Today was: Really Good

Yeah, today was definitely on the GOOD side. Funny how the days that end up being the best are the ones that are initially shrouded in the most anxiety. My supervisor came today, and, I refused to let myself freak out and get all worried. There is a woman from New College doing observation in a 1st grade classroom and at lunch today she said that today was the day that her supervisor was coming, too. She seemed a bit frazzled and freaking out and I turned to her and I said, "What worked for me last time was to erase the adults from the classroom - just don't even think about them while you are doing your lesson. Oh, and teach to the KIDS, not the supervisor." I followed my own advice today and it went pretty swimmingly. Yeah, there were a few kids who were fidgety, and a few moments where I really thought that I was losing control, but, I didn't panic and got everything back on track - I was really amazed with myself.

The lesson itself that I did involved how we (the class) are alike and different. I began by calling 3 girls up to the front of the room and then said to the rest of the students, "These three all have something in common. They are all alike in a way that I am thinking. Who thinks they can choose someone else from the rug that would fit in with this group - a person that is just like the ones standing up here." What I was getting at was that they were all girls, so if a student said that a boy could go stand at the front of the room I said, "No, that person isn't the same as the people standing here - at least, in the way that I was thinking." I repeated the activity using hair color and then ethnicity (the kids that I called up were all Chinese). I must admit, I was a bit uncomfortable with the last one (ethnicity), and, when a student said that the 5 students standing up were alike because "they all have the eyes", I thought I was going to pass out. I quickly launched into (what I felt was) "clean up mode" and said things like, "Yes, their families, at one point in time, all came from China... um... Asia. My family came from both Germany and Hungary. Um, families come from all over..." Whew. After that, I paired everyone up and instructed them to find one way that they were alike, and one way that they were different (from their partner). Some of the kids clearly aren't comfortable talking with certain other kids, so I had to step in on a couple of pairs and offer some hints ["What about your shirts, are they the same color?" "Well, you're a boy and she's a girl." - Yeah, that last one was a bit MORE than just a hint...]. Then we came back together as a class and on chart paper with the headings "We ALL Have It", "SOME of Us Have It", and "ONE of Us Has It", we plugged ideas in where appropriate ["Ok, you guys found out that you both have brown eyes. Now, does EVERYONE in the class have brown eyes? No, of course not. Does only one person in the room have brown eyes? No, again. So, we can say that SOME of us have brown eyes."]. THEN, after that, I had a graph with two columns ["Wears Shoes That Lace Up" & "Wears Shoes That Buckle or Slip On"] and students had to put a sticker in the appropriate column. When all of the stickers were adhered (and after some minor chaos - I'm pretty sure that I confused them with my instructions...) we compared the columns ["So, which one has more stickers? Yeah, more people are wearing shoes that buckle or slip on. Does that mean that those people are better than those who have shoes that lace up? No way, some people like shoes that lace while others like shoes that buckle or slip on. And, from this graph you can see that we are all alike because we are all wearing shoes, but we are different because we are wearing shoes that are different..."]. The End.

Once again, my supervisor had nice things to say (whew) and even offered some valuable suggestions. I think that I've mentioned before that I'm not all that great with suggestions (I took a poetry writing class in college and thought, "Who are these people to tell me what to change! They don't know me or what state of mind I was in when I wrote this..."), but, HONESTLY, the things she mentioned were all things that I really could use some help with. I am a fallible human being, and the advice of others is valuable. [My new mantra.]

The girl with autism had another really good day - it's amazing how far she's come in just a couple of weeks. Every day so far this year the kids have been introduced to a new letter of the alphabet [today was T t] and Miles will hold up cards with the capital version on one, and the lowercase version on the other. He'll then say, "Point to the big T. Now, point to the little t." Today, the girl was pointing along with everyone else. Pretty darn cool. Oh, and everyone got to trace someone elses body outline on a big sheet of butcher paper, and she totally participated. OH, and during Math time, Miles had the kids lay down and form shapes with their bodies and SHE LOVED IT. Let's hope the worst is WAY FAR behind us...

After school I went with Miles to a couple of meetings. One was a "Business Meeting" where the teachers and Principal talked about a student mentor program that goes on at the school (basically, kids in grades 3-5 go through conflict resolution training and then "patrol" the playground at recess and help to solve conflicts), and starting up a compost program. It sounds boring, but I found it pretty interesting. THEN, the Principal left and the teachers had a Union meeting. When Miles and I got back to the classroom I said, "The Union meeting ROCKED." He thought that I was joking, but I really thought that it was COOL to hear the gripes of public school teachers - after all, they will inevitably become my gripes and I should start finding out what I'm in for.

Miles and I ended up staying at school until 5:15 - there was a lot of prep for tomorrow since we're starting a week on "Country Mouse and City Mouse" and the differences and similarities between where people (and animals) live. While coloring in animal shapes and making mouse masks, we agreed to talk about anything BUT school stuff.

We're going to be making a scrapbook and everyone in class will have their own page. When I got home tonight I rifled through drawers trying to find pictures and other (flat) objects that would be suitable for my page. I came across photos from my FIRST Student Teaching experience, 10 years ago. Boy, I look young. And, really, I was young. But, that is a topic for another day...