My second visit in the first week of school

Today is Ms.Lamba's birthday! I heard her talking about it with Ms.Agrawal on Tuesday, so I asked her and found out that it's today~ I bought a glittery card for her yesterday hehe. Yeah, I already know that she loves glitters. =P

In the morning, I took out agenda money from the students' envelopes and checked them off. I also sorted out forms that students returned. While I was doing that, Ms.Lamba was teaching them place values. The Gr.4s need to know up to 10,000, and the Gr.5s need to know up to 100,000. I feel that I need to review my Math, because although I know the content, I don't remember learning them. It's important that I have the knowledge, but it's more important to explore the ways that I can teach the students.

I went out to duty with Ms.Lamba at recess, and it was so hot today! But it's always nice to be outside for a while when we're in the school all day.

After recess, they continued to brainstorm ideas about appreciating and listening to others. After that, each group got a piece of big chart paper to do a place mat activity. Each student had his/her own spot on the sheet to write down the rules that they need to follow in the school and in the classroom. Then, as a group, they would discuss and decide which 4 rules are the most important. Then, as a class, they agreed upon 6 rules, and each of us signed the agreement.

I sat with Hilda at lunch today. It's so nice to have another student teacher with me, so we can talk and share what we did~

After lunch, we continued doing the classroom agreement, because we didn't have time to finish it before lunch. After that, Ms.Lamba started to introduce the story "Christopher Changes His Name", but got interrupted by the announcement. So we had to go to the assembly at the gym, where the principal and vice principal, Ms.Ohl and Mr.Richards, talked about safety issues. Before they started, the teachers introduced themselves to all the Gr.4-8s. I didn't know that I'll be introducing myself too, but I managed~ I've never spoken to so many kids in the gym before! That's exciting~

After the assembly, Ms.Lamba read the story and discussed it with the students. Then she asked them if their names have any special meaning. She asked them to go home and ask their parents where their names come from or what they mean. They're going to write about it tomorrow.

Throughout the day, I went around and observed the students and answered questions when they needed help. I feel that I'm already part of the class! And...I've learned all of their names! After class, Ms.Lamba asked me to come up with a seating plan according to the preferences of the students. They've written down the names of 3 people that they'd like to sit with. So I made sure that each student is sitting with at least one person that they like. I also made sure that each group includes both boys and girls, Gr.4s and Gr.5s. It was kind of like a Math problem, but I enjoyed it!

Before I go, I stamped the new Literacy textbooks, and that made me sweat haha~

So that's my day...It's nice but also tiring 'cause of all the walking around (especially when the classroom is upstairs)! Oh, and~~~ I got a hug from Tina today~ ^-^