Ella: week 6 blog 2

Tomorrow is the last day of our internship for SCORE. I am kind of happy that it is over but also kind of sad. I am sad because the people here are so nice and really appreciative of what I do here, especially my boss. She is super nice and always needs me to know that she is happy that I am here to help her! This is a great opportunity for all of us because, I may be speaking for myself but, I would not have done an internship if we didn’t need to. I am happy that we had to do this though. I think it is a really cool way to end our high school careers. Also my boss keeps telling me that if I ever need a recommendation for a job or anything that I should use her name. This makes me feel really good when she says this because that means I did a good job here and she wants other people to know it and hire me. I really appreciate things like that. I will also miss the random food that is always around here. A few times a week people from the office will bring random food in whether it be cookies or bread rolls like me and Brittany did one time. I brought in donuts one time and everyone in the office freaked out and was really excited. They couldn’t believe someone brought in donuts. I feel like people always do that whether they are in school or work. You feel trapped and you only have certain food there even though you want something else so when someone brings in something really good it is a big deal. My best days in school were the days that I had really awesome lunches. Is that weird? If someone brought in like a cupcake everyone would freak out expecting to get a little piece but seriously why would you share your only cupcake?! Anyway enough about food. I am kind of happy that this is coming to an end because my boss for my real job keeps asking me when it is over even though he knows because I have told him like a million times. Sorry that I have to graduate high school and go to prom Bob! I am done venting now. See you all on Friday!

Week 6 Blog 1

It's my last week with the third grade! I am really sad but also excited that SCORE is coming to an end. I've had a lot of fun with all these kids as well as the teachers. What I will miss most about my SCORE project is definitely all of the kids! They are all so cute and I have a feeling they will miss me too. I will also miss the teachers I worked with. They were so kind to me, and also always had things for me to do, which I loved. This has been a  really great experience.
I am not ready for graduation. It is so soon and I feel like I still have so much to do. I still have to finish my paper and my finish my presentation! I'm not sure what I'm going to do my presentation on yet, but I have a lot to talk about so I think I'll do okay. I just want to engage the teachers that I will be doing my presentation in front of. I feel like a lot of kids have really cool ideas on what to do their projects on and I'm just like, uhh yea power point...
What ever I do will be fine, I just can't wait to get the presentation over with because then I will really be done with high school. It will be such a good feeling to finally be done with everything!

week 6 blog 1

It’s the last week of SCORE y’all let’s go!! I am very excited that this is the last week o the internship because now I will have more time to work on my essay and my presentation. I will miss it though because the people are so nice here and I did have a good time. It will be weird not coming back next week, just like it is weird that I no longer have to go into the high school to take classes. It is really starting to sink in and I am really beginning to realize that I am basically done with high school. It is very exciting but also very sad. I will miss all of my friends when they leave for school.

Anyway today during SCORE I had to send out some emails and then do the happenings, just small stuff like that. Then I have to work on the project but have to wait until Brittany sends it to me so I can put both lists together. We are almost done with it I believe which is awesome! Sitting here looking outside makes me want to leave because it looks like such a nice day out! I would rather it be rainy or something because then I do not feel as bad about being inside all day on a computer. I only have two hours left for the day though so it is not too bad. I noticed that the morning goes by super fast. After doing the easy stuff in the morning I will look at the clock and realize that it is already 11:30 and I can’t believe it because it seems like not a lot of time has gone by. As you can tell I do not really have a lot of interesting things to say because I have already said them all in other blogs. I can’t figure out what to write about anymore. Everything I do here is the same as the day before and I if wrote about that it would only be about two sentences. Hopefully I will be able to come up with two other things to talk about for the last two blogs.

