I started my new job this week at Brierwood Day Care.  At Brierwood, I am a teacher's assistant.  Our ratio is 1:6. My main job role is to assist the head teacher with the lesson plan she has for each day.  Other job duties include keeping an eye on each child, playing with the children, potty training the children, and disciplining when necessary.  I am in the Toddler 2 classroom, which ranges from 10-15 2 year olds each day.  Each day the children come into the classroom and start playing.  We offer breakfast for those children who didn't eat.  After all the children are present, we go outside and play on the playground for a half an hour.  Then we come in and do potty training with each child.  Once that is done, we have snack and then we do an activity.  The children are then allowed to play again while each child potty trains.  Then it is time for lunch and after the children have naptime for 2 hours.  When they wake up, they potty train again, do another activity, have another snack, and go outside until they are picked up.  The potty training aspect is very beneficial because it helps each child to start using the toilet properly.  Each child is on a different level; some children use the toilet whenever they have to go, while others have never used it.  However, we make every child sit on the toilet, even if they don't do anything.  This past week, one of the children, Nicholas, went poop on the potty for the first time.  He was so excited that he went and he told everyone about it and smiled.  Naptime is always a difficult time of the day because some of the children do not want to sleep.  We have this one girl, Norah, who gets separation anxiety because she misses her mother.  Whenever she lies down, she starts crying and saying "Mommy."  In order to calm her down, I rub her nose gently because it helps her fall asleep.  I really enjoy working with the children because they are all so different and I am starting to pick up on their different behaviors.     

Day 2

Yesterday was a fun day at Brierwood because the other assistant teacher and I had a lot of activities for the children to do.  The children played for most of the morning, until we started finger-painting. There was only one boy, Nicholas, who didn't want to paint because he was feeling sick.  Instead of the children using their fingers to paint, they decided to use their whole hands.  Their pictures came out cute and I could tell that they were enjoying themselves.  A little while after snack, we went for a walk around town.  The one girl, Cordelia, laughed the entire time because she was really enjoying her walk.  It was time for lunch when we got back from our walk.  The girl, Norah, who gets separation anxiety, would not eat and started crying because she missed her mother.  I eventually calmed her down and she started eating.  After lunch, everyone got on his or her cots to lie down for naptime.  I thought for sure that all of the kids would take a good nap, but it was just the opposite.  Four of the eleven children we had that day, did not sleep at all, four fell asleep right away, and the other three only slept for 40 minutes.  Another boy, Alex, misbehaves a lot and he wasn't listening when I told him to lie down.  He has this stuffed dog that he takes everywhere so we decided to take the dog away from him when he misbehaves and give it back to him when we tell him to do something.  In order for him to lie down, I took the dog away and asked him to go lay down.  He did so, so I reinforced his good behavior by giving him his dog back.  This strategy seems to work almost every time.  After nap, we played with stamps and went outside until the children were picked up.  The children also enjoyed the stamps, but they made a huge mess.    

Day 3 Today was a short day.  When I arrived, I was told to go to the other toddler room.  The children were napping so I cleaned the dishes from lunch.  There is one boy, Ryan, who is in that classroom that likes to bite his classmates.  We need to make sure that he always has a binky in his mouth and that someone is watching him at all times.  I basically followed Ryan around all day making sure he didn't bite.  He had a couple close encounters where I thought he was going to bite someone, but I caught him in time.  It was exhausting watching him because he moves all around and is so quick.  For about 15 minutes today, I have to go into the KinderReady room in order to balance out their ratio.  It was such a different experience because the children are older and you don't need to follow them around.  The children are a lot more independent and they don't fight.  The children also enjoy engaging in activities with you more and their attention span is much bigger.  By the end of the day, I was by myself with five children.  I wanted them to calm down a little so I had them color for a little bit.  When they got bored with that, I turned on the CD player and had them dance.  This made them a little tired before their mom/dad picked them up.    

