Seventh Visit

April 9 was my seventh visit to my elementary school. I feel like I haven’t gone in a while because the Friday before was Good Friday. On the way to the school all I kept thinking was what had happened last time I had been there with the little boy and the girl. Then I thought that it was an issue that was probably forgotten about, so I should not be worried about it and not have it affect me while I teach to the kids. As usual I got there at 930, but today I had to talk to my kindergarten teacher on being able to go to the school at 9, instead of 930 because I will be short of hours if I do not go earlier. I walked in the office, did the same routine, and walked to my kindergarten class. I noticed that the other volunteer was not there, so I decided to prepare on what I would be doing with the kids today. I noticed that I got new things to do with the kids which were good because I really did not like reading the same things over and over again. There were readings that were a little bit more complex, but I knew that they would be able to handle them. Once I figured out what I would be doing the other volunteer walked in and she had been 15 mins late because of a family issue. I decided to play a game because that’s what is required to do on a Friday, also read a little bit, and then do a listening excersie where I read a poem and they have the words separated in front of them and they put the poem together. I felt that today was going to be a good day.
Once it was time for intervention I was very excited because I could not wait to get back in the groove of things since I had the week before off. As the kids started to scatter to their groups my three kids came over and it was time to begin. I noticed that one of my girls who always wear a hat was not wearing one today. It was a little different but I was not used to seeing her not wear a hat. Aside from all that it was time to begin. I started to do some reading because last time I really did not spend a lot of time reading. I decided to read a little booklet with them called Pam and Sam. Two of the three girls were really focusing on the reading but the other girl was really not trying to read. I knew that she could read this type of material because the week before that I was there she was reading perfectly. Once she really was not focusing, I decided to have her sit next to me because maybe she would focus better. As soon as she sat next to me and she was focused she was reading the story perfectly. I feel that she just needed to focus instead of just guessing what each word is and actually taking the time to look at each word. After we read, I decided to do the poem exercises. I would read a poem and they would have to put the poem together. The way I split this up was to have each girl do one line of the poem so they would get the equal amount of turns. I noticed that I would have to in a way spoon feed them what the word is because they would ask me to repeat the word over and over which got a little boring at times. Once I told them that I would only repeat the word once, they really got focused and took the exercise seriously. Lastly we played a game and it’s the same game I play with them every week because they enjoy it and it is the only game that Ms. W gave me. After I played the game with them I asked the teacher, Mrs. B if I could come at 9 instead of 930 from now on and she said that would be fine, which was good on my part because I needed to be able to get the hours done.I also gave her the disposition form for her to fill out and she seemed like it would be no problem, so I thanked her and went to my 1st grade class.
It was time for me to go to my first grade class and I was hoping everything would go very smoothly today. When I walked in I noticed on of students was absent, and the ones that happened to be there was the boy and girl that got into a predicament the week before. When I walked over it seemed that they had forgotten about it. When I looked at the materials that I had in my box, it seemed like it has not changed. I knew it would be the same thing that I would be doing from the previous weeks. As I was in the middle of playing the games with the kids, the teacher came over and told me that she has her own personal exercises/games for the kids that I can use from now on. That had been a relief because I felt that the kids were getting sick of doing the same thing over and over again. As it was time to go this one teacher was yelling at a student. At first I really did not know why she was but she said that she was yelling because the student was not saying a word right. It happened to be that the student was Hispanic and the teacher was white. I felt that connected to Delpit with the whole cultural of power and how the whites are the superior and things are their ways.
Overall I felt that this was a good visit and now next time I have to arrive at the school for 9 to get my hours done sooner. I cannot wait for my 8th visit.Thinking back on this I have realized that I have to be more focused with the kids because I feel that they can do the work if they are focused and ready to learn new material.