Day 4

First thing this morning we attended a school wide assembly. Each Friday all 600+ students squeeze into the tiny hall. It is hilarious actually. It was packed but it worked. The year 6 students put on a skit today. Each week a different class is in charge of this. The skit was amazing. I wish I had it on tape!
Dr. White came today to observe us in the classroom. While he was there, I was working with a small group during literacy time. We were working on retelling the story of events in James and the Giant Peach. The students were trying to use connectives in their sentences. I had them write the sentences on a white board first and then into their journals.

During break time the teachers aide and I stayed inside to work on a memory box with Courtney. Courtney's one year old sister passed away on Tuesday from Leukemia. She has been pretty upset throughout the week so we all came up with the idea of a memory box that she can carry with her. Courtney brought in things that reminded her of her sister such as pictures, letters, and even a little mitten. She is handling it wonderfully but it is so sad.
The use of the same white boards that I used in literacy, is a common occurrence in Ms. Byrant's classroom. This allows all students to work out their own solutions during whole group instruction. It is more hands on and keeps all students engaged. As a teacher you can see who is understanding the topic and who is not using the white boards.
In Numeracy, the students were working on addition and subtraction word problems. This is what my students back in the states were working on when I left. So this is a similarity in the learning schedules of the two schools. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful.
Today is Keith's birthday so we will all be going out tonight to dinner for his and Lauren's celebration! Tomorrow we are going to the aquarium! Hope you all are doing well! I miss everyone!

PS. One of the students asked me if I was from Africa. I think they have their geography mixed up a little bit :)