Second Week of School - Thursday, Sept. 10th, 2009

Thursdays are rather strange at my school, at least in terms of a teaching schedule. The kids arrive at 9am, and after they settle in, they are off to computer lab from 9:30am to 10:05am. Then it is off to library until 10:40am, then they have recess, and after recess they are off to music. They are not back in the classrom until 11:30am, where they have math for approximately one hour (more like 50 minutes). Then its lunchtime untl 1:30 (but more like 1:40). The rest of the afternoon is split between social studies and language arts, although sometimes there is 20 minutes of recess in the afternoon. So out of an entire six-and-one-half hours of school, there MAY be about two and one-half hours of actual instruction/learning. It's not to minimize computer time, library time or music, but it also severely limits my time and ability to observe things from a student teacher perspective.

I also notice that even during classroom "learning"time, much of what occurs is self-directed learning (i.e., working in groups on projects, reading, writing) without actual "teaching." Again, I understand this from a procedure perspective, and also the fact that they are advanced 5th and 6th graders, but I would be less than honest if I didn't admit to growing a bit impatient and antsy.

Still, there were rewarding moments. The students needed to find five vocabulary words from their assigned book, and they needed to provide definitions, synonyms and antonyms. Because there were so many questions related to this activity (particularly with the ins and outs of correct thesaurus usage), some of the kids came to me with their questions, most of which I could answer. But try finding an antonym for the word "deposition." Good luck.