I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a special day where BIG books were put out for the students to read once they finished their Mother's Day projects. I went and sat with a young man who was an absolutely fantastic reader! He knew all sorts of words like stegosaurus and haiku, and read through them all with ease and poise. Needless to say, I was blown away and after spending time reading through this great, big book, I was more than pleased to hear that it was Educators' Week and that there was a coffee and a vanilla iced donut with sprinkles in the office with my name all over it! We concluded reading time with a meeting at Cozy Corner (a carpeted area with bean bags and such used for reading) where we sang a camp song about a worm. Riveting! :) I then attended recess for a spot of fresh air and to stretch my legs where I did a bit of swing pushing, monkey bar helping, and visiting of tree "houses" until it was time to go back inside and rejoin my incredible 4th graders for math.
I was in charge of a math station where I was helping out with a computer program called Math Arena. It is very fun and has about 20 different skills that test students in the form of games. I quickly realized that I had some fraction and money reviewing to do, but managed to solve some minor partner issues, frozen screens, and even got in a game or two myself. Lunch followed and I sat and chatted with with both smiling faces new and old; its really nice to make friends at lunch. After lunch, we had a writer's workshop class where the ever-incredible Miss Blessing was teaching skills in self correcting one's own work. It was really refreshing and awesome to watch her teach young writers how to view writing as an ongoing process that can always be changed and revised. They were given rubrics to score their own work, to be later compared to one that Miss Blessing had already completed, and were asked to be honest with themselves on how they really thought each category was represented in their work. It was such an encouraging exercise to watch, having done that exact same topic of learning years ago, and still everyday! I think that Miss Blessing's passion and gift for teaching was even better exemplified through the way that she encouraged her lucky 4th graders to feel that, though they may not have scored as well as they would have liked on their rubrics, they were still really great writers who have so much talent. Miss Blessing, you are truly my inspiration! I next got a great sense of differences in spelling levels and I was asked by one boy if I could take over giving the spelling tests because "it would be a great experience for a practice teacher." Very thoughtful and intelligent advice, I thought! So I took over and read through a whole range of different words, from 'am' to 'consulted' to 'asparagus'.
It proved to be another very successful day at DES! Once again, I give my never ending thanks and bravos to Miss Blessing for inspiring me so greatly every single day! And MANY MANY thanks to Miss Nelson for making me the BEAUTIFUL DES ROCKS pin! It means so much to me and I will remember DES forever! DES ROCKS!
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