Week of November 16

This week I have officially taken over all of the classes. It has been really hard work but I think things are going really well.

Monday the students started with maths. It was an interesting experience because we didn't a Smartboard because the projector had broken two weeks ago, we didn't have internet access in the classroom (not sure why still), and the copy machine was broken. Lisa and I finally went down the list to plan C. We decided to do something called free maths. Free maths is putting out manipulatives (rulers, geometric shapes, tape measures, dominoes, and so on) and telling the students to do maths with them. Lisa had never tired this before and neither had I but I think it was a success. The students were told to record what they did with the objects in their notebooks and results they found. Some of the students were finding areas of the classroom while others were coming up with maths games. It was a really great experience and you could really see how some of the students were thinking.

That afternoon I took over netball, which I have never seen/played so that was interesting. But the students and Lisa both helped me out a great deal. I led them in their warm up and had them do a few passing drills and then they played a game. I was very pleased, the students were very patient with me and told me if I missed something.

In literacy this week I have been teaching lessons on Science Fiction stories and the later part of the week I have been working on description of a setting, this will eventually lead up to a short story they will have to write.

Friday was a little more difficult in terms of classroom management because it was Children in Need day, a huge charity event in the UK. The students had made a Pudsey Bear (the mascot of Children in Need) outline and they told the other students in school to bring extra change and fill in the outline. I was amazed, they filled up Pudsey and more. They also sold Pudsey Bear cookies for 20p each, some student bought an upwards of 7 and ate them all in a 30 minute time frame (YIKES). Finally they had a name the bear event that if they guessed the right name of the bear they would win it, it guess they had to pay 20p for each name. While I am not sure how much money they raised I know that all but 1 of the 48 students in school bought at least one cookie and they all put money on the Pudsey Bear. It was so neat to see them giving so much. I over heard a conversation on the playground between two of the students before they bought their cookies that she could only get 2 cookies because she wanted to put money on the Pudsey. It was nice to hear how kind and unselfish they could be.

Also, this week we have been really practicing for their big Christmas program. I was 'lucky' enough to be a judge for the solos (it was very hard to choose a winner, much harder than I anticipated). They are singing a group of songs called Hosanna Rock, and the younger students will be acting out the Nativity play during the production. There are bell players and recorders, I think there is even a Hosanna Hand-jive they will be preforming. There is a lot of work that is going into it but it is really fun to be involved. I can't wait to see the performance in 3 weeks!