Terrific Thursday

This Thursday, I was only able to stay half day because in a few hours I'll be in Barcelona!!

I started in a 5th grade class with Anabel. This class walked in before Anabel did and they all took out the chess supplies, even though they knew we weren't going to play today. Once she walked in and said no, many did not stop playing for her. After a few minutes, we were able to start the class with the normal routine about asking about the day, weather, and asking each other what they did after class yesterday. Next, Anabel said that she was going to pass out another chapter for their comic book. Before passing it out, Anabel asked comprehension questions about the previous chapter they had read. She then passed out the next chapter, which was a front and back sheet comic that is written in English. The students were instructed to read it to themselves for a few minutes. During their reading time, Anabel let me read the other chapters so I was caught up. This tale connects to chess and the journey this boy takes to find the master of chess. Once they were done reading, like before, Anabel started asking comprehension questions about this new chapter. This chapter the main guy met Mozart and many students wanted to listen to his music, which they will next week. She only asked a few before she decided it was time to move on. Students put this new chapter in their binders and grabbed laptops to work on the English program, Trainer. Many students were working on copying sentences and working on colors. I had to sit next to a kid that kept cheating and copying and pasting his sentences. He was super mad the whole time, but I rather them take learning English seriously when Anabel has to leave the room.

The next class we had was with 6th graders. This group is calmer than the other class of 6th graders. Anabel reminded them about the work we did last time we met, which was putting those rules into the four categories: chill, cook, separate, and clean. Most students remember many of the rules and we were able to move on right away. I pulled up the document that has pictures on three different sheets of paper. Anabel explained that we all need to describe the pictures and decide if this rule is good or bad. As a class, we did about 4 examples and then I was able to pass out copies of these pictures to each table group. They were supposed to go one-by-one and discuss each picture and say if they were good or bad in English, but it is a difficult task for them. Most were able to switch back and forth between Basque and English, but some could only explain in Basque. Like the other group, when students asked Anabel and I about vocabulary, we would write down those words on the board for later. We gave them about 10 minutes to work through this activity. After, Anabel pulled up the pictures on the projector to go through some as a class again. Some students had a harder time expressing in English to the whole class than one on one; thus, Anabel was translating a lot. We worked through the vocabulary words and even Anabel was asking me how to explain what they were like a stove and tie back something. Like the other group, they were asked to then copy these vocabulary words into their English notebook.

My last class for the day was with Unai in a 3rd grade class. Unai has another girl student teacher that comes sometimes during the week. Since she has an observation with her teacher coming up, they had decided that it was time for her to start leading the normal routine and get the respect from the students. Before we started, the 4th and 3rd grade began listening to music so they can relax with deep breathing. Once finished, the other student teacher began with calling up the student to say the date, talk about the weather, and ask other students if they had anything they wanted to say. The next part of the routine was the number guessing game. The students flew through this game because both times the kids guessed the right number within 5 tries. They were all super excited that today they got to work on the English program, Trainer. Students were working on section 4, which was different types of food. Students were supposed to type the words, match pictures to the food, and copy sentences about the food. Like other classes, I had to stop 2 students from copying and pasting all the words and sentences. These two would even try to do it with me over their shoulders, so I did a lot of erasing. Overall, they did well and I'm glad that they are always excited for this program.

Cannot wait for another great week at this school, even though it will be my last.

Until next post,
Jillian