I am curious as to how teachers and parents feel about preschool children using computers in school. In my classroom we did not use a computer for a long time. The main reason was that we did not have a computer just for the children. One day I thought that I would try letting some of my older children try playing some games online on the teacher computer. I personally feel like introducing computers for short amounts of time is a good thing. Children are going to be using computers and technology throughout there academic life. The children loved computer time. We would allow them a 15 minute session of a developmentally appropriate game. We eventually made a chart for the children so the would know who had already had a turn for the week and who was next. It all turned out to be a good experience in patience and sharing for the children. They each get 15 minutes a turn once or twice a week.
Some of the sites we use in our classroom are Nick Jr. and PBS .
There are other online games out there but these are two that we trust to be developmentally appropriate and educational.
It is my opinion that computer games are OK appropriate as long as they are not used as a babysitter and are monitored with time limits.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Coping With a Bad Boss
So I have had a few bosses in my job. They have all had very different styles of managing. Everyone is different and everyone deals with situations in a different manner. I believe in my experience the worst kind of boss is the one who micromanages their employees. First of all the employees in this situation do not feel trusted. Second I really do not care for someone who asks me to do something and then ends up taking over (control freak!). Finally it just makes for a very stressful environment!
I feel like this type of boss really can't help themselves! Most of the time they do not realize what they are doing. They also tend to focus on the negative and when they do point out something positive it just feels fake. Trust me when I say that eventually the employees loose all respect for this person and comes to expect the negative. That is never a good thing!!
Below are few articles I found helpful on how to deal with a bad boss.
Dealing With a Bad Boss
Managing Your Boss
Dealing With a Micromanaging Boss
I feel like this type of boss really can't help themselves! Most of the time they do not realize what they are doing. They also tend to focus on the negative and when they do point out something positive it just feels fake. Trust me when I say that eventually the employees loose all respect for this person and comes to expect the negative. That is never a good thing!!
Below are few articles I found helpful on how to deal with a bad boss.
Dealing With a Bad Boss
Managing Your Boss
Dealing With a Micromanaging Boss
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Bed Rest
Sorry this is my first post this week. As I mentioned before I am about 30 weeks pregnant and have been on bed rest now for about 2 weeks. I spent most of yesterday in the doctors office. What was suppose to be a blood pressure and urine check turned into an eventful day @ the doc. My blood pressure was 148/100 at one point and they found a small amount of protein in my urine. I am now considered to have pre-eclampsia. I will now go in every week for BP and urine check as well as an ultrasound and stress test. I was given an ultrasound yesterday and the baby looks great! He already weighs 3 1/2 lbs. which is about a pound more than expected. I also had a stress test yesterday and he did great for that also. So, he is doing his part and I am trying to keep up my end of the deal with bed rest and following the doctors orders.
I have received some great advice from moms who went through he same thing and lots of words of encouragement. I am very thankful to have such wonderful people in my life!!
I have received some great advice from moms who went through he same thing and lots of words of encouragement. I am very thankful to have such wonderful people in my life!!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Parents
From my experience as a teacher I have encountered all kinds of parents!!!! It is usually the philosophy of a teacher and program that no one knows a child like their parents...they are the experts! I have had a few occasions where I must disagree!! Sometimes I wonder if we are talking about the same child. It always makes me laugh when a parent says something to the effect of "they never do that at home" or "well I told him if he gets hit he better defend himself and smack them back". Those are just a few of my favorites.
You have the parents that shrugged everything off and act like what you just told them is not a big deal. You have parents that immediately blame other children in the classroom for their child's behavior (this one is very typical). Then there are the parents that immediately get defensive and and want to know if their child is the only child you have ever seen act that way and they are doing the best they can and what exactly do you expect them to do. On the flip side there are the parents that want to know every behavior there child exhibits and if the child strays once they think they need counseling. As you can see parents come in many forms. No...not all are this way. Most parents are sensible and understand that their child exhibits unfavorable behaviors at times (because all children do) and they are willing to work with teachers to correct the behavior. But...there are always some exceptions, as you will read below.
