Madeline Northrop

I started this summer off with a lot of new knowledge from the previous

semester. I thought I had all the tools necessary to start my own classroom. Needless to say, I learned a lot this summer from the successes and failures I experienced while putting these new techniques into practice. Reflecting on my experiences has helped shaped what I want my role as a teacher to be, and the types of practices I will continue. My future classroom will hopefully be somewhere my students feel safe to explore the world around them and develop an open mind that they carry with them through adulthood. I think with the relationships I make with my students will help me achieve this goal.

Although I went into my first day of classes with a lot of confidence, I ended very deterred. My teaching style

was laid back to the point that I was being walk all over. I reflected on my day to see what I could change so the next day would be better. I realized that it was okay to take charge in the classroom. The biggest time I needed to step up was during clean up time. The first day I would ask, “Would you mind picking that toy up and putting it where it goes?” Unsurprisingly, my question was met with an unlimited response of, “no” from each student.

During my reflection, I considered how students were invested in their play, and I didn’t give them a purpose for

cleaning up. From that point forward, I decided to give cleaning a clear purpose for the students. We started playing a tidy up song, explained why we were cleaning up and made sure everyone was focused as a group before we started our cleaning. For example, we would turn off our music and told students to come to the carpet. Once they were at the carpet we said, “Hey everyone, we are about to have our morning meeting. We want you to go back to the center you were playing at and put away the toys you were using, so we can start our meeting. After our meeting we will be able to switch rooms and play with the big kids.” This gave my students a reason to want to clean up. As soon as they were done cleaning, we could have our meeting, and after our meeting was over they would be able to play with the big kids or go to a different room to play.

My views on what a teacher’s roles should be have changed exponentially from when I was accepted into the

Early Childhood program. I realize that beforehand my view on teachers were based on what I’d seen during my time in elementary school. I saw teachers sitting behind desks and giving students instructions on what they were doing that day. Rather than lecturers and observers, I see educators as explorers and guides for students. In my classes, I learned how children can guide their own learning if a teacher will give them the freedom to do so. I really appreciated the idea of child led projects. This allowed students to choose what they wanted to learn, and teachers were there to scaffold them in achieving these goals. I saw that some students didn’t see what they were capable of, and I thought maybe it had something to do with an adult in their life not allowing them to do something on their own. In my class, I had students ask me to draw something for them. I would ask, “why don’t you draw it?”. Nearly every time I asked them to draw it they told me they couldn’t or didn’t know how. These students needed encouragement from me, which is when I realized how I wasn’t just there to explore and encourage their exploration in new topics. I was also there to guide them to achieving their full potential. I was there to be a friend for them as we found out what all the world could do and what all they could do in the world.

One thing that I clung to during my time this summer was the Democratic Life Skills. I found that my students

typically wanted to treat those around them well, but sometimes they needed reminders on how to do so. At first, I wasn’t sure how my class was going to have structure because we weren’t going to punish our students if they didn’t listen to us. However, I found that by having conversations with them about why they should act a certain way was actually changing their behavior. I was able to explain these life skills and my students understood them. They still needed to be reminded occasionally, but when I started to become consistent with my expectations, the students were able to remind themselves of them without me being there. I felt like they were opening their minds up to new ideas and considering other’s feelings when they chose certain actions. I worked on building my own relationship with students each day, so they knew if something was wrong they were able to come to me with no judgements or fear of punishment for what they’d done. If a student was arguing with another I waited to see how they handled the situation, but if they came to me for help I began to facilitate a conversation between the two. Arguments happen often, but with reminders about how we should handle these arguments I saw several times where two students worked out their own problems.

This summer taught me that in the future I need to create and establish my expectations for my students

earlier on and not waiver from them throughout my time with them. I need to stay consistent with these expectations, so students can rely on me to give them the same response to crisis.  In the future, I feel by establishing these expectations sooner, my students and I will be able to develop our relationship quicker and have a strong bond in the end. Despite not doing this over the summer, I still felt I was able to create a friendship with each of my students. I set out to be someone my students could come to if they were scared or upset. I engaged in play with them and initially came up to them to help comfort them in times they needed someone. Over time, they would approach me crying looking for comfort. I also felt like I was someone students wanted to spend time with while they were engaging in play. I think this was because I always let them lead our play. They felt like they had control but wanted to see what I would add to their projects.

At the end of summer, I cherished the relationships I made with each student I was able to spend time with. I

hope that they felt cared for, and that they had a friend in me with the came into the classroom. I hope they had as much fun as I did learning together.