Those of you who know me well know
that this school year has been a real struggle, to put it lightly!
I've always believed that God never gives us more than we can handle
and He must have had a lot more faith in me than I did in myself.
The year started off with a
new-to-me- district nearby, going from two half-day classes of
four-year olds to a full-day class of four-year olds. I was
skeptical that four-year olds could handle full-day preschool.
However, my sweet children rose to the task and I ended up absolutely
loving it! Building those always-important relationships with kids,
and their families, is so much easier when you have the kids all day.
What made it even better is that the school and district
administration support play-based education! As our State Commission
of Education, Dr. Randy Watson, said at a conference I attended, “I
believe that every child under the age of eight years old should have
a play-based education.” AMEN!!
The tough part was that our
district was part of a collaborative agreement with another entity.
While our district was very flexible, the other group was not. I
found myself battling their procedures and practices at every turn.
Every turn! I have twenty-one pages of documentation. Some of what
this entity stood for, in theory, is right and noble. The way that
they were going about enforcing their policies and agenda, not so
much. It was SO tough and much for what they wanted me to do was
that ugly old monster,”that's the way it's always been done,” and
no one could show me where it was a policy. I ended up on high blood
pressure medication and more frequent visits to my amazing
chiropractor to get rid of the tension in my neck and shoulders. Were
it not for my prayerful, sweet mentor, and the amazing and supportive
staff in the building and district offices, I'm not sure I would have
lasted the year. It was that bad!
And oh, my gosh!! Let's not forget
the children! I was blessed with some of the sweetest children to
ever have graced this Earth! Their smiles and their eagerness to learn made
coming to work each day a blessing and something to look forward to.
They truly LOVE to learn and made it so easy to teach them more. And
crafts?? They loved doing crafts! “Mrs. Jenkins! What's our
craft today?!?” They wanted to create and had a blast doing it! I
feel that what they loved the most about crafts was that I gave them
permission to be different. What they created didn't have to look
just like mine. They were free to use their imaginations, and that
was okay!
At the end of the school year, we
had a celebration, and our class of preschoolers rose to the occasion
once again! We recited The Pledge of Allegiance with our families,
sang our Days of the Week Song, followed by two songs, Dr. Jean's "May There Always Be Sunshine" and Jack Hartmann's "One Small Voice" with sign
language, and finally, The Kindergarten Rap. Then we shared punch
and cookies with our families. The children were precious!
Year thirty four taught me to
trust in my abilities and lean on my tribe and lastly, to never,
ever, forget my “why.”
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