Julie Peterman is our SEC Fellow at Conte West Hills Magnet School in New Haven. She teaches with the wisdom that comes with 34 years of teaching experience, but with the curiosity and drive to seize opportunities for growth of a person new to the field. Her students and their developmental needs are at the center of what she does.
I have often felt that the first weeks as a public school Pre K 3 teacher is like the labor of birthing a child – if you truly remembered what it is like, you might not choose to ever do it again! These highly intelligent little people who are sponges for learning need to move through some basic developmental social emotional stages to be able to move into the business of learning in a community. And eighteen of them are all going through it together in one room.
As I look over my first few weeks of “mandated” lesson plans, I smile to myself at how little of what I actually plan for gets done each day. Names. Community. Rules. Routines. Colors. Numbers. The “school” curriculum of Pre K. We seize each teachable moment but the reality of our day is dealing with the life of 18 two and three year olds all together in a space trying to figure out how to do “school.”
The first days of Pre K 3 are what we lovingly call the “Cryfest.” Most children cry as parents drop off them off the first few days so mornings are loud and wet. While many children can soothe themselves and are interested and engaged in the classroom a few minutes after moms and dads leave, others can cry and scream for an hour. Or more. And as the day goes on one child crying can easily set off four or five more students crying. Our reassuring mantra is, “Mommies always come back,” but even the mention of mommies can start some crying. Working on helping the children build secure attachments to their new caregivers takes time. Even when we are fully staffed there are sometimes not enough laps!
Then there is the toileting. I have a master’s degree and thirty four years of experience teaching and I spend a significant part of my school day in the bathroom. The independence a child gains when they are toilet trained is immeasurable but the cost for the teacher is hours of bathroom time. Children learn to govern their bodies and gain mastery of potty training with the right motivation but getting eighteen children to use the bathroom as needed is a challenge for even the most experienced teacher. And the bathroom vocabulary…I originally only used the term “Lets go to the bathroom,” so as not to talk down to my students, but as I try to be sensitive to children’s comfort and understanding by using home terminology I now say “Who needs to potty? Let’s go potty! Pee pee potty time! Let’s go-go,” a hundred times a day.
Then the temper tantrums. Temper tantrums are a normal age-appropriate emotional response to not getting what you want. Young children learn to regulate their behavior through experience and trial and error but the first few weeks as children try to figure out life in a classroom, temper-tantrums are rampant. A child might throw themselves down, kick and scream, hit and throw because someone looks at them. Or they want the red shovel. Or you ask them to sit down. Carefully protecting the child, the other children and yourself is a necessary skill.
Needless to say there can be no fear of bodily fluids! Teachers become living Kleenex. The tears and snots as a child leans in for comfort; the hardened dry mucus balls children love to hand over to the teachers; the drool from crying across your shirt; the handling of soiled clothes; the realization when a child crawls into your lap and all of a sudden you have a big wet spot on your pants: Bodily fluids are a part of the daily schedule.
The pay off……
The day arrives when no one cries at drop off. You get through morning meeting and breakfast without a tear or an accident. You call the children to the rug and they all come and SIT DOWN!! No one screaming laying face down on the floor. You read a book and have a conversation. You complete a lesson in one sitting. Most children are smiling, many are content, and all are worming their way into your heart.
