DAY 74 of subbing

Refreshed!
This morning I taught 2nd grade at the Japanese Immersion School. I helped them with their “bell work” (as we used to call it – most schools call it “Do Now” these days) about oi and oy words, and then taught the reading/writing lesson where we read a story and analyzed it for character names, setting, plot and theme. Then it was time for math, taught in Japanese, so – they had me do some office work for awhile so that I would get paid for my full half day. Then I walked the kids to lunch. Overall, it was an interesting day. One aspect I didn’t like is the lack of doors between rooms – the teacher and class next door was only 10 feet away and thus very loud when I was trying to explain concepts to the kids.

Many of the kids are from Japanese families that are here for a couple of years – others are from mixed Japanese-Caucasian families, and some are not Japanese at all. There are only 4 Japanese immersion schools in the United States and this one just started this year. There are 133 students, some of whom come to Livonia all the way from Ann Arbor or Novi – a good-sized drive. The school currently goes thru 4th grade and will eventually go thru 6th, they hope.

In the afternoon, I taught 4th grade to a WONDERFUL (might-even-change-my-mind-about-4th-graders) bunch of kids! The room was HUGE and the kids were awesome. It’s a 3rd/4th split, actually, with 31 students. I FINALLY got to teach writing as I worked with the 3rd graders on reading a paragraph and summarizing it (Amy Lynn’s fave activity….). After they finished them, I looked them over, made suggestions and sent them back to work on them some more. Then I put them one at a time on the overhead, let the writer read it out loud, commented, and moved on. I also wrote one to show them some other possibilities. The kids really wanted to read them, by the way – I asked first.

The rest of the day went well – it was a lot of independent work, and I just helped or monitored and kept them in line. There were a few rascals, but they were no problem compared to some of the other kids I’ve worked with lately! I would teach in this class any day!