First Grade is Fabulous!

As I walked in to the class room today, I was greeted by a lot of beautiful voices singing and a lot of little hands signing along to a song about being thankful. After they sang some more, I helped a couple of kids with their reading words; the kids would read a list of words to me, just to help them learn how to read. Then they went to lunch and I got a packet ready for the students for math.

When the kids got back, we had them split up in groups for math rotations, three for quiet math time, and the other three with adults teaching them something. I got to teach them how to play a game called Spot It, which was really fun, and the kids were definitely having a great time. Mrs. Barger was teaching them how to use the smart board, and doing math problems with them to help them navigate their way around on it. Mrs. Barger does a fantastic job of involving her students and letting them learn hands on. She made sure to include each child in the activities and also made sure that they were participating and learning. 

One method that she uses to help them pay attention and try to be engaged in the learning is having all of their names on clothes pins and cards that they can each put their pins on if they are being good or bad. When their pin gets on the card "Outstanding" then they can take their pin down at the end of the day and give it to the teacher. I believe that they get a reward for being on the "Outstanding" card. When I look at all of their pins, you can tell that they are all trying really hard to be good and engaged. These kids are also very good at listening and raising their hands and being quiet when they are in the class. If you were to walk into that class room you would see that they are really learning well from Mrs. Barger. She has done an excellent job of making all of the children feel welcome to participate and safe from embarrassment. 

After all of the math rotations, we cleaned up and the Early-Birds went home. I stayed to watch the Later-Gators play duck, duck, goose, and then I was able to read them a book about having manners on the telephone. When I got up to leave, ALL of the girls congregated around me and asked me to stay. I got so many hugs and heard many little voices saying that I was the best teacher ever. Even though I haven't taught them anything and have done nothing to deserve that compliment, it was a really sweet thing to hear. I didn't know how much I could love little first graders until now. 

I Don't Remember What I Learned in First Grade

So today I was able to go back to my first elementary school, and the memories just flooded back. It's amazing what sights and smells can do to recall moments from your childhood... and none of it about what I learned. It was great to be back, the only difference is that I'm bigger and the school is... smaller... at least it seems to be now.

I volunteered in the class of a lady that I have known for... a long time, and who is a fantastic first grade teacher. Mrs. Barger was kind enough to let me watch these super adorable children as she was encouraging and challenging her little six year-olds to keep trying and to do their best. That's what I think is most important role that a teacher can play: being supportive and pushing students to do harder things because you know that they can do it. Mrs. Barger was very clear in her instructions to the kids, showed absolutely no doubt in any of them, was encouraging to them in their assignments, and was very good at giving compliments and boosting their self-esteem with the way she talked to and looked at them. You could tell by the way her students looked at her and flocked to her when they needed help that they just adore her and really need her appreciation. Mrs. Barger acknowledged each of her students by their name, and looked at them, and gave them the time that they needed for their questions or comments. This is so important to do at this time of their lives. They are so young, and will likely believe what anyone tells them, so when the teacher tells them that they can do something, that they can be great at something, they will believe it themselves. 

So while I was volunteering in the class, they had lunch and recess. I cut out a lot of shapes in colored paper for a future activity, and waited for them to come back. When they did, Mrs. Barger asked if I would like to read them a story. I excitedly looked through her treasure trove of books, and found one of my favorites from elementary school, Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, by Doreen Cronin. I was really glad that they enjoyed it and were so quite as I read it. 

After that, they each worked on their own self portrait for an autobiography that they are writing. They were each doing a great job and they all looked beautiful. Throughout the day, if Mrs. Barger needed their attention, she would yell out "Classity Class!", and they would yell back "Yessity Yes?" as they put their arms over their heads. They were all very respectful and quiet, which is always refreshing when you're in a class room full of kids. 

It was hard to leave because it had been so fun to be there again, but I'm really excited to be able to go back really soon, especially to see one of my primary students being quiet :) 

This lil' dude is one of my primary students, so I was extra excited to be in this class! 

Divide and Conquer!

Today was my last day in Kristen's class for a while, so I was glad to have extra time to just watch the class and reflect on what I had done to help Kristen in any way. There are so many things that a teacher needs to do and definitely doesn't have enough time for, so when I was in the class, I did a lot of grading for Kristen. Spelling tests and history assignments mostly, but it was cool to see what they had written and to learn, well it was more like remember, what they were learning. I was also able to help prepare a poster as an example for them for their explorer posters, and I was able to cut a load of yarn into pieces and tie them together for cat's cradle. 

Today wasn't a super busy day, especially since they are getting ready for fall break. I helped grade some more papers on European explorers, and I was able to stay long enough to listen to their math assignments. They were dividing today, which took me back less than 24 hours to my own math class. Yesterday we were learning the same things, how to divide, what the easiest way was to divide, but we were learning how to teach it. It's nice to be past the point where I was learning what division was all about. They had a problem up on the board that said, is 9585 divisible by 9?, so for fun, I pulled out a piece of paper and did the problem using the partial product method (which I just learned yesterday but should have learned 10 years ago), and found out for myself that 9585 is indeed divisible by 9. For those of you that are curious, 9585 divided by 9 is 1065.  

I know that in comparison to the time I am not there, I didn't even contribute a fraction of the time that Kristen or any teacher would spend in a year, or a month, a week, or even a day on grading papers, helping students with questions, etc. I feel overwhelmed when I think about the amount of time that a teacher puts in to her job, but then I remember that I won't be in school full time with a part time job as well as being a teacher :)

I just want to thank Kristen and her kids for being so nice for letting me join in their class if only for a little while, and for giving me a glimpse into what I hope to be doing as a permanent career in the future. It's been fun to spend time doing this, and I'm excited to see what the younger grades are like. Oh, and for Kristen's kids:

WHAT DOES THE FOX SAY!

Money Money Money!!!

Today when I went into class, I asked Kristen about both exceptional students and English learners, because teaching both requires most of the same things. She said that they both have modified spelling tests, a lot of visual and audio lessons to help them remember and learn better, and they have more one-on-one time when they need it. With the exceptional students, they can have aids come into the class to help them, a push in, or they can go into a separate class with other exceptional students and work in that type of class room setting, a pull out.

For English learning students, they really focus on vocab words, acting out what they mean, drawing what they mean, looking at context clues to figure out the meaning of a word. Their spelling tests are modified to what words they are learning as well. 

The word that this is portraying is transform. 

After I talked to Kristen about this, she told the class about an activity that they will be doing for the rest of the year. They have "colonial money" that they can earn by doing things that they are supposed to do or if they are behaving, or they can lose money when they do things they aren't supposed to do. At the end of the activity they will be able to use the money they earn for a colonial store. 

I think they will really enjoy this assignment. Tomorrow, although I will not be there, all of the fifth graders will be doing a colonial day where they have different rotations and learn different things or play games, like marbles and cat's cradle, and then they will enjoy ginger snap cookies and apple cider :) I hope they have a fun time with that.