Phew. What a long hiatus. However, the hiatus was only from this blog, not from my work with kids. That never stops and that's probably playing a large part in why blogging came to a standstill, but it's been fun nevertheless. Here's a quick update on what I've been doing:
-Once a week volunteering in kindergarten still. First year teacher who is doing an outstanding job with a pretty challenging group of kids. I'm excited because I'll be here to see them "graduate" this year! :o)
-Coaching. The usual, but my group has grown tremendously and it's very exciting!
-Sign language. I took a beginning sign language this semester to add some basics to my memory to be used in the classroom once I'm out and working.
-Applying for the credential program! This one is the most exciting, as it most directly relates to an eventual classroom of my own. I applied and was accepted to the program and I will be continuing to work with kindergarteners at Flory, but now as a student teacher! Woohoo! My part-time assignment will be with 5th graders, a whole new world for me, so I'm sure I'll get some good experience from that too.
So where am I at now? I graduated Magna Cum Laude with my degree in Liberal Studies with an emphasis in Physical Education and a minor in Spanish. Before I even graduated, I was offered a position by my most favorite professor as a Graduate Assistant (G.A.), helping him with his school visits and writing reports about his studies and experiences under his ACT program, a self-created program that reaches out to local schools and teachers and instructs them on how to incorporate theatre arts into curriculum and in what ways it actually enriches learning. I'm so excited!!
So with that, we are doing mostly school visits until school gets out in the middle of June. The first one that I accompanied him on was today, to a kindergarten classroom. The goals for the day were:
1) Review the parts of the story of The Three Little Pigs
2) Count by 2s, 5s, 10s
3) Identify and relate pennies, nickels, dimes
Obviously, the goal is to do all of this with drama infused into the lessons. Dr. M. had taught them how to act out The Three Little Pigs the week before, so they did a review of it this morning. It was amazing because after a long weekend, the children were able to remember all the lines, characters, and plot from the story based on the "acting" they had done last week. And the little wolf was so cute! He tried his hardest to speak in a scary deep little voice and he was so proud of himself!
Counting by 5s and 10s involved a dance which was great. Counting by 2s was a little more challenging because the kindergarteners hadn't learned that yet. But we did a little bit of teaching on that based on using the children themselves as visuals and manipulatives. And the money part was fun because we used hand gestures to help the kids think about how many pennies were in a nickel or a dime; which is pretty much the beginnings of learning how to make change.
Some of them got it, some of them didn't quite get there...but every single one was engaged and putting forth an effort, which is what I think is the coolest part about the ACT program. It's so engaging and it really adds an element of fun to learning, something that changes the way a lot of children look at school.
Excited doesn't begin to describe how I feel about the potentials this summer job is offering me. I think euphoric is better. I drove home with a smile on my face and the wind in my hair, knowing this was going to be a fantastic summer and truly feeling that I am living out my dreams.
