I returned to my primary placement on Friday. It was a ridiculously busy day, but I was already missing my 2nd graders and I really do not want to lose touch with them for two full months. I arrived when the children were in the library so that I could have a few minutes to catch up with my Cooperating Teacher. He updated me with some of the highlights of the week, two visits from the Assistant Superintendent, continuing struggles with overloaded classrooms, and concerning new behaviors displayed by a couple of the students. Just a few more items to be added to the teetering stack of issues to balance when trying to help shape the futures of these wonderful young people.
A few minutes later we headed over to the library to retrieve the children. They had not been told that I would be coming to visit today. I was going to say "You can't imagine how my heart felt when I saw their faces" but considering the audience, you probably know exactly how I was feeling. I could see on their faces that they were truly excited to have me back at school, nearly as excited as I was to see them. I wished that I could take the time to sit down with each and every one of them and catch up on what had happened in their lives in the past week. Small things stood out, several of them had new haircuts, one was celebrating her birthday. What luck that I would come back on the only day of October when we had a student birthday.
We distributed laptops for the first time this school year. It was a wonderful learning experience for all of us. The best lesson for me was to step back and watch. The kiddos can and should be able to troubleshoot most of the problems on their own. I was impressed! It seemed that about 5 minutes had elapsed since I arrived, and then it was time to escort them to lunch. I did not want to leave. This is it, this is definitely the place for me.
I'm so glad to hear that you had time in your busy schedule to visit your primary placement. I haven't had time to go back to mine yet, but I seriously think about them every single day! Isn't it amazing the bond we are able to form so quickly? Even the little things, like their haircuts and birthdays do mean so much to us. As for the laptop thing, oh my goodness, we had to do that in fourth grade this week. They were pretty proficient on them at this age, yet trying to save things to a flash drive was quite an ordeal! Your advice of stepping back and letting them figure it out is a good one, I found myself really wanting to just do it for some of them for the sake of time, but gosh...I have to catch myself!
ReplyDeleteYes, it is definitely the joy that you see in those twinkling little eyes and the excitement you hear in those voices that brings you back to them. Is it not wired that just a month ago we did not even know these children and now we feel like a disservice to stay away form them for 2 long months?
ReplyDeleteYes, it is definitely the joy that you see in those twinkling little eyes and the excitement you hear in those voices that brings you back to them. Is it not wired that just a month ago we did not even know these children and now we feel like a disservice to stay away form them for 2 long months?
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