By Beth Pinyerd
As the Classroom Observer, I would like to extend warm wishes, hope and joy for a good school year for teachers, students and their families.
Whether you send your child to school or homeschool your children, we have a very important goal to provide them with a quality education. A fresh new year of new students, goals, and lessons to teach, we welcome the 2019-2020 school year which is just around the corner!
I have always taught early childhood and elementary grades, but at joint teacher institute meetings with junior high and high school teachers, we can all glean from each other. Even though our pesonalities and styles may be different, we are all on the same mission
In order to meet the challenge, it is so important for us to be prepared. We teachers need to pack our heart backpack with spiritual, emotional and physical supplies! As I reflect on teaching years gone by, I do remember that my class and I had ups and downs even on the first day. But, being called into the classroom to teach has so many wonderful rewards that count for eternity!
From an anonymous author in one of my favorite books “Teachers are a Gift from God,” I have adopted this teacher acrostic to encourage myself and fellow teachers.
T-Teaching takes time
E-Energy
A-Attention paid to all the
C-Children
H-Helping them
E-Encouraging them
R-Reaching out to all students
S-Sometimes simply being there
As we teachers call each name on our roll on day one, we connect a name to a student and we quickly acknowledge that we will need understanding as we instruct our students. As the year begins, we assess each student’s potential that.
We will want our students to know that we respect and value them. We want to share knowledge and light the lives of our students with the love of learning.
We teachers desire our classrooms to be a place where students will learn, discover, create, question and grow. As we share our classroom rules with our students on day one, we reflect and use wisdom when we must discipline in promoting the learning process and when to show mercy. Mother Teresa coined this so well, “kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
In our backpack of teacher preparations, we prepare our lessons according to the age, abilities and developmental needs of our students. Young children learn so much by process whereas older students focus on content learning but many subjects require both ways of learning.
We desire to equip students with life skills and provide them inspiration to learn!
Parents, your assignments for the first day of school are to include your child in preparations such as clothes shopping, school supplies shopping, labeling their supplies and visiting the school with them. “Meet your Teacher Day” also helps to prepare your child mentally and emotionally to start or start back to school.
We are going to have a wonderful 2019-2010 school year! Teachers and parents can totally depend on God, who is the source of our strength, courage and peace.
Pinyerd has taught young children in the early childhood classroom for 34 years as well as outreaching to the elderly in intergenerational settings. She has taught and outreached in the schools in Opelika and Baldwin County. She holds a master’s degree in early childhood education as well as a bachelor’s degree in family and child development both from Auburn University. Her husband is the late Carl Pinyerd and she has one son, Gus Pinyerd who has taught her so much about learning. Classroom Observer is here to serve the community in sharing the wonderful teaching programs in our local public schools, private schools, and homeschools. The column is provided to enrich the education of our children, youth, and families. Classroom Observer welcomes educational news, school news, pictures, and events by e-mailing her at donnapinyerd@charter.net.