Day 4 Yesterday, was a crazy and hectic day.  Most of the children were not listening and were misbehaving.  Yesterday was also picture day so all of te children came into school all dressed up.  The photographer did a great job getting the kids to smile for their pictures.  He would put a stuffed animal on his head and have it fall off so the kids would laugh.  If worked for all of the children.  After all the pictures were taken, it was time for pottytime.  The one little girl, Norah, never goes on the potty, but yesterday she did and I verbally praised her so she would continue to go on the potty.  After potty, we had a quick snack because Miss Sue was coming in for music.  Miss Sue comes to our classroom every Thursday for 30 minutes and sings songs for the children.  Sometimes she'll bring her keyboard, maraccas, and/or stuffed animals.  It is a great time for the children because they are focused and have fun at the same time.  The other teacher and I decided to do an activity with shapes so we had all of the kids sit down.  We each gave them a piece of paper and a bunch of paper shapes.  They glued all of the shapes on and then we had them put sequins and glitter on their collage.  They had fun doing this.  The kids had a lot of energy so we went for a long walk, which eventually tired them out by the time we got back to school.  They played, potty trained, and had lunch.  After lunch they all layed on their cots.  There was only on child that was awake the whole naptime.  After they woke up we had another snack and did potty training.  For the afternoon activity, we decided to make bracelets.  It got a little crazy because the beads were being thrown all over the room, but they all enjoyed wearing their bracelet later.  We went outside at the end of the day until their parents picked them up.   

Day 5 Today was a short day.  When I got to school, I walked in and most of the children were napping.  Lougan was awake and had a really bad cough and Eric was also awake and wanted to get up and move.  Until everyone is awake, all the children have to lay on their cots.  Kendra awoke with a bad fever so we had to call her parents to come and pick her up. After everyone awoke, we had snack and changed diapers.  We then went outside to play on the playground. There are tarps on the sandboxes and the tarps are filled with water from the rain.  The boy, Ryan, that bites, decided to jump into the water and he got his feet and hands all wet.  When I tried to put him out, he started crying and tried to go back in.  All of the teachers were laughing.  By 5 o'clock, all of my kids had left except for one.  The same little girl who is always there late and I feel so bad for her.  She is an angel too, but she is at day care all the time and it makes me mad that her parents don't seem to care.    

Day 6 Yesterday at Brierwood, we had nine students in our classroom.  In the morning, we read some stories.  Storytime is a great way to get the children to relax and focus. However, after the third or fourth book, they start getting ansy and try to play with toys.  During pottytime, only a few children actually went on the potty and some of them started crying because they didn't want to go on the potty.  After potty, we had the children sit at the table and paint with watercolors.  This didn't hold their attention for too long and everyone kept spilling thier cup of water everywhere.  After the children painted, we ate snack and went outside for a little bit.  We decided to take a look at nature by going on a walk through town. The other teacher and I showed the children a pinecone and we went over all the colors that leaves are.  The children did a great job on their walk and they did a great job at looking both ways when crossing the street.  After our walk, we went back to school, did pottytime and ate lunch.  With lunch the children had tomato soup and cheese sandwhiches.  It was amusing to watch the children eat their soup because they were spilling it all over themselves and didn't even notice.  All of the children napped after lunch, except for one.  It's always a good day for us, teachers, when the children nap.  Nicholas, kept waking himself up with a nasty cough that he has and at one point he had a night tremor and was crying.  Usually we make the children lay down until all of their friends are awake, but I let Nicholas sit up because it was probably better for his cough.  We did pottytime after all the children woke up and had crackers with jelly for their snack.  The children were very hungry and kept asking for more.  We are trying to teach them better manners by saying "Please may I have some more ..." instead of "More!"  In order to reflect on our nature walk, we did an activity in which every child got a paper leaf to color with red, orange, brown, green, and/or yellow.  After they colored them, we put glue and red, orange, brown, green, and/or yellow sand on it.  All of the pictures came out really well.  At the end of the day, we read some more stories and played outside.   

