Field Notes #10

5/8

Field Notes #10—Last Day

• Today was my last day at Oakley Elementary School. It was hard saying bye to the students because I grew very close to them.
• I bought pencils and erasers for the students since almost every day I encountered a situation where one of the kids did not have a pencil. Each student received 3 pencils and one large eraser along with erasers that go on top of the pencil’s eraser. I brought blue, green, orange, yellow, and pink colors. I also wrote Ms. G a thank you card.
• I came to Oakley when the students were at lunch. Instead of going to Ms. G I just stayed with the students until lunch was over.
• They all hugged me and repeatedly told me not to leave them, which was hard to hear.
•  I was writing my letter to Ms. G and one girl from the other third grade class (she told me she is Marlon’s twin sister) asked me if she could draw something on the envelope which I said yes to. The envelope had gotten stepped on by another one of my students earlier which I though was a bit funny. She drew various hearts and wrote Ms. G’s name and mine.
  • Once Ms. G came down to retrieve her kids another of my student’s asked me if she could give Ms. G my letter which I said she could. She promptly ran to Ms. G and gave it to her.
• Once inside the classroom the students started working on math again. They were doing more graphs but instead of being vertical the bar graphs were horizontal. Additionally, the students had to come up with their own key—meaning they had to determine how much to space each section by.
• I worked with Sonya again but she did not want to do the work at all. I kept explaining but she kept saying she couldn’t do it. I also worked with Marcus. He was distracted often but when he was on task he did very well and did not want me to help much unless he asked me.
  • At one point Ms. G brought John to a desk next to where I was working with Sonya and Marcus. She was getting mad at him and as punishment for not doing his work she moved him alone.
  • John looked angry and upset with Ms. G. I went over to him and helped him out with the worksheets. I did not see what prompted Ms. G to bring John to the back but it looked like John was not doing the work because he did not understand the instructions. After I explained it to him he was able to do the work and brightened up.
• Three boys kept wiggling in their chairs and asking Ms. G if they could use the bathroom. They even asked me but I had to tell them I could not do anything about it—they knew the schools rules. After about 30 minutes of wiggling Ms. G asked me to bring them down to the bathroom. They literally ran the whole way—not in a misbehaving way because they wouldn’t do that to me, but rather they really really needed to use the restroom.
• After going back to the class we all moved on from math to science! I was excited because this was the first time I saw a science lesson in this classroom.
• They were learning about seeds--- hands on learning!!
• They each were given three worksheets and a lima bean. The first worksheet asked them to draw what they thought the inside of the seed would look like. The other worksheet asked them to explain the texture, color, size, smell, shape, and feel of the seed both before and after opening it.
• They then opened the seed in half. I was nervous they were going to break the seeds since they’re so fragile but the students did very well!
• They then drew the inside of the plant and wrote descriptive characteristics of the inside.
• Ms. G went around showing each student where the root and leaf of the lima bean insides were placed. It was pretty cool!
• After they were doing with the worksheets they wrapped up the lesson. In a future date they will plant seeds, take care of them, and watch them grow!
  • The students were told they could take their seeds home if they wanted.
• After cleaning up the students were given the option to create Mother’s Day cards for their Mothers or Grandmothers.
• While I was looking around the room and each card, Eli* came up to me and gave me a thank you card. I stood in the front of the room reading it and one after the other each student gave me a thank you card. It was the sweetest thing ever. All the cards are adorable.
• The students call me Ms. Lilly Pad; because of this, a lot of the cards had lili pads drawn on them. They also had various drawings and some had jokes.
• After, the day came to an end and I had to say goodbye.

It was a bittersweet moment with the students. I was able to get to know each and every one of her students on a personal level. I knew how each student worked and how to get them to participate (to an extent). I am going to miss Room 12 so much and am very grateful to have been a part of this classroom with wonderful students.