Week 5 Blog 3

What I have noticed from working at the elementary school is how much drama there is when teaching kids. You have the staff that you don't have to be best friends with, but you have to be nice to them and get along with them the best you can. Then you have the kids that you either click with, or don't click with. Some years might be better when it comes to how well a class is behaved or not. Then you have the aids that come into your classroom every day to work with certain students. You have to find room for them in your classroom as well as your schedule. Then.... you have.... the parents.
Some of these parents are psycho. Some of them believe that their kids are the most important in the whole school. Hate to break it to you parents, but your kid isn't as important as you think. Some of these kids have their parents totally fooled. They may get away with a lot at home, but in school, they are put in their place. You cannot act like you are at home. You cannot lay on the ground and cry hysterically.. it's usually unnecessary and usually, well, just plain rude. These kids have their parents kissing their butts. They get whatever they want when they want, because it's Manchester.
Some of these parents just don't even care that they are one out of hundreds of other parents. If their kids gets into trouble at school and complains about it at home, there are so many times when the parent would say, "Well 'so and so' has never acted this way at home, so it must not be true". Bottom line, these days parents have their kids on a pedestal. Yeah, your kid is great, but teachers at school shouldn't be the only teachers in their childs lives. Something I have noticed is that some of these parents should be a little more involved in their kids lives.
(I apologize for the very aggressive post :) )

Week 5 Blog 2

Yesterday, (Saturday), I babysat one of the kids in my class. He is a really great kid who is very smart and very athletic. He is really a good kid, so I was excited that I would be able to babysit him! I am nervous for the other kids to find out that I babysat him though. All kids love extra attention from teachers or adults, and not to brag or anything, but extra attention from me is something that they love to share with other kids or teachers. I have noticed that a new presence in the classroom gets the kids pretty excited because it is a new face and another adult that they can share their stories with.

During our morning routine, a few of the students are given a chance to "share". I think I've already explained what sharing is but the kids are able to share a story about something that will or has happened to them. The student I babysat for will most likely share with the class on Monday morning, and I have a feeling it will be about how he saw me outside of the classroom. 

I don't know why I feel so weird about it but I just don't want the other kids to think that I don't want to see them out of school or anything. The 8 year old mind is truly a mystery so I don't know how these kids think, but I just don't want them to be upset if this one particular student begins to brag. 

Week 5 Blog 1

This week for science class, the kids worked with soil and worms. Things got pretty messy, but the kids were obviously really into it. They love when things from outside the classroom are brought inside to use and discover. The kids wrote down some things they thought they might find in the soil. Some of the students got pretty creative of what they might find. Then they studied the soil and wrote down things they saw. They weren't supposed to write down everything they saw, but they literally did. Every single detail. One of the students thought that they had found the egg of some kind of insect or animal. I'm pretty positive it was just a piece of a leaf or something.
Doing big projects with 8 year olds is always scary. You know what kids will be able to handle and which ones won't. You have to constantly keep your eye on their participation and how they are doing with every detail of the project. Usually the teacher will give step by step instructions so that all of the kids are doing the same thing at all times, which is easier to handle and keep track of.
Even though the worms may have upset some of the princesses in the class, the kids did well with this special project, and I believe we will continue with it next week. They love to be able to look through the soil and play with the worms.

post 16

So we got to go outside. I was happy because it was an awesome day, I was like eighty degrees out if I am right. We were going to down to the nearby harbor so that we could see the boats go by. So we stopped by the tennis courts so we could assemble everyone. What we did next was lay on our backs and observe the clouds. This was an activity for the kids. However, the plan did not go very well after that. Kids in daycare are being trained to listen, follow directions, and acknowledge others when spoken to. It’s very hard for them to comprehend that when you are only three years old. Nikki was very angry especially when a few just got up and ran to the fence that overlooked the high school tennis courts. Another shocking thing happened after this; a young boy named Aidan just sprinted to the opposite side of the street. I saw a bird fly overhead so I am assuming that he was just chasing it. Regardless, it was was a very dumb and dangerous move because a car was just about to pass by.

               Unfortunately our trip had to be cut short because apparently nobody was listening or paying attention to me or any of the teachers. Some kids were really because they wanted to go outside so badly but since others were misbehaving they ruined it for them. We all went inside the gym so that Nikki could discuss why she was upset with everyone, but that just made it worse when a few kids just ran around when they were not supposed to. We caught them all in the end but they were all 5 years olds which made me sad because they are supposed to be role models for their younger friends.

