Wonderful Wednesday

Today I worked in my Big Kids' school. I spent the morning from 8:00am - 9:00am in the Kindergarten room, familiarizing myself with the students and participating in their morning routine. Then, at 9:00am, I went over to one of the 3rd Grade rooms and helped out with independent study time. The teacher does the "Daily 4" and basically then students can choose among four activities to do independently (a couple of options allow for work with one partner) and the kids have to chart what they are doing as well. I actually worked with my own child, Boy A, while I was in there. He read to me out of a Magic Treehouse book. He loves the series and we bought them for him last year, but he doesn't read much at home. Too many other fun activities to do, I guess.

Then, at 10:00am, when I was finished in 3rd Grade, I went back to Kindergarten and did some clerical work for the teacher. Cutting pages and stapling them into little books for the kids to work on and tearing pages out of math workbooks. It was a time-consuming process, but I had it mostly finished by the time the kids went to lunch at 11:00am. I then left and went to get lunch myself. On my way out of the school, the computer teacher/3rd Grade Math teacher, stopped me and asked if I would come in that afternoon to do Wednesday folders. I let her know that I had already done the folders that morning (in addition to listening to my guy read) but offered to come in anyhow. She said that would be wonderful but she didn't want me to be in the classroom everyday, since I work odd hours and often sleep while the kids are in school. I told her that I would be there to help out however I could that afternoon and that I promised to limit myself to 2-3 days a week.

I was back in the classroom at 1:15, ready for Math class to start at 1:25. There were some new things to be stuffed into Wednesday folders so I did that while waiting for Math to start. During Math class, I graded the kids' homework assignments, let Mrs. Z know that the kids understood the information from the day before (therefore, no reteaching needed) and then walked around the room, helping the kids understand the new information being presented.

There was one little girl that was not understanding the information exactly and with a simple movement of her head, Mrs. Z asked me to help this little girl out. Three or four classroom examples later, she fully grasped the concept and was quick with the correct answer. It was such a great feeling to help out the students.

After the lesson was done and the kids were working on that day's assignments, Mrs. Z and I were standing up at the front of the class and one of the students asked her if she watched Youtube videos. She said not much, but she did watch one when she needed to learn how to do something. The kid was talking about funny Youtube videos, but Mrs. Z doesn't watch those. I told her that there was a site within Youtube called Teachertube and that there were some good things on there. I then proceeded to tell her about this Animaniacs video that is featured both places. She then announces to the class that I know so much about what is available on the computer and that I have taught her so much! Huge compliment, but oh, so embarrassing! :)

The boys went to Bible group tonight. Girlie stayed home because she was cranky and needed to go to bed early.

All in all, it really was a wonderful Wednesday!