Tuesday, March 4, 2008

An attempt at a short story

Today I had the chance to be with my class all day and despite being exhausted with a headache at 3pm, I had a great time! I didn't even mind going into work for 3 hours afterward. :)

So a great story: first of all, let me set this up. My classroom is actually half of one giant room that is split into two classrooms by a concrete wall. The rooms are open to each other in the back of the room, for about 10 feet before the concrete wall starts. A classmate of mine is student teaching in that room, but we are rarely in the classrooms at the same time.

So today was very interesting. The boy with serious behavior problems decided to egg on my autistic student (let's call him Jacob), and the incident culminated in the two of them running through the school courtyard, in and out of the buildings, up and down the outdoor stairs, with no fewer than 5 adults, including my classroom teacher, chasing after them. I was staying with the rest of the class doing group reading. At one point, the teacher from the next room was trying to help catch the boys but then went back to her class.

At one point, Jacob, who was the lone one left to be caught, ran through the room, laughing maniacally. I seized the opportunity, leapt to my feet, and grabbed him. I carried him to that opening in the walls and yelled to the other teacher that I'd caught him.

That's when I saw a face at a desk in her room, a face I knew that I knew from somewhere. It turns out that not only was my fellow classmate in the middle of her first observed lesson, but that was MY supervisor (from our college) as well, sitting there watching this entire incident unfold!!!

I definitely didn't do anything wrong, and everyone was glad that I had caught Jacob (he was obviously creating a disturbance to the entire school and was posing a danger to himself), but that supervisor was giving me a bit of a death stare! So Friday should be interesting.

Worst of all, I hate that I interrupted my classmate's lesson. I felt less bad when her entire class started acting up -- I mean, I still felt bad for HER, but all my guilt floated right out the window :)

The rest of the day was GREAT -- we got Jacob back in less than an hour after his mom came to calm him down (the other student, whose mom is, sadly, the entire problem and wouldn't come to check on him, stayed with the principal for the rest of the day). We did a GREAT lesson in which I got to sing some songs while working on rhyming, and the lesson went so well that my teacher suggested we do a follow-up lesson for my observed lesson on Friday. It will be a language arts lesson on rhyming, but it will incorporate both music and art! I am so excited.

I am also finally developing ideas for my science lesson coming up at the end of this month. Now that I'm really starting to know my class and their learning styles, I'm at last able to translate the difficult concepts from the topics list into kindergarten lessons. My lesson will be on characteristics of living things, and I ordered my first BIG BOOK! This is one of those giant books that you put on an easel and read to the student as they look at the pictures and read along. I've really gone above and beyond monetarily but I see this as an investment, because it's something I can use for years. Can't wait to get it!!

So much for a short babble. :p Thanks for reading!

1 comment:

House of Smiths said...

AH, I would have DIED. But at least it showed that you had quick reflexes!? LOL. I would have done the exact same thing. And you KNOW she would have too.
I can't believe that you can deal with other peoples kids SO well. I can barley deal with my own.
I actually take that comment before back... I wouldn't have just caught 'Jacob' I probably would have tripped him (to stop him) and then pulled him up by his shirt and turned him in. LOL... (WOW that was mean) and THATS why I'm not a teacher. I don't have a lot of patience. (I just remembered that you said he was autistic too, so I guess thats a little different) but STILL your doing SO much better then I ever could.
And about the big book thing. One of my best friends, Lauren is a teacher and she has bought SO much stuff and hasn't regretted ANY of it. She's ALWAYS able to use it. She did some substitute teaching a while back for a kindergarten class and got to use a bunch of her old materials that she had before she moved to the 3rd grade. My point is... that all of your supply's are only going to be investments.
I'm glad that all is going well, and I'll be thinking about you on Friday!. Keep us posted!
Shelley