because we think they're not ready for the answer or because their very simple question seems silly and obvious.

I wish every now and then I had that level of trust on the people surrounding me, a trust that says I know you’ll be there no matter what and you will always be honest with me, I try to always be honest with them, to a level where they can understand and their curiosity can be satisfied, when I make promises I keep them, to them I’m trustworthy and to me that’s a great present.

Trust is very important and as adults we understand what it means when the trust is broken, so as the figure that we are in their lives let’s try to never break it.

Pas•sion

Pronunciation: \ˈpa-shən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Late Latin passion-, passio suffering, being acted upon, from Latin pati to suffer — more at PATIENT
Date: 13th century
4 a (1): EMOTION (2) plural: the emotions as distinguished from reason b: intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction c: an outbreak anger
5 a: ardent affection: LOVE b: a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept d: an object of desire or deep interest

Most grownups have lost this wonderful emotion, we are no longer holding a strong liking or desire towards anything, let alone the little things in life, such as eating homemade brownies, wearing your favorite outfit or your favorite color, granted, reason is needed as adults, so the difficult decisions are made, the bills paid and our responsibilities met, but must we lose the “intense driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction”?

One of my favorite things of my little ones is their amazing passion, they are still intense about their surroundings, their life, what they eat, how they dress, who they are. Shouldn’t we be more like them? Let’s be more intense and less reasonable, let’s get overmastered by a feeling or conviction, this world could use it.

1

There is always one, one you try and try, but nothing works, behavior charts, traffic lights, stickers, stamps and the always polemical time out, since we’ve tried and tried, we become frustrated and tired at times, maybe it’s the end of the year syndrome but at some point we stop trying, we think maybe the child is just unchangeable, so we give up.

This happens because we don’t see the change, the evolution that has happen, we just focus on the parts of the behavior we feel are the same since the beginning, we feel we haven’t help, that all of our efforts and work have been pointless, but there was, it might be small, it might be unnoticed to us, so we need to take a step back, we need to look at the big picture and realize that not all changes are big and fast, some are small, they take time and patience.

So, I vote that we take a break, we take that step back, think about the start of the year and where we are now, and in that we will see it, we will find the glimpse of the change, what keeps us trying and finding new ways and methods so we can do more than just be there.

Staff Meetings

I choose to start with this, because while I find them terribly long and at points a tad ridiculous, I love me a staff meeting.

I particularly noticed today, because it was the last for the school year and I realized I'll miss them, I will miss discussing the committees, I will miss talking through things that we find important and that non-teachers would never understand, I will miss watching my coworkers get passionate about trashcans, jammed doors, fun week and so on.

It's impossible to explain what happens in staff meetings, at least for me, I find them chaotic at times, specially during the discussion of certain committees, some can create such tension in a room, then there's the times that we are kind all over the place, there's always someone who chooses to fight about little details (Though for a preschool teacher there are no little details) "No new cardboard?!" and there's always lost and asking the usuals "What happened? What did she say?" just 2 examples of the many things that happen in our staff meetings, sometimes they all happen at the same time.

But this one was different, this one had a sense of nostalgia, the 2 WEEKS LEFT deadline is actually hitting us and for some that meant the rush that comes with the end of the school year so close, all the things we have to accomplish, turn in, prepare, decorate and on top of that teach before we end it, but for others is the sense that we have to say goodbye to our children, that in 2 WEEKS they're gone for the summer and when they come back they will no longer be with us and that is not a feeling we're all ready to deal with.

Staff meetings as long and dragged out as they can become, they're important to remind us that in the chaos that is ending a school year, the mess we lived through (and survived) we do it for them, we did it for them, for their smiles, for their accomplisments, because at the end of the day, they're the reason for it all.