Twelve 2-year-olds at Hawkins Preschool have Michelle Gonzales to teach them.
Gonzales, who formerly worked in retail management, said it wasn’t until she had her own children that she realized she could be a teacher. She spent three years at Porters Chapel Academy Daycare, and then she took almost two years off to spend more time with her own children before she took a job at Hawkins.
“I can still be a mom along with working. That’s when I really realized, I really like what I do. I feel very accomplished whenever they actually respond back to me,” Gonzales said.
Sometimes the students don’t respond to her questions in class, but later parents will later tell her how their children sing certain songs and talk about certain topics at home they learned at school. Gonzales said it is a great feeling to know the information is sticking in their minds even when they don’t show it in class.
“At first you feel like you’re just talking to a wall because they don’t really respond,” she said. “This is the second half of the year so now is when they are more responsive.”
Gonzales has seen the students mature since the beginning of the year. She said when students came back from the holiday last week, they were ready to go and asked to color and do activities as soon as they arrived.
“They were ready before I was ready,” she said.
Shapes, colors and numbers are three topics Gonzales teaches in class and said the speed she covers them depends on the students, what they are interested in and how fast they learn. Gonzales loves watching her students learn and seeing their faces light up when they know the answer to a question.
She also has a volunteer assistant teacher, Becky Berger, who is a major help in wrangling the students.
“She’s been volunteering for the past three years. She started off just reading to everybody on certain days,” Gonzales said. “She really likes helping and being with the kids, and that helps me too.”
Gonzales said Berger often calms the students down when they are having a bad day or are being disruptive so she can teach the other children without interruption.
“She is like a major, major, major blessing. I really, really don’t know what I would do without her,” Gonzales said. “It lets me teach more.”
Gonzales has taught the 2-year-olds at Hawkins for three years.
She started at PCA in 2010 teaching 1-year-olds. After two years there, she took some time off for her children, but a little over a year later, Gonzales was ready to get back to work and took the job at Hawkins.
Hawkins is open from 8 a.m. to noon giving Gonzales a little more flexibility to see her own children and occasionally go with them on field trips.
“I wanted to be more of a stay at home mom, but I don’t like to just be at home,” Gonzales said. “I ended up coming back to work. The hours are good because I can still take my oldest to school and pick him up.”
The California-native has a 7-year-old who attends South Park Elementary and a 4-year-old who attends Hawkins.