A Very Special Parent
For the most part I have excellent parents in my classroom!!! But there are always those few or that one you really dread to see coming. I had a parent once that complained about something everyday!!! Most of the time she wasn't even complaining about something in our classroom, it was usually about other parents or the food we serve. These were things I really had no control over!! She really made my life miserable, she would track me down everyday!!! I have to admit there were times I would actually hide from her in the afternoons...if she found me she would say "are you hiding from me". Seriously??? If you think someone may be hiding from you aren't you going to ask yourself what are you doing to cause someone to want to do that? Something tells me that was not the first time she thought someone was avoiding her. When her child moved on to kindergarten I had another parent that also went to the same school. It was a private school and the other parent told me that she was driving everyone there crazy as well (I was not surprised) and other parents were threatening to leave the school because of her. The teacher was having a hard time with her also so the other parent told her not to feel bad because I use to hide form her...haha!!! She actually got called to the head master's office as was told if she wasn't happy to take her money and leave. I doubt that even made her realize the extent of her behavior. I have never before nor since had such a parent in my classroom. She has come back to visit a few times and when word gets out that she is in the building everyone either gets really busy and can't talk or well you know me....I just hide!!!!
Tips for Dealing with Difficult Parents
Great article about different types of parents and how to handle them
You have the parents that shrugged everything off and act like what you just told them is not a big deal. You have parents that immediately blame other children in the classroom for their child's behavior (this one is very typical). Then there are the parents that immediately get defensive and and want to know if their child is the only child you have ever seen act that way and they are doing the best they can and what exactly do you expect them to do. On the flip side there are the parents that want to know every behavior there child exhibits and if the child strays once they think they need counseling. As you can see parents come in many forms. No...not all are this way. Most parents are sensible and understand that their child exhibits unfavorable behaviors at times (because all children do) and they are willing to work with teachers to correct the behavior. But...there are always some exceptions, as you will read below.
A Very Special Parent
For the most part I have excellent parents in my classroom!!! But there are always those few or that one you really dread to see coming. I had a parent once that complained about something everyday!!! Most of the time she wasn't even complaining about something in our classroom, it was usually about other parents or the food we serve. These were things I really had no control over!! She really made my life miserable, she would track me down everyday!!! I have to admit there were times I would actually hide from her in the afternoons...if she found me she would say "are you hiding from me". Seriously??? If you think someone may be hiding from you aren't you going to ask yourself what are you doing to cause someone to want to do that? Something tells me that was not the first time she thought someone was avoiding her. When her child moved on to kindergarten I had another parent that also went to the same school. It was a private school and the other parent told me that she was driving everyone there crazy as well (I was not surprised) and other parents were threatening to leave the school because of her. The teacher was having a hard time with her also so the other parent told her not to feel bad because I use to hide form her...haha!!! She actually got called to the head master's office as was told if she wasn't happy to take her money and leave. I doubt that even made her realize the extent of her behavior. I have never before nor since had such a parent in my classroom. She has come back to visit a few times and when word gets out that she is in the building everyone either gets really busy and can't talk or well you know me....I just hide!!!!
Tips for Dealing with Difficult Parents
Great article about different types of parents and how to handle them
Thursday, February 18, 2010
About Last Night
So this is a personal story about what happened in our house last night.
Let me start off by saying that I am 7 months pregnant (with our first child) and on bed rest for high blood pressure. My sweet husband has had to take over all of my wifely duties including taking our dog to the vet.
So...the hubby takes our sweet 3 yr. old dog to the vet yesterday morning for his yearly shots. It was a nice quick trip for them and everything went very smooth. The dog and I hung out for a few hours while the hubby went and played a round of golf. Everything seemed fine. The dog slept a lot (although looking back he did go in a different room from me which is a bit unusual) and maybe scratched a little at this point. The hubby returned home around 4 p.m. and started cooking us some dinner around 5:45p.m.
Around this time we both started noticing that our dog was scratching a lot and shaking his head like crazy. He just seemed like he couldn't get relief. I start joking how he caught something at the vet. He was really in some kind of agony. All of the sudden the hubby starts looking at the dog in a very curious way and totally freaks out!! He starts saying that he is having an allergic reaction and his whole face and head are swelling. You could barely see his eyes. So now we are both freaking out!! We think he has been bit by some kind of insect (although it is like 20 degrees outside).