Week 5 Blog 3

Yes I am getting all my blogs done for the week in three days. I am very bored right now. After this I will probably work on that project for the rest of the day. Today is annoying because there is some guy who works here and whenever he is in he always takes the computer I am sitting at. It is the kind of official intern’s desk and I always use it unless I bring my laptop. Everything I need to do my work is on that computer but he always just takes it. It is very frustrating but he probably has more important things to do compared to me and what I am doing so its whatever. I feel like I never write what I actually do here. Well I do like once every two weeks because I am doing the same thing every day. A new project might come along but that is it. Anyway, I have really been enjoying this sleeping in later thing. Although it is only an hour extra it really makes a difference. I have never been very good at getting up n the morning. The morning is my biggest enemy but it has not been too bad since SCORE has started. It is weird to think that we only have the rest of this week and next week then the internship part of SCORE is over. It’ll be nice to not have to go anymore and sleep in even more! Although I will miss the people here because they are super nice and have really appreciated helping them out with the annoying projects that they do not want to do. The whole graduating and going off to do what we want with our lives is really starting to hit me and it is scary. I remember in the beginning of the year people told me to take advantage of my last year of high school because it will go by really really fast. I didn’t listen because I have always felt that school drags on especially at the end. This was not the case for my senior year. I could not wait to get out and live my life but I actually kind of miss school. I go into the high school sometimes to go to the library and it just feels weird going into the building and seeing the people. It definitely makes me feel older. 

Week 5 blog 2

I was reading some peoples blogs again and they all seem very repetitive. Some start out like “Today was kind of like every other day…” I feel like SCORE should have been like 4 or 5 weeks because although it is fun it is kind of dragging on. I might just be speaking for myself but I am learning some stuff about selling and radio but now I feel as though I do the same thing every day.

Anyway, watching everyone here with their different jobs makes me think about what I want to do when I choose what field of work I want to go into. You can’t just change jobs whenever you want to so I want to make sure I am doing something I enjoy. Easier said than done these days but it is still important. Most of the people here sit at a desk all day. I do that too but not for as long. I always feel bad when I leave because they still have to stay here for a few more hours and I do not know how they have the tolerance for sitting down at the same desk and doing the same thing for that long every day. They also talk on the phone all day. I might have already said this but I hate talking on the phone so that job would not go well for me. I do enjoy the food selection here though so I wouldn’t mind that. But food is not a good deal breaker for where you are going be working. Right now I am procrastinating to work on this project we need to get done. Brittany could not come in today so it is only me working on it and I was not assigned another specific project to do today. It is not too bad it is just typing out the same information just for different clients. It is very time consuming. Then we have to get new information on the client which is the hardest part. I am not exactly sure what kind of information she even needs so I should probably ask her but I will try my best before bothering her.

Week 5 Post 1

So one of my friends told me the other day that posts only need to be 250 words so I feel stupid and bad now. I thought they had to be 350 words so that is what I told other people when they asked. I told Brittany that they only had to be 250 words today and she was mad haha. Oh well. My mom told me it was a good thing that I thought it was 350 words because it is the only time during my high school career that I am overachieving. Thanks mom. Anyway I am going to keep writing 350 words because I have been doing that for the past few weeks and I just want to keep doing it.

                Today was a chill day. I arrived here this morning and as always there was a sheet of paper telling us what we have to get done today. It was probably the three easiest things that I work on. We got six new gas stands so I had to make six new gas signs which is kind of fun because it is kind of like an arts and crafts project. That took about a half an hour. Next on the list was stamp two more piles of ice cream stamps for the new gas stands. That took around 45 minutes. My arm still hurts from stamping all of them but maybe I’m getting a workout?! Last on the list was happenings. In the “happenings” email it said that there were six new emails. That is not too bad but I do not really like doing them that much so six isn’t the best amount for me. When I looked at the emails there was actually only two in there so I was very happy with that! Once I got those done and printed them out and brought them upstairs and put them in the Happenings folder, Brittany and I are talking about finishing up the project we were assigned a few weeks ago. We have slowly but surely gotten a lot of work done on it and we are almost done with it. We want to try to finish it tomorrow. Hopefully we can finish or if not get close to finishing it by the end of the week.

post number 15

On a new day I got the opportunity to gain more achievements. Similar to what I did with Anaya which was teaching her math (counting from 1-50), I helped another child with his reading ability. Most children below don’t really know how to read. There was one girl named Sandy who brought one of her books that she from home. While I was trying to read through the book she kept interrupting me, but they were for good reasons. Every time I kept reading word after word she always wanted to know what it meant. But since they were prepositions like a, to, the, etc… there really wasn’t any easy way of explaining them. The only thing I could do to explain is by saying that they are words that you use in everyday speech. I even made a sentence as an example such “you can go to my house”. Hopefully she understood it. So after this I showed her how to spell those words. When I asked her to spell the word “the” she almost did it however she missed the last letter. She tried to read one page from the book. Somehow she was able to recognize the words that her and I talked about and because of that she was able to read it. She was actually able to sound it out perfectly but she still needs some work. It is really hard to teach to people at that age. I think it is definitely easier to teach kids whose brains are more developed such as the ones within the range of 6-10.

