Week 10: Getting into the Swing of Things Again!

Monday, March 11

At my last placement, I talked a lot about how much I loved the entire school community. All of the teachers I met were kind and welcoming, and just made me so excited to be at CPCS. I am so blessed to say that here at Beecher, I am experiencing the same thing. All the staff has been so friendly and are willing to help me with whatever. (One teacher heard I was getting married and started offering some of her own wedding things for me to use!) I have just felt so overwhelmed by all the smiles they offer. At one aiding placement I had, I would dread lunchtime because I could not stand the lunchroom talk with the teachers; they were always just degrading their students and talking about how much they don’t like their job/school. It is nothing like that in Beecher’s lunchroom! The staff is composed of caring individuals who not only love their job but also their colleagues and their district. I look forward to lunch and hearing from other grades’ teachers how their day is going, how their weekend was, and what exciting things are happening in their lives. It’s been a really neat experience.

The only negative comments I have heard lately in the lunchroom concern the new superintendant. This school year the district hired a new superintendant, and no one is excited about her, including our principal. The superintendant is extremely strict and unwilling to work with the teachers it seems like; they all miss their old one very much. Apparently the new superintendent was told at her last district that she could either quit, or she’d get fired. Because she chose to quit, her old district won’t give out any information as to why they did not want her, so she got hired for Beecher’s district, and so far, it has not been a great experience. Hearing their stories about her has opened my eyes to how different public and private schools are. It seems as though public schools have a lot more hoops to go through for certain things and it is disappointing to hear about.

Tuesday, March 12

Today I got to use some knowledge I gained at CPCS at my new placement! Something I learned at Crown Point (I think I wrote about it before) was a game called Silent Ball. Essentially it’s a game where students throw a ball to each other but they cannot talk the whole time. If they drop the ball, they’re out; if they throw poorly, they’re out; if they talk, they’re out. I explained the game to Christy before and she thought it sounded really neat (I think she was mostly interested in the quiet factor!) so today I got to teach it to the kindergartners for an indoor recess.

It went really well and the students loved the game. We played it a little different than we did at CPCS because of desk structures being different but they really enjoyed it. It was fun to compare how the first graders play to how the kindergartners play. The first graders would try to throw to someone across the room, making it harder on themselves whereas the kindergartners kept passing it to the person right next to them so that they would for sure not get out. Either way, it’s fun to learn about games that can be used at multiple ages!

Wednesday, March 13

My cooperating teacher Christy’s younger sister Emily taught at Beecher Elementary last year. Because of budget cuts, she was not given her job back this year, but she did manage to snag a maternity-leave position. It’s kind of a strange situation because she’s teaching in her own room from last year; the teacher’s had switched rooms around, so the one who she’s subbing for now has her old room. It’s been frustrating for Emily, but she is glad to at least have something for awhile.

Today I went to Emily’s class to observe her use iPads in the classroom. Apparently they “belong” to the fourth grade classes, but the third grade classes get to use them today/tomorrow so Emily was excited. Emily is extremely awesome at integrating technology into her lessons (she has a SMARTBoard in her classroom) and she was so excited to have an iPad for each student. The lesson I got to watch was one about time. Each iPad had a certain app already downloaded, so the students just needed to open it up and move the clock’s hands to whatever time Emily said. The app did have the digital time in the corner so the students needed to cover it with a piece of paper when moving the hands, and when they were done they could check their answer simply by moving the piece of paper. It sounds like a simple lesson but it worked great because the students were able to check their own work and get immediate feedback. It was really fun to see how iPads can be used in the classroom; their uses are unlimited I’m sure.

Thursday, March 14

Today our class had some special visitors. Each week we have a Star Student where they get to fill out facts about themselves and the other children get to interview them. At some point during the week, the Star Student gets to have a special adult come in and tell stories, and then we do the actual interview. This week’s Star Student, Treycen, was so excited for his dad to come in, and so was Christy because Treycen’s dad used to play on the Bears! Fabien Bownes played on the Bears and the Seattle Seahawks, each for 4 years, so the children absolutely LOVED him coming in with his jerseys and helmets. Treycen was so proud and it was really endearing to see him look up to his dad so much.

During the interview, one of the children apparently felt sick and threw up all over the carpet rug. The flu must be going around again because he was the fourth student today to get sick at school. It was good to see how Christy acted in the situation; she first took care of the sick boy and then moved the other students to another part of the room to finish the interview. Thankfully the boys and girls quickly forgot about the incident and were captivated by the football gear. Our second special visitor was my supervisor, so thank you Mrs. Hysell for being understanding about the craziness of the day! J

 

Friday, March 15

One student had her last day in our classroom today. Jordane’s mom decided that Jordane needs to be in a full-day kindergarten program so she is pulling her out and switching schools… right before the fourth quarter starts. It doesn’t really make much sense to Christy; at this point in the year, it’s going to be a struggle for Jordane to switch. Jordane does have younger siblings and the mom has made talk of how inconvenient it is to drop off and pick up Jordane throughout the day, so Christy is guessing that has a lot to do with the switch also.

It’s crazy to think how much classes can change throughout the school year. It seems to be more of an issue in public schools, but for Christy’s classes this year, she has had 3 students join the classes at random points in the year, and has had 2 leave. I can’t imagine being Jordane’s new teacher, and having another student all of a sudden at the very end of the school year. It’s going to be hard for her to figure out what skills Jordane has/needs to improve on, and it’ll be hard for Jordane to accustom herself to a new class’ rules and routines. All together it just seems like a crazy situation.