[Ashley Harbron]

Yes, a few of my childhood friends lost parents while we were in elementary school, different occasions and for multiple different reasons. This affected them in many ways and even affected the rest of us in the class as we all knew they were suffering. I still think of them often and hope the absolute best for them all.

[Susana]

The facial expression and emotions of my teachers has a big impact to me towards my early learning years. Some boosted my confidence but most of them failed to encourage me to keep going hence I grew up shy and introvert. Even though I know the answer I will not participate because of fear. Now as a teacher and student asst. I always see to it to smile and give encouragement the kids deserved.

[Cheryl]

<My daughters kindergarten teacher was always mean and yelling at the kids to listen instead of understanding how to speak to younger children to get their attention. My daughter hated coming to school then. She always thought that is how a teacher should be because of her experience.

[Karen Mater]

We had a child come that was fearful, wouldn’t remove his jacket or leave the sleeping mat. After a week of positive experiences, he was starting to join in group play and felt comfortable leaving his jacket in the coat closet.

[Sasha S]

As a child, my family went through a lot of change being part of a mixed, military family. My most memorable teachers were those of my youth, due to their experiences working at a military based schools, they were welcoming, understanding, supportive…which I think is by partial due to constantly working with children that came from all parts of the world, mixing together, at various points in their lives.

[S]

Smiling at the students

[Audriiana Castaneda]

I’ve always been shy and I had a great high school math teacher my senior year that greeted everyone with a smile everyday. Even though she greeted everyone with a smile, when she looked at me and smiled it felt personal. She made everyday a great day and I felt good going into a subject that was not my favorite at all.

[Victoria Reese]

A close family friend was very close to his father who was later incarcerated for a significant period of time. This was devastating to the son who later began to act out and blame his father for his behavior. Unfortunately, he never regained a solid footing and has since had children of his own and is repeating the cycle.

[Coy Mahaffey]

An experience I’ve seen someone deal with that effected them would be my son in his first year of kindergarten. Had a hard time doing the assignments and integrating into the classroom so he ended up taking the class for a second year. There’s a big difference in this year and the last, I do believe it’s because the teachers are different with the styles of teaching and communication styles they have with the children. His first year it seemed like a lot of the children were not nice to him, and the teacher possibly had a hard time figuring out how to get all of the students to communicate effectively and get along and also did not communicate with me as often as I would have liked. My son’s teacher this year communicates effectively, keeps me informed on both the things he does right and wrong, and we work on solutions together for how he can do better in school and she’s also open to suggestions we have as parents as to what he could do to better his time given a variety of tools.

[Rasheda]

I had a child that never wanted to be around other children he just wanted to be under the teachers slowly but surely, he joined in when seeing me play with the other children and I informed him I would stay by his side a week later he was playing with all the kids in the classes smiling and talking more the best feeling ever

[Christopher]

I knew a kid that had a bad accident with a dog and was terrified of them ever since even now 10 years later he still won’t go near one

[My experience as a Preschool Assistant landing me in a preschool classroom that I feel is a perfect match. I love playing with my kids and smiling dose make s a difference]

My experience as a Preschool Teachers Assistant taught me which age range I could impact the most. It was in the preschool classrooms that I feel is a perfect match. Now going on 16 yrs and I wouldn’t change it at all

[Anna Castillo]

My experience as a Great Starts assistant taught me which age range I could impact the most. It has My experience as a Preschool Assistant landing me in a preschool classroom that I feel is a perfect match. I love playing with my kids and smiling dose make s a difference

[Erika]

My personal experience when I was a shy, scared first grader afraid of starting first grade. I had a wonderful teacher mrs. Winn and she helped me be comfortable in her classroom. This impacted because when I think of teachers that is my prime example on what we all should strive for.

[Morgan]

We had one kid that went to a different school before coming to us and had such a bad experience that it affected the way he trusted other teachers.