Hi, everyone! As I mentioned in my last post, I had quite a day on January fourth. I got the chance to observe a friend of mine teach her first grade class at a Christian school, and it was fantastic! In case you don't know, I am considering becoming an elementary school teacher, so this was an amazing opportunity for me. Although I didn't get to be very hands-on with the kids through much of the day, I'm fine with that since I got to experience a different side of a teacher's job. I've spent many years working with kids in various ways, shapes, and forms, so I appreciated that I got to see a different side to teaching. I'll go into more detail on what I did throughout the day as you scroll down.
~ Monday, January 4, 2014 ~
I woke up very early. Like 4:50 am early. I had to be dropped off at my teacher friend's house at around 6:15 am, so I had a bit over an hour to get ready.
This is what I wore during the day, along with my light blue skinny jeans and Converse. It was a wonderfully chilly day out, but it was kind of warm in the classroom, so this outfit was great for adapting to the changing temperatures.
Once I got dropped off at my teacher friend's house, I pretty much instantly jumped into her car. We drove over to the school and chatted along the way. When we got to the campus, I helped her carry some bags of books and Christmas treats to the school. But before I went into the building, I had to sign in at a table and get a visitor's sticker. We walked down the hall to my friend's classroom, and along the way, I got to meet the Kindergarten teacher (who happens to be a great friend of my friend's).
This is the classroom I got to work in! I love how colorful it is, and as soon as I stepped foot into it, I felt like I could totally see myself being an elementary school teacher. If you look closely, you'll see the room has a surfing theme to it, which I think is very cute.
After my friend and I dropped off our stuff in the classroom, we went into the administrative office to borrow a cart to take my friend's Christmas decor out to her car. While I was in the office, I got to go behind the main desk and see the teacher's lounge! That was pretty neat to me, to be in the "off limits" areas.;) I also met some other teachers in the office, and they all welcomed me. One lady in a sparkly sweater was very energetic towards me, and another lady gave me a nice compliment about my hair.:)
Once we had dropped off my friend's stuff at her car, we returned the cart to the office, grabbed two large piles of papers from the teacher's lounge, and headed back to the classroom. I think this was about the time my friend took some Christmas treats to the janitor down the hall, then returned to the room to set up. My friend set those red folders on the tables down, and she got me started filing those stacks of papers from the lounge. The pictures of those papers are a little bit below.
This is just a closer look at the cubbies and little reading nook by my teacher friend's desk. I love how cute the nooks are! They're the perfect size for first graders.
OK, so this was my very first job of the day. I got to file away all of the student worksheets that the kids will have to fill out in the future. See all the green and yellow in the filing cabinet? That wasn't there before I started working. I filled it up so much, I had to move some of the files down to another drawer! There was more to this job than just sticking the papers in where they belonged, because I had to separate all of the papers into their respective lessons and paper clip them together before putting them away. It took me a while, but I kind of enjoyed it.:)
I got the filing done before the kids came to the room, but by that time I had started a new project. My teacher friend had me cut rectangles of this adhesive to use on the name tags on the table that tell the kids where to sit. Apparently, the kids like to pick at and peel the adhesive, so it has to be replaced now and then. It was a cool moment when my teacher friend introduced me to the class; some of the kids seemed excited that I was there, and quite a few of them waved at me. It was so cute!
Oh, my. These are the kids' homework folders, and just let me tell you, this job took me ALL DAY. I was adding things for the kids to take home into their folders throughout the day, and they got so full that my teacher friend didn't want to put anything else into them until the following day. So basically, I took out the old homework and replaced it with current homework, fliers, and the kids' art projects from weeks gone by.
Each of the kids has a number assigned to them, and those numbers are on their folders and (sometimes) on their art projects, so it helps with organizing things. But it wasn't until part of the way through the day that I got a master list of the names of the kids and the numbers assigned to them, so it kind of made my job that much longer until then. I had to find the names on their projects and then paw through all twenty-four of the folders to find the correct one. I should have taken a photo of the giant pile of things I had to put into the folders.:P Although it was a long job, I still liked doing it. I enjoy organizing things, so this was right up my ally.
