I love my students!

when we came in today, the kids were reading quietly. the second they saw us come in they all srarted whispering to eachother.. "i love art!" "i forgot they com on wednesday!" "yes art teachers!". i wanted to cry!! alex and i looked at eachother and we got so chokeds up it was adorable!

we had them make holiday wreaths to with the leaf crayon relief technique. they all came out beautifully. i was really impressed with their creativity in such a structured project. some of them started using many colors and then started using the ribbon to make the wreaths into hats and necklaces! my favorite part though was what they wrote on their wreaths. they always want to gove their projects to people in their families and they starting in writing "i love you mommy" and drawing hearts all over. they ARE JUST TOO CUTE.

i have noticed though that they are getting more rowdy. they get up out of their seats alot and shout out for everything. we need to be much more firm with them but alex is NOT the type to yell. so i feel kind of liek the bad guy sometimes. but its necessary to keep them interested and not running around wild. i think they just realized that art time is fun time and that we arent going to say no to anything. but thats becaus ei dont want to stiffle their creativity! theirs definately a fine line between creative and just not listening. but i love them all the same and even better, mrs. k gave me a fantastic midterm report! now im just still waiting for my check! i hope it doesnt come when ive already left for home. that would really suck=[

Substitute Schmuckstitute

Today was an eventful day on the CAP scene for me! we went early to the office to get supplies for our project with the kids. this week they made winter cards fore a city-wide contest! we explained to them the difference between winter and the holidays, because they wanted to draw christmas things mostly. i was afraid of them asking again if Santa was real or not! Alex said Daishaun asked her but answered her own question and said, "he's not real cause i only got clothes and those are from my mom". lol!

Mrs. K wasnt here today, but Becky came to observe us. the substitute teacher was a horror though! i feel like Becky didnt get to see us in our true environment bc the sub was so stiffling. Alex and I agree that we  cant stand the way some of the teacher treat the kids in that school. they just yell to get them to stop and are always mad, even when the kids are behaving. the sub even said to the class that art time was PLAY time and when they started CLASS again they better not complain. BITCH PLEASE art is class time too! art is learning and growing just as much as math and science. i was so mad i wanted to sass her but i didnt want to make a scene in front of the class because they might get the wrong idea.

when we left, the sub didnt even let us finish and reflect on our lesson. we had to sneak out and as we were leaving, one of the boys passed me a note. it was the cutest thing ever!! it said "I hope you come back!" sooo adorable i love them so much! and i hope i can stay with them next semester and get to know them better, but i dont know if thats how it would work or not.

afterwards we were supposed to have out midsemester meeting, which i think was stupid because its way past the middle of the semester. but anyway we went back to the office and Anges and Becky werent there. we waited for like 20 minutes but then just decided to reschedule for next week, which is a little stressful but im sure it will work out in the end.

Settling in

I was right about this classroom! Mrs. K is fantastic and so are her students. today we went along with the lessons they were learning in class, which was outer space. it was a quick lesson on watercolor/crayon resist, partially because we didnt have much time to gather supples. Mrs. K got back to us on the lesson at the last minute because she misplaced our emails, but it al worked out in the end and the projects turned out so well! I HAVE TO REMEMBER that the kids love paint! they said they wanted to paint again next week, but paint gets so messy!
The one girl who we think is trouble, Tajai, was a good today but told me she was "going to be in so much trouble" because she got paint on her thirty dollar shoes. lol! i wiped it off for her as well all all the other messes the kids made but it wasnt too bad.
they really love to reflect and show and tell the class what they made and what they liked best about it. its a good time killer! this is finally turning out as i wanted it to and im even starting to learn more names! hooray!

Finally, a class we can work with!

Today Alex and I visited our third and final classroom! The kids are so enthusiastic and the teacher really seems to appreciate our time there:)  She stayed in the room with us and really helped with the discipline, they can get a little rowdy! but I really love them. the second grade is a really good fit for us, we can both see a greater connection with these younger kids. i cant wait till next week! we had a simple lesson plan just to get to know the kids but next time it will coincide with the lesson the teacher is giving. Also the kids are so much more attentive than the fourth graders. they asked me if they could o to the bathroom and it made me feel so powerful!
I can see the that some of the kids are going to be more of a problem than others right away. one girls, Tyjai, (wow they all have such mouthful names! Its going to be hard to remember) wanted us to draw everything for her and said she didn't know how to do it. i tried to get her to practice with me but alex had already done alot for her so my plan it was already ruined. But i used the last speakers advice and told her i didn't know how to draw either! haha she was so cute. and they all made superhero masks and were so enthusiastic to make more! we have to make sure we have the exact amount of supplies next time because they wanted to make so many! and it ended up not being fair to everyone and i felt so bad. they all even wanted the ones i made as examples! at the end we did a reflection, liek the speaker suggested, and they all said theyloved it except for that fact that the glue was messy. what a success!

Promising future

I think we finaly have an enthusiatic class to teach! Anges switched us again to  new class, this time the 2nd grade. Today we came up with a lesson plan, even thougb we havent met the class yet. Since Halloween is Sunday, we are goign to have the class make masks. Cutting out all the templates took forever! but its going to be worth it i think. Later I made some examples and Alex wrote up the lesson plan.

I think I'm finally getting into the groove here! I've got half of my required hours, and considering its the middle of the semester and we havent been lesson planning until now, I think thats pretty good! maybe next semester i'll shoot for a higher tier. I've been to all the professional development workshops so far, ,but i want to go to more of the socials! i jusdt have so much homework that needs to be done first and i'm known to procrastinate! the last pro development workshop was SO much more informative and engaging that the last. I got a few really helpful tips on controling a classroom and teaching small children. i can't wait to put it to good use!

Switching rooms?

SO confused. We got switched out of Mrs. K's room! Anges says she didnt feel able to work with us. She emailed us apologizing because she didn't realize that we were there to teach art? I wonder why she didnt understand why we were there is she signed up to have CAP interns in her class.

Our new room with Mrs. M doesn't seem promising either. I don't think she wants us there. I just feel like she thinks she's doing us a favor by letting us be there. She also did'nt understand what our organization is about and why we were there. I hoped that the class and the teachers would be more excited for us to be in the room.

We also noticed that the class switches from english to math right int he middle of our scheduled time and we had to move it to an earlier time. GREAT just what i want to do! wake up another day at 7am!

the classroom

My first classroom experience! the kids are so cute! I just wish we were able to work with them. I think Mrs. Kl is just going to use us as her personal helpers around the room. We were stuck making posters for her star chart while the kids learned math! She left for lunch without saying anything to us and we ended up just leaving her a note asking if we should have a lesson for next week or not. Thankfully we got 2 hours done though! We put alot of work into those posters because we were only supposed to be there for an hour! hahh

my first CAP experience

Soooo excited to start CAP! I was a little nervouse afteri learned that i needed to get fingerprinted, but it wasn't as big of a deal as i thought!:) I was also surprised at the fact that only 4 other people went on the bus to get fingerprinted. I wonder how many students are actually involved in CAP?

The first training session was not what I expected at all. I thought we would learn how to make lesson plans, which was sortof overlooked at the alternative orientation, but unfortunately we were stuck on race relations, which i dont think is the most crucial aspect of working with children. Being from a diverse place, I don't se race as a problem, but I can see how some people might. I did like, however, learning the rain storm game to calm down a class. I wish we learned more though and were armed with more information about the program. It concerns me a little that both my partner and myself have never done CAP before and more information would have really helped. I was under the impression that we would be set up with another CAP member who has experience.