The Charlotte Jewish News - February 2012 - Page 16
Dreams of Becoming a Teacher Began at C JDS
By Mariashi Owner, director,
CJDS
Last May I had the most won
derful experienee. One of our
graduates eame baek to sehool.
No, she didn’t eome baek beeause
she needed to repeat. Rather, she
eame baek beeause she was so
inspired by her teaehers that she
wants to be a teaeher and, to pre
pare for that eareer, she did her
senior projeet in this area. She did
n’t ehoose to go to a “faney”
sehool, rather she ehose her ele
mentary sehool alma mater, CJDS.
I remember Elyssa all the way
baek to presehool. One of the
sweetest little girls you would
want in your elass and sehool. Her
mom told me that when Elyssa
was in fourth grade she wanted a
ehalk board so she eould play
sehool, and play sehool she did.
She wrote lesson plans and eopied
all that she saw in the elassroom.
She had seven days to spend at
the sehool last spring and all of the
teaehers who knew her during her
sehool days wanted her to be in
their elassroom. It didn’t take long
for the newer teaehers to want her,
too. She is a bom teaeher. The
sweetness is still there with the
patienee and devotion needed to
be the sueeess she yearns to be.
Elyssa blogged about her expe
rienee and I would like to share
exeerpts from the blog. It brought
a smile to my faee and I’m sure
you’ll enjoy it, too.
Elyssa Goreliek is a freshman
at the University of South
Watching Elyssa Grow
Carolina and is pursuing a degree
in Edueation.
I’m starting my project tomor
row morning. I’m excited to be
working at the Charlotte Jewish
Day School, and get a feel for
what it is like to be an elementary
school teacher. Since I went to
CJDS for six years, it will be real
ly nice to be back. I hope I am able
to experience a few different grade
levels, and get a better under
standing of the daily schedule and
routine of a teacher.
May 23, 2011
Today was a really good day. I
started off with a group of third
graders learning Hebrew. It was
so interesting to see how the kids
interacted with each other, and the
advantages/disadvantages of hav
ing a small class of about ten stu
dents. I personally loved the small
classes because I felt that each
child got the attention they needed
and the teacher didn’t have to dis
miss any issue a student might
have.
As I made my way through the
different grades during the day,
my favorites were third and ffth. I
loved fifth because that is a really
precious age and it seemed to me
that the teacher I worked with
today had an excellent relation
ship with the students. The third
grade class I worked with today
was excellent. I helped one girl in
particular with her multiplication
facts and that was probably the
most rewarding twenty minutes of
my whole day. Watching her face
light up when she was able to
“win ’’ all of the cards and master
the problems that were so difficult
at first was really amazing. I had
an awesome first day, and I can’t
wait to go back tomorrow. I have a
passion for teaching and I’m so
excited for when I have my own
classroom one day.
May 24, 2011
I’ve loved watching all of the
teachers and as cheesy as it may
sound, there isn’t one teacher that
I’ve worked with that hasn’t been
absolutely amazing. Every single
teacher in that school clearly
wants the best for their students
and the school as a whole. The
warm and safe (physically and
emotionally) atmosphere makes it
a wonderful place to be.
May 25, 2011
I was part of the program for
the parents of the rising
Kindergarteners: I answered their
questions since I went to school at
CJDS. I was impressed by the way
the principal gracefully answered
all of the parents ’ questions, no
matter how random they were.
May 27, 2011
When you spend a lot of time
with six year olds, you seem to
encounter all sorts of things. As
cute as they are, I can see how it
could sometimes become frustrat
ing to try to “handle" the entire
class. I really like how they split
the class up into smaller groups,
about seven kids per group, and
have them switch back and forth
between their classes. I also spent
part of Friday in the fourth grade
classroom. Their teacher was
actually my fourth grade teacher
as well, and I love the way she
teaches. She is always calm, and
never raises her voice, but her stu
dents seem to really listen to her
and want to please her.
May 31, 2011
As always, I loved being in the
third grade room, and I have real
ly gotten to know every student in
the class. I did some one-on-one
multiplication games with them,
and we played math bingo. Their
energy can be overwhelming, but
when they are told what to do, they
almost always listen. They want to
learn, and they really do want to
please their teacher, who they
clearly adore. I spent the end of
the day watching the graduation
practice, and it brought back won
derful memories.
June 1, 2011
I’m so sad that this is over. One
day I will be back at CJDS to get a
real job. ^
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