Day 7Yesterday, was a very exhausting day.  We had 12 students in our classroom and all of the children were bouncing off the walls.  Alex was behaving in the morning, but then started acting up.  He was throwing blocks at his friends and wouldn’t sit down when we were trying to start an activity.  He began crying when I sat him in his chair and told him to stay there.  The rest of the day, he continued to not listen, but when it came time for nap, he slept the entire two hours.  Alex wasn’t the only child misbehaving, all of them pretty much were.  Even Sarah, who listens all the time, was telling me “no”.  It was really frustrating yesterday when they weren’t listening, but the key is to keep them preoccupied and pay attention to them.  I noticed that when I was playing in the toy kitchen with them, they were attentive to me, but as soon as I went away to go fix their lunches for them, they started misbehaving.  I realized that I need to give the children more attention and keep changing the activities that I do with them because their attention span is so short.  Some of these children go to daycare five days a week and some parents don’t care about their children.  These children are neglected and need attention in their lives.  I think the reason Alex misbehaves all the time is because his dad is constantly out of town for work and his mom is taking care of his little brother.  I think Alex just feels lost and acts up in order for people to pay attention to him.  

Day 8Yesterday was a pretty easy day at Brierwood.  I interacted more with the kids than I have before.  In the morning I played with farm animals with the children.  Nicholas kept asking me what each animal was.  I am starting to notice that he asks me a lot of questions because he wants attention from me.  I am also starting to really love these kids.  It is so hard to get mad at them because they are always coming up to you, giving you hugs and they do the cutest things.  Yesterday, Nicholas woke up from nap and I went over to go say hi and he started hugging me and then he stopped and cautiously kissed me on the lips.  Even though I had to tell him that he couldn’t be doing that, I thought it was the cutest thing.  I feel bad for all of my kids because they are in daycare all day and they don’t get the love they need.  The children express love to the teachers and we need to express it back.  After nap, it was unusual to see that all of the children were listening and behaving, as they should.  I asked all of them to sit at the table, while I played books on CD-ROM.  They were all very interested in the book and it was a good way to keep them focused.  I think that the children prefer books on CD because they are much more animated, rather than me reading it to them.  The only child I really had to discipline was Norah because she kept climbing on the table and touching her friends.  I repeatedly had to tell her to stop.  Other than that, I was very pleased with the children’s behavior that day.  

Day 9We had 11 children yesterday, one of which was sick.  Alex was absent on Wednesday, but his mom still brought him in yesterday.  Alex was coughing all day and when it was time for nap, he didn’t sleep at all because his cough was keeping him awake.  With a half an hour left in nap, I noticed that Alex’s face was really red.  I went over to him and felt that he was warm so I took his temperature.  It came out to 99.1, which isn’t high enough to send him home.  I just had him stay on his cot and rest until all of his friends woke up.  His fever was better later in the day and his mother picked him up about 90 minutes after nap.  Alex really should have stayed home that day to rest up and prevent him from spreading his germs to everyone else.  The other children were misbehaving because when we have too many children, they act up. It took the children 30 minutes to clean up all their toys because they kept playing with the toys, rather than putting them away.  It was a little frustrating that they weren’t listening, but kids will be kids sometimes.Since most of the kids are coughing everywhere, we did a thorough job of cleaning the toys, chairs, tables, and bookshelves.  The other teachers ran some of the toys through the dishwasher.  It was good that we did this because the children are constantly putting toys in their mouths, not washing their hands after using the bathroom, picking their nose, etc.  Plus, it is good for us teachers because we are constantly touching what the children touch.  

