Sept.8, 06: I'll be teaching Grade Ones!

This is my second visit at Greensborough Public School. I met up with Mr. Herridge again, and he arranged me to sit in Ms. Carson's Gr.1 class. That was their fourth day of school. I find Ms. Carson really nice and friendly, with a good laugh.

After greeting the class, Ms. Carson asked them to sit on the carpet and make a "rainbow circle". That's the time when they could share everything they want to say. They can pass if they don't want to speak, but everyone has a chance to speak. While students were sharing, a fly flew into the room, and they tried to hit him and slapped at him. In the meantime, Ms. Carson said, "That's Frank the fly, remember?" Apparently, a fly flew into their room a few days ago, and the teacher made up a name for "him". There's also another bug called George! She told the students not to hit Frank, because that would hurt him. Instead, they could blow him away. They had some fun with that. I find this very impressive, because from this little incident, Ms. Carson was encouraging them to be nice to little creatures and to prohibit violence.

After the sharing, they looked at the big calendar on the board together. They have a song for days of the week, for months, and for days. The songs refresh them of the months of the year, the days of the week, as well as counting for the days. It is a fun way to learn, and as they do it everyday, they would slowly absorb this knowledge and understand it.

After figuring out the date, they had to describe the weather. There's a large spinning circle, divided into sections like "sunny", "windy", and "rainy". There are two needles, and students would put up their hands to name one that describes the day's weather. In this case, it was "sunny" and "windy". Then, they had to make a sentence with it, like, "It is sunny and windy today." This exercise allows them to practice their knowledge of the weather, as well as making full sentences from bits of information.

Mrs. Kanhai's class is divided into group colours, and Ms. Carson's is categorized by table numbers. To avoid confusion, table numbers are called one by one as the class is dismissed.

Like Mrs. Kanhai's Gr.3 class, the Gr.1 class has an "All About Me" booklet, in simplified format. They are expected to do one page at a time. On the first page, there is a house with several windows. In there, they could draw their family members in each of the windows. Ms. Carson showed them how to draw persons in windows -- not too small, not too big. She emphasized that she doesn't want fast work, but detailed work. Every time a student showed her his/her picture, she would tell them to add more details in specific places. For example, clothes, hair, eyes, etc. She encouraged them to draw better and add more details, as if the pictures are really people.

After that, they did the alphabet poem. It goes like this: "A is for apple, ah ah ah!" And there are actions to each alphabet according to the correlating word. After saying it and acting it out several times, Ms. Carson handed out a little workbook, with the alphabet poem pasted on one of the pages. The students were to bring it home and practice it in front of their parents and siblings. I think that it is a very good idea! It allows the parents to know what their children are learning, and it strengthens the bond between the parents and the kids, because the kids can be proud of what they can accomplish.

Whenever a student said "Thank you", Ms. Carson would compliment on his/her nice manners. And then, just like magic, the other students would start saying "thank you" again, loud and clear too. Apparently, it works!

When a student wants to go to the washroom, they need to go with a partner. According to Ms. Carson, a little girl has been sexually assaulted a few years back. For safety reasons, the partner would stand at the washroom door while the other student goes to the washroom.

Before having snacks and lunch, students would line up at the sink, group by group, to wash their hands. Stepping on a little chair, they would wash their hands thoroughly with soap. This process often takes a long time, but that is for hygienic purposes.

During lunch break, Ms. Carson met up with Ms. Jones, another Gr.1 teacher, to discuss their teaching plans. Ms. Jones has been teaching Gr.1 for a few years, whereas Ms. Carson has only started to teach Gr.1 this year. Ms. Jones would photocopy resources for her and let her know what and how she's teaching her class. This kind of communication is beneficial for both the teachers and the students, and I can see the bond between the teachers, the sense of community that is so important in a learning environment. Ms. Jones talked about what she did in the first few classes. She asked the students to brainstorm in groups, and draw on a place map on what they did in the summer. With talking and discussing, they would recall the memories from the past 2 months. After drawing their individual pictures on the big sheet, they would choose one specific event and draw it on a smaller piece of paper, and write a sentence to describe it. It helps them make sense of what they are doing. Apparently, students from different Kindergartens show a difference in their levels.

In the staff room, Mr. Herridge talked about joining Gr.8 and Gr.1. They could do drama together, and they can also decorate pumpkins together in Halowe'en. He wants to encourage the Gr.8 to take care of the Gr.1, and let the Gr.1 know the Gr.8. It would create a more friendly environment on the playground, to avoid bullying, and lessen the gap between the little kids and the big kids.

Ms. Carson let me mark some of the assignments. She told me that during the first few weeks, no actual marking would be taken place. We write "good" on it, put on a sticker, with no correction of grammar at all. The children are still trying to express themselves with the limited knowledge of language that they have.

During math period, they did sorting. Ms. Carson dumped out the things in a bag, and let the students sort them. For example, in groups of pencils, erasers, highlighters, etc. After sorting, they would start again and sort them into different groups, for example, by colours.

Throughout the day, I noticed that students asked to go to the washroom or to drink at the water fountain a lot. Usually, Ms. Carson wouldn't let them go, because they are supposed to go during recess. She would stay strong in her decision, and tell them "it's ok, you don't need to do it now." I think it will work in the long term, because they would get used to this rule and follow it.