My name is Amy, and my placement is in Lansing, in a school named Reo Elementary. I am in a kindergarten/1st grade split classroom. It is unevenly split, with 15 kindergarteners, and only 4 first graders. The class was put together because there was not enough room in the first grade for all of the students. The 4 first graders in the class are ones that could have been held back, or are struggling in some areas. Being with the kindergarteners helps them to keep up, while still letting them succeed. The students are wonderful, and I love being around them. My mentor teacher is great as well. She is firm with the students, but nice and nurturing. She knows how to lay down the law, and keep her kids in line. The kids are in need of guidance, but she is there to provide it. She is a good mentor, things started a bit rocky, but they smoothed out on their own.
The school overall has procedures and routines that the kids are used to, and do by memory. They have hallway procedures, lunch procedures, ect. I have a routine now with the kids as well. Whenever I show up, we go individually to an empty classroom and I do reading or writing exercises with them, or art projects when there is no work for them to do. Then I will either teach a lesson or observe my mentor teach a lesson. Overall, my contact with the children is either individual, or just child-to-child while helping them in the classroom. This semester I am looking forward to trying to get a bigger role in teaching the students and doing better when teaching my own lessons.
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