100th Day!

This past Wednesday was the 100th day of school where I am observing, and I was lucky enough to be able to be there that day. They had all different types of activities and a celebration that I was apart of. The teachers kept repeating to the students that they are 100 days smarter! One of the teachers even had a shirt that said "my students are 100 days smarter." I really liked this because it made the students proud of everything they have accomplished so far and excited to learn more. The teacher had several in class activities and worksheets for the 100th day. All the students were given paper crowns and stickers to wear. One of the girls in my class gave me a sticker to wear. She said she wanted me to be included as well. It was the sweetest thing. Then all the kindergarten classes went to lunch early and had a celebration. All the classes together counted to 100 by tens, ones, and fives. They sang a song that they learned and a teacher read them a 100th day of school story. The principal came and told them how proud he was of their counting skills and how impressed he was. Back in the classroom the students did a reading activity. The teacher reminded the class what good readers do. I learned that before reading a book, the students look at the cover and make predictions of what they think the story will be about. Then they take a picture walk, and after that they read the story. She also reminded them that good readers look at the pictures for help when they get stuck on a word. I really like this technique, and when students went off into pairs to read together, I noticed that when they were stuck they would look at the pictures for help.

There is also an aid in the class I am in because there are three classified students. On this day, one of the three students was having a bad day. He could not focus at all and was constantly misbehaving. While on the carpet, the students were all gathered around the teacher for the activity and he was in the back rolling around and playing with his crown. Then at lunch he pretended to shoot people. When the teacher asked him to do something he said no. The teacher explained to me that he is not supposed to say no to a teacher, and that this was something they discussed several times. The aid had to pull him aside several times to talk to him and he lost his play time because of his misbehavior. The aid had to talk to his parents about his behavior when they picked him up from school. By observing these types of situations I am learning how to handle them in the future, which is good experience for me. On Friday I will be starting my special education observation and I am excited for that! I am eager to learn how a special education teacher handles these types of situations.