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Other entries in Sacramento

Getting my hands dirty.

Well today was the second day, and what did I learn today? I learned that this project is going to be utterly exhausting. Our day started at 7:45 this morning when we got to school and played with the kids outside. Then classes started at 8:15.  The third graders all fight for my attention, so when they had math problems to do I kept hearing, "Miss Monica, can you help me?" It was cute, but had me all over the room. I think they wanted attention more than help, but I'm okay with it. Vicki also had me calling each kid over and having them do math problems on a computer, the oldest Mac I have ever seen. That really helped with learning names, though I'm not quite there yet. Vicki was really excited when she found out I have a degree in English, she is going to put me to work. She wants me to teach poetry on Mondays, writing on Tuesdays, spelling on Wednesdays, and the rest of the week is up in the air. Wow. Me, teach? And I really don't like poetry at all, but third grade poetry can't be that bad. So I took some books home to read over the next few days, can you believe I have homework already?! But even though it kind of scares me, it's also really really exciting to be doing something so completely not "me." So wish me luck, and throw and suggestions for third grade poetry at me. Thanks.

Recess is always fun. I feel like most of my day is recess. We have twenty minutes in the morning, an hour and ten minutes in the afternoon, then fifteen with the little kids after that and fifteen with the big kids. The kids have 15-20 minute installments each time, but every time there's recess, I'm there. It's definitely nice to get some outside time, or shall I say, lots of outside time. And I enjoy playing with the kids a lot. Today we found one of those big circle things that you all hold on to then hold it up and run underneath it. That was so much fun, until I had to start disciplining kids for throwing balls around. Yeah, I disciplined kids. Not that they really listened, but I disciplined, which is big for me.

Fifth grade, what can I say about fifth grade? They are learning about Paul Revere right now, my job today was to walk around and make sure everyone was on the right page and was answering the mid-reading questions. Then my class had "gym." Apparently PE to this school is only two times a week and it very unstructured. So for PE we walked/jogged (but really walked) around the track for half an hour. I went with them even though I was supposed to be at recess with the little kids and I missed my break too. I talked to Ms. Johnson while walking, she wants me to possibly teach poetry to her class too. Ahhh! And she is also going to have me hang out with the ELD students (English Language Development) --basically ESL kids. There are three of them, one who speaks Russian, and two who speak Spanish. But honestly, the spanish ones, you would never guess by just looking at them, they seem so far along. Even the Russian one is not bad, she has a cute little accent, though sometimes she is hard to understand. I have to spend thrity minutes each day with them doing anything that pertains to reading, writing, speaking, or listening. I actually started that today. We sat there for about ten minutes and I ran out of things to say. I had them get started on their homework - to freewrite about three reasons why they are happy that AmeriCorps NCCC came to their school. It was fun to hear their responses, but their spelling was pretty bad and I hate correcting people so much. I did it, but I didn't like it at all. Especially when I can't tell them why something is spelled so stupidly. (Yesterday someone asked me how to say "meringue," and she stared at the word for like ten minutes after I said it. I had to explain that it was a weird word and it didn't really make sense, but you were really supposed to say it like "mir-ang." Clearly I was not cut out for teaching, but hopefully I will not screw them up at all. It's just that we were told to help them, not do it for them, so I figure the teacher will mark their papers wrong and then they'll know that it was wrong...that's how I learned things.

They don't have art or music classes at all. I totally started playing the flute in third grade! That makes me sad that these K-6 graders don't have the opportunity to learn an instrument. The crazy thing is that there budget is huge. My third grade class is getting a SMART board! Vicki gets this notebook thing that she can write on and it will project right to the screen, PLUS the kids each get a remote (personalized so that it knows who hasn't hit a button yet) so that they can answer questions through that. It's really quite amazing. They provide notebooks and stuff to the kids as well, I'm sure a couple instruments would be in the budget, they just need a teacher.

It's only 6pm and I can't wait to go to bed, this week is going to be so rough, especially since tomorrow and Friday I will be doing the Boys and Girls Club program until 6, and I might have duty on Thursday night (which involves going on rounds of the base at 8:30 and 9:30 and possibly cleaning both dorm buildings). Let's see if I make it to the weekend... --but even though I'm exhausted, I'm still having a great time. I could not imagine a more fulfilling time, this project is awesome and I am ready for more!!

P.S. Everyone here thinks I am a bit too positive... I think I'm okay with that.

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