The dog will not sit still. He keeps scratching at the bedroom door and we will not let him in there because we think he is wanting to get away from us so he can go die...not funny but that is seriously what we thought. We slip him 2 benadryl and I call the emergency vet. The vet tells us he is having a reaction to the vaccinations and to give him one more benadrly and if that doesn't work bring him in for a steroid shot. We do as they say and he stops scratching within minutes. At this point we are completely relieved. The swelling starts to go down some but not completely. Actually the swelling did not go down completely until this morning.
He is much better today and looks normal again. My husband and I have now realized that we are going to be the "freak" parents...LOL!!! He says "if I freaked out like that over our dog how am I going to act about our kid?" We got a laugh later thinking back on how freaked out we were but at least we know we are quick on our feet!
Below is a recent article about pet reactions to vaccinations: Would have been nice to know this before yesterday!!
Article about pet vaccinations.
Let me start off by saying that I am 7 months pregnant (with our first child) and on bed rest for high blood pressure. My sweet husband has had to take over all of my wifely duties including taking our dog to the vet.
So...the hubby takes our sweet 3 yr. old dog to the vet yesterday morning for his yearly shots. It was a nice quick trip for them and everything went very smooth. The dog and I hung out for a few hours while the hubby went and played a round of golf. Everything seemed fine. The dog slept a lot (although looking back he did go in a different room from me which is a bit unusual) and maybe scratched a little at this point. The hubby returned home around 4 p.m. and started cooking us some dinner around 5:45p.m.
Around this time we both started noticing that our dog was scratching a lot and shaking his head like crazy. He just seemed like he couldn't get relief. I start joking how he caught something at the vet. He was really in some kind of agony. All of the sudden the hubby starts looking at the dog in a very curious way and totally freaks out!! He starts saying that he is having an allergic reaction and his whole face and head are swelling. You could barely see his eyes. So now we are both freaking out!! We think he has been bit by some kind of insect (although it is like 20 degrees outside).
The dog will not sit still. He keeps scratching at the bedroom door and we will not let him in there because we think he is wanting to get away from us so he can go die...not funny but that is seriously what we thought. We slip him 2 benadryl and I call the emergency vet. The vet tells us he is having a reaction to the vaccinations and to give him one more benadrly and if that doesn't work bring him in for a steroid shot. We do as they say and he stops scratching within minutes. At this point we are completely relieved. The swelling starts to go down some but not completely. Actually the swelling did not go down completely until this morning.
He is much better today and looks normal again. My husband and I have now realized that we are going to be the "freak" parents...LOL!!! He says "if I freaked out like that over our dog how am I going to act about our kid?" We got a laugh later thinking back on how freaked out we were but at least we know we are quick on our feet!
Below is a recent article about pet reactions to vaccinations: Would have been nice to know this before yesterday!!
Article about pet vaccinations.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
My First Job
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in child development I took a summer job as a nanny for a couple from a local preschool. That job was awesome...so much fun I can't really count that as my first real job. I mean they were members at a yatch club and I was able to take advantage of that everyday. My tan has never looked that good since!!
My first "real" job came that August at a privately owned child care center. All teachers that work for a state school or private school should start out this way so you can really appreciate the job they have. I was placed in a room with 12 (yes 12) 2 1/2 year olds. All by myself!!! I had no help, no assistant and nobody really ever checked in on me to make sure I was still alive. For all they knew those little munchkins could have eaten me alive. I had never been so tired in my entire life. I went in at 9 a.m and got off work at 6 p.m. Those were the longest days of my life!!! All 12 were in pull-ups. Needless to say those first few weeks I spent changing pull-ups and trying to stay sane.
I eventually got a routine down and managed to actually teach. I made a lifelong friend at that center. A person that I still work with today (at the university). She is older than me but we just kind of got each other although we are so different.
After about a year we were told that we were seeking to become accredited by NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) and things changed in a huge way. My classroom went down to 7 children because that was all that was allowed by NAEYC standards. Life and work became enjoyable again. It was hard but we actually did become accredited. Looking back now I really don't know how because the standards are very difficult to meet. Putting that I worked at an accredited center on my resume improved my chances greatly of finding a better job with better pay (we won't even go into that...it was not pretty). After 2 1/2 years at my first "real" job I applied for a teacher/lab instructor job at the university I graduated from and have been there for the last 8 years. About a year later I recommended my friend for an assistant job and she followed.
