I lied. I did in fact do something other than lie around yesterday - Beth and I went down to South Beach for key lime pie. I had never had key lime pie before, so I thought that now that I live in Miami, it would be the perfect time to try it. It was delicious!
Today was just another Monday, I suppose. I woke up at 5:00, left the house around 6:00, and arrived at my school a little after 8:00. After P.T., I picked up my six first grade intervention students from their classes for our tutoring session at 8:45. The children were fairly well-behaved today, because I made it very clear that they would not be getting lollipops if they acted poorly. Thirty minutes later, I dropped off the students at their classes and headed for a third grade small group tutoring session. During the next thirty minutes, I helped my six third graders with a reading comprehension game. After that, I went back to the first grade part of the school for another thirty minute small group tutor session. This group normally consists of seven lovely little monsters, but today they were truly angels. The goal for today was to quiz each child on about fifty high-frequency vocabulary words, so while each individual child was quizzed, I let the other just draw, which worked out very well for keeping the craziness level down.
At 11:30, I had another intervention group with fourth graders, which was thankfully uneventful. At 1:00, I had a meeting with the principal about a new fifth grade intervention group that I will normally be meeting with from 1:00 to 1:30. Normally, after that intervention group, I will be running the Bringing Books to Life program with a second grade class for thirty minutes, but the BBL program won't be starting until next Monday. At 2:00, I had my last tutor session for the day, which is a third grade intervention group.
For the after school program today, nothing special occurred. Homework help, math practice, and the creative writing club is all that was on the agenda.
-Aly
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
The End of a Weekend That Was Too Short
No plans for today other than resting and enjoying what is left of my weekend. I hope all of you reading this are having a relaxing weekend as well.
-Aly
-Aly
Saturday, October 25, 2008
387.5 Hrs.
Thank goodness for another weekend.
Wednesday and Thursday were much of the same for City Year - tutoring small groups all day, and then homework help and the creative writing club in the afternoon.
Friday was another frustrating Friday in the office; it felt like we accomplished absolutely nothing. Other than thirty minutes spent completing our CPR certifications, the rest of the day consisted of everyone sitting around the office by themselves or in groups "planning" for next week in the schools. My very biggest pet peeve of all time is wasted time, so it is difficult for me to have a positive attitude about our Fridays spent in the CY office when I feel that I could be doing something more productive somewhere else. I do see, however, how the time "planning" could have been spent in a more effective way by teams who have planning to do. This weekend, I plan to work more on completing my to-do list, which is still insanely long.
Something exciting did happen on Thursday, though. My Program Manager, Mitch, asked me on Friday if I would like to be one of two members of our team participate in a new discipline program that our school will be implementing this year. The program is going to be a step before suspension, and will consist of character building for students who have been having behavior problems. Bernard and my job will be to spend two weeks with kids in the program talking to them about why they act up and what some better outlets could be for their anger or frustration. Participating in this program will mean that I don't get to take such an active role in my club, but that is fine with me since I'm not as passionate about creative writing as I was about a newspaper club.
-Aly
Wednesday and Thursday were much of the same for City Year - tutoring small groups all day, and then homework help and the creative writing club in the afternoon.
Friday was another frustrating Friday in the office; it felt like we accomplished absolutely nothing. Other than thirty minutes spent completing our CPR certifications, the rest of the day consisted of everyone sitting around the office by themselves or in groups "planning" for next week in the schools. My very biggest pet peeve of all time is wasted time, so it is difficult for me to have a positive attitude about our Fridays spent in the CY office when I feel that I could be doing something more productive somewhere else. I do see, however, how the time "planning" could have been spent in a more effective way by teams who have planning to do. This weekend, I plan to work more on completing my to-do list, which is still insanely long.
Something exciting did happen on Thursday, though. My Program Manager, Mitch, asked me on Friday if I would like to be one of two members of our team participate in a new discipline program that our school will be implementing this year. The program is going to be a step before suspension, and will consist of character building for students who have been having behavior problems. Bernard and my job will be to spend two weeks with kids in the program talking to them about why they act up and what some better outlets could be for their anger or frustration. Participating in this program will mean that I don't get to take such an active role in my club, but that is fine with me since I'm not as passionate about creative writing as I was about a newspaper club.
