My Elementary Ed Field Experience....

Week 1.....1.5 hrs

Today was my first time helping out at the AE elementary school! I loved being around the children, with all of their enthusiasm and energy. True, this energy can get out of hand, as I witnessed a couple of times. But Ms. B. was terrific at bringing chaos into order. She would count outloud from 10 to 1. By the time she got to 1, the class was quiet again! I was so amazed that something that simple would be so effective. That is definitely something I will remember to use while teaching!

I was able to help out with reading literacy this morning. Each of the students would take turns reading 2 paragraphs while their partners scored them on how well they did. One of the students asked me to read and so I did. He sighed as I read everything perfectly...I told him that I had had A LOT of practice and that he could get just as good if he kept practicing! He seemed okay with that idea. I also got to participate with a reader's theatre on Christopher Colombus. It was so enjoyable.

Week 2.....1.5 hrs

Ms. B and I were both running a little bit late this morning, so we didn't get to talk much before the 5th graders showed up. But we had just enough time for her to throw a couple of "word lists" at me and the names of three students who needed some help. I suppose that these word lists are kind of tests, but I tried to make it fun for each of them.

D., my first reader, had a little bit of trouble with "th" words. K. read his list PERFECTLY! He also told me about how he wants to read "The Hobbit" someday. Such a bright little one. Then came B. He did very well on a lot of the words but I'm not sure that he has been taught his phoenetic alphabet very well. He struggled with vowels. He had a hard time pronouncing words, so I had him spell them out. That helped him significantly.