Two Days To Go

Joyce came back today!!!! I am thrilled. Don't get me wrong, I am grateful for the opportunity to gain experience by taking on 6th grade for two days, but I was ready to give them back. I still have a lot to learn and I realized that the minute she walked into a silent block 1 class. WHAT!!?? Completely different kids. Some of which, come to find out, were sitting in the wrong seats when Joyce was gone. No wonder there were some management issues. Note to self, always have a seating chart for the sub. Math class consisted of going over morning work, grading life work, correcting quizzes, and reviewing for the life challenge tomorrow. They had review packets to work on with a partern. Ms. Starr was absent today and so Mrs. Mallory took over math class and the students had a writing assessment for non-fiction studies which worked out well. By mid-morning with 5th and 6th grade math unavailable to observe or teach, I had to brainstorm other ideas. I decided to go observe 8th grade writing, taught by Mr. Gowen. The moment I walked into the classroom, I was approached by Donna, who is actually in one of the pictures at the side. She handed me the lesson plan and lifework for the day. Since KIPP has so many visitors, there is a certain student in each class named the greeter. Their job is to greet visitors and inform them about class. It was a pleasant surprise and made me feel welcome. I can't tell you enough, how behaved these students seem. They spent the first 15 minutes going over morning work because Mr. Gowen thought that many students did a poor job and spent little time finishing it. The rest of class was spent drawing conclusions from two related sentences. The students got in groups to pair the two sentences that shared something in common and then draw a conclusion based on the information. After lunch I helped a 5th grade student write an essay on racism. Mrs. Mallory required no research on this essay and simply wanted to know the knowledge each student had on the topic. I helped guide and organize Christopher's thought. He had some great ideas and input that just needed to be combined to create a paragraph. In the end, he did a great job and I think he felt proud of himself. The rest of the afternoon was spent expanding my vocabulary through a game of scrabble. Kind of an uneventful day at KIPP, but then again, I kind of needed one to regain my strength!