A child's life...

This week, in my second grade class the teacher whose father has been very ill received a call in her room and began to cry. I knew at this point that something was wrong and she most likely needed to leave the room or leave the school to drive to the hospital. I took over her class for a short time until another teacher came to get her class. As the teacher left the students were asking if she was okay and what was wrong. A few students got out of their seat to give her a hug and tell her they were sorry. I wondered if the students understood what was going on and how many of them have experienced death. The class knew her father had been sick and were empathetic and worried for her. Her father later passed away later that day and I am assuming she may be out for a period of time. When does a person start to feel up to returning back to work after a death in the family? I am sure it is a very slow process and hard to get up in the morning.

I have so far spent each day with my students since January and I have learned so much about their families and personal lives. As we all know, children are very open people and have no boundary for what they share. So far a kindergartner told me her mother died when she was little because she was sick, a third grader told me he was adopted when he was a baby, and many students (mostly boys) have told me about their dad living "somewhere else". Hearing these sad glimpses into the student's lives reminds me that each child is dealing with a difficult situation or possibly tragic at home and to always take that into consideration as a teacher.

Lastly, on a lighter note- the student who recently told me he was adopted has been behind his class on multiplication (he is on his 6's, while most of the class is on 9's). I work with him a little bit each day on flash cards and most days he just gets frustrated and shuts down. The last few days he has been studying and practicing his 6's. When I came into his class today he called me over to his desk and with the biggest smile said "I passed my 6's and I didn't get not one problem wrong!". I was so relieved that he passed and so pleased that he had worked hard to study and it paid off, I know that made his day-maybe even his week!

So far...(kids are so funny)

So far...I have looked forward to going to teach each day. I am happy to say I don't experience all the stressors of having my own class; so I think I actually enjoy the students even more. So the kids are so funny- a second grader told me last week "Mrs. Katie I have a question, why do you look so pretty today?" I then asked him " Did I not look pretty yesterday?" lol. I was asking students in my 2nd grade reading group about a time when they had to get a gift for a loved one and a little boy raised his hand and says, " I remember when I had to go buy my cousin a dead body!" The other students all looked at each other in surprise and then busted out with a loud laugh. I then asked the student where he had to go to get this body and he replied, "At the Halloween store, so we could put it on the lawn for decoration." Everyone began to realize that it was a Halloween gift and not an actual dead body! I told the little boy that next time he tells that story he should probably explain the Halloween part first before mentioning the dead body part.

first blog!

I am so excited to start blogging about my adventures in teaching. I am a teacher, however I am a classroom-less one! I guess you could call this blog the diary of a new teacher (temp. a sub.). I am working temp. at an elementary school as a small group instructor in Southern Cali at at title one school. I work with grades K-5 and spend about 45 min. in each class working with small groups of students tutoring them to help improve their test scores. I am a young and aspiring teacher that craves a class of my own. I am using my time of subbing as a learning experience and taking note of what TO DO and what NOT TO DO! Of course I will have many interesting stories to share about my various teaching assignments and the names of teachers/students/schools will be changed and or omitted. I want to write a blog as a form of therapy and as a purpose to learn from my readers and fellow bloggers. I chose to blog on a technology in education website because I love tech. and am currently earning my masters degree in integrating technology into the classroom. I look forward to learning from everyone and sharing all that I learn. My blog will focus on stories from my daily adventures, questions, advice and other misc. education ideas.