Have you ever been praised and felt like you were on top of the world? It is such an awesome feeling. This is just what praise did for me yesterday. I have been moved to second grade from kindergarten. I was feeling a little uneasy but decided just to take it with stride. I will just have to learn second grade a day at a time. Of course, this didn’t get rid of my uneasy feeling. My stomach was still aching in intense emotion before open house. I was scared to death.

All day yesterday, I had teachers, students, and parents come to me and tell me how glad they were that I was in second grade. What a relief! They saw something in me, so I should see something in myself. So now, I am ready to run right into my room and begin teaching, instead of running out the door screaming.

Here are just a few of the praises that I got yesterday, that boosted my self-confidence.

“You better speak to her, she was the best teacher you ever had.” — from a brother of a student I taught in kindergarten that is now in second grade

“Will you be a mentor for AmeriCorp? You did such a great job on ________ and I really appreciate it. I know that ________ can benefit from you teaching him.” — AmeriCorp Director

“Your room looks great. I will be here anytime to help you, but you won’t need it. You will do great.” — Literacy Coach

“We are so happy. ______ is going to have a great year. Thank God you are her teacher again.” — parent of student that I have now, that I also taught in kindergarten.

“Mrs. Arnold, if I am good can I get in your treasure box too.” — student that I taught in Kindergarten that is now in second grade (of which is not in my room this year)

“I put _____ in your room because he/she needs some extra attention. I knew you were the best one for the job.” — Guidance Counselor

“I hope my grandson gets you again when he gets in second grade. You did such a great job with him. He just loved you.” — Grade level aide

The many hugs from former students. This was an awesome feeling.

It is amazing how much a little praise can do in your life. Each one of these statements only took like 30 seconds to tell me. I encourage you and myself to start handing out encouragement and praise. This could be through blogs, e-mail, notes, verbal, etc. Just get out there and start praising.

Gage (my 2nd grade student) sums up how 30 seconds of praise can make you feel. You just have an awesome feeling and a smile that can never be erased of your face. I felt like this all day yesterday and today. A little praise can go a long way.

Last night, I was getting ready to go to bed and found this in my bed.

So I quietly put her in her toddler bed which is right next to our bed.  I was thinking she would sleep there all night.  Well, this morning I woke up and she was curled up beside me in my bed.   I guess I was sleeping really hard because I didn’t know that she had crawled up into our bed to sleep with us.

Mommy and me always race to the mailbox.   We were 100% accident free.   Well, that was until now.  Until Mommy cut me off and I went tumbling down to the rocks in slow motion.  Extreme pain, blood, and a bump came on my face instantly.  Thank goodness for my transformer ice pack.

If you look close you can see the bump above my right eyebrow.  Mommy felt so bad that she took me to the Huddle House to eat breakfast for supper.  I had two sunnyside eggs and three pieces of bacon.  The eggs looked like eyes so Mommy made a smiley face of the eggs with ketchup.  It was the the best 2 eggs I have ever eaten.

I hope that I never have to go through this type of pain again.