Day 10Today, I had the head teacher in the classroom with me.  Usually she only works on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but she is going to be working mornings on Tuesday and Thursday from now on.  It was nice to have her there because the children seem to behave better when she is there.  However, after the head teacher left, the children had nap and only four of the ten students napped.  The other ones were making noises, talking, and getting off their cot.  I had to tell them repeatedly to lie down and go to sleep, but none of them were listening.  It was very frustrating to fill out paperwork and try to have the children calm down.  Aidan is the type of boy who likes to tell on his friends and tell them what to do.  Every time it is time for us to do an activity, he says “My turn?”  I have to let him know that it is not nice to interrupt people and that when I call his name, then it is his turn.  However, he still continues to interrupt, so I make him go last in order for him to learn.  Aidan also cried a lot today.  I am not sure if he really hurt himself or if he just wanted attention.  Norah was misbehaving again today.  He was not listening to all of the teachers when we asked her to lie down for nap.  She kept getting up and she knew she wasn’t supposed to, but she kept doing it.  She also got hurt today.  She was running around the room and I asked her to stop, but it was too late.  She banged her head into the cupboard and I had to fill out an accident report because she had a mark on her right cheek.  

Day 11Today was a mellow day at Brierwood.  We had 11 children, but they all behaved quite well.  Instead of just two teachers in our classroom, we had three for part of the day.  I think that it helped to have three teachers because one of us could do potty training, the other could do paperwork, and the third could play with the other children.  We went outside for a while today because it was such a gorgeous day.  I actually live close to the daycare and my mom and my dog were walking by.  All of the children ran to the fence to see my dog and wanted to pet him. It is funny to watch how children will stop what they are doing when they are so fascinated by something.  We went inside after playing outside for a while and we had the children do an activity where they put beads on a pipe cleaner.  The students’ reports are being sent to their parents soon so the head teacher had to do some tests to see how well they were developing mentally.Naptime was great because we I got all of the children to sleep.  Even the toughest children that don’t sleep, slept.  I either rubbed the child’s back or rubbed his or her nose.  I noticed that when I rub the child’s nose, he or she tends to get sleepier faster and they pass right out.  After nap, we just played with toys and I went over colors and shapes with the children.  

Day 12Yesterday, at Brierwood, I worked with the younger toddlers.  They are all about 18 months old; some are a little older.  It is difficult to work with the younger toddlers because most of them do not speak yet.  They are also still discovering their surroundings and it is hard to get their attention.  The one little boy, Logan, can say some words, but he hasn’t put sentences together yet.  I had to pull him away from his friends yesterday because he kept stealing their toys.  When you try to discipline Logan, he throws a temper tantrum.  He will start banging on cupboards, throwing toys, slamming doors, etc.  I don’t understand why he acts this way.  I also noticed that when his mother drops him off in the morning, he would be hitting her as they are walking into the classroom.  All the mother says is “be nice” while Logan continues to do it.  We took the children for a long walk later that day and when it was time for nap, they all slept well.  Except, Logan and Ryan always wake up earlier than everyone else and they ended up making a lot of noise, which made all of their friends wake up a little earlier too.  Snack time was a little difficult because Ryan kept taking everyone’s juice.  A lot of the children kept leaving their seats while they were eating and I had to keep placing him/her back in their seat.  The day went better once they were outside on the playground.    

Day 13Today was Veteran’s Day so a lot of the children did not show up.  Many of the parents are school teachers so they stayed home with their children instead.  I was basically by myself in the morning with six children.  It was a calm day and I was able to handle it well by myself.  We have a bounce house that the children can play in during gym time.  The children really enjoy it and they behave themselves when they are jumping around in it.  John Paul did not like the bounce house because he was scared.  He immediately started crying once he got in and I had to take him out.  John Paul cries a lot.  If he accidentally hits his head, he starts crying even if it was the slightest hit.  He also randomly cries because he wants to go home.  I feel bad for him because he is in daycare all day and he doesn’t interact with the children as much as he should.  He tends to play in the corner away from everyone else.  However, when he does interact with the other children he tends to jump on them or hit them.  I am still trying to figure out how to make him less sad, but it is difficult because every time he starts crying, he wants me to pick him up.

