A Tribute to The Early Childhood Educator

Here is a tribute to the Early Childhood Educator.

The hopelessly optimistic.

The peace maker.

The negotiator.

The round peg in the square hole.
The one who will always see things differently.
And welcomes spontaneity.

Parents  love them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.

And while some may see them as those square pegs,
many see genius.

Because the people who are unique enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who often do.

~Adapted by Barbra The Bloggess from Apple 1997 (Ad)

Teachers Touch the Future

Touching The Future 

 

I don't wear power suits,
make speeches,
or drive a fancy sports car.

I've never talked on a car phone,

made a big sale,

or been elected to the Senate.

I don't "do lunch",
have a big impressive office,
or carry a beeper.

I spend my days wiping away tears,
giving hugs,
and serving chicken nuggets.

A good day is when I go through a whole day
without a temper tantrum,
bite mark,
or a toilet training accident.

My "office" is a room full of brightly colored toys
and laughing children.

You may not think that what I do is very important
and you may even whisper behind my back
"What a waste of a good mind"
But I know better.

I make a difference
because I'm changing the world
one child at a time.

Everyday I'm getting the once in a lifetime chance
to touch the future.

I'm proud to say "I'm a teacher".

~ by Marti Doyle

The Teacher's Child Like Heart

I have often wondered what it is that keeps teachers going through the tough times. The sacrifices we make for the greater good are so light compared to the hope of a child's enthusiasm and excitement toward learning.
I have never really asked anyone but I assumed its the child like qualities we have kept within  ourselves.
The ability to see through the eyes of children still comes from the heart.
Here are just a few attributes I have found teachers have toward the ability to keep giving with a smile.

Attributes of a Teachers Child Like Heart:

Child Like Gullibility: The ability to read a book for the twenty seventh time and still be able to express surprise at the ending.

Child Like Imagination: The ability to lose yourself in imagination with others while delighting in what could be possible.

Child Like Wonder: The ability to withhold all the answers you know and understand while encouraging wonder and conversation toward what seems magical.

Child Like Demeanor: Maintaining a child like heart without being childish. Always being inclined to see 'fun' in every opportunity.

Child Like in Friendship: Quick to forgive and slow to remember faults.

Child Like Thinking: Everything is possible and impossible is nothing! Especially after gram crackers, milk, and a nice long nap.

Share with us the attributes you know about....

What a Toddler Believes

 

 
A toddler believes that if you love a person, you stay with that person 100 percent of the time."

~Lawrence Balter

Toddlers happen to be one of my favorite age groups to work with. I although I don't have the opportunity to work with them as much I just thought I would say what a wonderful little band they are.

Their love is like my kitchen blender that I have never managed to get rid of. 

It has no top.....

Favorite Quotes About Children

Hear are some more favorite quotes about children! Thank you to everyone who shared! Enjoy!

"Tell the children the truth."
~Bob Marley

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
~Martin Luther King, Jr.

"If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children."
~Mohandas Gandhi

The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."
~Maria Montessori

"Children show scars like medals."
~Leonard Cohen

"We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"How paramount the future is to the present when one is surrounded by children."
~Charles Darwin

"Children are smarter than any of us. Know how I know that? I don't know one child with a full time job and children."
~Bill Hicks

"Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children."
~Sitting Bull

For more quotes be sure to join the click!

About Education

About Childhood

Peace.

If there is light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the house.
If there is harmony in the house,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world.

~ Unknown

Teachers of the Past and Present

One Hundred Years from Now
(excerpt from "Within My Power" by Forest Witcraft)

One Hundred Years from now
It will not matter
what kind of car I drove,

What kind of house I lived in,

how much money was in my bank account 

nor what my clothes looked like. 

But the world may be a better place because 

I was important in the life of a child.

If this poem was read 100 before, I believe it would still stand true. 

Some things in our heart simply don't change, only grow...

Like the love we have for our children.

When You Thought I Wasn't Looking, Teacher

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you displayed my first report, and I wanted to do another.

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you fed a stray cat, and I thought it was good to be kind to animals.

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you gave me a sticker, and I knew that little things were special things.

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you put your arm around me, and I felt loved.

When you thought I wasn’t looking I saw tears come from your eyes, and I learned that sometimes things hurt--but that it’s all right to cry.

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you smiled, and it made me want to look that pretty too.

When you thought I wasn’t looking, you cared, and I wanted to be everything I could be.

When you thought I wasn’t looking--I looked...and wanted to say thanks for all those things you did when you thought I wasn’t looking. 

By Mary Rita Schilke Korzan,"WHEN YOU THOUGHT I WASN’T LOOKING"

Teachers Make a Difference

Yes.
Just in case you haven't been reminded lately, you do make a difference.
Thanks for being a teacher.



Kids and Rainy Days

Make no mistake.
Never simply ask your children what they would like to do on a rainy day.
We can almost guarantee that what they feel like doing,
you won't feel like managing.

Unless........
You really aren't in it for the money.

Teacher Burn Out

"Part of a teacher's job is to burn brightly without burning out."

I was once asked how I avoided teacher burn out all these years. The answer came quite quickly.
No.
It is nothing anyone taught me in college or I learned at a lecture.
It's something that happened over years of commitment....
But I believe the love that developed over time eventually had it's way with my heart.

Teacher Half Full

A diet without exercise, exercise without rest, worry without sleep, acquaintances without friendships, friendships without love, love without commitment, commitment without work, work without play, chocolate without the peanut butter.
So what's the point to striving for well roundness if there is no balance?
How important is it for us as teachers to have a 'glass is half full' attitude? Does our own mindset effect our work with young children?
How important is it to advocate for ourselves along with our children?

