Shel Silverstein and Stickers

I’ve decided to start memorizing some poetry. Now for those English buffs out there, don’t think me much… I’m starting with Shel Silverstein. What do you expect, I teach 4 and 5 year olds!? :) It’s fun though… I discovered my Shel Silverstein book tonight while looking for some other kids’ books, and so the fun began! I actually read somewhere recently that it’s great for kids to see and hear their teacher reciting poetry from memory… makes it sound fun and exciting. And since my goal is to be the best preschool teacher I can be, I must try it! On another exciting note, I got a sticker today!! Now, when my students clean up their centers by the time a bell goes off, they get stickers too. And boy do they want those stickers. Kids like stickers. Stickers are fun. But today Ms. Jenny and I got stickers too! One of the district managers for Childcare Network came by today for a quick surprise visit and after a few minutes in our class, she decided that she saw many things that she liked. She said it looked like “lots of great things are happening here.” And she gave us gold stickers to put on our certificates of excellence. Yippee!! I’ve been really stressed at times the past few months, thinking that I’m not a good teacher anymore… It had been a while since I was a “real” teacher in my own classroom. But today I got a little confirmation that maybe I’m not such a bad teacher after all. :) I like stickers. Stickers are fun. ;)