Monday with the 2nd graders in Mrs. DeWitt's classroom



This is their reading center!
Monday's reader was Carolina



As you can see, the children are not really
focused toward the end of the days ;)

They were so excited when I walked through the door at their Manzanita Elementary School that they had already forgotten that I was coming today. Two young, beautiful girls came and gave me a hug as Mrs. DeWitt introduced me as a stable friend of her daughters for almost eight years now. They were all smiles, which was unbelieveable for them being in school on a Monday. But among the first things I noticed was the majority of race in the classroom was Hispanic or African American, the crowdedness of the classroom, the antiqueness of their teal and pink desks, and the father in the front office throwing around the word social worker and what his rights to his son were that day. Despite my introduction and initial thoughts, I felt very welcomed into their classroom, and immediately got myself involved with what they were learning. It was a grammer lesson including words spelt with soft C and G's that sounded like a J. I took a step back to understand what Mrs. DeWitt was expecting of them, and stood right by the list in the front of the classroom to assist them in spelling the words they had come up with per category. Some included mice, giraffe, germs, nice, gym, and bicycle. By having an teenage girl in the classrom, the students were on their better behavior and even put in more effort to show off what they knew. A worksheet followed the class review, involving their spelling words for the week. An autistic boy by the name of Torrence needed some help catigorizing these words, and I sat down by his desk in the front of the classroom to help. All I had to do was help him think out loud in order to spark some understanding of the sounds each letter made, and he was quick to turn his sheet in thereafter with a sense of accomplishment. PE was their next class, and I observed and ran around with the little tikes, playing the infamous game of Sharks and Minows. They were so very happy, and told me that PE was their favoite special during the week. I agreed. Back into the classroom we went in lines that began with a designated lineleader for the week. Mrs. DeWitt complained that after this point of the day the children were unfocused and nearly impossible to wrok with, so she had me read a short story to them. Titled "A Wish of Little Sister", I read this story that was once her own daughters to the jettery group of second graders on the ground in front of me. So many memories were brought back from when I was in their place during 'story time' in 1st thru 3rd grade, and how I can clearly remember a few. Next, a girl took the seat and read a story about a waterfall and it's rainbows to her fellow classmates, while one boy helped her over her shoulder. It was great to experience the classroom dynamics as a young adult, for it was a much different perspective. I was glad to help them end their Monday, so that I could chat with Mrs. DeWitt about her opinions on teaching. Once the adorable rascals ran out of the room with their beat-up back packs, we went into a deeper discussion about the school being Title One and what some of her kids have released in her classroom. She complained about her previous year's students commenting her inapropriately on her "Hot and Sexy Bod". She fears that those students were the effect of parenting, or lack thereof.  She brought in all the books, and did not choose to work at the Title One school, but had once taught her own children their when it had not yet recieved this title. Mrs. DeWitt, or Susan as I now adress her as, is a strong teacher and is very straight forward with teaching and disaplining her students. I was very pleased Monday for what I was able to contribute into the classroom, and my spirit for learning was inspirational in the classroom of this Title One school.