-Aly
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
360 Hrs.
Today was the first day of our new schedule. My new schedule involves a lot more work, but is still enjoyable. Today was also the second day of J.A., which was somewhat less enjoyable than I had expected it to be.
Once again, Mike, Bernard, and I worked with the third grade group. We won't be working with just the third graders every day, but for some reason, that is how it was done today. For the first thirty minutes, we helped them with their homework. After that, we were supposed to be working on a math program on the computers in the library for an hour, and the kids were really excited to do that. As it turned out, though, there was a staff meeting after school in the library. According to the Vice Principal, no children are allowed in the library during a staff meeting, so he kicked us out and told us that the meeting would be over in ten minutes. The CY members tried to stall by having the kids play games, but none of them were happy with that since they were being deprived of the computers. When it became apparent that the computers weren't going to be immediately available, we then tried to stall by pushing up the schedule and running my club, the newspaper club. The kids had previously been really excited to participate in the newspaper club, but wanted nothing to do with it today because of the issue with the computers. By the time the kids went home two hours later, the staff meeting had still not let out.
Another down part of the day is that I found out I can no longer run my newspaper club. As you can imagine if you know me, I was REALLY excited to be creating a newspaper for the school. The librarian informed me today, though, the SHE submitted a proposal to the school today for a newspaper club, and that she didn't want two newspapers in the school or even for my club and her club to join together to create one larger newspaper. Now, my club will just be the "creative writing club".
-Aly
Once again, Mike, Bernard, and I worked with the third grade group. We won't be working with just the third graders every day, but for some reason, that is how it was done today. For the first thirty minutes, we helped them with their homework. After that, we were supposed to be working on a math program on the computers in the library for an hour, and the kids were really excited to do that. As it turned out, though, there was a staff meeting after school in the library. According to the Vice Principal, no children are allowed in the library during a staff meeting, so he kicked us out and told us that the meeting would be over in ten minutes. The CY members tried to stall by having the kids play games, but none of them were happy with that since they were being deprived of the computers. When it became apparent that the computers weren't going to be immediately available, we then tried to stall by pushing up the schedule and running my club, the newspaper club. The kids had previously been really excited to participate in the newspaper club, but wanted nothing to do with it today because of the issue with the computers. By the time the kids went home two hours later, the staff meeting had still not let out.
Another down part of the day is that I found out I can no longer run my newspaper club. As you can imagine if you know me, I was REALLY excited to be creating a newspaper for the school. The librarian informed me today, though, the SHE submitted a proposal to the school today for a newspaper club, and that she didn't want two newspapers in the school or even for my club and her club to join together to create one larger newspaper. Now, my club will just be the "creative writing club".
-Aly
Monday, October 20, 2008
350.5 Hrs.
Thankfully, I was feeling a lot better today than I had been feeling this weekend, and I was able to enjoy myself for most of the day.
First thing this morning, I met with my first grade group. They were slightly better behaved than usual, but still completely unruly. I didn't meet with my two one-on-one students after that, though, because they were doing some kind of standardized test during that time. I will not meet with those two students again, because tomorrow is when our complete and final schedule with the school begins, and which does not include one-on-one tutoring. During the afternoon, my two other tutor groups went off without a hitch.
When school ended, we had held our first day of "Jaguar Academy" (the Jaguar is the school's mascot, by the way). Every day after school, a group of about sixty students be attending JA, which will be led by the City Year members at the school. For the first thirty minutes of each session, the corps members will help the students finish their homework. The remaining ninety minutes will be spent doing other things, but those other things don't officially start until tomorrow, so I will tell you all more about what those "other things" are when I find out for myself! Today we just spent that time playing games with the kids.
