Week 6

So this week has been better in terms of teaching. I had a couple of opportunities to teach this week. I taught environmental studies on the topic of making water clean. The students and I discussed ways which we clean water, by boiling or filtering. I had a water bottle of clean water and a bottle of dirty water. I pretended like I was really thirsty and I grabbed the bottle of dirty water. I told the students I was going to take a drink and they shouted no. I asked why should I not drink this water? They gave reasons and then I said there are ways to make this water clean so I can drink it. Since we could not boil water in the room we looked at a picture in the students book on what water looks like when it is boiling and that boiling kills the germs/bacteria in the water. Then I did a demonstration of how to filter water. I got a beaker and some filter paper from the science department. After the water went through the filter I took it around to each table and had the students observe the leftover dirt. The students then drew a picture in their workbooks of what a clean glass of water looked like.

I did some teaching in phonics as well. I taught on short vowel 'i'. This lesson was challenging for me because one teacher was gone for the day and the other kept leaving the classroom. Without another teacher there I really have a difficult time with the students. I was just beginning a bad cold and was not in the mood to be talking loudly over them. But the lesson really consisted of the students reading two and three letter words from phonics textbook. Then I wrote on the board words with one letter missing so they could fill it in to make words with short 'i'. When the teacher came back we basically cotaught this lesson since the students did not feel like listening.

This week I also reviewed the writing of numerals and of comparison. For both these, we went through some exerises in the students' math workbook. They completed four pages on the writing of numerals. Then they completed two pages on comparing pictures of items and numbers by filling in greater, less than, or equals sign.

Since the assistant teacher in the classroom was gone one day, I was responsible for the lunch count. I had to collect the students' lunch coupons and write down their selections for lunch and snack. So I am beginning to have more responsiblities which is nice.

This weekend I will be going to the beach and just relaxing since the weekend goes by so fast.