Celebrating Mom's graduation a little earlyMy Emma - | My name is Jackie Swift. My family and I just moved from Gilroy (the Garlic Capital of the WORLD) to Hollister, CA, which is a lot of farm lands. I am six of eight children, with 22 nieces and nephews and even four great nephews, I am not that old ;) So as you can see I have been around kids my whole life. I married my High School sweetheart 8 years ago and we have two beautiful daughters, 7 year old Emma whom just began second grade and 2 ½ year old Jessica, aka Princess Trouble! Although I was laid off from a job I was at for nearly 4 years, while working at this job I realized that quite frankly I can handle a 5 year old temper tantrums, but dealing with grown men and women each day nearly crying over a broken TV stick a fork in me, I'm done. That is when I decided I would be a great Kindergarten teacher so my husband and I talked about it and that is when I decided to go back to school to get my degree. After almost four long years, I am down to my last class before I obtain my bachelor’s degree with a double major in Education Studies and Cognitive Studies. As I was not working Emma’s first year of elementary school, I was able to help out every week in her Kindergarten classroom and loved every minute. I became a preschool teacher, about a year and a half ago and transformed my classroom into a Kindergarten classroom. I am having such a blast teaching, and even had five preschoolers last year reading at a Kindergarten level, so I know I picked the right field! My general understanding of brain-compatible learning is that it is based of scientific research incorporating things such as music to decrease stress, a reading area with comfortable chairs for the students, physical activity, encouraging healthy eating habits and limiting lecture time. However these are only guidelines not mandates (edglossary.org, August, 2013). One thing that I love about Emma’s elementary school is that they have healthy options, they have a complete salad and fruit bar during lunch. Although I have not seen music used in the classroom as a means to decrease stress I do know that one of the teachers at Emma’s school does play music often in her classroom, and last year in Emma’s classroom her teacher actually played the guitar during certain lessons. Our school does still have PE classes although it is only about fifteen minutes, or so, three days a week. I can recall while helping in Emma’s kindergarten classroom that her teacher often would shorten her lecturing time as to not overwhelm her students and would break it up throughout the day. Reference: Edglossary.org (August 29, 2013) Brain-based learning – Retrieved from: http://edglossary.org/brain-based-learning/ |
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