Little Eyes Are Watching

During Teacher Appreciation Week I recieved a very sweet card from one of my students. On it, she wrote that she looks up to me and I am a role model. I was very honored to recieve this card, but to be honest I was also a little scared.

Am I a positive role model? Am I the type of person I would want my own children to look up to? These are tough questions to answer and they reminded me how important the job as teacher is. Not only do we teach academic skills and concepts, we also teach behavior. These behaviors are the ones we plan in our lessons and the ones our students see us model.

Little Eyes are Watching...
1. How we interact with other staff members.
2. How we interact with other students.
3. How we interact with parents and the community.
4. How we deal with frusteration and things not going the way we plan.
5. How we deal with annoying situations. 
6. How we carry ourselves.
7. How we deal with frustration. 

I am a firm believer that children need to experience Frusteration. They also need to see adults experience frusteration, but they also need to see these adults pick themselves up and keep trying. Children learn a lot by modeling. I have a baby niece and most of her day is spent watching and imitating those around her.  As teachers and adults in general, we need to make sure we are modeling behavior we want our students to exibit.

Are you a positive role model? Would you want students to imitate your behavior? Always remember, little eyes are watching (even when we don't think they are).