Andres Ramirez

Rough Draft

SCORE Research Essay

Mrs. Krause

Exploration through Childcare

I.          Good quality child-care is proven to have a great impact on a child’s well-being. By the time young children learn to walk and talk they go off to preschool or a daycare. Current research has shown that the early ages between 1 and 5 are the most sensitive for brain development. Over 90% of brain growth is said to occur during this period. The people who help care for the offspring’s child are also those who help shape their minds. The children that attend childcare are given a head start on future schoolwork. They are introduced to the very basics of math, reading and language which will enable them to be ready by the time they start elementary school. Aside from the development benefit from childcare, quality childcare that is offered allows children to be with other people and not their parents. Most children will become more used to being away from a parent. In other words, there will be less separation anxiety by the time the child starts their next level of education.

While quality childcare greatly benefits both the growth of a child, the parents are unaware that childcare has disadvantages. The following problems include intellectual focus, stress levels, parent-child-relationships, illness and meaningless activities. Most childcare centers rely too much on intellectual development. Although it can be a great benefit to children, a high focus on it can be harmful. There are studies that show unconvincing evidence lasting benefits of early education at an early age. More studies show that children that spend more time in childcare exhibit unruly behavior which comes from them being separated by their parents. Even though this separation prepares the child for their future education it could actually have a negative impact. Kids in daycare may not spend sufficient time with their parents in order to bond properly with them. As a result, this will affect the child’s ability to form strong relationships with other people later on in life. Despite the negative aspects of childcare, children need some sort of environment that would benefit their well-being. The quality of child care is essential to a child’s early stage of growing up. It is important for them so that they acquire the necessary developmental skills that they will need to have later on in their lives.

            In addition to the benefits from high quality child care, children that are able to experience it first-hand score higher in measures of cognitive achievement. According to studies taken from the NICHD, repeatedly reported higher quality care resulted in high scores of math, memory, and vocabulary skills. Children that took part in this comprehensive case study were observed and followed from birth to the third grade. The study looked at the interaction between child characteristics, the home environment and child-care settings to help explain how the children developed over time. Caregivers with higher levels of education and who worked in settings with fewer were more sensitive and responsive to children and provided a more stimulating environment.  When care environments were more stimulating and well organized, children developed vocabularies, more advanced attention and memory skills and got along better with peers(1). By the time children entered their preschool years, children with more hours in center care were displayed to having more advanced language and cognitive skills although caregivers also reported somewhat more behavior problems among children who had more hours in center-based care.

            Within the United States there have been numerous studies. However, not all agree with each other regarding the outcomes. There are many reports that say that the type of childcare provides positive outcomes while there are others that are contradicting. According to a report taken from the University of New Hampshire, it said that daycare does not have negative effects but that quality day care does produce positive effects. However those results change over time. To go along with this children that attend day care come from various backgrounds. A researcher only known by the name of Lamb noted that “High quality care from infancy clearly has a positive effect on children’s intellectual, cognitive and verbal development when they would experience impoverished and stimulating home environments”. This suggests that the quality of child care does not make any significant strides during the development stage for everyone. The people that would be benefited the most would be kids coming from disadvantaged families. The statistics that showed the number of children that developed cognitively did not come from the type of care but from their home settings. These findings reveal that children coming from disadvantaged families are given the chance to advance their skills in a place where they were never able to do so before.

            Reports from the Institute of Education in England show that reading, math and language increased in proportion to the number of months they spent in pre-school. Between the ages of 3 to 7, children were tested on four cognitive tests. By the time they turned 7 they were test again in order to see if there is improvement or not. During stage 1(3-7) has established that an early start to preschool is related to better intellectual development in children. By the end stage 1, researchers found that the amount of academic skills accumulated during this process was weak by the age of 7(2). However, upon entering primary school there was evidence that the children were able to apply what they had learned from pre-school into their school work.

