My name is Sarah O'Neal I have been teaching for eight years. I teach in a small school in Western Maryland. I currently teach kindergarten with 20 students. I have taught second and third grade also. I attended a local college for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees, Frostburg State University. My undergraduate degree is in Elementary Education with a concentration in early childhood. My graduate degree is in Curriculum & Instruction with a certificate in Educational Technology. I am in the process of perusing my Ed.D. with Walden University in Early Childhood. My aspiration is to be a full time Early Childhood professor at the college level, preferably at Frostburg State University.
I am motivated to help children succeed in school by giving them the foundation they need at the early childhood level. I have great concern for children who live in poverty and are malnourished and neglected. I have conducted some research on the effects of malnourishment and I was in disbelief with my findings. The school I work at has many families who cannot provide the proper food for their children we service those families as best as we can, but I worry it is not enough. Research shows that if a child has more than two periods of true hunger within the first ten years of life, it can have lasting effects such as stunted growth, speech delays, fine motor delays, gross motor delays, and learning disabilities. The focus seems to be going toward standardized testing, national standards, and bridging achieving gaps what happened to what is best for the child? I have students sitting in my classroom hungry, unsanitary, exhausted, and neglected and yet we expect them to learn. I believe our high level officials placing all these curriculum demands on us have forgot about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. I want to work on finding ways to help families who live in poverty provide more for their children and want to educate parents on how to talk to their children and support them.
I also have great concern about the media our children are exposed to such as video games, TV shows, and movies. I feel that violence in our schools is on the rise because of these exposures. In my current Walden class I will be working on a project that focuses on exposure to media and I hope to gain enough knowledge to start to make changes in what our children view.
I say all the time "I can't believe I get paid to do this." I do not view going to work and teaching a job or chore. I love my students and enjoy their company each day. I feel they teach me as much as I them. The light bulb moments as I call them are why I teach. I love to see that child who can't write his name the first few weeks of school finally write it and light up with such pride when he does. I feel that each time I can help a child even in a small way it is a reward. I really enjoy seeing my students go on to first grade and achieve success. The most important aspect of my job though is making connections with the students. I strive to have a connection with each one of my students each year and I work hard at learning about their interests so that I can talk with them each day about something other than school. I want my students to feel happy, safe, and excited to come to school.
One of my earliest memories of school was when I was in first grade. I was having trouble with the separation from my mom and didn't want to go to school. My first grade teacher Mrs. Adams made all the difference to me. She greeted me at the door each morning with kinds words and a hug. That made me feel so welcome and safe when she would do that. In addition to Mrs. Adams she had a special friend "Teddy the Bear" he lived in a special brown wooden box under her chalkboard. He usually only came out at story time, but she made a special exception for me. She allowed me to get him out each morning and put him on my desk to keep me company until lunch time. Then after lunch was story time and it was my job to bring him up to the carpet. Once the story was over it was time for Teddy to go to back into his wooden box to go to sleep. That bear literally got me through the first grade! The reason I share this story is to prove that it is usually the small things teachers do to make a difference not the large ones. Relationships have always been important to me and I have always had the need to feel safe and loved. Mrs. Adams filled those two needs everyday for me. I was having such a difficult time letting go of my attachment to my mom and Mrs. Adams saw that and made the effort to be a fill in mom! I think it is important to remember we work with very young children many with little experience in social settings away from home. Though the demands constantly rise in the world of curriculum and academics we must never forgot we still work with young children who are in need of love, nurturing, and security.
As I think about families and lack of family time and structure now, it brings two questions up in my mind. What happened to family game nights, family vacations, family outings, and family dinners? How do we as educators help families get back on track to building important relationships with one another?
This picture is me when I was learning to swim at age 7. My family spent many summers at our lake house at Deep Creek Lake in Maryland. This was a developmental stage of my life because my dad was teaching me how to swim where I couldn't touch. The lake was 25 feet deep off our dock so I had to be able to swim. He would be in the water and I would jump off the dock and swim to him, we did this many times each day. My childhood memories at the lake are some of my favorite I still go to the lake each summer, it works out really well that I am a teacher and so is my husband! Summers off! Our family built close relationships by spending so much time at the lake together. I still feel a sense of calmness and bonding when I go to the lake. I hope children still do simple family bonding activities today because I truly believe those activities build the foundations of great families.
