Day 5

First day of student teaching!!

Oh boy! Here we go!

After our meeting with Dr. Ballou we learned that our school day would go from 8am to 5pm, as it does for the rest of the teachers. However, in comparison to western schools, the teaches have an hour and a half lunch break instead of just forty minutes and have the choice to eat at school or go home to eat. I plan on taking advantage of this time and using it to plan some of my lessons and work on the TPA.

When Thursday rolled around my roommate and I got to the school at 8am and went to our respective classrooms where we would talk with the students as they get settled. The first thing I noticed when I walked into my classroom was a YouTube video of a piano solo playing. I loved this! It was so calming and warm to listen to.

In my classroom, my teacher introduced me and had the students stand up one by one, say their name, and something they can do (i.e. skip, dance, sing, or read). Before the teacher, Miss Sam, introduced me to the students, she gave them a three minutes warning to get to their desks and begin their bell work. I liked this because this was very similar to how we have learned to teach at CWU. When the students are sitting at desks they must have their feet flat on the floor, back straight, and arms folded on the desk. If they are talking or are sitting in the incorrect posture, they will lose a check mark. I am still trying to understand they full purpose of the check system, I know it is supposed to promote an intrinsic motivation to sit the correct way but I don't yet get what the check does. During the three minute warning students bring their homework and pile  on the front desk of each row. There are five rows with an extra desk in front of each which are designated for homework-no students sit in them.

Once the homeroom teacher got the students started on their reading with a student leader at the front of the class, she left and a new teacher came into start them on their Chinese lesson. Even though I could not understand what was being said, I could tell that the teacher was preparing the students for a spelling test. I could tell this was happening because she would say a Chinese word and have the students say it back to her and did this with a few words then had the students get out a piece of paper-- the paper they use for Chinese is very different than lined paper we are used to in the United States. Once each student had a piece of paper she wrote numbers 1-10 on the chalk board and then said a word out loud, included it in a sentence, and then repeated the word again.

While they were working on the spelling test, I had a chance to really notice the classroom. This room is an extremely literate rich environment! On the back wall there are pieces of student work in English and Chinese which are hung. There are banners in English and Chinese to promote bilingualism. In each of the lessons the students are encourages to participate in oral reading. There are two chalkboards to write on and a magic interactive board. For those of you who know what a smart board is, this is 100x better than a smart board! It can do everything! We had a tutorial on how to use one the other day and I was at complete awe at all they can do. Also in the classroom, there are multiple windows and curtains with images of the ocean floor which were open to allow light to come in.

Something I noticed about the student in the class was that they were very excited to come to up to the board to show what they know. During the Chinese lesson, the teacher would write a character and then have a student come to the board and circle the incorrect part and rewrite it correctly.

After this period the teacher had the students stand, bow and say something in Chinese before they can be dismissed for their 10 minute break.

At the end of the break, a different Chinese lesson took place. In this Chinese lesson there seemed to be a lot of "repeat after me" and correcting characters on the board. Later the students did a clapping pattern with the teacher which I am assuming was to promote phonological awareness. At the end of this period the students did a Chinese sing along before they were dismissed.

During the break, the student teachers and Dr. Ballou met and figured out that we could go on a walking tour with the director at 3pm. Until 3, a lot of us were working on our student teaching papers and helping out in the classroom.

On the walking tour we found where the pharmacy was and got an ice pack, went to the money exchange with no success =[, found a store similar to the dollar store where we could buy cheap watches, and then came back to the school. When we came back parents were picking up their children and we had been told by the director to not approach them until our cooperating teacher says it is ok in order to 'save face'. This is a really important value so I was a little shocked with one of my students tried to introduce me to her dad. I just politely smiled and said hello so it wouldn't seem like I'm being too pushy.

Getting the chance to walk around and have an informative tour of where everything is was really great! I'm really glad we did that (though my feet hurt afterwards).

After getting to see how the teachers manage each of the classes I am really excited to get in there and start teaching!