            It is said that children who attend pre-school or a nursery are less likely to have special education when they enter their first year of school. According to Children with Special Educational Needs: an analysis, there are various reasons why young people have special needs. These include: speech, language, social, behavioral, learning etc. This continuing study in childcare has found pre-school is particularly beneficial to children who were at a disadvantage. EPPE showed that one in three children were “at risk” of developing learning disabilities by the time they started pre-school. Children that were classified as being “at risk” were mainly because they did not attend pre-school. This finding suggests that attending pre-school reduces the chance of having some sort of special education in the primary.

            A review from the Day Care Trust states that children are enabled to develop their social skills when they are in the presence of other kids. All in all every childcare setting, whether if it’s at home or center based is high quality. In many regions, there are minimum standards outlined by its government known as “regulable features”.  These features include the adult-to-child ratio, group size, and the child care provider’s training. In Canada for example, child care centers or family child care settings that have met these minimum requirements are known as “regulated”. Children in child care centers that have met these standards tended to have better outcomes than children in centers that met fewer standards or none at all. In other words, the more standards a child care setting meets, the more positive the caregiving. To sum this all up, regulated or licensed child care centers provide better quality child care than centers or home daycares that do not meet such standards. 

Another finding regarding this finding was how much influence the teachers or caregivers provided to the children they looked after. Besides the environmental setting of where children were placed, the “teacher’s positive caregiving was linked to high quality care”. In other words the teacher’s positive physical and verbal contact with children allowed for further growth and development. Teachers or caregivers that played, sang songs, read books and diffused negative interactions. Of all of these factors, the language used by the caregiver such as making interesting comments in response to what children say, asking questions, responding to vocalizations was the most important factor that predicted children’s cognitive and language outcomes.

With regards to the staff, there should be some on board who can reflect the racial and ethnic backgrounds of children. These kinds of teachers are considered essential role models which would provide a better cultural understanding of kids and families. Most children whose primary language is not English would be able to communicate with someone of a similar background. These are one of the reasons why high quality care is significant for other in some cases.

Even though this kind of social interaction is limited due to the exposition to various elemental childcare types, there have been studies that have been completely different from each other. According to the NICHM, more than 30 percent of kids received a fair amount of “positive care” during the first 3 years of life. That shows that quality care has its advantage because kids that were in poor quality care, which of whom rarely received any attention accounted for a very small percent. The percentage of how much positive childcare kids received depended on the number of kids in a classroom.  A very small percentage of children received 9 percent of a lot of positive childcare given to them. So this study shows how well high quality childcare has helped develop children’s growth.

Childcare services have not been the only tool that has contributed in the development of children. Researchers have also delved into the child’s upbringing. The most important factor that was included and considered the top priority in this study was the mother-child interactions. It concluded that the more cheerful, attentive, sensitive, and responsive that the mother was, the better the outcome. In general, mothers that were educated, married; economically advantaged (income); did not smoke; nor consume drugs or alcohol had a great impact on their kids. Another important factor in predicting the child’s social and cognitive development was the quality of the family environment. Families that really interacted with their children

Children that were in childcare situated in the safety of their homes were less likely to get sick. On the other hand, children placed in the child care setting (non-maternal) were found more likely to catch an upper respiratory infection and stomach illness. Children that were placed under large group care were more prone to developing illness than children within smaller group settings. However, children within a larger group, whom were 3 years of ages, were less likely to contract any sort of common illness between the ages of 4½ and 5. The main reasons for children getting sick depended on the amount of kids were at the center. Day care is an “ideal environment for the spread of disease among children”, because of the fact that children move about and interact with other. Children below the age of 5 means that their personal hygiene is less than ideal, their ability to control their bodily secretions and excretions is poor, and their immune systems are not yet fully developed. According to this finding sickness is a constant problem that is found in any kind of childcare.

In today’s economic situation, the financial means of supporting childcare services is at the bottom of the country’s budget. Childcare has a significant impact on the businesses of the employers. Making a childcare center to be the “best ever”, make a challenge for the service to hire qualified staff for work. Even the most valuable employees have often transferred, quit or have taken an excessive amount of day offs because of the nature of their jobs or low pay. As a result this, there has been an increase in much needed support, some businesses have been forced to close. This will obviously not help children at all at the start of their lives and neither for their parents also.        

