March 15

As we all do every year, I have a few students who struggle with being proud.  They struggle at reading.  They struggle at math.  They struggle at being social.  They struggle at being comfortable to join in with other chatty students.  They struggle with having support at home.  They struggle with confidence.  I always always search for a way to ease this struggle at school so their pride in themselves can shine.  Sometimes this is easier said then done.  Sometimes it take the whole year, but I never stop trying.

Today I finally had success with one of my sweet kiddos.

She is shy with the other kiddos- she will talk with me so I try to find commonalities with her and the other kids to spark a converstaion.

Her reading and phonics skills are not very strong, so I always make sure she is comfortable when participating with the whole class by having her answer and sound out words she knows.  Trying to give her confidence when answering.

She doesn’t get support at home, so she works on what she can on her remote learning days independently but leaves work unfinished, but I always take her work and gush over her hard work like I do for everyone else.  This seems to  ease her concerns when I ask for her work.

Although these things were helping a bit, I never really saw her “shine” with pride in herself.

I started noticing that she was more comfortable in math and so I started looking into ways during math to help her recognize her hard work and hopefully start to feel some pride in herself.

We count to 100 every day, as that is a skill that needs to be mastered by the end of Kindergarten.  I make it a big deal when a student can count up to 100 by themselves with no errors.  We celebrate them, they get an “I can count to 100” bracelet, I take their picture and add it to our 100 club board. I noticed how well she counted and the transitions (like 49 to 50 or 79 to 80) did not trip her up as they usually do. This could be it.  I haven’t even had anyone try to count for me as no one seemed ready..  Today she seemed ready. Today I had her count..

Guess who is the first person this year to join our 100 club?  Yep it was her!

Guess who made a HUGE deal about it? Yep I did!

Guess who smiled bigger than I’ve seen all year (she was wearing a mask- but you can still tell when the smile is big enough)? Yep it was her!

Guess who finally felt like she saw some pride shine through this little kiddo? Yep it was me!

Guess who is going to celebrate this win and try to keep it going..  Definitely me!!