Thursday, March 8, 2012

School without Ms. H

A story about what happened in the office before I went to the classroom.  I sign in on a computer when I volunteer and it prints out a badge for me to wear.  Children who are tardy sign in on the same computer.  They click on their name, teacher, reason for being late, and it prints out a note to the teacher.

One of the children from our classroom came in with her mother.  Mom was trying to sign her in, thinking I am sure that an adult would do it faster.  Nothing was happening because she was using the screen as a touch screen, and it wasn’t.  The little girl in a very weary voice says, “ You have to use the mouse on the side.”

Over the weekend Ms. H sent me an email that said she would be at a conference Monday and Tuesday.  She hoped I would still be at school Tuesday to help the substitute, Ms. V.  I said I would be there.

Ms. V has subbed at Kaiser for years.  She works to follow the lesson plans the teacher has left for her.

Ms. H  had left lots of work/activities for them.  Better too much than not enough.  We went through all kinds of work: math, phonics, reading, creating sentences from rhyming words. 

I worked one on one with around 10 students.  They each read a little booklet to me.  I hadn’t  done this in 2 or 3 weeks.  I was pleasantly surprised by the progress of some of the children.  They were really finally reading, not just sounding out words.  Some even laughed at the story.  They got it. 

That is real excitement folks, seeing a child reading and enjoying it.

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