January Theory in Practice Connections

Wow! January has been an eventful month to say the least! From being shut down on the first day back due to the icy cold temperatures to explaining to my students where snow comes from, January was definitely a great month to build upon my little ones' exploratory skills!

I think I have grown so much as an educator and am really beginning to feel my way throughout navigating my classroom and helping my students really become comfortable with the classroom setting. I can say that I'm really looking forward to diving into the Morning Meeting book because I feel like my students are starting to get bored with the same routine every day. We greet each other, we go over the months, the days, and we even do some counting and they are just over it! Right now I've just been trying to think of different ways to make it more interesting to them because some of them still haven't mastered these important skills yet and I just want them to be well prepared for Kindergarten. Luckily, I've been very good lately with thinking on my toes so once I notice that the morale is low, I've been trying to spice things up more and make the months seem more interesting than they really are lol

If I had to pick a theme for the month of January I definitely would say that I really keyed in on my students' interests. We have been talking about Wind and Water this month and I was really amazed to see how they could think scientifically and a lot of their thoughts and observations and even the connections they were able to make was just really remarkable to witness

It was really rewarding to me as an educator to hear my students leave from school telling their parents about all of the interesting things that they had learned for that day. I'm really looking forward to continuing to speak with them about things that matter to them and finding ways to incorporate those things into my lessons.

In terms of progress with my students, I would say writing has been one of their most improved area collectively and they also really enjoy it. I was already proud to see that almost all of my students are able to identify their names but now it's even better to see many of them try to write it! 

At the end of the day, I think little moments like Malik being so excited that he can finally identify that little letter between the "l" and the "k" in his name that had been troubling him or moments when Marley can literally retell the entire story to his classmates with supporting details without assistance from the teacher really make being not only an educator, but an educator of little people so much more worth it. I'm looking forward to seeing what February brings & I can't wait to talk about African Americans who have made strides in history to my students! :-)