Day 2, Guidance in Classrooms

5/11/10, worked from 8:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., written on 5/11 at 3 p.m.

After being a few minutes late due to construction on major roads, I finally reached Ms. Theroux's office where teachers were running in and out trying to get their 4th grade students ready for standardized tests for science. I helped cut out the log in tickets the students needed for their test while teachers tried to get students set up for their test on the computers they would be using. While other students were taking these tests, I got to help a young boy who was not taking the tests. His teacher gave me subtraction, addition, and spelling excercises to do with him. It was a great experience to help this boy with work; we worked on spelling first and then went on to addition, and after about 20 minutes of working we got to play with blocks during his break. After a quick break he finished the subtraction worksheet and the rest of the spelling worksheet. While the rest of the students were still finishing up their standardized tests, we looked at a book about crocodiles. It was a lot of fun to help this young boy with work and being able to form a connection.
After tests were finished, a group of students came into Ms. Theroux's office to do some math. Today, I helped the team of girls measure certain things around the school like the length of one stair or the lengths in between two classrooms. It was fun helping the girls convert inches to feet and I also got to see where all the classrooms were.
After the math scavenger hunt was completed, it was time for lunch and instead of having dozens of kids run into the office as usual, today, kids who have divorced parents came for lunch. Girls and boys from grades 2 to 5 came in to have lunch with other kids who had divorced parents, and it was interesting to see because my parents are also divorced.
For my final activity, I got to go to a classroom with Ms. Theroux for a guidance class. We talked about how small misunderstandings do not need to ruin friendships. We then talked about different perspectives and different point of views. I was so impressed to see how all the kids could make connections while talking about how people see things differently.
Overall today was a lot of fun and helped me learn a lot about the students. Tomorrow I will be going to a different school with Ms.Theroux and I am eager to see what other schools in the area do for guidance in this age group.