So, after a few hours of classroom time, the kids went to recess. During recess, my teacher friend and I went on a break of our own. My friend showed me where the snacks were in the administrative office, and we headed back to the classroom to eat. I think once I had finished eating, I got assigned to put the aforementioned craft projects into the kids' folders, in addition to the fliers and things I was already working on. After a little bit, we went back to the playground to get the kids and bring them back to class. During this class time, I think I continued to work on the folders. But there was this one time I got to play a math game with one of the kids, which was super fun.:) Every time I started beating him at the game, he would act disappointed and kind of exclaim things at me. He was quite the character!
Eventually, we dropped the kids off at the lunch room. The lunch room is in an auditorium-type room, which included the stage pictured above. I thought the stage looked kind of cool and creepy since it was dark and empty. Once we had taken the kids to the lunch room, my teacher friend and I went to the cafe to get some lunch of our own. I ordered chicken tenders and seasoned fries with a diet Coke. While I waited for the order, I poked around the bookstore that is connected to the café. I love that bookstore... Once our food was ready, we sat down to eat. Man, those fries were super salty! I didn't finish eating before my friend did, so she went back to get the kids while I finished.
When I got back to the classroom, my teacher friend and the children weren't back yet, so I continued working on this project. This is a lesson plan book that I had to put the "master" papers back into according to their lesson number. Remember all of those green and yellow papers in the filing cabinet? Those were copies of these "master" sheets. Apparently, a lot of the jobs that I did that day were jobs that my friend's assistant does, so not only was I helping my friend, but I was helping her assistant too! My friend's assistant said I was welcome back anytime.:)
This is another shot of the lesson book I was organizing. It's pretty colorful with all those tabs!
This is the filing cabinet I was working at and the coffee corner. I stayed over here for the most part, except for when I had to put together those homework folders. Then I was down the counter a bit.
A closer look at the coffee corner.
After some more time in the classroom, it was time for the kids to go to the computer room and learn about the computers. On the way there, I saw this door and just thought it looked cool. It looks kind of like a door that could lead to anything! Anyways, while the kids were in the computer room, my teacher friend showed me around the school, mainly the computer room and the library.
I love Nancy Drew, so when I saw this shelf in the library, I had to take a photo.:)
This is the side of the library that is called the Paw Store. Basically, when the kids do good things, they get rewarded with "paws" that they can exchange for prizes.
More books in the library.
While we waited for the kids' time in the computer room to come to an end, I helped my friend in the classroom. I cut up some "Thank You" cards for her students and stuck them into their already too-full homework folders. I was still cutting the cards up by the time the kids came back.
These are all of the kids' backpacks and jackets hanging in the classroom.
When the kids came back, and once I had completed cutting up the "Thank You" notes, my teacher friend gave me another job to do. I had to take pages from these magazine-type things and staple them together, along with a note from the school about ordering the books in the magazines.
This is the finished stack! Because the kids' homework folders were already super full, my friend just decided to wait until the following day to send them home with the kids.
This is the wall above the classroom with waves and "Even the waves obey His voice" painted on it.
And this is a shot from the end of the day, after the kids were all picked up, and my friend and I put the chairs up on the tables. If you look at the far end of the room, there is this special table made out of a surf board. Every week, one student/"Surfer of the Week" gets to sit there along with a friend of their choosing.
Once we had finished cleaning up the room and resetting it, my teacher friend and I hopped into her car and she dropped me off at home. The day was a long one, but I had a wonderful time. I'm really appreciative to my friend for bringing me along with her so I could see what a typical day in the classroom is like. I was home-schooled up until I started going to college, so I really enjoyed being able to experience this day. The reason this post is so detailed in the recounting of the day is because I know sometime down the road, I'm really going to be glad I wrote down so many details. I love revisiting special days in my past, and this is one of them.
I'm still behind in recording the past few days, but thankfully the past few days haven't been as memorable as this day was. If they were, I would have to spend a lot longer on those posts.:P The next posts shouldn't be quite as long as this one. I should get started!
~Kendra :)
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