The Second Day of School
What a difference a day makes! Today was not a perfect day, but it was a much better day, and I have no doubt that each day will help me to feel more and more comfortable in my new "shoes."
This morning, after checking in with my little lost ones and making sure they knew where to go, I had my Year 6 English class for two class periods, so one hour and forty minutes. Yesterday, I had them during the fire alarm, so there was very little time to spend with them. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them today! They were attentive, hard working, kind, curious and very bright - what a joy! I felt better too. I knew what had and had not worked from the previous day, and I felt very confident in the material I taught today. I did things with them that I enjoy doing at home like bringing them to the floor to read a story and doing the Hokey Pokey after they had been sitting for a while (by the way, they said the US version of the Hokey Pokey was much more fun). It was a wonderful way to start my Friday, a great, fresh, new day!
After morning tea time (yes, you read that correctly), I had my form class again for maths and English. Maths went great! It was just sort of an introduction to maths, and then we played a game that I had learned from the brilliant teacher I had the absolute privilege to study under in New Zealand. It was just a little game about place value, but they seemed to enjoy it and I am always glad to start maths off with children enjoying it! English was also good, although I have a couple of wee ones who are struggling to find their place in a middle school... I'm making sure to help guide them along that path though.
Lunch still baffles me. I leave my students for nearly an hour and enjoy some time catching up with my new colleagues and a few minutes to breath quietly in the classroom - how lovely! What baffles me most of all is that the entire school is eating outside and then playing for this time with only a small percentage of the staff outside to watch them! And they all seem to handle themselves well (touch wood!).
On Friday afternoons, the school started a new program last year to mix the two oldest years up (our equivalent of 6th and 7th grades). During this time, the kids go to an enrichment class. These classes are outside of the curriculum, meant to be extra learning, but mainly just for fun. There were several sports classes offered, a cooking class, a music class and a technology one to learn about radio. I'm thrilled that the school allowed me an opportunity to get to teach one of these classes - a class all about America! I have great liberties to exactly what to teach to the kids, which is a lot of fun. I met my class this afternoon, of mainly boys. We met in the hall (not a hallway, but rather think of "The Great Hall"), and divided the youngsters up. While walking back to the classroom, one of the boys rushed to my side and said, "How are you today?" "I'm doing great thank you, how are you?" To which he just chuckled. My accent is still a big hit, and I guess I just can't let them in on the little secret, that to me, all of their accents are adorable, too!
We started with an introduction game where they had to say their name along with a state that began with the same letter, then having to repeat all those that came before them. The only letters that gave me problems were B and J, they are common name letters, but no states start with these, so Boston and Jacksonville had to be included in the activity. Next was an activity, similar to one I have done the first week of school for the last six years. It was very challenging, and I warned the kids of that. I gave the kids a large blue piece of paper and access to as much construction paper and glue as they needed, then I asked them to make a map of the US without looking at a map. Don't worry, I did not ask them to make a map of each of the 50 states, but rather a map of the outline of the US with any landmarks that they knew labeled on it. I didn't allow scissors, because that always makes the activity more entertaining. One group was extremely creative, and while they had no real idea what the country looked like, they made an interesting shape and then created the US flag on it. Another group added the Empire State Building, which stood about 6 inches off of the flat map in the middle of the country. Many groups labeled places like Florida, California, New York City, Disney World, Washington, D.C., and of course, after Prince Harry's recent activities, Las Vegas. It was quite the entertaining process, I must admit...for me at least, and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.
Showing the kids an actual map of the US and spending some time pointing out some of the landmarks was eye-opening for many of them. They were really curious and truly excited to learn. They asked great questions and left me with a list of things that they want to study during our time together. Many of them mentioned wanting to know more about our history, sports and politics. A few of the more specific ones made me smile, and so I'll need to do my best to teach these: Black Tuesday, the accent, if Transformers was filmed in America, the National Anthem, if there is a big theme park in Ohio, where famous people live in America, and Abraham Lincoln. But the most common request was about food. Apparently many of the kids thought that in signing up for this class, they would eat loads of American foods. One asked me "What do hamburgers taste like?" Another pleaded "Can we make hot dogs and American pancakes?" The only hotdogs I make are the ones where I add a bun and ketchup... I'll have to see what I can do!
Today, I spent more time in my teacher comfort zone, and that is always a great place to be! And, I got to know some pretty amazing kids. There's not a doubt in my mind that I'm in for a great year!
This morning, after checking in with my little lost ones and making sure they knew where to go, I had my Year 6 English class for two class periods, so one hour and forty minutes. Yesterday, I had them during the fire alarm, so there was very little time to spend with them. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with them today! They were attentive, hard working, kind, curious and very bright - what a joy! I felt better too. I knew what had and had not worked from the previous day, and I felt very confident in the material I taught today. I did things with them that I enjoy doing at home like bringing them to the floor to read a story and doing the Hokey Pokey after they had been sitting for a while (by the way, they said the US version of the Hokey Pokey was much more fun). It was a wonderful way to start my Friday, a great, fresh, new day!
