What a weekend! After going to bed quite early on Friday night since the kids wore me out at school, I was up early and ready for a day on the beautiful Caribbean Sea. The water is bluer than that one crayon color that starts with a ‘c’ which nobody ever knows how to pronounce. ‘Cerelean’ or something like that. Not important. The salty water was different than anything I’ve even swam in before and it made floating a lot easier! Then, after a fun-filled Sunday of hanging out in the Cherubin’s shop, eating all kinds of cultural foods and going into town for a “Taste of Desrameaux” type of affair to celebrate Jounen Kweyol, it was time to get back to work.
It’s only my second week at Monchy Primary School, but I’m already stepping in to teach. My cooperating teacher told me which general topics I should cover in Math and Reading this week and basically said I can form my lessons however I wanted to. Wow, what to do? The math one wasn’t too hard since the students are learning how to calculate the total of a number of items that each have a different price. The activities I planned for this included having the students estimate the price of each item in their school bag and then find out who carries the most expensive baggage every day. We did the same with their lunch bags, too. I also had them bring in items from home with different price tags on them so that we could simulate a small shop where the students can purchase items when given a certain amount of money. I wanted to try the activity where students bring in newspaper ads from grocery stores and build their own menu for the week, but when I asked my cooperating teacher if she had any of the ads lying around at home she had no idea what I was talking about! Oh well, adjust we must.
As for the reading lesson, all she told me for the topic was, “Teach them the skill of reading to infer.” Not giving me any passages to use as examples and not having access to a printer, I assumed this was going to be difficult. However, I worked around the topic a bit on the first day and had them define the word “infer” and brainstorm some synonyms for it. Then we talked about what we use to make inferences every day. Finally, I had them agree on a passage from their language arts book which we read together. As we went along, I had them predict what might happen in the end and continue revising their predictions as we read more and more. I guess we will see in the next few days whether or not these lessons were truly effective.
We had a special visitor from Canada on Monday morning from the Yellow Birds Foundation. He pleasantly surprised the principal with a $30,000 check to be put towards building a resource room! How awesome! These students have no access to computers or the internet at school, so the plan is to put a few computers in this new room. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to see the finished product, but I hope the students and teachers take advantage of the new resources as a way to really expand their knowledge. In a perfect world, the students here would have as much access to technology as do the students at home in the states, but this donation is a huge start.
I have to go and get back to playing with my little six-year-old friend, Jannique. He lives next door, but is over here all the time. Yesterday we had a karaoke session which consisted of belting out songs such as “Farmer in the Dell,” “Five in the Bed,” “Jesus Loves Me,” and a bunch of the other classics!
It’s only my second week at Monchy Primary School, but I’m already stepping in to teach. My cooperating teacher told me which general topics I should cover in Math and Reading this week and basically said I can form my lessons however I wanted to. Wow, what to do? The math one wasn’t too hard since the students are learning how to calculate the total of a number of items that each have a different price. The activities I planned for this included having the students estimate the price of each item in their school bag and then find out who carries the most expensive baggage every day. We did the same with their lunch bags, too. I also had them bring in items from home with different price tags on them so that we could simulate a small shop where the students can purchase items when given a certain amount of money. I wanted to try the activity where students bring in newspaper ads from grocery stores and build their own menu for the week, but when I asked my cooperating teacher if she had any of the ads lying around at home she had no idea what I was talking about! Oh well, adjust we must.
As for the reading lesson, all she told me for the topic was, “Teach them the skill of reading to infer.” Not giving me any passages to use as examples and not having access to a printer, I assumed this was going to be difficult. However, I worked around the topic a bit on the first day and had them define the word “infer” and brainstorm some synonyms for it. Then we talked about what we use to make inferences every day. Finally, I had them agree on a passage from their language arts book which we read together. As we went along, I had them predict what might happen in the end and continue revising their predictions as we read more and more. I guess we will see in the next few days whether or not these lessons were truly effective.
We had a special visitor from Canada on Monday morning from the Yellow Birds Foundation. He pleasantly surprised the principal with a $30,000 check to be put towards building a resource room! How awesome! These students have no access to computers or the internet at school, so the plan is to put a few computers in this new room. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to see the finished product, but I hope the students and teachers take advantage of the new resources as a way to really expand their knowledge. In a perfect world, the students here would have as much access to technology as do the students at home in the states, but this donation is a huge start.
I have to go and get back to playing with my little six-year-old friend, Jannique. He lives next door, but is over here all the time. Yesterday we had a karaoke session which consisted of belting out songs such as “Farmer in the Dell,” “Five in the Bed,” “Jesus Loves Me,” and a bunch of the other classics!
1 comment:
5th and 6th period classes are enjoying your blogs. Much discussion about you, a two-foot knife/sword, and cutting up bones!
Sounds like the experience is all you hoped it would be!
Keep the stories coming!
Ron
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