Teaching and Teachers Matter

April 11-17 2010 was the week of the young child. Every year NAEYC(National Association for the Education of Young Children)has a week dedicated to young children. The themes for the week of the young child varied from Play: Where learning begins, Encouraging Health and Fitness to Teaching and Teachers Matter. As an educator I based my lesson plan this week on fun activities that promote learning through play. To look deeper into how my teaching effects my students I took to heart the theme Teaching and Teachers Matter.

Everyone can remember their favorite teacher. What about the teacher who passed out gifts for well behaved students? What about the teacher who gave parties and made cupcakes and cookies? Or the teacher who always picked you as the helper? The other students who where jealous teased you and called you "teachers pet" LOL. What about the teacher who never picked you as the helper? The teacher who always seemed negative and it effected you emotionally? It has been said that the teacher who effects us the most is the latter. The teacher who was the negative influence in our lives.

As a teacher I always think how my behavior is effecting my students? How will their futures be influenced by how I teach them today? I have the honor and privilege to teach preschool. Yes, I have my work cut out for me. Everyday there are new set of problems that I have to work collectively with others to solve. As the classroom manager I have to help solve issues between co-teachers. I have to make sure that lesson plans are purposeful, with meaning and are child centered activities daily. Not to mention my paper work! So it is important for me that what I teach is as important as what I do. To teach is to lead by example. This is why parents are the first teachers in a child's life.

Parents role in teaching is the source of how the child will respond in school. For example, if the children are in a home where their parents sit down and read to them, that child will have a LOVE for reading and learning. For the child who does not have that luxury at home, is what makes my responsibility as a teacher that much greater. This is why there must be a collective effort from everyone that is in a child's life! Teaching and teachers matter. It does not matter if you are the child's parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, family dentist, firefighter, writer, or teacher. Our work is to give our children a life free of violence, hate, and ignorance. We must ask ourselves what have I given to our children. What has my life taught a child who will be effected in some way by me being active in their lives.

My mission as a teacher is to make learning fun and purposeful. I want my students to have a desire to learn, ask questions, and be free to be themselves. That is what my teaching environment supports. What does yours?

I still Remember

April 19, 1995 I was a Junior in High school. On that specific day I was taking a childcare class at Metro Tech in Midwest City Oklahoma. I remember it was a pretty day outside. Not a lot of clouds, a really nice sunny day. The other childcare teachers and I took our class outside to enjoy the beautiful morning. Out on the playground everyone felt a shake. Sense Metro Tech is near Tinker Air force Base I assumed it was just an airplane. I remember lining up the preschoolers and walking back in the classroom. Then my classmates where screaming and sitting in front of the TV. And I saw the most horrific images on TV. It was like watching a movie. Bloody bodies being carried out of the building into the ambulance trucks. The local news worked over time trying to capture the experience so it can feel real to those of us watching from our TVs. It did not seem real at all. I could not fathom what I saw.

As days to follow more and more bodies where found in the rumble. News began to circulate that there was a daycare in the basement of the building. My heart dropped. I thought what type of person could do such a thing? The sadness was real as family members of the missing desperately searched and prayed for a cousin, brother, sister, or mother's safe return.

Pictures of the missing were shown on local and national broadcast news stations. The whole world was locked into the Oklahoma City bombing . Who did it? What was the motive? Some even suggested terrorist attacks from abroad. Accusing innocent people based on where they were from and the whole time it was American born citizens who did the crime. An Army veteran, Timothy McVeigh, was eventually convicted on federal murder charges in connection with the bombing and executed in 2001.

McVeigh said he set off the bomb in front of the Murrah building at 9:01 a.m., in part, to seek revenge against the U.S. government for its raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, on April 19, 1993 (CNN).

As an Oklahoman that day will be remembered forever. In my home my grandmother put up a banner that reads "I still remember". 15 years later the questions are still being asked, is this a safe country? Will this happen again? The truth is yes, it can happen again. My prayer is that it doesn't. With our government taking a serious look at terrorist attacks and hate for the government here at home, that would be a start.

Years ago when I told people that I was from Oklahoma they would ask "where the bombing was"? I don't get asked that question any more. It seems that most people have forgotten. But the people from Oklahoma will never forget. We all either lost a family member, a friend, or we know someone who did. Or worst we know survivors who struggle with putting their lives back together again. Mercy Lord!

My hope and prayer on this day is to remember those who lost their lives. To say a prayer for the survivors and the victims families. Oklahomans showed compassion on that day. The day where total strangers helped out other strangers with the common bond of the human spirit! Today is a day to remember community and strength as well. Let's celebrate this day with peace in our hearts and minds.

Do you remember what you were doing April 19, 1995? Do you know anyone who was a victim? Please feel free to share your story!