Ms. Agnes's classroom

  Take a breath, handle it and then move on!  Working with little ones as a professional could be exhausting and frustrating everyday. It could drain out your energy, patience, sometimes even compassion. You keep wondering if you are a good teacher or not, asking yourself why these little human beings just cannot listen and follow the given instructions after you have tried all the strategies.  Well, first of all, we have to remember that we are human beings,too. We have our own emotions and feelings. However, that we acknowledge how we feel doesn’t mean that we can lose our ration while handling the challenging behaviors. We should all keep it in mind that their behavior is part of their developmental process, not a reflection of our teaching ability or performance. Therefore, we should take this opportunity to model how we self-regulate our emotions to our little friends. Let’s take Child W as an example. He is 2 and half so surely he is at the stage of “ I want it so ...

Behind the “big feelings”,,,,,,, Last Saturday, I attended a conference about the developing social and emotional brain of young children hosted by CCRR with guest speakers, Dr. Vanessa Lapointe and David Loyst. The point of the whole presentation is about building connections with the young children before discipline, which I totally agree with. Some great examples and suggestions had been mentioned and discussed. However, I am just wondering how those strategies work in a small group setting, especially in the daycare, the raio is 1 to 8. It could be difficult for a teacher who works alone with 8 young children to manage everything effectively when “big feelings” arise. Picture this. The washroom is down the hallway. A teacher takes 8 little ones to the washroom after a nap. Some of them are still in potty training, needing pull-up change. The youngest starts having a tantrum due to not having enough nap. Why? The parents requested a short nap for this child so the child could go to ...

The moments……. Being an ECE could be physically tiring and mentally draining. However, the moments witnessing the growth of the children I work with is truly rewarding. Here are the moments that are worthy to cherish…….. On a cloudy morning, walking in the neighborhood……. While walking through the parking lot toward the street to begin our adventure, Child W, the only 2 and half boy, asked me, “Agnes, are we doing a fire drill today?” “No, not today,” I answered and was wondering why he popped the question suddenly. I followed his sight and then realised he saw the orange traffic cone at the entrance of the parking lot, which is our meeting point for emergencies. Then, Child J said,”look! The orange cone!” Child G continued, “ that’s where we do fire drills.” Then, I said,” yes, if the building is on fire or in any emergency, we follow the teachers. If you don’t see your teachers, we meet at the orange cone!”  After walking two blocks, “Chinese New Year, “ one of the children point...