This is a 2 years old me.
I like to laugh a lot since I was born as you could tell in this picture =)
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This is my favorite drawing from last year!!
I remembered I was teaching children about fire safety and what is the procedure when there’s fire. And instead of just blah blah blah talking about safety, I like to draw picture on the board to teach children in circle time, so I drew a picture of how to escape in the building. The next day after we practiced fire drill, I asked children to draw about what do they know about fire drill. A little Spanish girl drew exactly what I drew on the board yesterday. She said “there’s fire in the building, everyone come out, and my doggie too. She is scared and she cried and pee pee”. That was the cutest thing and one of the most rewarding moment I ever had! I always thought this little girl wasn’t paying attention as she likes to moving around in circle time. But at the end she is the only one who remembered perfectly what we talked about yesterday. I am so proud of her!
One of my favorite books is Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman. Yup! It’s a classic book, and I think how the message behind it makes it classic.
This book shows how a child confronts racism with peer pressure and be pride. Let me tell you a little bit about this story-Grace is an african American girl in 2nd grade.She loves to act out. One day, there’s a chance at school to play as Peter Pan. When she said she wants to be Peter Pan, her classmate says to Grace that she cannot be Peter Pan because as Peter Pan is not a girl nor black. However, she did not give up and persist to be Peter Pan. So teacher said let’s do a competition to see who acts the best. Grace kept practicing at home. Finally, she was the best student who acts like Peter Pan. Her peers were amazed and proud of her performance.
I couldn't think of any better simple book that have a message about trust yourself and be proud of who you are!
Joyce,
ReplyDeleteI love the example of the drawing, as we know everyone learn in a different way and the opportunity that you provide to the girl was amazing!
I am sure she will have that learning opportunity in her mind for the rest of her live. That make me remember last February I took a few families to the zoo and we went to the elephant encounter and the keeper made the elephant make a noise. Time pass by and it was in May when during a family homevisit the 2 yr old was playing with blocks and zoo animals, he was holding the elephant all the time making the elephant noise over and over, these are the moments that not only children will remember us too! Way to go, and thank you for giving these opportunities to laern and express
Yee,
ReplyDeleteWhat a darling picture!!!! I love how you use the drawings. I use those too. Then, I hear from the parents how the child perceived the said drawing and there is always some kind of clarification that is necessary! I might need to brush up on my skills. I also love that book. I always think children know much more about racism then we think. I have a bi racial child and he is keenly aware and we tackle things when they come up. I love that there are children's book that address these issues in an age appropriate way. I always get nervous when issues come up that it will make him feel badly. It is hard to say that things really went on in the past. I know I can't lie but I do NOT want to perpetuate it just by educating.
Thank you for sharing.
Hi Joyce,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great illustration from your student. And would like to implement a similar activity in my classroom once I become a teacher. It is amazing what your students can come up with on their own, despite how they act in the classroom. What a great memory she has. By the way, I really enjoyed how you input that quote of what she said, she is a very descriptive student.
Joyce,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story of how students face seemingly daunting tasks and yet with hard work and perseverance you can make your dreams a reality.
The story you shared about the picture is truly amazing. I love to see the different learning strategies students use and they don't even know they are using them. What was she doing that made you think that she wasn't paying attention? Has this shown you an incite to hear learning that you wouldn't have thought of before? Did it change the way you sometimes presented your material?
Samantha,
ReplyDeleteYes, it changes my presentation style a bit. I always believe that children learn from different way. For this particular child, her mom was little concern about her learning because she could not make eye contact with anyone more than 5 second and could not stay on one task more than 2 minutes.So we had a meeting with Mom together, we talked about what is this girl's interest and developed a plan to try to expand her attention span and engage to prepare her to go to kindergarten. It works out! She engaged more in circle time and open up to talk more.
It just another story showing us that we need to work with families and always revisit our teaching strategies to see if there's anything else we could use to make more teaching more fun and children engage more!