Entry 3

I wanted to reflect/share about a goal that I made for myself......

Over the past two weeks I have made an individual goal, as a pre-service teacher, to make an effort to send positive feedback to parents.  I have observed multiple classroom teachers discuss their behavior management techniques and have found myself realizing that more often than not, teachers are communicating with parents when they need to discuss a negative behavior.  As I do understand that this goal takes extra time, I feel that it is extremely important and creates a positive relationship between school and home.  Ever since I sent the first positive comment home, I have received countless comments back from parents saying how much they appreciate the encouraging feedback.  I have enabled students to feel proud of themselves and have seen an increase in student self-esteem when they ask me to read to them what I wrote on their daily log sheet.

 To many people, this little gesture may not seem as important as I do, but I cannot emphasize enough how critical this is to increase parent involvement.  It is evident that all parents want their children to succeed in life, and it makes me feel good inside when I know that my students’ parents take pride in what comments I have to say.  This individual goal that I set for myself in my student teaching classroom will remain one in my future classroom, as I want all my students to feel proud and successful in what they can do, instead of only being told with what they can’t do.

 As Haim Ginott quotes, “Children are like wet cement, whatever falls on them makes an impression.”

Thanks for reading about my journey through student teaching.  I am currently teaching every subject to my first graders!!!!!!!!!!!!!