Is it a job or a calling?

I have been to my fair share of seminars as a pre-school teacher.

The best one I have been to was from a company called - Appelbaum. Those of you that know of it will say that they give the best seminars. This company is based in Sugarland and the woman who started it - can be most recognized by her laugh. :D

Her name is Marlyn Appelbaum. If you click the link above you will find out a little more about her.

Anyway, she has a blog where she posts her "Thoughts For the Day" and you can sign up to receive them via email.

My boss signed up for them and really enjoys them.

This morning, when I got to work - I found a printed out email of one of these "Thoughts for the Day" in my box. The following note was written on it, "Maria, I thought of you when I read this."

The following is the "Thought of the Day" that was in my box,

"A job is something that you do to earn money. It is work, and it can be work without passion. A calling is something else entirely even though it involves a job.

When I was a little girl I wanted to have 27 children. I told everyone I was going to have that many children, and they just would smile and look at me with amusement. When I grew into adulthood, I married young, had only two children, but I still wanted to help other children. I kept following my heart, and doors opened up for me to do what I did. It was my calling.

Many of you may have planned to work with children. Others had different dreams. Regardless of how you came into this profession, it is where you are now, and I don’t believe that is an accident. Every time you go to work, you have a chance to do more than just have a job. You have the opportunity to have it be your “calling,” your chance to make a difference.

Have a great day making that difference today and following that calling.

Maryln"

I myself have often thought that I "fell into this postion" and since then have been told multiple times that I am "in the right place" and I definitely am doing what I should be doing.

It touches me deeply to hear these things from parents, my family, and now most recently my boss. Most of all - I am really surprised to hear my kids (students) recite back some of the things I have tried to teach them. The most special thing to me is the fact that they are SO proud of what they have learned or what they have made in my class.

Most of you know that my pre-school class falls in the age range of 3 - 4yr olds.

At the beginning of the September - our lesson plans started with learning one letter of the alphabet a week. On Fridays, we have "show-n-tell" in which each of my students has a special bag (one of our crafts that has a felt cut out of the student decorated with felt clothes that matched what they were wearing the day we made the bags). One of the little boys wears the same outfit every Friday just so he can match his bag.

Each Friday, they bring things from around their house that start with the letter we have been studying. They get to stand in front of the class and show everyone each item - while I write the word for it on the board. I have seen students go from being the most shy student in my class (never wanting to leave my side) to one of the most outgoing from this "show-n-tell" time alone.

Last week, was letter "B". Everyday, we have a "worksheet" and a "craft" that we complete. One particular worksheet we worked on had lower case b's across the bottom that are intended to be traced by the child (basic dashed lines). As I was helping them trace the letters; I would recite, "Down and Around, Down and Around" for each letter "b".

Today we were studying the letter "C". However, on our worksheet the WORD they traced had a "b" in it. Our director was helping me in the classroom. She was helping one student trace the word, (it slips my mind what word it was now) and when they got to the letter "b" the student mentioned something. She said, "Ms. Jean, you need to say 'down and around' like Ms. Maria."

It may be something simple - but it truly touched me, that she remembered my saying from a week before and recognized the letter that it belonged to.

Another such story - the first time I passed out crayon boxes to them, they got crazy and decided they loved how they sounded when they shook them as hard as they could. Thus, me telling them that if they shook them, the would break them. Then that turned in to our saying, "If you shake them, you will break them."

Now not only do they NOT shake their crayon boxes - but as I pass out the boxes; all I have to say is, "Ok boys and girls what's our rule?" In unison they will all reply, "IF YOU SHAKE THEM, YOU WILL BREAK THEM!"