Journal...

The first few days are over and I am very satisfied with my placement. My shcedule for my placement is, on Monday and Friday I am with Mrs. Smith and her class. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I am with Mrs. Slomka doing the all star reading program. I am really pleased with the way everything is going, and I am excited to see what will happen next week. The children that I work with are from Junior kindergarten up to grade three. They are all so cute and I can tell that they all love school.

My job duties throughout the week are pretty straight forward. When I am with Mrs. Smith and her class, I follow what Mrs. Smith tells me to do. I have only been with her once so far, so I do not know exactly what she expects from me. But what I can tell is that she just needs help with the basics. Such as marking, helping students out if they need it, and handing out things. The duties for the all star reading program are a little different. Everyday I cheek my schedule and I see what children I have for the day. I then take the children out of their class and I bring them to a quite classroom right next door to Mrs. Slomka's JK class. After we take out a book with and we read, or sometimes if they are done early we play some games. After I ask them if they will bring home the book we read and read it with their parents. Then I walk them back to their classrooms. The four kids that I have currently had, are the cutest kids ever. They are very smart and when asked if they like to read they all said yes. Whether I am in Mrs. Smith's class or with the all star readers, I have always felt welcomed.

Day Five!

I arrived at my placement early because I was unsure on what classroom I was going to be in. I found Mrs. Smith's room and waited until lunch was over for her. When she came back from lunch she told me what I was going to be doing. First I had to take two girls in her class outside in the hallway to read The Giving Tree. After I read the book with the girls, I had to help them with their math work. The girls were starting on a new unit, grids. So I worked with them to get it done. They were a little confused but I helped them understand it. After I walked the girls back to class and the class had to do a weekly spelling test. After their spelling test Mrs. Smith asked me if I could mark them for her. Of course I agreed, and by the time I was done marking, it was the end of the day.

Day Four!

Today was differnt then my previous Coop experinces. I walked into today's placement thinking that I was going to be doing more all star reading with the kids. But the kids were on a field trip today, so instead I helped out Mrs. Slomka and Mrs. Greer.

I first had to past all of these activities ontop of a booklet for all the kids in Mrs. Slomka's morning and afternoon class. Then with the help of Karolina and Cathy, we had to help Mrs. Greer level her assortment of books. It was a little difficult to determine what level each book belong too, becasue many books had short sentences with difficult words, and some had long sentences with simple words. Overall it was a challenge, but we got through most of the books.

Day Three!

I arrived at St. Andrew’s at noon and I was told by Mrs. Slumka that I was going to start the all star reading program today. She ran through all the things that I would need to know. How to read with the children, what children I was getting and how to evaluate the children. I got four amazing and very cute kids. Three of the four kids were never part of the program so today was their first day. Everything ran smoothly. At first I was confused, but after reading with the first child I understood what had to be done.

At the end of the day Mrs. Slumka told me that I was going to do all star reading Tuesday to Thursday and on Monday and Friday I would be in Mrs. Smith's room helping her out!

These are some of the books I read with the children!

Day Two!

Today was a slow day. I got to St. Andrew’s at noon and I found out that I was with another teacher for the day. Mrs. Slumka told me that I had to go watch a video on all star reading, which is what I was going to do with the kids from Tuesday to Thursday. I was a bit disappointed because I really enjoyed my class yesterday and I was hoping to stay with them.

After having the worst luck finding a TV, Mrs. Slumka just told me that I could watch it at home. She then pointed me out to one of the mom’s who helped out at the school for all star reading. From 12:30 to 3:00 I watched and learned on what to do and how to do certain activities with certain children. It was pretty straight forward and I was excited to begin. The kids were so cute and nice. None of them were getting frustrated and they were all having fun!

My first day at St. Andrew’s elementary school!

Today was my first day at my co-op placement. I arrived at St. Andrew’s school early, because I was unsure on what teacher I was going to be placed with. I waited for about twenty minutes to talk to Mrs. Esposito the vice principle. I went into her office and she asked me a couple of questions to see if I was fit for the position she was looking for. After a five minute chat, she took Karolina and me on a tour of the school. After the tour, Mrs. Esposito told me that I was going to sit in a grade three class for today, and she would tell me tomorrow where I was going to spend the remainder of my placement.

While in the grade three class, the teacher Mrs. Ostner pointed out to me a couple of students that may need my assistance throughout the day. There was one boy who I spend most of my time helping. He needed to be constantly reminded to sit down and do his work. Also he needed help putting on his outdoor attire, and needed to be reminded constantly to hurry and get back into class. Also I helped Mrs. Ostner mark all the kids’ math work, and I helped the kids with their health assignment.

At first all the kids were really shy, but over the remainder of the class they began to warm up to me, and I began to warm up to them. :)