Day 2 in the classroom
Another busy, hectic, crazy day. And I loved absolutely every second of it. I spent most of the morning while the kids were at their special (today it was music) in the teacher's room, making copies of work sheets and things like that. All was going well until the copy machine jammed and I didn't know how to fix it. Luckily another teacher was there, and she helped. Then it was out of paper and I didn't know how to put more in, but luckily (again) someone else was there to help. I got back to the classroom when the kids were doing calendar, and spent a bit of time correcting homework and morning work.
The class is broken into reading groups based on their reading level, and I work with the more advanced readers in the class. That was a bit crazy for me today because while the girls were listening and ready to read (they're so eager to please, I love it!), the boys in the group were goofing around and not listening. I think they knew that I'm new at this, and that they were just trying to see how far they could push me. I need to not be a push over. I am in charge. Some of the students are so eager to "be the teacher" and tell other students what to be doing, I had to tell one student a few times during our reading group that I'm the teacher. The girls must have felt so bad for me trying to manage the boys; they kept trying to give me tips on what to do ("Try clapping. Clapping works to get their attention." and "Send one back to his desk and the other boys will listen better."). My mentor teacher must have seen that I was having trouble because she ended up sending one of the boys back to his desk.
I got to take the kids down to lunch today by myself, which was... interesting. "She pushed me!" "Ms, she hit me!" "He's pushing!" "He's not in the right spot 'cuz he's getting a sandwich and not hot lunch!" Once we got to the lunch line though, their demeanor changed completely. They were so polite to the lunch lady, and they were so good at using their manners!! I was pleasantly surprised at their manners, and I commented to them on it, telling them "Thank you so much for using you manners like that" "I really like how you said please and thank you" and "You have really great manners, good job with that!"
I got to work one-on-one with a few students - when they were reading, either to themselves or to their peers, a few (like 4 or 5) of the girls asked me if I could listen to them read. They're so good and they like to show off what they know. I loveloveLOVE how excited they are about the things they're learning! I was working one-on-one with a struggling reader, working on sounding out words and letters.
I love this experience so much. I'm seriously going to have the best job in the world. I don't think anything could top being in front of a class of children and being such a big part of their learning experience. I've always thought I wanted to do kindergarten, but two days in a first grade classroom has got me kind of wanting to teach first grade.
I've really got to work on my "teacher voice" though.
The class is broken into reading groups based on their reading level, and I work with the more advanced readers in the class. That was a bit crazy for me today because while the girls were listening and ready to read (they're so eager to please, I love it!), the boys in the group were goofing around and not listening. I think they knew that I'm new at this, and that they were just trying to see how far they could push me. I need to not be a push over. I am in charge. Some of the students are so eager to "be the teacher" and tell other students what to be doing, I had to tell one student a few times during our reading group that I'm the teacher. The girls must have felt so bad for me trying to manage the boys; they kept trying to give me tips on what to do ("Try clapping. Clapping works to get their attention." and "Send one back to his desk and the other boys will listen better."). My mentor teacher must have seen that I was having trouble because she ended up sending one of the boys back to his desk.
I got to take the kids down to lunch today by myself, which was... interesting. "She pushed me!" "Ms, she hit me!" "He's pushing!" "He's not in the right spot 'cuz he's getting a sandwich and not hot lunch!" Once we got to the lunch line though, their demeanor changed completely. They were so polite to the lunch lady, and they were so good at using their manners!! I was pleasantly surprised at their manners, and I commented to them on it, telling them "Thank you so much for using you manners like that" "I really like how you said please and thank you" and "You have really great manners, good job with that!"
I got to work one-on-one with a few students - when they were reading, either to themselves or to their peers, a few (like 4 or 5) of the girls asked me if I could listen to them read. They're so good and they like to show off what they know. I loveloveLOVE how excited they are about the things they're learning! I was working one-on-one with a struggling reader, working on sounding out words and letters.
I love this experience so much. I'm seriously going to have the best job in the world. I don't think anything could top being in front of a class of children and being such a big part of their learning experience. I've always thought I wanted to do kindergarten, but two days in a first grade classroom has got me kind of wanting to teach first grade.
I've really got to work on my "teacher voice" though.
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