While reading about the
teaching myths in the Ayers book, I was reminded of my own misconceptions just
over 3 ½ years ago. My youngest daughter was anxious to start Sunday
school with her sisters, but did not pass the “wax” test (mid-October
birthday). I asked if there was any way they would consider allowing
her to join the class. The Religious Education Director said that
she would be admitted if I would volunteer as an Assistant this year. That
sounded wonderful. About 10 days before the program started, I
received an email stating that “one of the teachers for my daughter’s class had
an unavoidable conflict this year, would I consider teaching Sunday school?” I
answered with a very nervous “Yes”. I was excited but anxious. I did not want to let these children or their
parents down. I had taught Taekwon Do for over 20 years, but had no
experience teaching in a regular classroom. The Director was
completely confident that I could take on the challenge (and likely had no one
else they could call on with such short notice). The first Sunday I
helped the children to wash their hands, find a place on the rug, color their
activity sheets, and watched as the Team A teacher led prayers, read
stories, sang songs, asked engaging questions, and interpreted the
three-year-old answers. I was in awe. She never raised
her voice, she held the children’s attention, and when they began to seem a bit
distracted, she silently started a game where the children mimicked her
actions. In mere moments the room was quiet and all of the children
were quietly following every move she made. Where did she learn to
do that? I didn’t have any of those tricks. I started
panicking.
I decided that my only
solution was to be incredibly prepared. I spent more than 10 hours
that week preparing a script with all of the clever stories I would tell and
the questions I would ask. I laid out a specific time-frame for each
activity. I made sure that there were 10 different things to do as I
had read somewhere that 5 minutes was the most I could expect for attention
span at this age. I had a three page typewritten plan when I got to
class the next Sunday. I had a pile of books with several stories
marked, two coloring pages, a singing/marching activity, a craft, and a whole
lot of determination. About 65 minutes later, one crying child (who
I held for the entire class) and 13 smiling students were dismissed to their
parents. I had not had time to look at my well-planned script a
single time. The craft projects were now sticking to the inside of
each of the students’ take-home bags as I had not accounted for glue-drying
time. I was exhausted but felt that I had accomplished something
very important. I had not lost a single child. Every
parent went home with the same child they had left in my care just over an hour
earlier.
I learned a valuable lesson. Although
preparation and experience are incredibly important, the best thing I did was
listen and pay attention to the children. I still spent 5-6 hours
preparing for every lesson for the rest of that school year, but I no longer
wrote scripts. Now I had bullet points and the font that I chose was
much larger. I still had 10 activities planned
for each day, but was not heartbroken if we missed one. I learned
that the most fun time for the students (and me) was when we sat in a circle on the rug and
talked about connections we had with the lesson. I love the honesty,
the emotion, and excitement that flows out of three-year-old children. They
have no filters and it is wonderful. I have so much more to learn from
them.
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