Dear Redeemer Community,

Last week’s Fall Festival was such a joy! When I arrived home, my heart was full, but I was also ready for a nap. I laid down on my couch and quickly scrolled through my inbox when I saw an email from Elias Gonzalez-Reed. It immediately caught my attention. Elias was in my first Redeemer kindergarten class fourteen years ago.

His email began,

"Good morning Ms. Knott,

It’s been over ten years since we last saw each other, but I am one of your former students, Elias Gonzalez-Reed. I just wanted to reach out to thank you for helping me grow in my educational career. I’m currently attending the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Newport, Rhode Island, then I’ll be back in Annapolis to start my tenure at the Naval Academy.

Once again, thank you.

Elias Gonzalez-Reed”

I remembered Elias well. He walked into the room on the first day of school, laid down in the middle of the room, and refused to get up. He was new to Redeemer and likely anxious about an unfamiliar school, new friends, and a teacher he didn’t know. I tried everything to get Elias off the floor, but to no avail. I had never taught children this young and was completely at a loss. After a ten-year hiatus from the classroom, I second guessed my decision to return to teaching and wondered if I had completely lost my touch.

I was new too, and I was very anxious to do well. Let’s just say that my first day was not off to a particularly good start, and I had ten other five-year olds who needed my attention. To my relief, after about 20 minutes, something eventually captured his attention, and he decided to get up.

This was my first lesson in early childhood education. Expect anything!

I also remember that Elias was very curious and interested. He wanted to learn anything possible about light houses. Elias loved to squeeze all the glue from the glue bottles into huge piles if you weren’t looking and paint was much more fun when it went anywhere besides the paper. We also share a birthday.

My first class at Redeemer taught me so much, but what they taught me the most was how genuinely curious our youngest learners are, and how important it was that my teaching reflected that. I learned how essential it is to have an environment that is active, engaging, a little messy, and a little noisy. It was important to have a lot of fun, and we needed to build time to play into each day.

The earliest years are a time of explosive growth. Teaching at Redeemer changed my perspective as an educator forever, and I am grateful to the teachers and students who opened my eyes. 

I was of course so pleased to receive Elias’s email, and I was really struck to learn that two of those 11 students in my first Redeemer kindergarten class would end up at the Naval Academy. Acceptance into the Naval Academy is impressive. More impressive is that these former Redeemer students feel called to serve others. But what is most impressive, is that Elias took the time to send his kindergarten teacher from years ago a simple thank you. It is random acts of kindness like that matter most.

Our students teach us so much!

Best regards,

Mary

The 2s with Mrs. Pyzik & Mrs. Zuidema

October has flown by in the 2’s! We have had so much fall fun. The children are all acclimated to our classroom routine, and we are over the first month of school jitters! The children have continued to explore the room and are slowly learning to play together. We started off the month talking and singing about the farm. Down on Grandpa’s farm was one of our favorite songs. The children enjoyed pulling a farm animal out of the barn as we sang about the animals and the sounds they make. We made muddy pigs and painted sheep using toilet paper rolls. We even had a visit from a duckling that hatched at school. Later in the month we talked about apples. The children painted using apples as stamps and made apples by gluing red squares to paper plates. We danced around the room pretending we were way up high in an apple tree. Most recently it has been all things Halloween and pumpkins. We made spider webs, painted pumpkins, and we even learned a fun pumpkin song and dance. As with all our units, we have several wonderful stories that accompany the theme. The children seem to really enjoy sitting down for circle time and listening to a story. Whew! It has been a busy month as you can see. We look forward to next month and talking about what we are so very thankful for at school.

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