First Week Reflection

Reflection on La Casa

I haven’t been able to spend much time in the classroom with the kids.  The classroom consists of 2^nd and 3^rd graders.  Thursday, July 5^th, I was able to introduce myself to the classroom. I did my “I didn’t grow up in NJ.  Can you guess where I grew up” intro bit that I always did when subbing for a new class.  The students came close but I finally gave up and had to tell them.  I think this was due to the fact that all classrooms I’ve done this in before had a US map posted that the students could refer to.  This led to Deborah singing a song that helps students to learn the 50 states. Since then I’ve been searching the web, without luck, for a large format US map of the states that I can print out and donate to the classroom.

Monday was the only day I was in the classroom for the full time.  The day began with breakfast.  That took lasted almost an hour.  Then the kids could play with their Nintendo DS’s.  But they could not play with the games on the game shelf during this time.  So kids who did not have or shared a DS just sat there.  I ended up playing rock, paper, scissors with the kid sitting next to me at my table because we were both bored.  He loved it and eventually a third kid joined in.  Next the teachers transitioned into an activity.  The transition itself took almost 30 minutes as the teachers discussed how they were going to present the activity.  The activity itself seemed like a Sunday School lesson that explored what is “the truth” and love, with God purposely edited out.  On one hand, I was impressed that they did not push religion in the activity.  On the other, the philosophical engagement needed to grasp this activity was bit beyond the level these kids are currently at.

The class went to the lake on Tuesday and I was out on Wednesday and Thursday.  So I haven’t been able to spend that much time with the kids as yet.  My overall impression of the teachers is that they are young and inexperienced, but trying to do their best for the kids.  They don’t seem comfortable with us in their classroom, probably because we are older and may seem more experienced.  They probably even feel that we are judging them, which I just did. 

The teachers informed us that these were low performing students.  My initial impression is that they seem like average kids to me.  I got to interact with the students at the table I sat at.  One student that I at first thought might be low performing just turned out to be a 2^nd grader that I thought was a 3^rd grader.

Reflection on Abington

            Controlled chaos.  The first 3 days there were no supplies.  Apparently this is SOP for NPS according to the Lead Teacher, Mrs. Wallace.  There was a lot of improvisation.  I think the teachers are great.  There just seems to be less guided activities than I thought there would be via the Orientation presentation.  Right now the day is just supervised open playground.  The pool and some other trip activities are in the afternoon, so we don’t get to go. 

            Friday, I went on the fieldtrip to the Lady Liberty game at the Prudential Center.  No one was hurt or lost.  So I count it as a successful trip.  We took 15 kids, 10 were boys.  There were a few young kids but most were going into 5^th or 6^th.  NPS was given seats in the extreme nosebleed behind a goal.  These were the worst seats in the house for a basketball game.  There were groups and camps there from all over NJ and NY.  Some had first section seating.  I wondered why NPS had the worst seats in the house.  The incline for the section we were seated in was very, very steep and was very high up.  Heights give me vertigo.  So my head was spinning the entire game (plus I was already woozy from the pain meds).  I also kept feeling like a kid could roll down the seats and over the rail at any moment.  So I sat next to the most active kid, he’s going into 2^nd grade, in order keep him in his seat.  We got along but it was tiring.  The Liberty gave out those inflatable “Thunder Sticks” that fans bang together to make noise.  They also make excellent clubs for kids to beat each other with.  So there was a near constant effort to keep them from beating each other.  Finally, on the return bus trip, Mrs. Sandoval resorted to popping the things with a pen when kids were still hitting each other.  Initially, I thought this was overreacting.  But the few who still had the things and wanted to keep them stopped hitting.

We weren’t allowed to bring in the lunches into the Prudential Center.  Two or three kids had brought money and bought food and drink.  I was starving but felt that I shouldn’t eat in front of the kids.  The kids had to wait until we got back on the bus to eat. Then, we were among the last groups to get picked up by our bus.  We all stood on the hot sidewalk, while I tried to make sure our kids didn’t wonder off in the midst of thousands of other kids walking by and getting on their buses.  So I went from 7:30am to 2:15pm with no food or water.  Yeah, first world problem, but I was really wiped out by this trip.  I fell asleep on the couch Friday night.  I’m kind of dreading the next field trip.  But maybe with more field trip experience, I’ll learn to relax and enjoy it.