First Day of Class.

Nobody took my picture at the end of the driveway with my sparkly new backpack, like they did when I was a student, but this first day of class was just as exciting for me.

My roommate Erin, as I've mentioned before, has allowed me to visit her 3rd grade class a few times this semester to complete my assigned field experience for my class.  What's really cool is that because I'm actually doing what I know I'm supposed to do and because of the excitement I feel about being a teacher, there was NO nervousness or anxiety about going to a brand new school and signing in as a visitor. There was no concern that the kids might not like me and I wasn't at all scared to meet a bunch of new teachers. I was ready.

I arrived at the school at 8, signed in at the front office and placed my "visitor" sticker proudly on my right shirt pocket. The first cool think I observed about this school was that the classroom doors where all interior, like a school may have in a colder climate, more susceptible to snow or extreme whether. All of the schools I attended had exterior classrooms with no windows. This is entirely unfair in my opinion, but I promise not to hold it against the kids. ;-) When I got to the end of the hall to my left, I opened the door with "Ms. Dow" posted nearby and walked right in.

The class was eager to find out who the stranger in their classroom was and welcomed me once a name had been established. "Hello Mr. Hinkle" they chimed in unison. That is to say as in-unison as a group of thirty 8 year olds could be. Erin then caught me up to what lesson they were working on and I took a tiny little seat nearby her desk to watch the plan in action.

Multiplication was the general idea of the lesson. Working on visualizing the concept of X amount of groups of Y was the task at hand. Each of the students had a white board on which to draw the example the teacher had placed on the board. 5x6 was the first example. I walked around the room checking on the progress, commenting and offering redirection if needed. This was when the students started warming up to me. A positive, friendly attitude takes awhile for adults to believe and warm up to, but 3rd graders latch on almost immediately. When all 30 students had drawn out 5 large boxes with 6 dots in each, tallied the marks and placed (hopefully, anyway) a large number 30 on their boards.

Soon after the lesson we moved to snack time. The school provides a healthy snack to each student every day and today we had a big box of pears to hand out. What was most exciting about this was the fact that many of the kids had never seen or tried a pear. It took a little convincing for some to try it but eventually they all did. Only a few decided pears where not for them. While nibbling on our fruit, the kids took the time to get to know me by asking why I was there, was I married to Ms. Dow. Where did I teach, was I going to play with them at recess. You know, the important things. One kid explained to me that he was no longer confused about this new thing called a pear, because it was, in fact, just a green apple. After bringing him to the poster in the room with detailed pictures of a variety of produce and explaining the visual differences between the two I was reminded once again that It was just a green apple.

Once all of our pears where eaten, or at least gummed sufficiently by those who were missing half their teeth, we met up with the other two third grade classes for a very cool event. There was a live webinar from a group of scientists in Antarctica who study marine worms and a variety of other sea flora and fauna. They began with a slideshow presentation that demonstrated for the kids what life in the Antarctic is like and why there are no indigenous humans. They showed all the clothing and tools they have to use and their methods of drilling into ice and diving while maintaining the highest level of safety possible. They showed a number of pictures of some of the sea creatures they see and the kids really loved this part. My ears where filled with the "oohs" and "ahs" that accompany the mystified expressions of youth.

A bit later in the day, after a few more traditional lessons, we approached the highly anticipated RECESS!!!!! The kids where sorely disappointed that I did not plan properly and bring my lunch to allow sufficient time to play with them on the playground. I had to head instead to a nearby Subway and , sadly, avoid the heat altogether. When I brought my sandwich back to the class I joined a group of students who had gotten A's on their test and had been allowed to watch a movie and eat their lunches in the classroom. The featured film was "Over the Hedge". I remembered seeing this movie with my family when it first came out, but something about sharing the viewing experience with a group of 8 year old senses of humor made the movie that much more funny this time around.

Because there is only so much information you can expect a child to retain at 1 o'cock on a Friday, we spent some time in the classroom playing some group games. We played the mirror game, in which kids mimmic each others movements which results in giggles and falls. Then we moved to a game in which kids sit on the ground, back to back, hook elbows and try to stand in groups of two, three and four. This also resulted in giggles and falls. Once it became apparent that the energy levels where a little too high for the classroom, we decided to bring the activity outside and had a dodgeball match with our neighboring third grade class.

On the field I stood in the shade with the kids who had not quite earned the ability to participate based on various actions. I spoke to one in particular who surprised me with his overwhelmingly bleak outlook on the future. He began by asking why I was there today. He had shown up late and missed my previous explaination. I told him I wanted to be a teacher to other students like him and asked what he wanted to do when he grew up. His response? "I don't want to be anything. I don't have a future" Aghast, I asked "Why do you say that? Of course you have a future". He replied with "No I don't, my future is Black. Empty" Excuse me? How do I deal with that? A high schooler I could expect this from, but a 3rd grader? I told him everybody's future is empty, because we're each supposed to fill it with whatever we want. I also asked him to think about what he would want to be so he could tell me the next time I visited the class. He reluctantly agreed right about the time the game was over. When we were lining back up to go to music class he was off fidgeting in the grass and oblivious to the fact that we where all waiting on him. I called out his name a few times and said he was being disrespectful of the rest of the class who was eager to go inside and get a drink of water.  He looked up at me and said "oh, sorry. I was just getting this for you" and he reached out his hand. He was holding a clover he described as being 4 leaf and told me it was to have good luck becoming a teacher. I know that there is always the chance that he happens to be a highly intelligent individual who was capable of coming up with something on the fly that was sure to evoke a feeling of guilt, but I prefer to believe his intentions where sincere and I'm going to take from that a lesson for the rest of my time with this class as well as my future endeavors as a teacher. Don't speak until you're sure of who'm you're speaking to.

Once all the kids had bellies sloshing full of water, we took a trip to the music room and dropped them off for the next 45 minutes. I feel somewhat bad about leaving that poor nice woman with 30 smelly and sweaty kids, but not bad enough to stay with them. I, instead, followed Erin into one of her meetings which was also a great experience. They sit together as a group of 3rd grade teachers and one coordinator to discuss what the universal lesson plans are going to be for the following week. They discuss what issues their class is having with current curriculum and what ways they may be able to correct the problems. The coordinators job is to spend the rest of the week researching teaching methods and tried and true methods of education and is responsible for bringing the findings to the next meeting. Excellent support system in place if you ask me.

I tried finding a pic of my first day of
3rd grade, but the closest I could find
 is this, which I believe was in
 2nd grade. 

The day ended when we picked the kids up from the music room and brought them back to the actual class. They had been given a few pieces of candy each and where bouncing off the walls. I'm pretty sure this was payback for dropping them off when they were all sweaty, but we'll never know.

Before dismissal we had to hand out reminders for the children to bring to their parents that they are going to be setting up parent teacher conferences. Once the blue papers where handed to each child, the importance of their successful pass to the parents was discussed at length. The bell rang and the class cleared out within seconds, leaving behind a wake of blue papers, some still gliding down to the ground in the form of paper planes.

Can't wait for the next visit!