I’m honored to be participating in a linky party hosted by Deborah of Teach Preschool. In honor of 20,000 followers on the Teach Preschool Facebook page Deborah is hosting a celebration of early education titled The ABC’s of Teaching Preschool. Preschool bloggers from around the world are linking up, it’s huge!
When the linky party was announced I thought I would write “L is for Literacy.” Then I started to think about what teaching preschool really means to me. I kept coming back to happiness and joy because those are the feelings I have when I am in the classroom with the children. As usual, fate took over and Deb invited me to write about the letter J, so here it is, without further ado, J is for Joy!
I’m sure most teachers would agree that what brings us the most joy are the children. If that were all that brought me joy this would be an awfully short post. I’m not going to bore you with a long-winded speech about the joys of teaching and cute pictures of smiling kids because a) that’s sappy and b) that’s what Pinterest is for. Instead I thought you might enJOY {couldn’t resist!} seeing things that bring my teacher self joy in little ways each day.
Music: Using music in the classroom helps me regain my joy each and every day. No matter how bad my day is going, singing with children can always restore my joy. These are just a few of my favorite children’s musical artists in no particular order.
- HeidiSongs
- Dr. Jean
- Hugh Hanley
- Jack Hartmann
- Deb also has a fantastic CD for preschoolers!
Blogs and Websites: I find constant inspiration from teacher blogs and websites. When the paperwork, meetings, and daily drama all get to be too much I can always find inspiration from my “colleagues in the cloud”. Here are some of my favorites in no particular order.
Social Media: Reading about teaching on the internet is great, but actually interacting with other teachers via social media is where it’s at. When you interact with people on a daily basis who love their profession as much as you do it’s contagious, just as the opposite is true.
Deals: Most teachers jump for joy when they find a great bargain. You know what brings me even greater joy? Turning those bargains into useful classroom items, especially if said items sell for a boatload of money in the teacher stores!
What brings you joy in your professional life? Leave a comment below and share the joy!
Congrats Deb and thanks for hosting this educational blogging extravaganza!
Check out the rest of the alphabet over at Teach Preschool and vote for your favorite post {ahem!}
Help spread the word about this linky party by clicking the “Like” button at the top of the page or by using the other social media links below.
I always jump for joy when I get new stuff for my classroom:) I was listening to a CD by Greg and Steve today in our classroom while we were busy in centers and all of the sudden all the children started singing out loud! That brought me joy!!
Love Love Love Greg and Steve! and Raffi…
“J” is also for “Just Perfect”! I love my job and what I do every day—and get tons of joy from it. I am also finding joy in the wonderful community of ECE educators like you that I’ve connected with! 🙂
Thanks Ayn, back atcha! I love my “cloud colleagues”!
I echo a lot of that ‘joy’ – love your post!
I couldn’t have said it better, but I’ll add…I love going to yard sales and finding a great buy for my class. I even freecycle. Just found 30 free name badges to use for science, a large container full of yarn, and a computer program just to make awesome calendars! but my number one JOY is being a part of a child’s life. My joy moment today…when one of my kiddo’s mother told me he thought school was “awesome”. Love, Love, Love it!
Yea Tonya! Congrats on your awesome finds! It’s the kids who make our jobs worthwhile 🙂
Teaching preschool is being close to the source of wonder: exhuberant lively children; bright fresh colors; fabulous children’s books, fresh eager minds and hands, seeing the tremendous growth that occurs in each child– all joyous. I love linking learning experiences together and sharing with other teachers, too. I love still being engaged in learning myself.
Oh yes Jeanne, learning new things is one of my favs too! I think being a life long learner is a requirement for being a teacher 🙂
Joy is a great word for teaching preschoolers. And one of the benefits of connecting thru blogs is finding others who are excited about stuff for the classroom for cheap or free!
Scott, you are a member of my “Bargain Brigade”! Keep your eyes open for those deals 🙂
Yes, the kids are what bring me the most joy! And I love watching them sing and dance! Thanks so much for the shout out, Vanessa!
Heidi Butkus
Heidi, couldn’t agree more. A classroom without singing and dancing isn’t a fun classroom, and you can’t really sing and dance without the kids- well you could but people would stare 😉
Joy is one way to describe what we do each day in a single word. I echo the sentiments again about bargain hunting. I’m always on the lookout.
I did enJOY this post. 🙂
Ah Greg, what a JOYous comment 😉 So glad you joined the blogosphere, love your sense of humor! I take back every bad thing I ever said about Aussie bloggers 😉
What a lovely letter to pick : ‘J’! Isn’t it so pure for both, teachers and children, in pre-school ?
Love your joy defining picks too, wouldn’t be any different for me!
Today was the first day of school for my Junior Kindergartners (4K) and it brought me great, great, great JOY that there was not a tear shed! I think this is a record for me, of course there is always tomorrow. But…..even if there are tears I still find great JOY in teaching these wonderful kids.
Hi. I enJOY kids music too, but I have limited funds. I looked at all the cds you recommended, but there are too many choices. If you could only buy one or two cd’s for a 3 & 4 year old’s preschool which would you choose? Please help me, they all look so fun.
Hi Shelli, Good question! I think if you have 3 year olds Hugh Hanley is definitely my first choice. His stuff is very classic, simple and great for 3’s and 4’s all year long. If you want them to learn to identify letters and letter sounds then Heidisongs Singable Songs for Letters and Sounds is also the best. Hope that helps!
Lovely post! I feel grateful everyday that I head off to work knowing that I am able to share, in a small but hopefully significant way, in the lives of some very precious little people. It brings me great joy to see their smiling happy faces at play and to know that while they are in our care, their experiences are also joyous. 🙂
🙂 great post! There are so many reasons to be joyful!