Book Talk

For today's blog I will discuss an interesting change in how the library now approaches students.

I'm not sure if this is a state-wide focus or just a Gilbert Public School district thing, but the school I am interning with puts an enormous amount of attention towards reading. Every day the school shuts for 20 minutes and everyone reads. The children are expected to set goals as to how much they read each quarter (every student has their own personal goal). So when I heard that the librarian was going to come in and do a "book talk" I wasn't really too surprised.

5 minutes into his talk a few thoughts occurred to me. 1) The librarian is using technology that would have never been in a class room a few years ago. 2) The covers for youth literature looks cool! The youth fiction cover art I remember weas always these odd looking hand drawn or what looked like water color pictures and always in pastels!

It was an interesting "book talk."

Half Days

A little while back I was able to experience my first non-student half day. I now understand how teachers can end up the way some do after years of service.

Coinciding with the half day was a take your parent to school type day as well; so not only were the kids acting crazy, but the room was packed with parents.

In one of my classes, the majority of the students are what most would consider underperforming students. Personally I think it's counterproductive to throw all the slower students in one class, but that's beside the point. As the class was progressing, one of the students decided it was a good idea to start drawing on the back of a girls neck was a highlighter. This student who was drawing did not have his parent with him, but the student who was being drawn on did!

I was shocked a student would do that in front of another students own parent! Crazy kids.

Downtown Career Fair

Today I attended the internship and career fair that was being held near ASU's downtown campus.

It wasn't the largest career fair I have ever attended but was by no means sparse. The businesses that did attend ranged from credit card to travel web based companies. I also talked to a man from a naturopathic school of medicine, they were looking for students to enroll in their medical program.

Although I didn't find too many businesses that I would be interested in interning or working for it was nice to see a variety of industries. The only real issue I did have was the majority of the business representatives I did talk to were mainly there for customer service or call center jobs.

First Day of Class!

My first day of class was interesting to say the least. It brought back many memories of my middle school days, which haven't been too long ago but long enough for me not to cringe at the thought of 7th grade Spanish class anymore.

I started the day waking up at 6:30am, which for a long term night person (and loving it ) was a drastic change in pace. :) I arrived at school about a half hour before classes began and was introduced to all the teachers I would be helping out throughout the semester. I will be helping 4 teachers in total throughout the semester, ranging from 7th-8th grade.

I'm not sure why I didn't expect it, but I was surprised to see how each class and teacher had their own unique personality. One class could be filled with excitement verging on chaos while the next could be a routine by the book structured class.

I am excited to see what the rest of the semester has in store for me.

Department Meeting

In addition to tutoring with the AVID program I will be working with the English department aiding teachers in the classroom with ESL students. One of my first visits to the school as an intern involved attending the department meeting for the 7th and 8th grade English teachers.

The meeting was interesting to an extent. They largely covered what most children experience their first few days of class; what is expected of them along with a review of the rules and regulations of the school. Teachers were assigned bus duties and discussed new regulations for the upcoming school year.

Overall it was interesting to see the other, out of class side of being a middle school teacher, but one department meeting is more than enough for me.

AVID Training

This last Saturday I spent the better part of the day sitting in a stuffy room getting trained in AVID tutoring techniques! A portion of my internship will involve tutoring students who are borderline honors level students and need some extra help in becoming an honor student. The AVID Program, which stands from Advancement Via Individual Determination is a tutoring program initially developed for inner-city kids.

The intended length of the training is right around 16 hours but thankfully our instructors shortened the training to 8 hrs, which is still a long time to be sitting in a room but better than 16 hours. The training gave me some useful tips and information that I hope to implement in the classroom throughout my internship.

Fingerprints!

So, a requirement for teaching that I was unaware of and I think most people are unaware of is fingerprinting. I am not sure if this is a national mandate or a specific requirement for Arizona schools. So, before I could start teaching I had to get my fingerprints!

The process as a whole is pretty much what you expect. The place where I went to get my fingerprints was located in a cramped slightly worn down strip mall a few blocks away from downtown Gilbert. The ladies inside were nice and the entire process took no longer then 45 minutes, most of it was just waiting for my turn.

The only advice I can give to my fellow students concerning getting their fingerprints is: Don't have them done in jail and bring baby wipes.