Showing posts with label teachers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teachers. Show all posts
Monday, February 21, 2011
Sea of Love
Love is a mighty splendid thing. It is a wonderful emotion that is vital to our very existence. It is the thing that keeps us going when times get hard, it is that thing that gives us warm fuzzies inside when it happens. When we fall into that sea of love it tends to overtake all that we are, and occupies us to a whole new level. Love is that very thing we draw to when we have feeling have been hurt or someone / something has wounded our heart. Love lives within us. It is there and we chose who and when to display that love to others. Amazingly there are different kinds of love, there is the loves we have for our spouse, our children, friends, family members, church family, out priests or pastors, the teachers that our children love, or hate because they are a little tough on them to help them achieve their full potential in the classroom. Yet, we don't really think about Love that way, we know the thoughts and feeling of love, and we seem to run with it when it happens.
Yet, there is so much more to love then the simple emotion. There are the actions of love as well. That someone thinks of you often helps you when you are down because they care for you and about you. Love is there in the daycare, where you leave the children for 8 to 10 hours a day. Love is present in the nursing homes where the elderly are left and no one come to visit. The staff is there to talk to them, hold their hands, listen to their stories, and simply share life with them when they are feeling blue. Love is there in the ER when the doctors and nurses are running around to save or help the one that you love feel better, or if one passes they are there to help you grieve, bring you resource to help you deal with the death of a loved one that is unexpected, they listen, they care for you and all that has just happened. They are there because not only do they love to help others, but they are also a source of support and a listening ear when things go wrong. There is love that is happening in rehab home as those who are there are struggling to learn or relearn skills. The staff are there to rejoice with them when small steps are going right and there is an improvement, it may be a small one that is easily overlooked, but to the individual it is amazing, and staff understand that and rejoice with them.
There is love in the supermarkets, the Target stores, the Wal-Marts, Kohls and any other business that one may go to on a daily basis for work. There is a sense of family that is able to develop around you with co-workers. We start to develop friendships at work. There are people we like to talk to when things go wrong, others we can tell anything too, and some we like to shop with or go out with at the end of the night. In it all there is a friendship that forms and binds us to one another and at the center of it is Love. Love is there when we worry about a co-worker is not coming to work, and we are not sure what has happened to them. We have a bond with those individuals that tend to go a little deeper then just a person we work with, when essential we come to care and love them as a part of a extended family. We may not celebrate holidays with them but yet we care for them and worry about them if something is going wrong in their lives and all seems to be crashing down around them.
Although, at the center of all love is God. He is love, he shows us His love by dying on the cross and taking all the sins that we have ever committed or could ever conceive of committing and wipes our slate clean. He loves us with an love that there is no other love that is able to compare to it. It is a love that is always present in us, we know that God cares and loves us on a daily basis, and that there is no way we can earn that love. Rather, His love is freely give to all those who are willing to accept Him and walk with Him, talk to Him through prayer. We are able to run to Him in our times of need and never, ever will He call us needy, or childish! He is there waiting and wanting to shower us with His love is we go to Him. We are able to learn about Him through reading and worshiping Him in our homes, along with attending mass / church on Sunday morning. If we are truly lucky we are able to attend church or mass more so we are able to commune with Him on a more intimate level. By growing in God and in His Love we are able to reach out to other and show them the Love of Christ through our action, our words and by just being a Child of God in these hard times. We have the opportunity to love and be loved by the Father in Heaven, why not accept the free gift that he offers us and walk in His love daily.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Little People...
One of my passsion was caring for children, hence I was in early childhood for over 14 years before becoming a nurse. One of things as a early childhood teacher that me and my staff had to do was come to know each child as an individual. What inspired them, what their dreams were, fears, what they loved to do in the classroom and on the playground so we could expand their horizons. We took this time with the children to help them expand their horizons, build on their knowleged and expose them to more things in thier world and teach them about the world that they are living in day after day.
My staff and I would sit and talk with each child, interact with them on a professional level as well as on a personal level so we could reach into the core of thier being and help them along the learning process. We could do this by teaching them on theor level, building on their knowledge. Alowing them to guide us in the path of the school year. Where were their interests, and how can we that interests into our daily lesson plans. We talked to parents to see how the children were doing at home along with doing home visits twice a year. Theses home visits were critical to some of the childrens development. If we know the childs environment then we can reach the child, by knowing what they are going home to each night and all weekend.
