Anyway, here we go....
I get to school at 7:30 most days, which sounds early, but I live so close to the school that it isn't too bad.
From 7:30 to 8:00, Tracy and I are in our office and available for homework help for kids that are there early and might have not finished it the night before. We don't get kids everyday, but I think it's a good option for the kids just in case they need to finish something up quickly.
8:00-9:00
Tracy and I are both in our office at this time so we work on anything we have to do for AmeriCorps, plan events, work on lessons for classes we are helping teach, or any other things we find need to be done. Lately, I have been working on planning a Family Literacy Night, which will be next week! We have gotten the word out to the school and are working on informing the community about it as well. Also during this time I have been training my brain with a program I learned about called "Lumosity." Check it out on the interwebs. I figure that's a good use of my time. The children need my brain to be smart so theirs can be too.
From 9-10 I go to the fifth grade classroom and help them with reading. I will either read along with the story they are reading if they are reading as a group, or circulate around the room to help individual students if they are working independently. We have been reading a lot of interesting short stories, and this week they are reading biographies. I learned all about Roberto Clemente today.
From 10-10:15 I usually have a little snack because teachers get hungry too.
Then most days from 10:15 to 11:00 I go help out with the 6th grade band. I try to bring my flute most days and help these beginning students while they try to make some sort of sound come out of their instruments. I focus mostly on the flutes, and will occasionally help the saxophone as well. Past that though, I am pretty useless. It is fun though! And I can really hear some of the students making improvements. Mondays are just woodwinds so it's a great time to work closely with some of the students.
Also during this time, I will occasionally tutor some 1st grade ELL students. I did this one day so far to fill in for Tracy, and loved it so much. I want more. All of the opportunities seem to happen at the same time though. I might be doing more of this as the year goes on since band is just Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.
From 11:00 until about 1:00 I don't have anything specific scheduled as of now. Except feeding myself. This might change as the year goes on and teachers find more needs in their classrooms. But for now this is more time to plan events and lessons, eat lunch, and occasionally take a walk to the post office. Tracy and I usually keep pretty busy and there are teachers that will ask us to help out in different ways so we are never very bored. Our office is right next to the library so we also help out in there a lot of time when it is busy. I have mastered the art of checking out a book.
From 1:15 to about 2:10, Tracy and I both help teach an elementary school health class. This is the first year this class had been taught and the teacher gets a new set of students each day of the week, so she can really use our extra help. When we are not needed directly in the classroom, we will help her plan lessons that fit into the curriculum. They are trying to implement the "Why Try?" curriculum (google it if interested) as well as certain health topics, which is a lot to cover with students you only see once a week. Creativity is a must.
At 2:10 I head back to the library to help in there for the rest of the day. A lot of the time, our librarian (Pam) will have a class in there at the end of the day, so I will help other students while she is reading to the class, or help the little ones pick or check out books.
Then from 3:00-4:30 is Afters! I think this is one of my favorite parts of the day. Pam and I work with the 3rd and 4th graders and have a group of about 10 kids, depending on the day. The Afters program is sponsored by a 21st Century grant, and kids come to Afters that need extra help so they do not fall behind in the classroom. The teachers recommended students in their classroom that would benefit from this extra attention. First we have snack at Afters, then homework time, then Imagine Learning (a computer reading program) for twenty minutes, then usually some more homework. Kids that finish their homework early have other options of what they can do until 4:30. And on Fridays it is usually a fun day since kids don't have homework. Last week we took a little nature walk outside, and this week we are making Thursday fun by dissecting Owl Pellets. Sadly, sometimes Tracy and I miss these fun Fridays because of our AmeriCorps meetings, but those are fun too.
And that's really all! I am enjoying it so far, and I think I'm getting into more of a rhythm as time goes on. I am getting better at always having something to do or plan if I am not with a class.
And on a completely different note...
I'll leave you all with this from my crazy hike this weekend. Stay tuned for a youtube video in which I accidentally record a video of mountains on my iPhone... completely upside down. The video wasn't accidental. Just the upside down part. It's really quite the masterpiece. Until then---
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