Today in The Maker’s Place the kids had a variety of activities going on. When I first came in they were painting a face silhouette. I noticed that some kids painted their more abstractly than others. They also created chalk boards. When I was helping Mr. V glue the stands to the flat board of wood, one of the student saw what was doing and began doing it herself. I learned today that the kids at that age are learning independence and are beginning to take on tasks head on and sometimes even without asking. Although I did feel like what she did was slightly rude because she didn’t ask I didn’t take it too personal. One thing I found interesting is that Mr. V has a sense of humor around the kids and often make jokes and make them laugh. You could see that they respect him. At the moment it’s harder for me to have a sense of humor with the kids because I feel like I might say something wrong and I don’t know the kids as well as Mr. V does. My hope one day is the have my student respect me and look up to me in the way that the kids at Beverly J. Martin look up to Mr. V.
Rose Scholars Fall 2018
Endless possibilities
I love how spontaneous and pure kids can be. Considering your point about how they all respect Mr. V, mimicking you helping him is probably the kid’s way of showing care and affection towards him and, in this way, of helping him. And this is beneficial not only in terms of her having a “role model”, but also (as you mentioned) in terms of learning to have independence and initiative. Considering she didn’t ask, I assume she feels she has enough freedom / feels comfortable enough, in Mr. V’s presence, to take action, so I don’t see that as something negative 🙂 (although it’s also important to ask before doing things, I think her initiative and care both matter much, much more than that. Moreover, this could be particular to her interaction with Mr. V and not a general behavior. For example, maybe he encourages them to take action…?)
Not only thinking about children and Mr. V, but also about students and professors in general, it’s quite impressive the impact a good professor can have on students of any age, inspiring them and giving them direction and a sense of purpose. I myself can name a few professors I’ve had who are marked in my head and who mean the world to me and inspired me to pursue my physics major. I’m not sure where I’d be right now without them. I dream of being a professor in the future (but not for elementary school; I don’t know how to deal with kids and, similarly to your experience, I’m afraid of doing something wrong! haha), and I also hope to have students look up to me the way you mentioned. Because that means a lot to them.