-Aly
First thing this morning, I met with my first grade group. They were slightly better behaved than usual, but still completely unruly. I didn't meet with my two one-on-one students after that, though, because they were doing some kind of standardized test during that time. I will not meet with those two students again, because tomorrow is when our complete and final schedule with the school begins, and which does not include one-on-one tutoring. During the afternoon, my two other tutor groups went off without a hitch.
When school ended, we had held our first day of "Jaguar Academy" (the Jaguar is the school's mascot, by the way). Every day after school, a group of about sixty students be attending JA, which will be led by the City Year members at the school. For the first thirty minutes of each session, the corps members will help the students finish their homework. The remaining ninety minutes will be spent doing other things, but those other things don't officially start until tomorrow, so I will tell you all more about what those "other things" are when I find out for myself! Today we just spent that time playing games with the kids.
-Aly
Sunday, October 19, 2008
341 Hrs.
I can explain my long absence - really, I can!
Early this past week, my DSL line in my apartment stopped working. I have no idea what happened, but it was a severe enough problem that it couldn't be fixed over the phone with tech support; they had to actually send a technician out to fix it this weekend. The DSL being down wouldn't normally have been a problem, though, since I have internet access on my cell phone and can update my blog from there. It was a problem, though, since my cell phone also decided to stop working this week! And even after hearing about these problems, you may still ask why I didn't just use the internet at the library or at the cafe down by the pool in my apartment complex. If you were to ask me this, I would tell you that I didn't do either of those things because I was home sick with the stomach flu for the second part of the week, and couldn't spend much time out of bed.
Now that you have heard my story, do you forgive me for not updating my blog this week??? I thought so. ; )
As of today, I still feel very ill, but the DSL in my apartment has now been fixed. Who knows what I am going to do about my broken cell phone.
Anyway, this past week was pretty routine. I started tutoring a new group of first graders, but as of tomorrow, our schedules are going to all be switched around. The reason for this switch is that we have finally been able to understand what City Year's guidelines are concerning the types of children were are allowed to teach.
On Thursday, the state of Florida sent people to observe the school. Because of the visit, everyone was extremely stressed out the whole week, and a lot of what we did last week was helping to calm teachers' nerves by doing miscellaneous tasks for them.
On Friday, I had to miss work because of my illness.
Ok. Now that you are all semi-caught up with what has been going on in my life, I PROMISE to TRY to be more diligent with updating my blog from now on. No more slacking for me!
-Aly
Early this past week, my DSL line in my apartment stopped working. I have no idea what happened, but it was a severe enough problem that it couldn't be fixed over the phone with tech support; they had to actually send a technician out to fix it this weekend. The DSL being down wouldn't normally have been a problem, though, since I have internet access on my cell phone and can update my blog from there. It was a problem, though, since my cell phone also decided to stop working this week! And even after hearing about these problems, you may still ask why I didn't just use the internet at the library or at the cafe down by the pool in my apartment complex. If you were to ask me this, I would tell you that I didn't do either of those things because I was home sick with the stomach flu for the second part of the week, and couldn't spend much time out of bed.
Now that you have heard my story, do you forgive me for not updating my blog this week??? I thought so. ; )
As of today, I still feel very ill, but the DSL in my apartment has now been fixed. Who knows what I am going to do about my broken cell phone.
Anyway, this past week was pretty routine. I started tutoring a new group of first graders, but as of tomorrow, our schedules are going to all be switched around. The reason for this switch is that we have finally been able to understand what City Year's guidelines are concerning the types of children were are allowed to teach.
On Thursday, the state of Florida sent people to observe the school. Because of the visit, everyone was extremely stressed out the whole week, and a lot of what we did last week was helping to calm teachers' nerves by doing miscellaneous tasks for them.
On Friday, I had to miss work because of my illness.
Ok. Now that you are all semi-caught up with what has been going on in my life, I PROMISE to TRY to be more diligent with updating my blog from now on. No more slacking for me!
-Aly
Sunday, October 12, 2008
One More Day of Semi-Relaxation
My to-do list for today: everything from yesterday minus finish laundry, buy film, go to post office, and pay bills. How do the days pass by so quickly?
