I arrived at an elementary school in New Britain at 8:30 am on April 6, 2018. The students had a surprising amount of energy at such an early time in the morning. It seemed like they had something important to do- many of them are trying to find a specific paper; others are talking about how their parents will be in the audience.
I introduced myself to the teacher and thanked her for allowing me to come into her classroom as her helper for the morning. She is a middle aged woman who was extremely sweet and welcoming. She introduced me to her students and I asked them what they are going to do.
A few students told me that they are going to "Time to Shine" - A big event at the school where each class competes to win an award for presenting a project they have been working on throughout the school year.
The students are so excited to tell me that they have all written paragraphs about there "Heroes or Sheroes" and they are going to present them in front of the whole school and their parents.
What a great day to come!
One student chose Hellen Keller because she made the impossible, possible.Another student chose Barack Obama because he was the first African American US President.
A student with Autism chose her mother as her Shero because of everything she does to take care of her.
There was even a student who chose his teacher as his Shero and I could tell she was very grateful that he spoke so kindly about her.
“Teacher”
as “one that teaches; especially: one whose occupation is to instruct.”
It takes a very special, humble and loving individual who chooses to devote
their life to enriching the minds of future generations.
I could tell that this teacher was the sun in all of her students lives.
After going back to the classroom, the students were so excited from their performance. Although another classroom won the trophy, the students in Room 15 were so proud of themselves for the work they put into their project.
They had so much energy that the teacher put on a video for them to dance to and when it was over she began teaching her Language Arts lesson.
They were learning about commas and I sat on there carpet with them to help engage the students in their lesson. The teacher had her students break up into group discussion during certain points of the lesson and I was able to help the students think of ideas and points they wanted to bring up.
After the lesson on the carpet was over, the students were sent back to their desks to complete bookwork on commas. I worked closely with some of the students who had difficulty understanding how to use a comma properly.
Working with the students in Room 15, made me very excited to have my own classroom full of students one day!
Once they handed in their worksheets, they could go to any Language Arts center.
Some students called me over because they wanted to read to me. Aside from watching their performance at Time to Shine, this was my favorite part of the morning. They were so eager to read and I could tell that they really enjoyed actually being able to read to someone else.
Before I knew it, the students in Room 15 had to go to lunch and my time with them was over. I helped the students clean up the classroom before saying goodbye. Even though I had only been there for a short time, I made great connections with the students and I was sad to leave them.
Thank you to the teacher and students in Room 15 for reminding me why I decided to become a teacher!
Children are my sun; working with them brings me such joy and absolute happiness.