After morning tea time (yes, you read that correctly), I had my form class again for maths and English. Maths went great! It was just sort of an introduction to maths, and then we played a game that I had learned from the brilliant teacher I had the absolute privilege to study under in New Zealand. It was just a little game about place value, but they seemed to enjoy it and I am always glad to start maths off with children enjoying it! English was also good, although I have a couple of wee ones who are struggling to find their place in a middle school... I'm making sure to help guide them along that path though.
Lunch still baffles me. I leave my students for nearly an hour and enjoy some time catching up with my new colleagues and a few minutes to breath quietly in the classroom - how lovely! What baffles me most of all is that the entire school is eating outside and then playing for this time with only a small percentage of the staff outside to watch them! And they all seem to handle themselves well (touch wood!).
On Friday afternoons, the school started a new program last year to mix the two oldest years up (our equivalent of 6th and 7th grades). During this time, the kids go to an enrichment class. These classes are outside of the curriculum, meant to be extra learning, but mainly just for fun. There were several sports classes offered, a cooking class, a music class and a technology one to learn about radio. I'm thrilled that the school allowed me an opportunity to get to teach one of these classes - a class all about America! I have great liberties to exactly what to teach to the kids, which is a lot of fun. I met my class this afternoon, of mainly boys. We met in the hall (not a hallway, but rather think of "The Great Hall"), and divided the youngsters up. While walking back to the classroom, one of the boys rushed to my side and said, "How are you today?" "I'm doing great thank you, how are you?" To which he just chuckled. My accent is still a big hit, and I guess I just can't let them in on the little secret, that to me, all of their accents are adorable, too!
We started with an introduction game where they had to say their name along with a state that began with the same letter, then having to repeat all those that came before them. The only letters that gave me problems were B and J, they are common name letters, but no states start with these, so Boston and Jacksonville had to be included in the activity. Next was an activity, similar to one I have done the first week of school for the last six years. It was very challenging, and I warned the kids of that. I gave the kids a large blue piece of paper and access to as much construction paper and glue as they needed, then I asked them to make a map of the US without looking at a map. Don't worry, I did not ask them to make a map of each of the 50 states, but rather a map of the outline of the US with any landmarks that they knew labeled on it. I didn't allow scissors, because that always makes the activity more entertaining. One group was extremely creative, and while they had no real idea what the country looked like, they made an interesting shape and then created the US flag on it. Another group added the Empire State Building, which stood about 6 inches off of the flat map in the middle of the country. Many groups labeled places like Florida, California, New York City, Disney World, Washington, D.C., and of course, after Prince Harry's recent activities, Las Vegas. It was quite the entertaining process, I must admit...for me at least, and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves.
 |
| Notice the Empire State Building |
 |
| This one labeled Los Angeles and David Beckham's home. |
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| A very close second, for creativity at least |
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| The most accurate map and winner of Alabama pencils from Representative Paul DeMarco! |
Showing the kids an actual map of the US and spending some time pointing out some of the landmarks was eye-opening for many of them. They were really curious and truly excited to learn. They asked great questions and left me with a list of things that they want to study during our time together. Many of them mentioned wanting to know more about our history, sports and politics. A few of the more specific ones made me smile, and so I'll need to do my best to teach these: Black Tuesday, the accent, if Transformers was filmed in America, the National Anthem, if there is a big theme park in Ohio, where famous people live in America, and Abraham Lincoln. But the most common request was about food. Apparently many of the kids thought that in signing up for this class, they would eat loads of American foods. One asked me "What do hamburgers taste like?" Another pleaded "Can we make hot dogs and American pancakes?" The only hotdogs I make are the ones where I add a bun and ketchup... I'll have to see what I can do!
Today, I spent more time in my teacher comfort zone, and that is always a great place to be! And, I got to know some pretty amazing kids. There's not a doubt in my mind that I'm in for a great year!
King's Island in Ohio is an awesome theme park!!!! This sounds like such a fun class to teach! I'm glad day 2 improved and can't wait to hear more as the year unfolds! Miss you bunches!!!
ReplyDeleteCedar Point is also in Ohio. Both are great parks and I've been to both several times. My brothers both worked at Kings Island!!
ReplyDeleteLove your posts!
Kristie Dobelbower
What a fabulously inspiring day!
ReplyDeleteMaybe we'll make a special trip an hour west of here and invest in good 'ol American Spam for your class to try. :o) I'm glad you're feeling more comfortable in your class and I blame you getting lost on the map makers.
ReplyDelete