Day 3 in the schools

Math. Math was an epic fail. Ok, not quite that epic. It wasn't as bad as it could be, but my math confidence is incredibly low. I changed my lesson a lot from the original, mostly because I didn't have enough materials and I didn't have as much time because one of the aids wanted to do some sort of play with the kids. I did volume. They got it to an extent, but weren't able to come up with length times width times height on their own. I gave them some handouts that I think they understood better after I went from table to table and tutored in smaller groups. A couple of them went "OH! I get it! So this one is 8cm!" That was cool, but I felt like it was ineffective as a whole class.

My co-op had a doctor's appointment so I was with another 4th grade class. During the assembly, I saw one kid who looked exactly like Bryan and sounded like Bryan and I was wondering why Bryan was in our line. I looked over at my 4th grade class and there was Bryan. Turns out his identical twin is in the other 4th grade. Haha.

The day was a little thrown off because my co-op came in late. I taught my lesson after they got back from science. They kept pretty busy doing other stuff all day. I read The Bridge to Teribithea because I was bored. It depressed me.

After getting out of school, we went straight to Edison High School for our professional development session. The speaker is a disciplinarian from some really difficult school in Philly. He was pretty cool. He was talking about how important it is to step around the obstacles and reach the hearts of the kids. In my experience at my school, I haven't had any kids defy me or swear at me, but I've heard plenty of other stories from students at much rougher schools. I don't know what I'd do if some kid just openly defied me. The man who spoke is a Christian and I think some of the positive impact he has and the respect he has gained is because the students know he genuinely cares and loves them. I hope I not only have the courage to face a defiant student, but also the courage to love even when it's difficult. Some things these kids go through I cannot possibly begin to understand, but I still have the responsibility to intentionally build relationships and make connections with the kids. Academics and test scores aren't always the most important things to teach at school. Some kids just need to be loved.