March 24, 2016 - 22:17
Today was my first real visit to a first grade classroom at XX School. Here are some notes and observations:
Classroom/School:
The school feels more like a large house to me, than a school. It is homey and comfortbale, and warm. Susan's classroom is actuallly pretty big, and broken up into two sections. One half seems more casual and activity based and the other is more learning based with tables. There is a turtle in teh classroom named Shelley. I actually feel kind of bad for it because it is pretty big and it's tank is pretty small. I think it is more important to teach kids about respecting animals and their wild habitats and taking field trips to see them instead of having them in cages.
The Students:
The class is pretty small. I think there are only 11 students, which is amazing. From what I can tell so far they all seem to be pretty nice kids who get along pretty well! There is one little girl named Viola who took a liking to me immediatley. She's talkative and very outgoing. I'm a little bit concerned/unsure becuase sh'es pretty touchy and clingy and I don't know what protocol for that is in the classroom. I don't want the other students to think she is my favorite. I think I will ask Susan about that.
Class:
Today in class I got to see a lesson about George Fox, the founder of Quakerism. The kids seemed pretty engaged, except they squirmed around a lot. I wonder if that's just normal for young kids. Maybe I'll do some reseach about that. viola talked a lot and the teacher had to sometimes make room for the other students to participate. It was intersting to watch them articulating their thoughts. Sometimes it took a while. I never really thought about how much of a skill that is.
Other:
Shelby drew me a picture of sme purple squares!