Day 3
I brought in tadpoles. I wanted to follow the science theme of "life-cycles" that the science teacher had begun with them, so I decided that the activity was going to be to start with a story on the floor with the whole group and then break them in half. One half would make books as observation journals while the other half would have a chance to observe the tadpoles, ask questions, tell stories and make predictions.
It turned out that today was the eve of the school talent show, so I ended up with only about 15 kids total. It was a dream. I still really feel steadfast about starting each session with a read aloud. These kids are young enough to still love being read to and I just want that to be my one really consistent piece. As I observed from the very first day, this is a very large group with a lot of energy. As a parent, I try to think about what I would want for my own kid(s) at this time of day before they are being picked up to take home around 5-6 pm. I want to somehow calm the energy and provide space for kids to have freedom to do or not do the activities I have planned, but mostly just enjoy being there, being together, and being engaged in something. Being read to is for the most part all of those things and something that is relatively easy for kids to adjust to. I want to experiment with starting every class with a story like clockwork. Before even saying many other words, I want to start in reading a book and seeing how that act alone engages the kids. I want to see if I can get them to understand that when they come in to the library at 4 pm on Thursdays, they are to take off their backpacks, leave them by the door, meet at the floor and expect to be read to. My goal is for this to lead into some discussion and I will tell them their choices of follow-up activities and that would essentially be the hour. Eventually I'd love to meet back up at the floor before they go home for sort of a share out about what everyone did, but that might be too ambitious with the time limits, the time of day and the group dynamic. It might still just be too scripted for an after school program. I'll have to see how this class develops and grows, and for that, I am excited. It's like my own little teaching experiment.
It makes it simpler for my hour with them to simply start off with a story, and then lead into one or more follow-up activities that the kids have choices about. It is my own personal challenge to seek out the right books for the group that have relevancy around what I plan to do with them. For today I didn't need to break them into groups since they were a small bunch. I started by reading them Diary of a Worm. Most of them loved it, but I still had to do a great amount of waiting for attention since a good five or more of the kids are talking while I'm reading, rolling all around the floor, covering their heads with the pillows, getting up and running around, etc. I decided to have less attachment to holding everyone's attention and let kids essentially do what they wanted to do within limits. They aren't allowed to go on the computers until 5 'o clock and five kids can't go to the bathroom at one time. The rules around this stuff are a little vague since I was never formally introduced to an after school program protocol, but knowing they are still under my care for that hour, I just feel more comfortable having them all in the library with me.
After reading, we went over to the tables and put together our observation journals. It helped that I had made up an example one to show first. We titled them "Diary of a Frog." Then I set out the tadpoles for them to look at and draw. I sneaked in about 5 books about frogs that the school librarian kindly loaned me for the day and set them out on the tables. For the rest of the class, the kids were drawing tadpoles, talking about what they saw and smelled, and reading the books together exclaiming with excitement about the pictures (except for A who was drawing dogs from an illustration book). They asked me many questions and it was so fun to just let them come naturally. Simply asking "what do you think" opens up the floor for kids to predict, and for other kids to share what they already knew. They pretty much had all of the answers to each others questions from within the group.
I really love this school and the idea of teaching after school classes. The freedom and unattachment to my "responsibilities" as a teacher feel so much more natural to me. Now I want to teach this science/ literacy class, an after school Spanish class, and a gymnastics class. That would be so awesome!!
It turned out that today was the eve of the school talent show, so I ended up with only about 15 kids total. It was a dream. I still really feel steadfast about starting each session with a read aloud. These kids are young enough to still love being read to and I just want that to be my one really consistent piece. As I observed from the very first day, this is a very large group with a lot of energy. As a parent, I try to think about what I would want for my own kid(s) at this time of day before they are being picked up to take home around 5-6 pm. I want to somehow calm the energy and provide space for kids to have freedom to do or not do the activities I have planned, but mostly just enjoy being there, being together, and being engaged in something. Being read to is for the most part all of those things and something that is relatively easy for kids to adjust to. I want to experiment with starting every class with a story like clockwork. Before even saying many other words, I want to start in reading a book and seeing how that act alone engages the kids. I want to see if I can get them to understand that when they come in to the library at 4 pm on Thursdays, they are to take off their backpacks, leave them by the door, meet at the floor and expect to be read to. My goal is for this to lead into some discussion and I will tell them their choices of follow-up activities and that would essentially be the hour. Eventually I'd love to meet back up at the floor before they go home for sort of a share out about what everyone did, but that might be too ambitious with the time limits, the time of day and the group dynamic. It might still just be too scripted for an after school program. I'll have to see how this class develops and grows, and for that, I am excited. It's like my own little teaching experiment.
It makes it simpler for my hour with them to simply start off with a story, and then lead into one or more follow-up activities that the kids have choices about. It is my own personal challenge to seek out the right books for the group that have relevancy around what I plan to do with them. For today I didn't need to break them into groups since they were a small bunch. I started by reading them Diary of a Worm. Most of them loved it, but I still had to do a great amount of waiting for attention since a good five or more of the kids are talking while I'm reading, rolling all around the floor, covering their heads with the pillows, getting up and running around, etc. I decided to have less attachment to holding everyone's attention and let kids essentially do what they wanted to do within limits. They aren't allowed to go on the computers until 5 'o clock and five kids can't go to the bathroom at one time. The rules around this stuff are a little vague since I was never formally introduced to an after school program protocol, but knowing they are still under my care for that hour, I just feel more comfortable having them all in the library with me.
After reading, we went over to the tables and put together our observation journals. It helped that I had made up an example one to show first. We titled them "Diary of a Frog." Then I set out the tadpoles for them to look at and draw. I sneaked in about 5 books about frogs that the school librarian kindly loaned me for the day and set them out on the tables. For the rest of the class, the kids were drawing tadpoles, talking about what they saw and smelled, and reading the books together exclaiming with excitement about the pictures (except for A who was drawing dogs from an illustration book). They asked me many questions and it was so fun to just let them come naturally. Simply asking "what do you think" opens up the floor for kids to predict, and for other kids to share what they already knew. They pretty much had all of the answers to each others questions from within the group.
I really love this school and the idea of teaching after school classes. The freedom and unattachment to my "responsibilities" as a teacher feel so much more natural to me. Now I want to teach this science/ literacy class, an after school Spanish class, and a gymnastics class. That would be so awesome!!
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