All the children napped today and they napped for a long time, which was nice.  After nap I did a few potty trainings and then I was sent home early because the count was getting low and they did not need so many employees there.

Day 14 Today went by fast.  We had 12 children and we kept doing activity after activity.  In the morning, the children had free play.  I decided to calm them down by listening to books on CD.  After each story, they would yell “again, again!”  I would keep playing the stories for them because it kept them content.  After we listened to stories, we ate snack and did potty training.  Miss Susan came to our class for music.  The children sang Thanksgiving songs and played with maracas.  The maracas are a nice touch because the children are allowed to engage in the song.  Miss Susan also incorporated some sign language into one of her songs today.  She tried to teach the children the sign language words, which was a beneficial activity for them.  After music we did an activity using roller stamps and crayons.  The other teacher and I taped long rolls of paper the tables and gave the children inkpads, stamp rollers, and crayons to do whatever they wanted to the paper.  We are having a Thanksgiving food drive at our school; so once the children finished decorating the sheets, we taped them to the food box outside our door.  After the activity, the children had free play and potty training again.  For lunch the children had bologna sandwiches, mixed veggies, and mandarin oranges.  The children always enjoy the sandwiches and they always ask for more.  After lunch, we put the children down for a nap.  All of the kids fell asleep, but a lot of children woke up too early.  I always try and get the children to nap for the whole two hours because they are always better behaved when they sleep well.When they all awoke, we did potty training and had snack.  The children colored for a little bit and then had free play.  We had gym from 4:30-5:30 and we allowed the children to jump in the bounce house.  Nicholas did not want to leave the bounce house when his dad picked him up.  He started crying so his dad said he could jump for 5 more minutes.    

Day 15 Yesterday was a fun day.  We have this sensory learning table in our classroom and we can fill it with pinecones, blocks, water, etc.  The other teacher and I decided to put water and soap in the sensory table.  The kids loved playing with the bubbles, but most of them got their shirts wet and had to be changed.  The learning activity for today was for the children to learn how to mix colors.  We gave them red, blue, and yellow paint.  We taught them that red and yellow make orange, red and blue make purple, and yellow and blue make green.  A lot of the paintings came out quite good.  The children were pretty tired after lunch and they all napped for a long time.  When they awoke, I did potty training with them. Sarah’s diaper was dry when I put her on the potty.  She never pees on the potty so I was determined to make her stay there until she went.  After about 5 minutes, she started peeing.  I could tell by the expression on her face, that she was confused, but when I showed excitement, she smiled.  She was very proud of herself so I gave her a sticker. The rest of the day was relaxed.  We taped paper to the table and let the children color all over the paper.  After, we went to the gym until the children’s parents picked them up.

Day 16 Today was a rough day.  All of the children were misbehaving and not listening to the teachers.  In the morning, the children colored with Miss Emily’s “special markers.”  We had to stop coloring because some of the children were drawing on the table and the floor, instead of their paper.  Next, we listened to stories on tape and did potty training.  Miss Emily did an experiment with the children.  She got a large plastic container of water and a large plastic container of oil.  She put blue food coloring.  The children noticed that the blue coloring stayed in small bubbles, but when Miss Emily put some blue coloring in the water, it dyed the water blue.  Then, Miss Emily poured the whole container of oil in the water.  The children were amazed how the water and oil separated from each other.  After the experiment, the children had music with Miss Sue.  They sang more Thanksgiving songs and learned more sign language words.  When Miss Sue left, the children had free play and did potty training again.At lunch, most of the children ate because they had bologna sandwiches, which is one of their favorites.  They all went down for a nap, but one of the boys started crying mid-nap and woke up some of his friends.  All of the children woke up early from nap. 

