Dezi Rollins, Preschool Teacher

Last week and this one have been great. We've done all sorts of fun projects! Sometimes they don't exactly work out the way I planned, but they still look good. My favorite one is either the September 11th project, or the leaf rubbing project. The kids loved it when they rubbed the crayons on the paper and saw the leaf patterns! I've taken some pictures, I'll post some after I take a few more. From what I've been told, the kids really like coming to my class. I had one more kid sign up, and one move away, so that means as of next week, I'll have six kids on Monday, Wednesday & Friday, and four kids on Tuesday and Thursday.

I'm still really enjoying the job, although I feel that somedays all I do is "yell" at the kids. I love finding creative projects and activities to do! On Monday, it's Snoopy's birthday (he's 56! I didn't think that was possible for a dog, but okay), so we're making Snoopys out of toilet paper rolls and a template. Next week is also Fire Safety week, so we're doing a couple of projects related to that.

A Bevy of Beads

We did an activity that involved stringing beads a couple of weeks ago, and the kids really enjoyed it and did well. However, such was not the case today. The box of beads (shoebox size) wound up overturned on the floor. This meant beads everywhere! Three of the kids were playing with the beads (e.g. throwing), and the other three were helping me pick up. Unfortunately, while they were certainly trying, they were more or less getting in the way. Finally, I plugged in a movie and told them all to sit and watch, which they did (while bringing me a found bead sometimes). I had the box all packed and was putting it on the shelf, when something fell into the box and I dropped it. There went the beads again! Luckily, someone was walking by and helped me pick up beads again. Grrr! I was not happy about it.

A Day at the Zoo

It is Friday afternoon, and I am very glad the weekend is here! I have had a screamer in my class this week, especially today. He hit another kid, and then managed to get his shoe off while having his tantrum. He then proceeded to throw his shoe around until I was able to get to him. I wound up with a bruise on my ankle (a small one) for my efforts in trying to get the shoe.

I kept the shoe until he was able to calm down enough for us to talk about not hitting our friends. I also talked with his mom about it, so she's aware of the problem. For the kid who got hit, I had written an incident report. He didn't get hit that hard, and there was no mark. His mom was very nice and understanding, and she didn't blame me for what happened. I realize that sometimes boys play a little rough, but there is no excuse for hitting, and I make that quite clear to the kids.

Since we had several of the staff out today, I had been asked by the director if I could stay past my normal time to leave to help give people their lunch breaks. I got to spend time in three different classrooms, plus mine. During the first class, I watched the class during nap time. Unfortunately, one kid woke up, saw I wasn't her teacher and proceeded to be loud and wake up the other kids. Two kids decided they needed to use the restroom and took forever! When I saw that one kid was playing instead of using the restroom, I sent him back to his cot. I finally got the kids to calm down by telling them how sad their teacher was going to be, and pretending to write notes to their parents. (Never mind that I had no idea what their names were.) They were very sad when their teacher came back and I told her how they had acted and gave her the "parent notes" that I had written.

On to the next class. I relieved the teacher while she went on a quick break. This class was also having naptime, but they never moved. When the teacher got back, she and I had a nice chat, comparing stories from the front lines! My last class was to assist in the infant room. I was only in there for about twenty minutes. I fed a couple of babies and entertained a couple more. I'm definitely glad that was the last room I went to, then I left on a positive note instead of frazzled!

Preschool Pandemonium

I have made it through four days of teaching the Mother's Day Out program. More importantly, so have the kids! I've had five kids in my class the past two days. It is definitely a challenge, but I really enjoy it! I turned in my lesson plans for this week on Friday, she said they looked great! I took some ideas from the curriculum, some ideas from other places, and a couple of things that I just thought up! My child development background, as well as my knowledge of behavior techniques is really coming in handy! However, I know it'll get easier after we've established our daily schedule. It already is going much better just after a few days!

We've done several craft projects, the one I'm most proud of is the United States maps that they painted yesterday. I found a coloring page map, printed it out, got some red, white & blue paint. The kids had fun painting their maps, then they put red glitter on top of it. I then cut out the maps today and glued them on blue construction paper. I thought they all turned out very well, and the parents liked them, too! I may post some pictures of the projects on here!

And So it Begins.....

Today, I got a part-time job! I am the lead teacher for a Mother's Day Out program at Preston Kiddie Kollege! The pay is decent, and I really like the hours. I work from 9-2:30, Monday through Friday. That gives me time to have my piano lessons, study, do research, etc. I spent today in training, tomorrow I'll set up my room! The kids start on Thursday. The curriculum is provided, I'll develop lesson plans and write a weekly newsletter. I already have the one for this/next week finished! The kids are the same age as my Merry Music Makers, so it's an age I'm used to. I'm looking forward to it!