Last Sunday we had a Teacher Improvement Meeting for those teachers in our branch’s (congregation) Primary (18 mo.-11 years old). I had stressed and stressed about how to present my part of it until it all came together Saturday morning. I would base it on the adage “Giving a man a fish feeds him for one meal. Teaching the man to fish, on the other hand, feeds him for a lifetime.” This was actually a thought from a talk by Elder Bednar. I thought it was great as we needed to work on helping the children ‘catch’ what was being taught. As soon as I had the basis, it was like thoughts kept coming. I thought of ways the teachers could ‘fish’ under their chairs for fish with different teaching techniques on them so we could have a discussion. I even had Chris pick up some Swedish fish so I could put them in bags to attach a reminder quote on. While Chris was gone during the afternoon I kept thinking about this topic and was just so excited. So, I decided to make beanbags for the teachers so they could use them as teaching helps to ‘catch’ their children’s attention. It’s a good thing Chris wasn’t home because he usually tries to persuade me to simplify, but I was on a roll!
[mygal=teacher_fish]
Anyway, the meeting was a success. My two counselors did their presentation and I did mine. We came away feeling we were uplifted and could be better teachers. It was one of those ‘up’ moments that carries you on to the next trial.
That trial happened to be today during Primary. I had challenged all the teachers to try to incorporate their beanbags somehow in their lessons today. I was teaching Sharing Time and felt I should do the same. We had some time left after the lesson so I was tossing my bean bag out to the kids to answer questions. Towards the end I was trying to be sneaky so the kids wouldn’t know who I was tossing it to so I closed my eyes. Well, I ‘beaned’ a little sunbeam (3 year old) in the eye with the beanbag. She immediately started to cry and I felt so horrible. I tried to comfort her and she kept pushing me away. I just felt awful! So, I guess that was my ‘down’ for this week. I hope next week will be an ‘up.’
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