Today I got to go in and meet the class! I am helping Mrs. Aston and she teaches first graders. I was super excited coming in to see what we would be doing and how involved I would be. She had me do a lot more than I was expecting, but it was so fun! I got to make flash cards for some of the kids and then take them into the hall and help them with some words that they struggled with. It was also the 100th day of school today so we took everyone's picture. The kids are all so sweet, some were very nice and excited to have me there and that made me feel better and reassured in a way that this is definitely what I want to do.
One thing that I noticed in today's class what that Carly often times gives them the opportunity to choose which learning/fun activity to do when they get their little "free times". The first thing that the kids work on in the morning is their Journal and she pulls them aside to have them read to her what they wrote, or a previous assignment. When journal time was over and still had to work with some students she rang the windchime and let them choose between iPads, silent reading, audiobooks, playdough, and some other fun stuff. I really liked this because it still keeps them busy so that they don't get the opportunity to get crazy or cause problems.
At this point in the year I think all the students are pretty used to the routine in the classroom and know what comes next and was expected. Today we talked about Nouns and Adjectives, how we use them in our writing to make it more interesting as well as help the reader to better imagine/see what we're talking about. For example, if you're writing about a bear you don't want to say: "I saw a bear", you want to say: "I saw a great, bit, black bear climbing a tree to reach the honey in a bee's nest". It makes the sentence more interesting, but if gives you more information to know what they situation is and what you're feeling. But I was surprised to see how good behaved they were. They would raise their hands and participate when she would ask for an example, or a sentence using these nouns and adjectives that we came up with. So I think that with having a routine it makes them feel more comfortable because they know what to do after journal and that she wants everyone to come up with sentences and give it a try, and it's okay to make mistakes or not to get it quite right. That happened once, but the other kids didn't laugh, we just explained the difference between nouns and adjectives and moved on. I thought that was really nice that they aren't at the age where they get embarrassed yet. I was super shy when I was in elementary and that made it really hard to participate in class because I was scared what other people would say/think, how they would judge me I guess. But we all make mistakes, and that's okay. :)
One thing that I noticed in today's class what that Carly often times gives them the opportunity to choose which learning/fun activity to do when they get their little "free times". The first thing that the kids work on in the morning is their Journal and she pulls them aside to have them read to her what they wrote, or a previous assignment. When journal time was over and still had to work with some students she rang the windchime and let them choose between iPads, silent reading, audiobooks, playdough, and some other fun stuff. I really liked this because it still keeps them busy so that they don't get the opportunity to get crazy or cause problems.
At this point in the year I think all the students are pretty used to the routine in the classroom and know what comes next and was expected. Today we talked about Nouns and Adjectives, how we use them in our writing to make it more interesting as well as help the reader to better imagine/see what we're talking about. For example, if you're writing about a bear you don't want to say: "I saw a bear", you want to say: "I saw a great, bit, black bear climbing a tree to reach the honey in a bee's nest". It makes the sentence more interesting, but if gives you more information to know what they situation is and what you're feeling. But I was surprised to see how good behaved they were. They would raise their hands and participate when she would ask for an example, or a sentence using these nouns and adjectives that we came up with. So I think that with having a routine it makes them feel more comfortable because they know what to do after journal and that she wants everyone to come up with sentences and give it a try, and it's okay to make mistakes or not to get it quite right. That happened once, but the other kids didn't laugh, we just explained the difference between nouns and adjectives and moved on. I thought that was really nice that they aren't at the age where they get embarrassed yet. I was super shy when I was in elementary and that made it really hard to participate in class because I was scared what other people would say/think, how they would judge me I guess. But we all make mistakes, and that's okay. :)
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