a breakthrough kinda day.

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!
And a happy one it was...

So I finished my classroom's evaluations about 2 weeks ago which was a bit of a pain BUT turns out it was a blessing in disguise because it gave me a black and white picture of where all my students stand.

I don't know if I have mentioned this but my school runs on a mixed creative curriculum plan where the preschool rooms are mixed ages. So instead of having a 3s class, a 4s class and a pre-K class we have 2 rooms that have all 3 groups. This presents a little bit of a challenge for planning our activities since they are all at different levels but I think it is a positive thing because the younger kids are encouraged to meet milestones (like cutting a straight line) because they witness the older kids already doing those same milestones.

Anyways... So even though the evaluations where extremely time-consuming, I was able to understand where each child was in their gross/fine motor skill development, emotional/social development and their academic progress.

This has created an opportunity for me to create activities that fit the the needs of my kids at all of their levels of progress.

Their are some kids who couldn't put on their own coat themselves and have achieved that with patience and determination as I mentioned in a previous post. But this week we might have had some of our biggest breakthroughs...

One kid who couldn't put his coat on last week can now not only put on his own coat but we have been practicing lining up the zipper (which can be very difficult and requires fine motor skills and a lot of patience) and yesterday he zipped his coat! You would have thought this kid won the lottery he was so elated.

To see these kids proud of themselves is pretty cool because most of the time they are just responding to the reaction they get from adults. At the moment he realized he zipped his coat all by himself you could tell it wouldn't have matter if I was standing their or not, he would've been just as happy.

There was another kid that I mentioned previously who is extremely hyperactive (Max). With his evaluation I sent a note home hoping his parents would consider having an assessment to discover what kind of difficulties Max is facing. Well, the good news is that it wasn't my imagination and the parents were already on board and had already begun the process. The bad news is that the assessment conclusions said Max has ADHD. So they are trying a new medicine that seems to be working (although we are only in week 1).

Sorry I am rambling I just realized there is only the long story to explain this...

Anyway back to the breakthrough....

So today during our stations we were coloring lightening bolts for part of our letter Z week (zig zags) and Max sat down until he was finished. He was very focused and he even relatively stayed in the lines. He didn't scribble like most of the 3s do in our class, he was coloring. This doesn't seem like a big deal but this is the first week he has even participated in stations and today he completed something he had never done before in his life.

When his mom came to pick him up I showed her the lightening bolt and she almost cried. I am warm just thinking about it.

I am really getting that teacher feeling of being so insanely proud of my students that it makes me feel fuzzy.

But enough of that sappy stuff. I just thought I would relay the positive stories I have right now. This is the feeling that makes me want to got back to school so I can have more knowledge of teaching children so I can really make a difference. And although I feel like God has pulled and directed me on the path to teaching this is the first time I have felt 110% confident, not only in that this is what God wants me to do with my life but that I CAN do it. I now have the confidence that I was lacking even when I got to Portland. I am making a huge impact and a positive one at that.

I hope you all can have this feeling in your life because it is one of the best I have felt.

As always, we miss everyone of you and wish nothing but peace upon you all.

Love,
your enriched-souled oregonians.