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Although my preschool picture is quite embarrassing, it's just too funny to not include. I am not sure why I was so grouchy for this preschool photo but it does seem to be the face I made in every picture at this age. I also think it explains a lot about myself as a professional in early childhood as I tend to gravitate towards the children who can be a bit challenging.

One of my favorite children's books is "Abiyoyo" by Pete Seeger. This is one of my favorite books to read when teaching as the children get very into it and start singing the song over and over again. It's also a book that introduces different multicultural aspects into the classroom and it also introduces folk stories to preschoolers in an easy to follow plot line.

There has been a lot in my years of working in the field that has touched my heart as young children have a tendency to do things that adults forget to do. My first year teaching I had a preschool child who was delayed in his speech and most of the time babbled like an infant. This definitely made social-emotional development challenging as the other children had a hard time understanding him. I also taught a class full of rough and tough boys and they weren't particularly interested in interacting with this child. 

One day at blocks, this child was trying to tell another child something but was continuing to babble, after about a minute or two another child in the classroom walked over to blocks and helped the two children work through it. From that moment on all of the children in the class became the caretakers for this specific child. They would always talk to him, teach him the words he was looking for, and just overall care for him. It's crazy sometimes what adults can learn from preschoolers. Kindness and caring are two things that aren't always prevalent in todays world but in that preschool classroom, it was always there.