The first 2 weeks of school were observation - I attended all the English classes to get a feel for each classes' skills, levels, learning styles etc. I really enjoyed this time because it allowed me to make a more informed decision about my schedule. I wanted to choose classes that were a mix of low level English, mid-level English, and high level English. There are different things I can contribute at all of these levels and I felt it was important to have a mix and not just focus on one!
After a lot of consideration, I ended up choosing the following grades:
4th
6th
7th
8th
9th
10th
12th
I am really happy with my choices! Each class is very very different and has its own sets of challenges. Since my school has only 132 students, my classes are pretty small, which is something that I like because I can get to know all of the students. My biggest class is 6th grade which has about 16 kids, and my smallest class is 10th grade which has only 6 students. It has been interesting adapting to this and finding activities that work with different class sizes and English levels!
For future volunteers, I definitely recommend taking a variety of classes. In my high level classes, we can work a lot on speaking and discussion skills, whereas in my low level classes, I can help reinforce and build basic skills.
Here are some snapshots of my first few months at school:
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| Birthday Stars (practicing months an ordinal numbers) and Family Trees! |
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| Making paper dolls to learn about clothing |
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| Fall / Halloween decorations! |
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| Grammar practice |
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| 8th and 9th graders after participating in the Local Round of the National English Spelling Competition |
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| 4th graders learning their numbers - in number and written form |
Glad to see a new post! Hope once the stoves are all working the kids won't need to wear stocking hats in class :)
ReplyDeleteare you moving from classroom to classroom or are they coming to you?
ReplyDelete