The Joys of Preschool...

I finished my week as the lead teacher, and it was a complete success! I'm still not entirely sure how it happened, but I have earned back the respect and trust of everyone at the center. One comment that my supervisor wrote in her observation notes was that she had never seen so much improvement from a student teacher within one week. I think I even surprised myself!

I am especially proud of 3 things that I did this last week that I think really "enriched" the lives of the preschoolers:

• For three days, I had bubble wrap in the sensory table, and now the entire preschool class knows the joys of popping bubble wrap.
• I put three of my favorite books, by Doreen Cronin, in the reading center: Click Clack Moo; Thump, Quack, Moo; and Giggle Giggle Quack. Love them!
• During one group time, I played clips of two Bach pieces, the Flower Duet, and Agnus Dei.

I feel that, with the addition of these three pieces in my unit, my work at preschool is done. ;)

Yay!!!

I am so happy tonight! To make a long story short, the past few weeks have been very trying. Last week, the gauntlet was thrown, and I was given one week to "turn it around." This week is my lead week, which means I am in charge of almost everything! I spent at least 10 hours at the preschool getting things ready, and I was a nervous wreck. Somehow, I'm not even sure how, things got turned around. So far, I have received numerous compliments on my work and teaching, and I can tell that the teachers and staff are really 100% behind me now! I cannot tell you how ecstatic I am that the week has been successful and that everyone actually thinks so! In case you can't tell, I had some self-esteem issues. :)

So, I have one day of lead-teaching left and three more days next week, two of which will be with the toddlers! Then two glorious days off, a wedding, and off to 1st grade the next Monday.

Yay!