Here are just a few half full quotes to think about:

"The best six doctors anywhere
And no one can deny it
Are sunshine, water, rest, and air
Exercise and diet.
These six will gladly you attend
If only you are willing
Your mind they'll ease
Your will they'll mend
And charge you not a shilling."
~Nursery rhyme, What the River Knows


"Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me."
~Seymour Miller & Jill Jackson

"Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon.  A happiness weapon.  A beauty bomb.  And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one.  It would explode high in the air - explode softly - and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air.  Floating down to earth - boxes of Crayolas.  And we wouldn't go cheap, either - not little boxes of eight.  Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in.  With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest.  And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination."
 ~Robert Fulghum

"Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up."
~Jesse Jackson

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion."  ~Dalai Lama


"The greatest wealth is health."
~Virgil

How about you? How do you stay a teacher half full?

Success Comes In Cans, Not Can'ts

Success is a mindset that can turn into a lifestyle. Often times we have to have the wondrous belief of a child to get things done, solve problems, and work together. I believe these thoughts are contagious. If I didn't..... I wouldn't have lasted very long as a teacher.
And if I did last long without that belief, I couldn't possibly be a very good one.
Have a great day everyone! Let's keep working and have a successful day!

It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes. ~Sally Field

It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not.

We have to learn to be our own best friends because we fall too easily into the trap of being our own worst enemies. ~Roderick Thorp, Rainbow Drive

It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to. ~W.C. Fields

Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right. ~Henry Ford

Success comes in cans, not cant's.

I'm not old enough to play baseball or football. I'm not eight yet. My mom told me when you start baseball, you aren't going to be able to run that fast because you had an operation. I told Mom I wouldn't need to run that fast. When I play baseball, I'll just hit them out of the park. Then I'll be able to walk. ~Edward J. McGrath, Jr., "An Exceptional View of Life," quoted in Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, 1993

So....what do you teach besides curriculum?

Just Do It

When I was a little girl I really wanted to be a ballerina. I was about 4 years old and I only had to see the Nut Cracker one time before I know that was it. My foundation was sent and I had wrapped re-bar around that notion.
My parents didn't have much money but made a way for me to go to ballet lessons. I was very small for my age and my sister joked that my tutu was more or less a one-one. I worked really hard but my teacher finally confided that I would be too small to ever really dance.
I was heartbroken.
My parents sat down with me and told me that whatever I had a mind to do. Just do it. Don't listen to what anyone has to say. That conversation really changed my life. I decided later that I wasn't going to pursue ballet about a year later. The Olympics came on and I saw the gymnasts. That was it again!
I am glad my family really supported me through my hundreds of career ideas. I never would have known what to do unless I gave it my all.

What dreams did you have as a kid?

Being a Social Teacher

Caring, sensitive adults are ideal social teachers. Unlike preschool peers, parents and teachers draw on extensive emotional resources when they interact with children.

Being a social teacher means we:
* Help describe emotions verbally
* Understand the causes and effects of emotions and help regulate them
* See things from a child’s perspective
*  Assist in interpreting the emotions of others
* Match social interactions to a child’s developmental level
* Regulate their own emotions and understand teachable opportunities
* Appreciate the long-term consequences of social acts

No wonder the core preschool social skills such as empathy, emotional self-control, and communication are best nurtured by parents and families. As teachers we support the development of each child by making sure we connect with parents. For more ways to foster preschool social skills visit us at, ALL TOGETHER WE'RE BETTER.

What Kids Like

Kids like

mud and noise

and democracy and experinemtation

and wheelbarrows and shovels

and hammocks and wagons

and drums and gongs

and magnets and mirrors

and sticks and timers

and clocks and stopwatches

and spontinaity and unafraid teachers

and visitors and singing

and animals and sand and water

and making things and coconuts and hammers

and cooking and weighing

and measuring and balancing

and feeling a hundred of something

and climbing trees

and walking in the rain

and play spaces they make for themselves

and umbrellas

and baking their own birthday cakes

and digging holes and being outdoors (without coats)

and soft things for quiet moments

and wondering

and teachers who like them.

more than one way

"You don't understand anything until
you learn it more than one way."

~Marvin Minsky

So...technically I did say we were doing body painting art. I just didn't mean on each other.
This is a great project, by the way. Be sure to be specific as to what you would like for the children paint.
Ahem.
Next time we will start with hand prints.

learning from my mistakes

"Always walk through life as if you have something new to learn and you will."

 ~Vernon Howard

I have the power to set kids up for failure or success. I am always thinking ahead and figuring "what if" scenarios. I suppose in a way it is setting me up for success as well.
Sometimes we learn better from mistakes. But if I can find out the mistakes others have made and simply not do them I would prefer to learn that way. Some days...yes, some days...things will happen.
Finding humor in it while learning helps me remember, too.

I Like Your Hairs!

Awwwwwe.
Thanks.

Preschool Curriculum Activities that Promote Socialization

"Feelings are much like waves, we can't stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf."
~Jonatan Mårtensson

Helping young children to be socially aware has always been a passion of ours. I was said by Professor James Heckman (Noble Prize winning Economist) that as far as our future generations are concerned; social skills are just and important, if not more, than I.Q.
Starting another blog that dealt primarily with preschool curriculum revolving around personal awareness and social skills for young children was in order. We also found that these activities are great for all ages!
We hope you check it out and would love to hear your feedback.

All Together We're Better :Great preschool curriculm & teaching techniques that are adaptable for all ages. We are getting kids ready for the skills they need for success in life!