Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Chicago...windy city, and the snowy city.

Monday.

So we were supposed to get 10 inches of snow during the night...but God is good, and we only got about two. However, Chicago definitely knows how to handle their snow and the roads were cleared before we even looked out the window this morning.

Four of us piled into a car this morning at 7:45am. Debbie, the wife in the home we are staying at, is the principal of the inner city Christian school we took off to for the day.

We made it through the slush and entered the school. A smiley face met us at the bottom of the stairs as a few minutes passed, introducing himself, Corell, a student teacher. He laughed with a twinkle in his eye as he said this will most likely be like nothing we could expect. He said, "You'll probably get to teach a few lessons too!". Ha.

We organized our schedules for the day, willing to jump in wherever we could. I took off to the Grade 2 class, to be met by 12 or so kiddies, only one of which was a girl. Corell, ended up teaching them a class right after I got there. He entered the room, "YO!", and the kids responded with an equally energetic "YO!". After this going back and for three times, he hollers "Sit down in your seat and take a load off your feet!". Um...the only thing running through my mind at that moment? Pssh, that's flippin' cool - if only I could do that.

I left the class to chat with the teacher and get a bit of an introduction. Here, I was handed materials to teach the next lessons from 9:20 until 11:30am. Ha. Sweet.

So, I've already taught a Social Studies lesson on American history, mainly which I had the students teach me to review their material. They found it fun to know that we also celebrate Christmas, Easter and Halloween in Canada, but have a few different historical holidays. I also covered some language arts stuff, and now I am fondly referred to (at least I hope it's fond), as "Miss Jen".

Took them down to recess and smoked two kids in the head with a ball by accident...opps. They were tough though, no tears. Tears only come when I have to put their names on the board for not staying in their seats or constantly talking during the lesson.

I then went off to a Grade 5 class where I was handed the poetry lesson, and had the class all to myself. God is good and completely removed any stresses or worries and the lessons have all gone pretty good so far.

I helped out in the computer room a bit today as well. However, the Grade 7/8 kids are a little out of my league. Pretty sure two girls were mocking me and calling me "Crispy Cream". Being a white gal from Canada just doesn't make me that cool. Dang it. At least the young kids think I'm somewhat neat.

I can't wait to back :)

1 comment:

Joy said...

Nothing like getting on-the-spot teaching experience! You'll be able to tackle anything back at home.