-Aly
-Aly
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Another Saturday
To Do list for today:
-Finish laundry
-Pick up package at post office
-Buy black and white film
-Eat lunch
-Pay internet and gas bills
-Fill out my time sheet for this week
-E-mail lady about City Year London (!)
-Set up next week's Ladies' Club meeting
-Call Mom
-Fill out Young Heroes Team Leader application
-Complete online CPR training
-Clean apartment
-Talk to maintenance office about fixing the blinds I broke in my bedroom (oops!)
-Buy candy for one of the awesome groups I tutor as a reward for being so awesome
-Call Kathryn
-Call Dad
-City Year "homework"
-Work on Obama campaign
-Aly
-Finish laundry
-Pick up package at post office
-Buy black and white film
-Eat lunch
-Pay internet and gas bills
-Fill out my time sheet for this week
-E-mail lady about City Year London (!)
-Set up next week's Ladies' Club meeting
-Call Mom
-Fill out Young Heroes Team Leader application
-Complete online CPR training
-Clean apartment
-Talk to maintenance office about fixing the blinds I broke in my bedroom (oops!)
-Buy candy for one of the awesome groups I tutor as a reward for being so awesome
-Call Kathryn
-Call Dad
-City Year "homework"
-Work on Obama campaign
-Aly
Friday, October 10, 2008
297 Hrs.
Yesterday, because of the Jewish holiday, the kids at R. R. Moton had no school. We, however, did not have the day off and instead spend a very busy day doing miscellaneous jobs for the teachers around the school. Some of the things I did were to weed the butterfly garden, decorate classrooms, file papers, and set up the art gallery.
Today we met in the office again for another LDD. The morning started out, as always, with P.T. It was miserable this morning, though, because it was pouring rain. After P.T., we broke into teams, and the graduation requirements were explained to us. This took about 30 minutes, and when we were heading back into the main meeting room to begin listening to another financial literacy lecture, my Program Leader called back myself and three other people from my team. He told us that we were selected to go to a school board meeting that day so that there could be a City Year presence at the meeting, and that the meeting started at 10:30 a.m. The meeting was a special meeting called to approve the contract of the new superintendent who was hired recently, and we wanted to be there since he has been such a big proponent of City Year Miami. The meeting didn't go that smoothly, though, because apparently there is much controversy surrounding the new superintendent and the way in which he was hired. At 3:30, we left the meeting, which still wasn't over, to go to lunch and then back to the office. Back at the office, we filled out time sheets, received some more of our uniform parts, and then broke to go home.
-Aly
Today we met in the office again for another LDD. The morning started out, as always, with P.T. It was miserable this morning, though, because it was pouring rain. After P.T., we broke into teams, and the graduation requirements were explained to us. This took about 30 minutes, and when we were heading back into the main meeting room to begin listening to another financial literacy lecture, my Program Leader called back myself and three other people from my team. He told us that we were selected to go to a school board meeting that day so that there could be a City Year presence at the meeting, and that the meeting started at 10:30 a.m. The meeting was a special meeting called to approve the contract of the new superintendent who was hired recently, and we wanted to be there since he has been such a big proponent of City Year Miami. The meeting didn't go that smoothly, though, because apparently there is much controversy surrounding the new superintendent and the way in which he was hired. At 3:30, we left the meeting, which still wasn't over, to go to lunch and then back to the office. Back at the office, we filled out time sheets, received some more of our uniform parts, and then broke to go home.
-Aly
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
280 Hrs.
Wow, have I been busy lately! I'm sorry I have not posted in five days, Faithful Readers, but things around here have been pretty crazy.
Let's start with Saturday. I woke up early to do my laundry (8:00), but that was still not early enough, so I had to wait around for quite a while until the machines were empty. That afternoon, I went over to Trevor's house to use his t.v. to watch the University of Michigan homecoming football game, which was a HUGE mistake because it wasn't very fun to watch us get beat 20-45. : ( Later that evening, a couple more of our friends joined us for a movie night.
On Sunday, I went to church, and that was about it, other than catching up on my sleep.