After naptime was even worse.  Everyone was hitting their friends and no one was listening.  I decided to have them decorate a paper turkey.  Decorating the turkey only held their attention for about 10 minutes and they went back to misbehaving.  We had gym time at 4, which was nice because it let the kids release all their energy.

Day 17 

Yesterday I worked a half-day.  I was by myself in Toddler 1 with five children.  When I arrived at work, the children were sleeping.  Logan woke up crying so I went over to attend to him.  He felt warm so I took his temperature.  He had a 99.1 temperature and my supervisor just told me to watch it incase his temperature went up.  I gave the kids apples for snack and Logan almost started choking on it.  I took the rest of his apples away because I was afraid he was going to choke again.  I took Logan’s temperature before we went to the gym and it went up to 100.1.  I decided to call his father and his father said that he was going to leave work and pick him up.  All of the kids were playing in the gym, but you could tell that Logan didn’t feel good because he wasn’t being as active as he normally is.  The rest of the day went smoothly.  All of the kids had free play and I stayed with them until their parents picked them up.

Day 18 

Today was our Thanksgiving Feast.  All of the kids brought in different food to munch on throughout the day.  In the morning we had free play for a while and since it was a little warmer out today, we went outside on the playground.  The kids enjoyed the playground but it started to get a little colder since we were out so long.  We decided to cut playground time a little short today.  We made cinnamon swirl muffins after the playground.  I taught the kids how to measure ingredients and how to follow directions.  They patiently watched as I mixed the batter and poured the batter into the tins.  For our Thanksgiving lunch we had turkey with gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and some fruit.  Some children enjoyed the lunch, while others did not.  Naptime went well because all of the children fell asleep.  When the kids awoke, they had the muffins we made earlier.  After snack, the children had free play.  We discovered that one of the children colored on our fish tank.  I went to go get some cleaner and when I was finished, I saw crayon all over the wall.  The other teacher ended up cleaning that mess because I had to leave.

Day 19 Yesterday was a relaxing day.  Since it was the day before Thanksgiving we just had the kids play all day.  However we did have circle time for a little bit.  We discussed what day it was, what the weather was like outside, and reviewed our colors.  For the most part, the children were well behaved.  Alex was throwing some toys, but I grabbed a book and started reading to him instead.  Alex behaves much better if teachers interact with him.  He loves books and he really zones in on the story.  We went in the bounce house before nap so the kids would get tired and take a good nap.  Alex loves the bounce house, but sometimes he gets a little too rough and jumps on all of his friends.  I kept making the kids laugh but tickling them as they were running around.  For lunch, we had pizza.  Blasdell pizza delivers pizza for all the children at our center every Wednesday. All of the children look forward to pizza day because it is kid friendly.  At nap, all of the children napped.  Willard woke up screaming after a half hour of napping.  We sent him down to the infant room because we didn’t want him waking up all of the other children.  I believe that he woke up screaming because his mom has been out of town for a few days.

We played in the gym after nap and there was this new toy police car that kids could ride in.  All of the kids wanted a turn in the police car, but when their turn was up, they started screaming, especially the younger ones.  After everyone had a turn, we put the police car in another room so the kids wouldn’t be upset anymore.  For the rest of the day, we had free play until the parents picked up their kids.

Final Statement:In the past few months I have been at Brierwood, I have seen a lot of development in the children I taught.  Many of the children have begun using the manners we taught them, sharing better, speaking clearly, and using the potty.  As a teacher, I have seen a lot of improvement in myself.  I have learned how to grab the children’s attention and how to keep them focused.  I havealso learned how to discipline a child when he/she bites, takes a toy, or hits another child.

Brierwood has been a great learning experience and it has made me realize that I would like to work with children as a career.  I have learned that the children who are put in daycare need love and caring because they are upset most of the day when their parents aren’t there.  I have also learned how to deal with parents when a situation arises.  I have really enjoyed my time at Brierwood, which is why I have decided to stay there for next semester as well.