Volunteering at Hillside preschool and working with the children was somewhat challenging for me. At times I would lose my patience and get frustrated with them because they did not always want to listen. They would constantly disobey the rules and wondered off and did whatever it is they wanted to do. I quickly learned that children had a mind of their own. Due to their actions, my mentor advised me that if they did not want to listen, they would have to sit in a chair at the corner as a punishment.
I overcame these challenges by working and learning to control myself. Each time I visited the preschool, I dealt with children not wanting to always listen to me or my mentor who is the teacher. I learned to have patience through watching how she handle the situations in a calm way. One can not talk to these children as if they were their age because they are much younger. Overall, my main problem was dealing with my limitations of patience and learning how each individual student interacted and responded to authority.
Through this experience, I feel as if my character has grown by becoming more patient in general. I can deal with children more calmly and not get as frustrated with them when they have difficulty following directions. Instead of getting irritated and angry with the kids, I learned to communicate with them and to be more considerate because of their age. I learned that I must to talk to them in a way that they will listen and understand me. Learning to interact with students on a one to one basis gives me an advantage and I was able to gain their trust and attention.
