“What is the life of a teacher like in your school?”
Today was my first field placement day, as the first Wednesday I was recovering from my tonsillectomy. We are at school, with a Library Teacher named "A". We were there for the afternoon and had 3 periods, a grade 7/8 of all boys, grade 7/8, and grade 1/2. I didn’t know that Library Teachers existed and that this was a class as I never experienced it when I was in school. For the all boys class of 7/8’s, A goal is to encourage the boys to read for fun. She has started a type of ‘Book Club’, having giving them a pile of novels for them to pick through and vote their top 3 picks. The book that won is “Loser” by Jerry Spinelli, to which the boys seemed pleased. A was very patient with the boys as they did want to goof off a bit. She was polite, open, and very encouraging of the boys to read for fun.
The next group of 7/8s were boys and girls. This class choose to use this time as more of a study hall where they can read or do homework, so A did no teaching with this group. She again was open and inviting to the children if they had questions or wanted to take out books.
The last group was 1/2s. The kids were very excited to be in Library, and you could hear them all the way down the hallway coming; they sounded like a herd of elephants! When they all got to the doorway, they all were very quiet and came in and returned their books and went to the story corner. A showed them how proud she was for them being so quiet when entering the library, and for a reward 4 special little chairs are in the story corner where only chosen children can sit. A had a hard time picking which child could sit in the chair, and you could see all the kids were giving her big puppy eyes and all wanted to sit in the special chairs so badly. She read them a story from the Willow Awards. She used engaging voices for each character, and asked questions along the way to keep the kids interested. Again, A was very inviting to the children and helped them pick out books to take home.
After the day observing A, the life of a teacher in the school is busy, non stop planning and or being able to be creative and adjust lesson plans at any time, and enjoyable. The children are polite, and seem to enjoy coming to Library and being around A. She is a positive role model that engages the children by enthusiasm, kindness, and creativity.
Wonderful school (it's where I taught for the first 10 years of my career) and amazing cooperating teacher (one of my incredible pre-interns) so am connecting to your blog easily! Did you observe other tasks that teachers may be involved in? What did you see as the role? Write what you see around you.
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