Against my better judgment, I decided to teach summer school directly following my first year of teaching. My body, apparently did not agree with this decision in the least, and I caught strep throat the second day of school. I missed two days of work, and my illness eventually turned into a severe sinus infection. I swear I coughed up my left lung, but I am now feeling much better after a week and a half of being out of commission.
In addition to teaching summer school, I am also taking two classes at the University of St. Thomas to finish up my teaching certification and am a Corps Connection Leader (CCL) for the new Teach for America corps members. Needless to say, I am incredibly busy, so getting sick put a damper in my busy schedule.
In spite of being so tired, I am really enjoying my students this summer. I know I said it was against my better judgment to teach summer school, but I realize how nice it is to finally be able to engage my students in creative activities that have absolutely nothing to do with TAKS. We are learning as much English as we can this summer, since when they go to 5th grade, they will transition completely into English. We are doing a lot of writing, speaking, and vocabulary building.
Some highlights so far:
· Many have learned that “g” in English does not make the “h” sound, and can spell words like has, “H-A-S,” rather than, “G-A-S.”
· I taught the students how to debate an argument. They had to take a stance on whether they would rather be blind, (otherwise pronounced as bleend) or deaf (pronounced death). We split up into teams and each team had to come up with five points about why it was either better to be blind than deaf or deaf than blind. Then they took turns arguing their points and taking two minutes to come up with a rebuttal. They were very creative making points that even blind people can walk using “steeks” and dogs. They also went as far as to say it is better to hear the sounds of nature, like the songs of the birds, and the sounds of the waves, than to see the green of the grass.
· We are preparing to have a puppet show on Monday. The students were split into groups of two and I gave each group a list of 15 vocabulary words. Then they each had to choose a different animal from a set of picture cards I set out. I assigned them the task of writing a script between the two characters using the vocabulary words, making puppets, and painting the setting from their play. One of the students’ mothers works at a paper factory and brought us a huge role of poster paper for the project. The kids are using them to paint the settings.
· I have a student who came to me in February who has some physical disabilities and is developmentally delayed. She was born without thumbs, so the doctors moved her pinky finger over to function as a thumb. She also has some hearing loss and sight loss. When she first came to me, I could not understand her when she spoke, she couldn’t write, much less hold a pencil, or perform simple math skills like adding and subtracting. I have her in summer school now, and she is writing in her journal everyday in complete sentences (always completely off topic, but she is writing!), and she loves to paint! She gets up in the front of the class during journal share, and tells us what she wrote about. It is truly a miracle.
Teaching has completely taken over my life, but I love it and don’t regret the decision I made to try this profession for even a moment. I found something I love and am good at. What more could I ask for?
In addition to teaching summer school, I am also taking two classes at the University of St. Thomas to finish up my teaching certification and am a Corps Connection Leader (CCL) for the new Teach for America corps members. Needless to say, I am incredibly busy, so getting sick put a damper in my busy schedule.
In spite of being so tired, I am really enjoying my students this summer. I know I said it was against my better judgment to teach summer school, but I realize how nice it is to finally be able to engage my students in creative activities that have absolutely nothing to do with TAKS. We are learning as much English as we can this summer, since when they go to 5th grade, they will transition completely into English. We are doing a lot of writing, speaking, and vocabulary building.
Some highlights so far:
· Many have learned that “g” in English does not make the “h” sound, and can spell words like has, “H-A-S,” rather than, “G-A-S.”
· I taught the students how to debate an argument. They had to take a stance on whether they would rather be blind, (otherwise pronounced as bleend) or deaf (pronounced death). We split up into teams and each team had to come up with five points about why it was either better to be blind than deaf or deaf than blind. Then they took turns arguing their points and taking two minutes to come up with a rebuttal. They were very creative making points that even blind people can walk using “steeks” and dogs. They also went as far as to say it is better to hear the sounds of nature, like the songs of the birds, and the sounds of the waves, than to see the green of the grass.
· We are preparing to have a puppet show on Monday. The students were split into groups of two and I gave each group a list of 15 vocabulary words. Then they each had to choose a different animal from a set of picture cards I set out. I assigned them the task of writing a script between the two characters using the vocabulary words, making puppets, and painting the setting from their play. One of the students’ mothers works at a paper factory and brought us a huge role of poster paper for the project. The kids are using them to paint the settings.
· I have a student who came to me in February who has some physical disabilities and is developmentally delayed. She was born without thumbs, so the doctors moved her pinky finger over to function as a thumb. She also has some hearing loss and sight loss. When she first came to me, I could not understand her when she spoke, she couldn’t write, much less hold a pencil, or perform simple math skills like adding and subtracting. I have her in summer school now, and she is writing in her journal everyday in complete sentences (always completely off topic, but she is writing!), and she loves to paint! She gets up in the front of the class during journal share, and tells us what she wrote about. It is truly a miracle.
Teaching has completely taken over my life, but I love it and don’t regret the decision I made to try this profession for even a moment. I found something I love and am good at. What more could I ask for?