Childcare case studies reveal the actual situations of kids who were observed from their early years. They were measured on how much their brains developed until they got older and entered their years of school. A British case study followed the life of a boy named Lucas. From the age of four Lucas had already been learning to speak normally as well as using that to communicate with his parents. Since he was young he was developing this curiosity for learning. Whenever he saw books he had this inclination to ask someone around to read it to him. In addition to his development, he gained awareness of how to count by playing chutes and ladders. Another instance that showed his desire to learned was when after he was done playing the game would try to put all the pieces back in its box. He got very frustrated when he smashed the game pieces together. After he had gotten the two game pieces put together, he suddenly tore the corners of them. However, when somebody stepped in and helped him put everything back in his box, he began thinking about other ways of how to fix it. The next time he played the game he suggested taping it together.

In addition to his cognitive learning, Lucas was also improving his social abilities at the same time. From his infancy up to being a toddler he had shown a wide variety of emotions when he was in the presence of people. As a result, he established a permanent relation with his mother which is important because they need to have the time to bond with their own children. By this time Lucas was seen as a child “who always needed his mother”. From both points of view this is negative and positive at the same time. Even though Lucas will suffer from separation anxiety by the time he go goes off to day care, he demonstrates that he is comfortable around people that he knows well and trusts. Following this achievement, Lucas was able to make a successful transition from toddlerhood to preschool.

On the other hand, there are negative qualities about Lucas’ behavior. The way that it was seen, Lucas got very angry and frustrated for unknown reasons. He sometimes reacted violently towards his mother; throwing objects; yelling mean things and making cruel taunts at her such as “I hope you get hurt”. This not only happened with his mother but with other children he came across. Obviously that can turn into a major problem by the time he starts school unless he ages and learns more words to be used in his vocabulary. On the lucky part, Lucas did see some improvement in himself later on. Despite that he was recorded to being a happy and outgoing young boy by the time he reached kindergarten.

In addition to the child development study on Lucas, a girl named Hannah was also observed from birth. However, unlike Lucas, Hannah grew up to be a very talkative at an early much before Lucas did before the age of 4. Hannah’s teachers noticed that she loved to talk and that she learned a lot of words in just a short amount of time. According to her parents, because she spoke so much she had trouble pronouncing her d’s and b’s. As a result she had to attend speech and language therapy. However, she rapidly improved her vocabulary going there. Whenever she got frustrated she would start crying or screaming. Most of the time she was reminded to talk to her friends and explain to them what was wrong. For children at her age level, it is very important for them to communicate with their peers and resolve any kind of tension.

On the cognitive level, Hannah was preceding exactly experts say 4 year olds are supposed to act. To serve as examples, during class Hannah would be able to follow instructions given to her by her teacher. Whenever Hannah was working independently on a project or an activity, she occasionally would ask for assistance, but regardless she was be able to complete it swiftly and without getting distracted. However, most of the time she would still continue working on a project while the other kids were finished. Usually most kids her age would rush through their work just to get it done. Every time she strived to make it her best work.

According to Feldman, the expert researcher observing Hannah, noted her as being the “most advanced for her age”. She enjoyed counting things. She had the ability to count up to 50 which only few 4 year olds can do. She learned the primary colors in Spanish as well as the numbers. Whenever she was read to, she always wanted to know the meaning of a word she did not know. For that she showed a great interest in reading. That shows how much she improved because she even said that “I want to learn to read some day”.

 

 

 

 

The quality of child-care is absolutely essential to a child’s development. Child-care acts as a preparation center for younger children prior to entering the school and beyond. With this, case studies unanimously prove that child care has positive affects for children. The benefits of high-quality care have proven. The quality of the environments that children are placed in, and the expertise of the people caring for them, can influence their futures.

