Third Day of School - Thursday, September 3, 2009

Lots of action and activitity today. Mr. M handed out the books for the class' first literature assignment, and I was able to gain a lot more understanding of his classroom management style and philosophy. He started the unit by writing a Japanese proverb on the whiteboard: "Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight Times." He then asked all of the student to turn to their neighbor and discuss what they thought the proverb meant. After about five minutes he started calling on people, but not to ask them what he or she thought the proverb meant, but what their neighbor had told them it meant. This took most of the kids (certainly the first one he called on) by surprise, as they were not expecting to have to recount another person's opinion, only their own. It was a great lesson in: 1) going against expectations; 2) teaching children the importance of following instructions; and 3) most importantly, learning how to listen to what other people are saying. I was most impressed.

The other noteworthy thing that happened was that the students were given a math placement exam, to see if any of them should be enrolled in pre-algebra courses, prior to junior high school. The questions were fairly rigorous (there were two or three that I would have been unable to do!); after they were finished taking the test, I volunteered to grade them (much to Mr. M's joy), and while grading the first one, I compared the student's answer to that on the master answer sheet, and realized that the answer sheet couldn't possibly be correct (after quick calculation in my own mind). I brought this to the teacher's attention, who was very surprised, but confirmed my assessment after pulling out a calculator. It just gave me a nice feeling to realize that mistakes can occur throughout the educational system, and I was able to correct one, on whatever small level. I felt I had really earned my (non-existent) paycheck that day.

But I am sure there will be days when I fall down, several times. As long as I keep getting up one more time than I fall down, things will be fine.