One thing that many, many parents do not realize is that little ears though out of sight are not always out of hearing range. They may be playing there in the other room but they know what is going on in their homes. They listen and pay attention to the adults in their lives. Their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, older and younger.
The children walk into Preschool or a 2 year old classroom ready to play and explore their world. Yet, it is in this play that we often learn much about the child's world and their environment as well. We know if there is fighting in the home, your child acts it out for us in housekeeping. We hear conservations that we could rather not hear at times, becasue the children act them out as well in play. We listen ad pay attention to your child at all times. We ar there to help your child grow and expand your horizons. We know if you do not like the aides in the classroom, as one child who got made because she put them in time out for an innappropate behavior, they in turn stated your comments about the aide. This is inappropriate, not for you to talk about staff, but tto talk about them in front of the child, they have to listen and respect all adults in the classroom at all times. Rather talk to the teacher about the staff, and come to an agreement. This will make the learning environment for the child better then having your child disrespect staff and not focusing on learning.
One of the other biggest issues is when we ask parents to tell us about their child, they their answer is they are happy go lucky. They like anything! What does this tell us as professionals? Nothing! Are you as a parent listening to your child? Are you paying attention to where your childs interests are or are you just there to feed and displine them if they do something wrong? By paying attention to your child you know who your child is and what they are striving to learn, imagine, and want to be in this big vast world that they are living in and are relying on you to guide their little foot steps. But how do you guide and direct if you do know the interests of your child or children, are you guessing that they will enjoy one playground better then others because there is more children there or brighter colors? Or are you taking the child to the a particular playground because it is the one they requested, there is something there a piece of equipment there that excites them and stimulates their mind and gets them thinking while they play.
Take the time to know your children when they are small, it is then that they are true blessings to you as parents, as even as they grow and develop new interests encourage your children in those areas. Please dont push them in a direction that is not right for them because you think it is right for them. Talk to them, really get to know them and love them as the unique little people that they are in this world.
My staff and I would sit and talk with each child, interact with them on a professional level as well as on a personal level so we could reach into the core of thier being and help them along the learning process. We could do this by teaching them on theor level, building on their knowledge. Alowing them to guide us in the path of the school year. Where were their interests, and how can we that interests into our daily lesson plans. We talked to parents to see how the children were doing at home along with doing home visits twice a year. Theses home visits were critical to some of the childrens development. If we know the childs environment then we can reach the child, by knowing what they are going home to each night and all weekend.
One thing that many, many parents do not realize is that little ears though out of sight are not always out of hearing range. They may be playing there in the other room but they know what is going on in their homes. They listen and pay attention to the adults in their lives. Their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, older and younger.
The children walk into Preschool or a 2 year old classroom ready to play and explore their world. Yet, it is in this play that we often learn much about the child's world and their environment as well. We know if there is fighting in the home, your child acts it out for us in housekeeping. We hear conservations that we could rather not hear at times, becasue the children act them out as well in play. We listen ad pay attention to your child at all times. We ar there to help your child grow and expand your horizons. We know if you do not like the aides in the classroom, as one child who got made because she put them in time out for an innappropate behavior, they in turn stated your comments about the aide. This is inappropriate, not for you to talk about staff, but tto talk about them in front of the child, they have to listen and respect all adults in the classroom at all times. Rather talk to the teacher about the staff, and come to an agreement. This will make the learning environment for the child better then having your child disrespect staff and not focusing on learning.
One of the other biggest issues is when we ask parents to tell us about their child, they their answer is they are happy go lucky. They like anything! What does this tell us as professionals? Nothing! Are you as a parent listening to your child? Are you paying attention to where your childs interests are or are you just there to feed and displine them if they do something wrong? By paying attention to your child you know who your child is and what they are striving to learn, imagine, and want to be in this big vast world that they are living in and are relying on you to guide their little foot steps. But how do you guide and direct if you do know the interests of your child or children, are you guessing that they will enjoy one playground better then others because there is more children there or brighter colors? Or are you taking the child to the a particular playground because it is the one they requested, there is something there a piece of equipment there that excites them and stimulates their mind and gets them thinking while they play.
Take the time to know your children when they are small, it is then that they are true blessings to you as parents, as even as they grow and develop new interests encourage your children in those areas. Please dont push them in a direction that is not right for them because you think it is right for them. Talk to them, really get to know them and love them as the unique little people that they are in this world.
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