Celebrating Every Win

October 25, 2015

Hello Readers! It is my pleasure to introduce my friend Rosalie Yu, a good friend and fellow educator! Rosalie worked at a childcare center for multiple years, then taught 4th-6th grade before moving on to her Project Specialist role that has turned into her current Curriculum Support Specialist position, where she spends a lot of time coaching teachers. She absolutely loves organizing closets/styling wardrobes, photography, and cooking, and also tries to host a meal for a friend at least once a week in her home! You can see more of her work here at www.blushingroseinc.com.

I have always appreciated and admired Rosalie’s heart to love, serve, and mentor others. It’s been wonderful to see her grow as a wife and mother, and to see how she is applying her skills as an educator to her parenting. She has an amazing eye for beauty, which shows in her photography, home design, fashion, and most of all her appreciation for people. I’ve learned a lot from her over the years, and I am so glad she can share some of her wisdom with us today!

—————–

Celebrating Every Win
A guest post by Rosalie Yu

I’ve known JoEllen since we met at church camp back in high school, but little did we know how our paths would cross time and time again after that. Years later, we found ourselves in the same teaching program when we were pursuing our teaching credential; with her being one cohort ahead of me she always provided sound advice and encouragement. She made things sound less daunting and always gave practical tips. Clearly, her blog has extended her helpful reach to many others. In fact, one of the most memorable things JoEllen did for me was send me a care package during my first week as a teacher. I have never forgotten that gesture of kindness and how meaningful it was. We both ended up marrying gentlemen from the camp we met years ago and went from teaching to becoming wives and mothers. It’s an honor to have been asked to write a guest piece for her blog. In the meantime, I’ll be sharing an important lesson I’ve learned over the years that has worked for my 20-month-old son.

I started working with kids in middle school. I knew I wanted to become a teacher since I was five and in all my years of working with children, I have learned many important lessons, with one that stands out the most. When asked by others what piece of advice I could give to a new teacher or a new mom, I would say it’s to celebrate every win.

We all encounter students, people we’re coaching, teammates, and children who haven’t mastered their craft. It could really be anything, even as simple as learning to cook scrambled eggs for the first time. There are many techniques to everything we’ve learned to do in life, but the thing that I’ve seen over and over as a determining factor in achieving success is the importance of building self-efficacy. We all know that “practice makes perfect” yet the journey to perfection is just as influential in the end result. Teaching children to root for themselves begins with us rooting for them.

If you’ve ever met my son, you’d know that he’s a born runner. He runs to get his snacks, he runs to get his books, and he runs to the playground, he literally runs everywhere. He’s every bit the daredevil, but he’s also not accident-prone. He occasionally gets bumps and bruises, but not very often. A lot of people ask me if we childproofed our house when they see how active Jude is and my answer is hardly. I’ve been using words and gestures to explain things to him since he was a few months old and he’s learned how to be safe and responsible in his surroundings.

When he started crawling under our table bench, I didn’t hold my hand over his head to prevent him from bumping his head. I warned him with my words to be careful and slow down. Jude has learned to pay attention to his surrounding through my verbal coaching or demonstrating what could happen. He’s learned to slow down and listen before moving on. In the case of the bench, he learned early on when he was crawling to slowly raise his head until it met the hard wood before ducking down lower. It started with simple lessons like that, to teaching him how to climb playground ladders, to clean up after himself, to help mama cook. He may be young, but he’s also very capable.

We’ve chosen as Jude’s parents to raise him to not be afraid to try something new, without childproofing the experience of learning how to do new things. I’ve made it a point to not reward Jude with “You’re so smart!” Instead, I coach him through his challenging moment and wait to brighten with a huge smile and cheer him on with a “Yay! You did it!” when he’s accomplished his goal. It’s no surprise that when Jude now hoists himself up a huge platform at the park, I hear him cheer himself on with a “Yay! Di-it!” Eyebrows raised, eyes twinkling, and shouts of glee.

He always starts of thinking he can, then starts wondering if he can’t, and finishes knowing he can indeed do it.