What an exciting week!
I loved every second of being in the elementary school Monday! The excitement that filled the air was marvelous. I truly am among wonderful people in this class. As we walked down the hallways we saw all the personalized artwork from the students on the walls. All the students stopped and stared, waving as we walked by.
Four of us walked into the first classroom. It was second grade math, and ironically we were all in the same elementary education math class. The students came in after their lunch. Normally, the time after lunch is when the students are more tired. But our teacher had them all up and working immediately. She was using the new method of doing math, and the four of us onlookers were surprised to see it was exactly what we were learning in class. She had an eye on each student the entire time, it was very impressive. They then got into three groups, one group was learning a game from someone's grandmother who had come in, one group was playing on the iPods, and the other was getting individual help with the math from her. Every student was very respectful towards her and did exactly what they were told to do. Once the students with her had a grasp of the math, she had a student come to us individually and teach us how the math works. I absolutely loved it, I do not think there was a moment I was not smiling.
Teachers are some of the greatest at multitasking. We could see how she strategically placed the groups, how she set her desk so she was able to see everything that went on in the classroom, and how she decorated the class to make the learning environment more fun for the students. I was thoroughly impressed with what we saw and what we learned from the other schools.