Week 4 Blog 2

I will probably be the only one to admit this in a blog but I was just reading everyone else’s blogs because I am interested in what everyone else is doing! I like to compare whether I’d rather have someone’s job than mine. Some people’s jobs seem very fun because they get to be outside which sounds like the best! Anyway after stalking some of my fellow classmates I started to stalk myself to see how many blogs I have done this week. I thought I had two already but I guess not so now here we are. Yesterday was a simple day here in Beverly. My first job was to stamp some more of those stickers we are handing out to other businesses. There were around two hundred so it was not the best way to wake up. After that I had to make some “Free Gas” signs for the sticker holders. Once I did that I got kicked out of where I was working because one of the other workers needed the computer for a little so I had to go to the inter computer. It is legit the worst computer I have ever used in my life. The brightness is so weird that I have to squint my eyes in order to see some of the stuff on the screen. I have no idea how to change the brightness on it but I do not want to try because I don’t want to break it. Yes I could probably break a computer even though fixing the lighting is very simple. Anyway, after a few minutes of not really doing anything I was called upstairs. One of the other interns we had, had her last day yesterday so my boss made an amazing cake for her and we all went upstairs to hang out, eat cake and say goodbye. I cannot stop thinking about the cake. It was chocolate with butter cream frosting. Probably one of the best cakes I’ve ever eaten in my life. After the breathtaking cake we all headed back downstairs to work and I worked on the project I have been doing for about two weeks.

Ivy: Week 4 Blog 2

Today is Wednesday. My SCORE supervisor is doing reading testing all day and won't be in class. We have a sub in class. She is great though and the kids love her! She knows what she is doing and gets the work done. If she were over at the high school I bet kids would actually get work done if she was subbing. We have had kids going in and out of the room to do the testing today which can be kind of distracting for the other kids, but they understand that they need to focus on what they are doing.

I am not sure why this testing is going on. What I have gathered is that the kids were tested at the beginning of the year on their reading level. Throughout the year they are tested to see how they have improved. 

The different reading levels in this class is very versatile. I have read with kids that can read as fast as I can. I have also read with kids that are below their age reading level. The difference is really huge. Their are a few kids that are right in the middle where they should be at this age. 

The testing will determine if the kids need extra help next year as third graders, or if they are on track. I don't think there are too many that will be needing help. We read every day at 9:00 with the students and they all make an effort to read whenever they can throughout the day. I don't remember reading so much when I was their age. I never have free time either so the amount of reading going on in this classroom every day is very impressive. 

Ivy: Week 4 Blog 1

I finished the rainforest projects!! Finally. They kept me busy every day, but they were a pain to make. Now the whole second grade will have a book to do their projects in! The second grade teachers love that I was able to be here to make them. It really is time consuming and I can't imagine how they would get it done because they are already so busy!

I helped out different classrooms today because there was not much for me to do in my classroom. I did little projects which is always kind of fun I think.

I am the copy machine Guru! I now know how to do double sided sheets. If any of you teachers need any kind of copying done... I'm your girl. It's also fun for me to do these copies because I am so good at it. No one should ever feel bad for asking me to make copies. It might turn into a hobby of mine. 

I made a few different packets today for the second grade teachers with my awesome copying skills. I also found a prom dress so the hunt for the prom dress is now over. We must find another fun activity to take up our free time!

I didn't do a lot on Tuesday. I made a few copies (of course) and helped out in another 2nd grade class for an hour. It was a pretty relaxed day in our class. We just did the normal routine. At 10:30, the kids have a math lesson until 11:38 which is lunch. I never have anything to do because it is a long period of just straight learning. The kids know what to do and they are usually either doing a worksheet or playing a game. I need to find something to do during this time. Sometimes I will go to the library and help out my mom with little things that need to be done. 

Ivy: Week 2 Blog 3

I am almost done with this rainforest book project thing. I have made like maybe 40 books so far. I have a really good system going so throughout the day when I have nothing to do, I can usually make 5-7 books. I have gotten to the point where if they are not lined up perfectly I have to either pull them apart or cut pieces off of the sides so that they look perfect. This project is basically my child, and it must be perfect!

The students keep coming up to my work space and asking me what I'm doing. I tell them all of steps (which they don't care about) then show them the finished project. They all say "woah" and get excited to start the project. I've used about 5 different colors so the kids can choose what color they want to use for their project. 

I remember when deciding what color something should be was the most difficult part of my day. If I didn't get the color I wanted, my whole day would be ruined. You watch these kids struggle over which color they want a shirt to be in a picture that no one will see and you think what a small problem that is. When you're an 8 year old, it is important to you and is a day to day issue. I understand where the kids are coming from. These are the first stages of decision making. When you're a kid the decisions you make aren't that important, but as you get older they become more and more important. 