Monday was the first day of our regular schedule at the school. From 8:30 to 10:00, I have three students that I help for 30 minutes each. During this time, I help them with whatever they are working on in the class at that moment. From 10:00 to 11:30, I eat lunch and help anyone I can find to help. On Monday, I kept order in the lunchroom for a while since the staff was short today, and then I helped the librarian for a little bit since she pulled a muscle in her neck and can't bend over. From 11:30-12:00, I tutor a group of five children in reading. After that, I find myself more work to do until 2:00, which is when I have another small-group tutoring session for 30 minutes. At 3:00, we all go outside to help with the buses and child pick-up. When that is over, we go to the "cafetorium" to help the latchkey kids with their homework until 5:00, when I catch a bus for my two hour commute back home.
On Tuesday, things were pretty much the same. During my break times, I helped in the orchestra classroom. After school, our City Year team attended a staff meeting so we could introduce ourselves to everyone at the same time.
Today, the schedule was a little different since the children are dismissed an hour earlier on Wednesdays. This morning, two of my individual tutoring students were absent, so instead I helped the kindergarten and first grade students learn about safety (look both ways before you cross the street). During my break times, I helped out in the library and with the special education students. On Wednesdays, the afternoon small group sessions are pushed earlier, but unfortunately one of my groups forgot about meeting today, so we missed that session.
Technically, my day isn't over yet-I'm typing this on the computer in my classroom right now so that I don't go home and feel too tired to update you all. When school is dismissed in 15 minutes, I should be helping with the pick-up and with homework help. Hopefully we'll get to leave on time tonight!
Oh, and guess what? I get to go home for Thanksgiving! If any of you are going to be in town then, let me know!
-Aly
Let's start with Saturday. I woke up early to do my laundry (8:00), but that was still not early enough, so I had to wait around for quite a while until the machines were empty. That afternoon, I went over to Trevor's house to use his t.v. to watch the University of Michigan homecoming football game, which was a HUGE mistake because it wasn't very fun to watch us get beat 20-45. : ( Later that evening, a couple more of our friends joined us for a movie night.
On Sunday, I went to church, and that was about it, other than catching up on my sleep.
Monday was the first day of our regular schedule at the school. From 8:30 to 10:00, I have three students that I help for 30 minutes each. During this time, I help them with whatever they are working on in the class at that moment. From 10:00 to 11:30, I eat lunch and help anyone I can find to help. On Monday, I kept order in the lunchroom for a while since the staff was short today, and then I helped the librarian for a little bit since she pulled a muscle in her neck and can't bend over. From 11:30-12:00, I tutor a group of five children in reading. After that, I find myself more work to do until 2:00, which is when I have another small-group tutoring session for 30 minutes. At 3:00, we all go outside to help with the buses and child pick-up. When that is over, we go to the "cafetorium" to help the latchkey kids with their homework until 5:00, when I catch a bus for my two hour commute back home.
On Tuesday, things were pretty much the same. During my break times, I helped in the orchestra classroom. After school, our City Year team attended a staff meeting so we could introduce ourselves to everyone at the same time.
Today, the schedule was a little different since the children are dismissed an hour earlier on Wednesdays. This morning, two of my individual tutoring students were absent, so instead I helped the kindergarten and first grade students learn about safety (look both ways before you cross the street). During my break times, I helped out in the library and with the special education students. On Wednesdays, the afternoon small group sessions are pushed earlier, but unfortunately one of my groups forgot about meeting today, so we missed that session.
Technically, my day isn't over yet-I'm typing this on the computer in my classroom right now so that I don't go home and feel too tired to update you all. When school is dismissed in 15 minutes, I should be helping with the pick-up and with homework help. Hopefully we'll get to leave on time tonight!
Oh, and guess what? I get to go home for Thanksgiving! If any of you are going to be in town then, let me know!
-Aly
Friday, October 3, 2008
253 Hrs.
TGIF!
Today was a Leadership Development Day, or LDD. Every Friday, instead of working in the schools, we will be going to the office for an LDD. These days will consist of different types of training, and community service on some days. Today, we started off the day with P.T., and then a session of "roses" and "thorns", which is where we were able to share with each other the good and bad parts of the week. After that, one of the Program Managers gave us a presentation on professionalism.
