Busy Day (April 29, 2014)

Another hot day! Since we were short on staff and the day was pretty hot, we stayed inside the classroom. First, we completed homework. Ms. Ann and Mayra were absent so I was in charge of the homework table and Teacher Helena was in charge of the other stuff. I had around six kids in my table. The usual ones finished their homework pretty quickly, but the other ones were not. I find that younger students have problem with focusing and completing their work. It takes longer for those who keep chatting. I was doing homework with my students for about an  hour.
After, we played with the chalk board! I thought it would be a good idea to put incorporate some math, therefore, I wrote some sum problems and my students had to answer them. Some had trouble, while others didn't. They seem to have fun, they tried competing with each other to see who was faster at solving the equations. On the bad side, the table got really dirty so we had to clean the stains.
I walked around the classroom to see what everyone was doing. Some were using the computers, while others played with Legos. All of them were in task, which was good because Ms. Ann would've been very proud of them. Later, Mayra arrived and took over Ceci, another teacher, since another class needed staff. Since the girls are closer to me, they always ask me to play with them. Therefore, I played board games for another hour. It was so fun, I enjoy spending time with my students.

Time logged for today: 3 hrs
Total time logged: 20 hrs

Sunny Day and Bubbles (April 7, 2014)

Today was a sunny day, it was the perfect weather to blow bubbles and run around. I arrived during my students playtime. I was very happy to see them since I wasn't able to volunteer last week. I could tell that they were also happy to see me, they're smiles and hugs is what I enjoy seeing. We played for about twenty minutes, we blew bubbles and attempted to play with the jump rope. Later, we went inside the classroom and worked on homework. I sat in table 2, as usual, with about five kids. One student, Jonas, finished very quickly and got to play games right after. I was having trouble with one student because he is very friendly and loves chit chat a lot so the other students tend to get distracted. It took about forty minutes or less for all my students to finish. I learned that my "friendly" student works better when he's alone. I am slowly learning to have a lot of patience with students that tend to get distracted easily and don't do what they're supposed to. I see that Ms. Ann, my mentor, tries to talk to the student first, then she explains what they are doing and what they're actually supposed to be doing. First, I told him that he was distracting other kids and talking too much. Then, I told him that he should be doing work because his mom was going to pick him up pretty soon and it was better for him to finish it at school than at home. He decided to cooperate and do finish all his homework. For the remaining time, we played board games. Today was a good day, very sunny and pretty.



Time logged for today : 3 hrs
Total time logged: 17 hrs