Observation Journal Entry #3
Feb. 28th, 2013 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aelfieToday is a weird schedule day.
First of all, half of morning lesson is eaten by Strings class and it's also Thursday so its a short day for the weekly faculty meeting (Which is quite long). Extra bonus weirdness, my mentor Ms. R not at school today, my class has a substitute (who also happens to be a student, but she's been there almost 2 months) Extra, extra bonus, today is also the Chinese exchange students last day of school.
Today's morning lesson is for the class to make goodbye cards for Jerry and Peter. The children work mostly independently, asking for spelling help and similar questions, while I work on my assignment. I need to create a chalkboard drawing. Yeah. I'm learning to draw and my beliefs in my ability to draw are minimal. I drew a picture of Johnny Appleseed. I have to say I think I did a good job the trees and the hill of dirt he stood on, but poor Johnny! I'm VERY glad I rough sketched him in and then did the trees because when I finally stood up to look at what I drew, Johnny was half the size he needed to be. I drew a second rough sketch to try and get the proportions right. I managed it on the first try! His body is eight heads tall! And even then, I still managed to goof him up. I accidentally gave him a plastic left arm. I drew it in a way that no human arm can look like unless broken. Whoops! I didn't know how to fix it, so I just left it. And his face looks funny. I'm not sure where I screwed up on that one either. I warned Ms. R that I'm learning to draw and I can keep up with the First Graders. But anyone older than that and I was in trouble. But all in all it wasn't bad. Strings Teacher wrote something above I'll remove later and finish the drawing
After a shortened morning lesson the strings instructor came in to teach. I stayed and listened to the children playing violins and cellos. They played quite nicely! After String and recess, then reading period. The class is split into small groups and take turns reading a book out loud. I took one regular student and one exchange student and sat outside and read. Student did well and got annoyed when I helped him too quickly, we eventually worked out when I could help him. The exchange student asked lots of questions about the subject of book (North Carolina) and seemed interested in the answers, but didn't seem to understand that it was 3000 miles away from us. I think it must have been a frustrating month for this student and his twin, knowing just enough English to get along, but not enough to truly understand. They played well with the other kids so it seemed to be working out okay. As a side note, these boys went through and memorized the Suzuki 1 book for their instrument (violin for one, cello for the other) in 3 weeks. Phenomenal musicians!
Then a long faculty meeting, but the Eurythmy was awesome. And that's all I'll say about it. Faculty meetings are equivalent to the confessional...what is said does not cross the doors.
First of all, half of morning lesson is eaten by Strings class and it's also Thursday so its a short day for the weekly faculty meeting (Which is quite long). Extra bonus weirdness, my mentor Ms. R not at school today, my class has a substitute (who also happens to be a student, but she's been there almost 2 months) Extra, extra bonus, today is also the Chinese exchange students last day of school.
Today's morning lesson is for the class to make goodbye cards for Jerry and Peter. The children work mostly independently, asking for spelling help and similar questions, while I work on my assignment. I need to create a chalkboard drawing. Yeah. I'm learning to draw and my beliefs in my ability to draw are minimal. I drew a picture of Johnny Appleseed. I have to say I think I did a good job the trees and the hill of dirt he stood on, but poor Johnny! I'm VERY glad I rough sketched him in and then did the trees because when I finally stood up to look at what I drew, Johnny was half the size he needed to be. I drew a second rough sketch to try and get the proportions right. I managed it on the first try! His body is eight heads tall! And even then, I still managed to goof him up. I accidentally gave him a plastic left arm. I drew it in a way that no human arm can look like unless broken. Whoops! I didn't know how to fix it, so I just left it. And his face looks funny. I'm not sure where I screwed up on that one either. I warned Ms. R that I'm learning to draw and I can keep up with the First Graders. But anyone older than that and I was in trouble. But all in all it wasn't bad. Strings Teacher wrote something above I'll remove later and finish the drawing
After a shortened morning lesson the strings instructor came in to teach. I stayed and listened to the children playing violins and cellos. They played quite nicely! After String and recess, then reading period. The class is split into small groups and take turns reading a book out loud. I took one regular student and one exchange student and sat outside and read. Student did well and got annoyed when I helped him too quickly, we eventually worked out when I could help him. The exchange student asked lots of questions about the subject of book (North Carolina) and seemed interested in the answers, but didn't seem to understand that it was 3000 miles away from us. I think it must have been a frustrating month for this student and his twin, knowing just enough English to get along, but not enough to truly understand. They played well with the other kids so it seemed to be working out okay. As a side note, these boys went through and memorized the Suzuki 1 book for their instrument (violin for one, cello for the other) in 3 weeks. Phenomenal musicians!
Then a long faculty meeting, but the Eurythmy was awesome. And that's all I'll say about it. Faculty meetings are equivalent to the confessional...what is said does not cross the doors.