Educational Influence

          It is said that every little even t and experience in our lives shapes our personality and character.  These events can be major life experiences or small little events that would never be expected to impact a life.  One of the first experiences I remember that significantly influenced my education is something we did in elementary school.  In fact it started before I entered the kindergarten.  In my home town there is one day at school where each kindergartener is encouraged to invite someone they know that is going to be entering kindergarten the following year to attend school with them for a day.  This is one of the first, but not last, time that the teachers at my school went out of their way to make things comfortable for all students.  I will never forget how much easier the first day of school was having been there before.  But that was only the start of student-student relationships.

          Once we were in elementary school they teacher all had a system to interact the grades and help build relationships amongst them.  This system was called the friend system.  Kindergarteners were paid with 3^rd graders, 1^st graders with 4^th graders, and 2^nd graders with 5^th graders.  To this very day I remember being a kindergartener and meeting my 3^rd grade friend.  I felt like I was on top of the world.  We could periodically have lunch dates and go on field trips with our “friend” throughout the year.  While this seems so simple it honestly made a huge difference in my life and the lives of my friends.  It was nice to have that relationship with an older student when you are new; and to be able to lead a younger student when you are older.  This is one of the many reason I want to be an elementary school teacher, so that I can help student learn, but more importantly feel comfortable and safe.