Miss Read Raises Her Hand

Hi everyone! I made it through my very first day of student teaching! Well, of interning, anyway! I am tired and happy. The day went great! It also went very quickly. Its a preschool program with a morning class and an afternoon class, each of which is two and a  half hours long. In that two and a half hours, not much happens! 


In the morning the kids start the day off going to the bathroom (always important when you're three or four years old and just took a half hour long bus ride!) Then we take them to the gym, where they basically just run around bouncing balls for half an hour. There isn't really a gym program or organized activity or anything. After that, they come back to the classroom and the teacher reads them a story. Then they have "Choice" time. During this time the teacher and aide pull small groups of children to work on little projects, while the others play freely. Today the teacher was testing kids on their progress, while the aide and I helped kids cut and paste penguins together. Snack comes next, and then it is time for the kids to bundle up and go home! The afternoon class is the same thing but with a much smaller group of kids. 


During lunch hour, there was a staff meeting, which I had to go to as well since I am pretending to be staff! The meeting was about the PBIS program that the school plans to adopt starting next school year. I'm pretty familiar with PBIS, because several of the schools I've observed at use it. So when the principal, who was giving a power point presentation, asked a particular question, I raised my hand. 
Yeah... I raised my hand. When I retold this story later to my mother she said, "Ugh, you raised your hand like you're still in elementary school," but she totally missed the point of the story and found the one negative part. 
I didn't really raise my hand, anyway... just kind of waved slightly since nobody else was saying anything! 
The question was about the part of PBIS involving schoolwide celebrations. The question was whether kids who had been getting multiple "majors" and "minors" should be invited to schoolwide celebrations. Nobody answered. That's when I made the giant mistake of raising my hand, before I could stop myself! Suddenly I felt like running from the room because everyone was looking at me, but I replied to the question, "Yes, because that way the kids are included as part of the school community, and can feel proud of what the entire school is doing, instead of feeling like outcasts." 
The principal responded with, "Yes, that's exactly it, and thank you so much for being brave on your first day here!" He later thanked me again for participating on my first day. 
So, the good news is, I was noticed in a positive way by the principal of the school, I showed him that I knew and understood the PBIS concept already, and I showed him that I was already willing to participate in a staff meeting . I think these are good things, especially since, at the end of the semester, a letter of recommendation from a principal will look great when I'm applying for a job!


But the bad news is, of course, I raised my hand. Ugh!