Ivy: Week 2 Blog 2

So.... I have been working with two amazing teachers! They are so great with the kids and love having me there with them. Ms. Gould, I have known since she was my teacher in 3rd grade, and Mrs. Seal work in the room with me. Mrs. Seal is a special aid we have in class but does a ton of other work as well. We have a lot of behind the scenes fun that the students don't see.

I have recently been freaking out because I am in need of a prom dress! They asked me about my dress and if I had a date the first day I started. It's so fun to be able to talk to them about my high school life. 

Anyway, they have been helping find a prom dress for weeks now. At first it was just a fun thing to do and talk about. Now they have gotten really into it and have made it a side project. While the kids are out of the room or at recess or something, we will sit on the computer and all look at dresses. Every day they come to school with a new website to look at. We pick which ones we hate and which ones to consider. 

We do a lot of work in class all day with the students, and this gives us time to have a little freedom and do something fun! It's really been kind of a bonding experience and I am so appreciative of them to be helping me out! We realize how silly it is to take so much time to look at dresses, but it's become something we look forward to all day!

Ivy: Week 2 Blog 1

This was the first week back from vacation for everyone. The kids all came back with stories about what they did over their break. It took up a lot of the day actually. Every day during morning meeting, we usually have one or two of the students "share" which is kind of like show and tell but most of the kids just share stories about what they did after school the day before or something funny that happened at home.
Throughout the day, we went through each student who shared what they did over the vacation with the whole class. Some kids went to Florida or California. Some kids even went to to warm Islands and had great stories that even us teachers enjoyed. Most of the stories drag on about a whole dinner conversation the students had the night before, but the stories about their vacations were actually interesting. They all get so excited about talking about things that they have learned or seen. They feed off of the other kids "oohs" and "awes".
Other students stayed home, but they still had some pretty interesting stories. I did nothing over vacation so I didn't have much to share with the class.
Sharing time gives the kids that chance of having the focus be on them for 2 minutes with no interruptions. I think this is an important part of class time because these kids really do love the attention from all of their peers. They love the attention from the other students as well.

Week 4 Blog 1

Its Monday, back to the old grind. Friday was a really fun day. Our station did a live broadcast at Dawson's, a local hardware store that just reopened, and I helped out a little to set up. All I really did was set up all of the delicious cupcakes that we got for the occasion. They all had tools on them because it is a hardware store. They were so cute and looked so good! Other than being on cupcake duty I did not do much else. I felt bad because I just stood there but it was cool to watch them do the broadcast and see how all of that works. Andrew, the guy that was doing everything behind the scenes, showed me how everything worked and how they would know when to go back on air and stuff like that. It was very interesting. Besides being on cupcake duty and learning about the stuff I kind of just stood there for most of the time. There was Dunkin Donuts coffee and munchkins and other sweets so I stood behind there because it was right next to were the broadcast was going on and everyone came up and thought I was in charge of all of the sweets and would ask me if they could take some. One guy came up to me and told me to pour him a cup of coffee. He didn’t ask he told me. I was like “ummm ok?” Other than that old man everyone else was very very nice there. The owner came up to me after we were done and shook my hand and thanked me for all of the help which was very nice. I also got a shout out on the radio for helping out which was awesome! When the event was over I stole some cupcakes one of the ladies I work with drove us back to the office where I worked on the project some more. Overall it was a very good Friday at work and I left in high spirits thanks to all of the nice people who I was around.  

week 5 post 3

So on Thursday it was finally pizza day. Although the pizzas were as small as half eaten apple they were still very good. Most of the food that comes into the room is made mostly for the kids that come here. Every day there has to be enough food to feed the adults as well as the students/kids. Most of the teachers eat more than the kids do and sometimes are hard for them to control their appetites. I could not eat more than 4 pieces because that day there was not enough food for everyone. That day something happened with another class and they had to come into ours for the day. I was never told what had happened but it was really none of my concern. So in all the population in class went up from 18 to about 32. It was a nightmare for the staff.  So because of this event I did not eat anything until I got back home. Since there were so many people in just one room there really was nothing I could do. Besides the 32 kids there were also 10 teachers in the room as well! I was told to take a break for the rest of the day even though I really couldn’t go anywhere.