It's hard to believe I have reached the 7 week mark here in Mississippi, time is flying by and I am still thoroughly enjoying it. This week our timetable got a whole lot busier as we discovered we needed to have more credits to fulfil our international requirements. We are taking an extended early childhood education class which involves more hours in Willie Price nursery unit and more assignments, so Monday and Wednesday mornings are now filled with this along with our original Tuesday/Thursday slot. Our classroom practise also got underway this week and so we are in Lafayette Elementary on Tuesday/Thursday mornings from 8.30-10.30. All the experience we are getting is valuable which makes it easier to get up earlier!Our first class on Monday was cancelled and Dr Chessin's class involved preparation for our presentations which were to start on Wednesday and so we practised our skit and made sure we had everything we needed to meet the criteria. We met up with the girls for our weekly bible study in the afternoon and spent Monday evening revising for our Classroom Management test on Tuesday.
I started Tuesday in Lafayette Elementary where I was officially beginning my time in first grade there. The school is hexagonal inside and so can be really confusing when you have only been there once and so I got lost trying to find my class but had a warm greeting as there was a huge 'Welcome Miss Lorna' poster outside the door. I was mainly observing in Tuesday's class and helped out a few times. When I arrive at 8.30 the children are involved in 'Skills Builders' around the school going to specific classrooms to practise different skills and then return to their normal classrooms to begin the day. I enjoyed observing classroom routine and the different aspects that make up the classroom welcome including 'shape of the day' a days of the week song and a daily pattern. I also picked up some really funny instructional sayings the teacher uses in her classroom for example when praising a child she will say 'kiss your brain,' she talks about 'self-controlled manners,' 'super seaters' and using their '2 inch voices.' Mrs Watkins put me on the spot in the classroom as she got me up to tell the children all about Ireland and St. Patrick and although I knew a lot to do with St. Patrick, learning about him on the 17th March for my whole school career I must say I was a bit rusty under pressure...! I decided to do it justice I had to do a proper lesson surrounding the topic and so I planned to do this for Thursday. I worked around the stations that had been set up for the student and carried out observations for the rest of the period.
The theme for the week in Willie Price was 'weather' and so the teacher was letting the children listen to a book-CD 'Storms coming!' After using the book as a stimulus the pupils then began stations based around tornados, they had to draw them and used bottles filled with coloured water which the teacher swirled to show them a tornado.
Our test on Tuesday night was difficult, it was a mixture of true/false answers, multiple choice and short essay answers. It covered all the material we have looked at so far including a vast amount of theorists and their beliefs in terms of classroom management. I think it went ok however and know that everyone felt the same way about it.
I was back in Willie Price on Wednesday morning and thoroughly enjoyed seeing their routine at a different time of the day. My favourite aspect was seeing them all stand, while one child was given the role of flag-holder, put their hand over their heart and say the pledge of allegiance. It was really cute to see twenty 3-4 year olds try and say the big words included in this and it was definately a novelty for me. They sing so much in the morning, they have a welcome song, a days of the week song, a months of the year song and a weather song. Something that also surprised me was the kind of snacks they give young children here, each child got a cinnamon roll and juice...crazy considering the focus
on 'healthy snack' at home...if only our kids knew what they were missing out on!In our Special Education class we learnt about Freud's theory of having three components of personality- 'Id, Ego and Superego.' We studied defence mechanisms including, sublemation, displacement, rationalization, repression, suppression and regression. We also did our presentation on Wednesday morning and were pleased with how well it went receiving an A and 19/20 for our work. We also got our first test results back and I was excited to see that I got 88% on the test.
I spent the rest of Wednesday afternoon preparing for my lesson on St Patrick and visited the teacher's resource centre which didn't prove to be all that helpful in that there were mostly American geography books and not much on Irish culture, the internet however is a wonderful thing! We attended Leapfrog after getting some work done where I was told by a child I had 'wacky hair' and then went on to draw me and my hair for the remainder of the time! We ate dinner at First Baptist and attended a college student meeting, we then came back and went to RUF where everyone was getting excited about the big dance party on Friday night.
On Thursday morning I was back in Lafayette and I was excited about doing my lesson with the children. The main content of the lesson was based around Northern Ireland and being part of the United Kingdom as well as looking at the Republic which tied in well with St. Patrick and leprechauns! I was told afterwards by several children that my 'voice is awesome!!!' which I think means it went ok. Being the week of Dr Seuss' birthday we had someone come into class and read 'Green Eggs and Ham' and after the class did some Maths, followed by working in stations to complete literacy activities.
In Willie Price on Thursday the kids got the chance to draw Dr Seuss and had a demonstration from one of the teachers. I spent the rest of the time working alongside the children in their various activities.
I enjoyed sleeping in a bit on Friday morning before class at 10. In Dr Blackbourn's class we looked at Grave's theory of their being different developmental levels, I found this really interesting, trying to work out what level I am working at, each level has a pr
imary goal. Level 1 is primitive, level 2 is all about security, level 3 is about power, level 4 is concerned with principles, level 5 is about productivity and level 6 is to do with people. In Dr Chessin's class we continued to listen to other groups presentations focused around various instructional strategies.On Friday night we were off to Tupelo, a town about an hour away for the RUF battle of the bands/dance off party. Ruth and I wore t-shirts we'd designed with a friend that said 'The Irish' on the back as we are affectionately known. We had a great time at this, enjoyed the music and all the different ways people had dressed up including one guy who was wearing his pyjamas, there was an underlying theme however...glow sticks!
On Saturday we headed out for some coffee and doughnuts for breakfast and seeing it was a nice day went to the park in out pyjamas, sat out and enjoyed the sun, ignoring stran
ge stares from people passing by. The sun continued for the rest of the day and was especially nice as we headed up to Memphis to pick up Ruth's boyfriend, Phil from the airport who has come to stay with us for two weeks. We did some shopping at a Mall and then went over to the airport with our 'We Love Phil' posters, it was great to see him and despite his jet-lag we headed to the famous Beale Street to get dinner. We ended up in the Blues cafe, got some great food and after headed down to the Crepe-store where I got the most amazing crepe ever...a Rocky Road...just like the bun in a crepe with ice-cream, Americans know how to do dessert!On Sunday we went to First Baptist church and following this helped out with children's church. We headed to the park for a picnic after and in the evening went to the women's bible study we have been attending.
Can't believe time is so quickly flying by and looking forward to a week of Spring break very soon!
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