Although that first "real" job was almost unbearable to even think about, it did make me a stronger person, teacher and colleague. I appreciate my career, profession and salary more because of it. I feel very lucky to be where I am today but that doesn't mean there aren't hard times and very frustrating situations. My job now comes with many more responsibilities but I am thankful to have them!!!
My first "real" job came that August at a privately owned child care center. All teachers that work for a state school or private school should start out this way so you can really appreciate the job they have. I was placed in a room with 12 (yes 12) 2 1/2 year olds. All by myself!!! I had no help, no assistant and nobody really ever checked in on me to make sure I was still alive. For all they knew those little munchkins could have eaten me alive. I had never been so tired in my entire life. I went in at 9 a.m and got off work at 6 p.m. Those were the longest days of my life!!! All 12 were in pull-ups. Needless to say those first few weeks I spent changing pull-ups and trying to stay sane.
I eventually got a routine down and managed to actually teach. I made a lifelong friend at that center. A person that I still work with today (at the university). She is older than me but we just kind of got each other although we are so different.
After about a year we were told that we were seeking to become accredited by NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) and things changed in a huge way. My classroom went down to 7 children because that was all that was allowed by NAEYC standards. Life and work became enjoyable again. It was hard but we actually did become accredited. Looking back now I really don't know how because the standards are very difficult to meet. Putting that I worked at an accredited center on my resume improved my chances greatly of finding a better job with better pay (we won't even go into that...it was not pretty). After 2 1/2 years at my first "real" job I applied for a teacher/lab instructor job at the university I graduated from and have been there for the last 8 years. About a year later I recommended my friend for an assistant job and she followed.
Although that first "real" job was almost unbearable to even think about, it did make me a stronger person, teacher and colleague. I appreciate my career, profession and salary more because of it. I feel very lucky to be where I am today but that doesn't mean there aren't hard times and very frustrating situations. My job now comes with many more responsibilities but I am thankful to have them!!!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Welcome
Hi everyone. Since this is my first post to this blog I thought I would take a moment to share the idea behind the blog.
I have been a preschool teacher for almost 11 years. I have a bachelor's in child development and am working on a master's in interactive technology. This blog is a good way for me to incorporate both interests into one.
I worked for 2 1/2 years in a privately owned child care center and have worked for the last 8 years in a university laboratory child development setting. I am a teacher of preschoolers and a lab instructor for child development majors.
In my 11 or so years I have encountered many unexpected situations with children, parents, colleagues and administration. I thought this blog would be a great place to share some of those crazy experiences and offer up some advice, if wanted, to other teachers out there as well as to parents and administration.
I guess you could call it the "Good, Bad and the Ugly". I have chosen to post anonymously because I want to feel free to express myself without fear of being judged by those who may or may not think I am referring to them. I am not out to trash anyone but as teachers we really do encounter some crazy and "I can't believe that just happened" situations. Some are funny and some are very discouraging. Hopefully we can express ourselves here and offer up some good advice and words of wisdom!!
I have been a preschool teacher for almost 11 years. I have a bachelor's in child development and am working on a master's in interactive technology. This blog is a good way for me to incorporate both interests into one.
I worked for 2 1/2 years in a privately owned child care center and have worked for the last 8 years in a university laboratory child development setting. I am a teacher of preschoolers and a lab instructor for child development majors.
In my 11 or so years I have encountered many unexpected situations with children, parents, colleagues and administration. I thought this blog would be a great place to share some of those crazy experiences and offer up some advice, if wanted, to other teachers out there as well as to parents and administration.
I guess you could call it the "Good, Bad and the Ugly". I have chosen to post anonymously because I want to feel free to express myself without fear of being judged by those who may or may not think I am referring to them. I am not out to trash anyone but as teachers we really do encounter some crazy and "I can't believe that just happened" situations. Some are funny and some are very discouraging. Hopefully we can express ourselves here and offer up some good advice and words of wisdom!!
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