After the presentation, we had an external speaker talk to us about managing our money and credit. For lunch, she gave us free pizza and soda! I have had neither pizza nor soda since I left Michigan a month and a half ago, so they tasted especially wonderful.
During the lunch break, most of the ladies of City Year Miami had a meeting. We have decided that we would like a female version of the club that the CYM gentlemen have started, so we met today to discuss what we would like that club to look like. I think I forgot to write about this when we had our first planning meeting last week, but this is the second meeting we have had.
After the lunch break, we listened to a presentation from the Young Heroes team, which is trying to get CY members to sign up to be team leaders. There was also a presentation about mandated reporting from a couple of people working for the Florida Department of Children and Families. Then, we took some surveys about CY and received our e-mail addresses, cell phones, and bus passes. Some of us also received their paycheck for this week, but for some reason, I did not. : (
-Aly
Today was a Leadership Development Day, or LDD. Every Friday, instead of working in the schools, we will be going to the office for an LDD. These days will consist of different types of training, and community service on some days. Today, we started off the day with P.T., and then a session of "roses" and "thorns", which is where we were able to share with each other the good and bad parts of the week. After that, one of the Program Managers gave us a presentation on professionalism.
After the presentation, we had an external speaker talk to us about managing our money and credit. For lunch, she gave us free pizza and soda! I have had neither pizza nor soda since I left Michigan a month and a half ago, so they tasted especially wonderful.
During the lunch break, most of the ladies of City Year Miami had a meeting. We have decided that we would like a female version of the club that the CYM gentlemen have started, so we met today to discuss what we would like that club to look like. I think I forgot to write about this when we had our first planning meeting last week, but this is the second meeting we have had.
After the lunch break, we listened to a presentation from the Young Heroes team, which is trying to get CY members to sign up to be team leaders. There was also a presentation about mandated reporting from a couple of people working for the Florida Department of Children and Families. Then, we took some surveys about CY and received our e-mail addresses, cell phones, and bus passes. Some of us also received their paycheck for this week, but for some reason, I did not. : (
-Aly
Thursday, October 2, 2008
244 Hrs.
Did the sun come out today? I don't know, because I left home while it was still pitch black outside, and didn't get home again until it was dark. Today was more of a typical City Year day; no more of that getting out early nonsense.
When we got to the school today, I led P.T. Apparently, all of the kids now think that I am the boss, since I tell people what to do and they do it. : ) My first class today went off without a hitch, and I was able to just sit back, observe, and mind my own business. The second class of the day is where things went wrong. While I was sitting in the back of the class and observing, the teacher asked me to grade some papers. Since I was told very explicitly that we were absolutely not to be used for things such as grading papers, I very nicely informed her that I didn't think that I was allowed to do that for her. Upon hearing that, she told me she didn't want me in her class and asked me to leave. I left and immediately went to the office of the woman who is coordinating City Year in R. R. Moton. For the time being, she sent me to work in a Kindergarten class. The children there were sooooo cute! Later I found out that I am now a Union problem, since the teacher who kicked me out of her class spoke with the Teachers' Union about me. I'm not sure what right of hers I supposedly infringed upon, but apparently I did something really bad.
During lunch, Madeline, Nick, and I spent some time in the lunchroom to help keep the order there.
After lunch, one of the teachers invited us to her class to teach them P.T. The kids caught on very quickly, and were really good at it-even better than some of our City Year members! For the rest of today, the kids kept coming up to me and performing some of the routines. How adorable!
In the afternoon, both of my tutoring sessions went well. After the dismissal bell rang, we went to the lunchroom to help the students staying after school with their homework until 6:00.
