On Being a Preschool Teacher

It is so fun being a preschool teacher, but also a frustrating position at times.  I absolutely love my kids.  They are the best!  I teach toddlers on Tuesday and Thursday and the three year old class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  I love my job and was so excited to have a teaching position right after graduating with my Bachelor's degree in Early Childhood and Elementary Education.  However, I don't think I knew fully what I was getting myself into.  My first months teaching and being a Graduate student were completely stressful and crazy!  Now, I have finally learned how to really teach and I feel like a teacher.  Student teaching did help me feel prepared, but when I walked into my classroom I realized that it was sink or swim. This was where I was really going to learn to be a teacher.  I had never had experience teaching this age group except on rare occasions at church during Sunday School or Vacation Bible School. This was all new to me.  I had one child who refused to participate in any activity that we did that day.  She was very stubborn and strong willed.  She would just sit in the middle of the floor and refuse to move.  Her mother had warned us about this behavior.  It is interesting to note, that after the first week this child became very cooperative and is one of the sweetest of my students.  She loves to participate in all activities and loves school.  According to her mother she always comes home talking about all that we have accomplished in school that day.  When talking to her mom I learned that she also talks about me all the time and tells her mom things like, "Ms. Cathy wouldn't like that, so I just won't do it,"!  Now, let me go back to the end of my first day! Near the end of my first day, my aide left during lunch to do her bus run and I still had over an hour left with my kids. I was glad when some of the students took a long time eating lunch!  I quickly found out that I hadn't planned enough for the whole day.  I began to wonder how to occupy the attention of three year old's and ended up deciding it was time to do more music.  I took out our instruments and hoped it would keep them occupied until it was time to get ready to pack up.   Needless to say, I got through my first day, but went home exhausted!  It had been a long day.  Now that I have been a teacher for 6 months I am glad I perservered. It was a difficult time at the beginning, but I have come to find a fondness for my students, even the difficult ones.  I also have reorganized our daily schedule and I am never left at the end of the day with nothing left to do.  In fact, there are days when I have things planned that we don't even get around to. Then it is the kids who are asking me, "Ms. Cathy? Aren't we going to do ...... today?"  The best part is, even on the bad days in my life, when I get to school and my children come in the classroom, anything that is bothering me just goes away and I just focus on my kids and doing what I love.

Vocabulary
1. frustrating: hard to handle
2.absolutely: definitely
3 excited: very happy
4. completely: totally
5. stressful: difficult, hard
6. prepared: ready for
7. rare: few
8. occasions: times
9. participate: take part
10. stubborn: strong willed, hard to get to do something
11. cooperative: easy to handle or get along with
12. accomplished: achieved, got through, completed
13. exhausted: very tired
14. perservered: didn't give up, continued even though it was difficult
15. fondness: to like, have a good feeling about

Activity
Word Find:  Find the words from the vocabulary list in the Word Find below.

agthydoiofrustratingoklnkedllebgj

fhtighitinnglldiosongstubbornpdwe

serperserveredjonoifondnessnoert

terarefyhunjcooperativejkoklgnfty

rasesaccomplishederwqxgmilpgkm

edfxrgcujmostyguwcghkawjlgbmyu

sdfhparticipateetymbfszfhpwdhlsw

sseawemkrtufdiwxioguiwrklperydi

fhourtyuiihiiojprowqguopdnyrsdus

uersabsolutelyadgrazbgeukgssdk

ltyjtwftgkolgxschowtioanlgodoefn

huiedngodisowenosglodpcpasiowd

gtydadhoeiosndiegondioansoedog

Grammar Point:

Throughout my paragraph I capitalized certain words.  We capitalize words even when they are not at the beginning of  sentence when they are proper noun.  Some nouns that are considered proper nouns are names of people, places, months and days of the week or of institutions.  For example, I capitalized the word Tuesday because it is a day of the week and, therefore, a proper noun.   Please find all the proper nouns in the paragraph and write why the word is capitalized.  Then write a paragraph about yourself using at least five proper nouns.