Field Post 8: Gesu Elementary (10-25-16)

For my second visit to Mrs. Clary's 3rd grade class, I arrived at the beginning of the school day at 8 a.m. It was extremely interesting to see how the students acted at the beginning of the day versus right after recess in the middle of the day. As the students came in, they all would put their belongings away in the lockers. Some chatted amongst other classmates while they moved around the classroom preparing for the day ahead. Mrs. Clary was sending down what appeared to be attendance sheets and other documents that students turned in to the office via the "office runners". This is another job that Mrs. Clary assigns to new students each day and they seem to be into it because I think they like the sense of purpose and responsibility that it makes them feel. They all settled down when the morning school announcements started. and after announcements, they eventually all took out whatever book they were reading at the time and read. For the next part in the students reading class, they had an option to vote for either a Halloween  themed short story from the "Scholastic" magazine, or the next chapter of the Halloween themed book that they were reading together as a class. They chose the magazine article and they followed along in the short story with the audio version. The students got really excited when they found out there was an audio version to go along with the story because they enjoy hearing someone else read the story to them as they follow along. There were discussion questions throughout the story that we stopped and discussed together and I think this was easier for them to think about and grasp because they could listen and comprehend at the same time. They discussed many aspects of the story, including the deeper meaning, which was very impressive. From my perspective, I thought the story was very enticing to young readers and it also passed along a good message, which was that you shouldn't let yourself become invisible in a new or intimidating environment, which I think is really important for young children to learn. 

After the reading portion of their day, they moved into the phonics lesson, which was review of short and long "e". For a review they played a game in which students would go head to head to compete to name words that included the short or long "e" sound (whichever Mrs. Clary would ask them on their turn). The students really enjoyed it and I was surprised at the good sportsmanship that they all showed. They knew that they were supposed to go out of line if they lost and wait until the end of the game and there were no issues. Even more surprising is how one girl came in late to the game and she only had to beat one person because there was no one left and Mrs. Clary allowed both her and the girl she beat to get a prize because she knew they both deserved it. 

After 2 visits to Mrs. Clary's 3rd grade class at Gesu Elementary, I have grown extremely fond over the idea of becoming a teacher.