-Aly
When we got to the school today, I led P.T. Apparently, all of the kids now think that I am the boss, since I tell people what to do and they do it. : ) My first class today went off without a hitch, and I was able to just sit back, observe, and mind my own business. The second class of the day is where things went wrong. While I was sitting in the back of the class and observing, the teacher asked me to grade some papers. Since I was told very explicitly that we were absolutely not to be used for things such as grading papers, I very nicely informed her that I didn't think that I was allowed to do that for her. Upon hearing that, she told me she didn't want me in her class and asked me to leave. I left and immediately went to the office of the woman who is coordinating City Year in R. R. Moton. For the time being, she sent me to work in a Kindergarten class. The children there were sooooo cute! Later I found out that I am now a Union problem, since the teacher who kicked me out of her class spoke with the Teachers' Union about me. I'm not sure what right of hers I supposedly infringed upon, but apparently I did something really bad.
During lunch, Madeline, Nick, and I spent some time in the lunchroom to help keep the order there.
After lunch, one of the teachers invited us to her class to teach them P.T. The kids caught on very quickly, and were really good at it-even better than some of our City Year members! For the rest of today, the kids kept coming up to me and performing some of the routines. How adorable!
In the afternoon, both of my tutoring sessions went well. After the dismissal bell rang, we went to the lunchroom to help the students staying after school with their homework until 6:00.
-Aly
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
233 Hrs.
I definitely had a rough day today.
The first thing my team did this morning was head down to the library so we could be taped for the tv morning announcements. The students don't realize that those morning announcements don't broadcast to everyone else in the world, so they now think we are movie stars!
After the taping, we went to the classrooms for our one-on-one tutoring sessions. During these sessions, we will be spending some time with a particular student in a class, and will be sitting with them at their desks during that time to help them with whatever they are working on. This was one of the rough parts of the day, because the teachers I had to work with were really mean and made it very clear that they did not want me in the classroom.
After an hour and a half in the classrooms, we had a short lunch break. During this time, I snuck into the orchestra class. When the teacher began tuning all of the students' instruments, I offered help, which she gladly accepted. When I started tuning, the students said to me "Miss Alyssa, you know how to tune instruments?!?!?!" To which I replied, "Yes, and I know how to play them too." "Wow, I bet you're really good!" they said. : )
When the afternoon began, I went to some of the small group tutoring so I could observe and better ready myself for Monday. Unfortunately, I realized that one of the third graders who will be in one of my small groups can not read at all. During the lesson, the teacher just had all seven of the students read the passages together. I noticed that one boy wasn't reading aloud at all, and that when he was following along on the page with his finger, he would keep going forward with his finger even when the other students would go back to correct themselves on something they had read. After a while, the student would get lost and just stare at the page until I would help him find his place again. That made me very sad.
At the end of the day, my teammates and I stayed after school for a few hours to help some of the students with their homework.
-Aly
The first thing my team did this morning was head down to the library so we could be taped for the tv morning announcements. The students don't realize that those morning announcements don't broadcast to everyone else in the world, so they now think we are movie stars!
After the taping, we went to the classrooms for our one-on-one tutoring sessions. During these sessions, we will be spending some time with a particular student in a class, and will be sitting with them at their desks during that time to help them with whatever they are working on. This was one of the rough parts of the day, because the teachers I had to work with were really mean and made it very clear that they did not want me in the classroom.
After an hour and a half in the classrooms, we had a short lunch break. During this time, I snuck into the orchestra class. When the teacher began tuning all of the students' instruments, I offered help, which she gladly accepted. When I started tuning, the students said to me "Miss Alyssa, you know how to tune instruments?!?!?!" To which I replied, "Yes, and I know how to play them too." "Wow, I bet you're really good!" they said. : )
When the afternoon began, I went to some of the small group tutoring so I could observe and better ready myself for Monday. Unfortunately, I realized that one of the third graders who will be in one of my small groups can not read at all. During the lesson, the teacher just had all seven of the students read the passages together. I noticed that one boy wasn't reading aloud at all, and that when he was following along on the page with his finger, he would keep going forward with his finger even when the other students would go back to correct themselves on something they had read. After a while, the student would get lost and just stare at the page until I would help him find his place again. That made me very sad.
At the end of the day, my teammates and I stayed after school for a few hours to help some of the students with their homework.
-Aly
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