Journal Entry 1

 As stated in the text, the best teachers grow and change rapidly, thereby becoming lifelong learners. Teachers demonstrating the 5 qualities in the classroom is one of the most important influences on student achievements.  

The 5 Qualities or the 5 C's are as followed:

Teachers who are committed, caring, courageous, conscious, and centered.

I've been employed as a Pre-K auxiliary teacher for four years now. I strongly believe that I demonstrate 4 out of the 5 qualities of a good teacher daily. Being caring and nurturing in pre-k is a must, we receive students with little or no school experience at all. So the transition from being home with mom to spending the day around strangers can be difficult. We encourage and praise them daily for simple things like recognizing or writing the first letter of their name. It is a commitment and we must be prepared and willing to learn new things daily as we deal with students with different learning styles. Some students come in well prepared while others have trouble holding a pencil or not even being able to recognize their name. Being courageous in meeting students where they are and preparing them for kindergarten is a skill I take pride in, because some days are definitely harder than others. 

A skill that I would like to work on is being more conscious when interacting with difficult students. Most of the time I do well with giving  students time to reflect and discuss good choices we could've made instead of the sad choices we decided to make. But I would like to discover other options or encouraging ways to prevent those behaviors.