This past friday was my second to last week at the elementary. It was their type of "Connor Praire" day in the morning, so their whole afternoon, the time I was there, was their free time. Mrs. Callahan said I could do anything I wanted to do, so i decided to read the students Harry Potter. They love Harry Potter so much, they ask to read it everyday. I thought it would be fun to finish reading them the second book then take them to the lab and let them get on the internet. I always loved being able to get on the internet at school, I always seemed to listen to the teacher more, if we got to do fun things like this. So I compromised with the students and said that we could spend 15 minutes on the Harry Potter website, playing games, then the last 20-25 minutes of school. We would spend that time playing math games online, so they would learn a little something. Once we got to the lab I told them to go to http://harrypotter.warnerbros.com/ and let them choose whatever game they wanted to play. Most of them chose to do them game type thing were they enroll at Hogwarts and others did the game where they played Quidditch. I found that allowing them to play games in a relaxing atmostphere, they students listened better when it came to teaching them math equations and how to play the math games.
This week was a very challenging, the students are working on their stories and crafts for next weeks home praire type day. Where they go around from station to station, dressed up in old fashion clothes, working on crafts such as sewing, building bird houses, and making candles with string and wax. I remember this from when I was in 5th grade it was so much fun, and I still have the candles I made hanging on my lamp in my room. I spent alot of my time, trying to help the students in Mrs. Callahan's class figure out cool costumes to wear, Micheal wanted to come in his halloween costume, from last halloween, which was spiderman, and I had to explain to him that even though spiderman is from back in the day, that would be the wrong attire.
This past friday was a very interesting day, there was a new teacher there I had to work with, so that took a little adjustment on my part, because she wasn't the nicest lady in the world. The kids obviously thought the same thing, because they were going nuts they did not listen to here at all, nor did they do any of their homework. Which I wasn't sure what to do at that point, so I was going to ask the other teachers opinions but they were not around so I looked it up on the internet while the students were at lunch. A website I found for tips on getting the students to do their homework was Getting Kids to Do Homework. After looking up that website I searched for one that would help getting the students to listen or calm down, all I found for that was Attention. This article talked about how if the elementary kids are not paying attention then they are definitely not learning anything. So they suggested that the students will learn more if you let them actively participate. Therefore after lunch at their free time I went around helped with homework, but helped in a new way..I didn't give them the answer..I let them reach the conclusion after showing them how to properly do the problem. Then with getting their attention I just suggested to the teacher that they will listen better if you let them participate or get their opinion in, and that seemed to get better in the afternoon.
Week three was a lot of fun. I got to spend a majority of the time helping the kids plan a going away party for their teacher, who was leaving that next wednesday to have a baby. When I first got there I went down to the cafeteria and sat with some of the students that I knew, it's funny their topics of conversations, half the table was girls so it was all about make-up and miley cyrus (who is taking over the world) and the other half of the table were boys, talking about the latest video games. After lunch the kids had a half an hour break for free time so we spent this time planning the going away party. After the free time it was time to work on their math again. Since I'm always there during math, I thought it would be a good idea to look up cool math games 5th graders would like and to get them more interested in math. So I went to the website: Elementary Math Games. It was very helpful. The ones I found that the students liked the most were Fraction card game and Math Hangman.
The week after spring break, I went to volunteering on friday afternoon, with the 5th graders. It was so different from working over spring break, because I'm use to being there the whole week, not just a friday afternoon. Plus it being a friday afternoon all the kids were hyper and wanting to go home, therefore trying to get them to listen wasn't working out. Their attention spans were completely shot. The only thing that would get them to focus on their math was if I compromised with them. We decided that if I read them a chapter in Harry Potter (which they love) we would spend the rest of the hour focusing on multiplying fractions. It was a fun afternoon, especially after the kids started listening.
I've decided to blog about my experiences while working at Woodbrook Elementary School every week. I started volunteering there over spring break, which I was there monday-friday, and now I go every friday afternoon for 4-5 hours. A majority of the time I work with 5th graders: helping them read, do their math homework, or science work, but sometimes I work with the 2nd graders and help them with their cursive. I Have a great time there, and the kids are hilarious. During spring break, everyday I helped the students with their stories they had to create, and make into a book. So we worked on making their stories flow, and having proper illustrations. It was interesting for me when I went from working with the 5th graders one day and then having to go work with the 2nd graders another day, because it's such a different atmosphere.
I love working with children, in the past 5 years I've either worked at the Boys and Girls Club or volunteered at a school, so I'm hoping when I'm older I can become a teacher or a counselor working with kids.
This picture below looks almost exactly like the classroom I volunteer in.
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