Saturday School

I agreed to be a teacher for Saturday School for five weeks. I am teaching a group of about 20 first and second graders for a new pilot program that St. Paul public schools is very excited about. So excited that they have invested lots of money, I believe, because there is a curriculum that was put together for this. We got books, a software program that is awesome for reading, and lots of supplies. Plus, there are four sites and three teachers, a para, and a site supervisor at each one. We are being paid for 5 hours each Saturday.

Since I have had a zillion little incidentals attack my life lately, I decided the extra money would be a very good thing. I stressed out a little after a 2 hour training last Wednesday night that was a little overwhelming, to say the least. We were starting in three days, and we got a big box of stuff to look through, read, and try to understand in that short time. I spent hours preparing for my class yesterday. The hardest part was that I am not so familiar with the first and second grade classrooms anymore since I usually work with the older kids. How much reading and writing will they be able to do? How do I keep them engaged when they have such short attention spans, etc.? Over the years, I have collected and used tons of resources for the older kids and have lots of activities and ideas up my sleeve, but I am a little short when it comes to this age. Well.....I needn't have worried for a minute. Being prepared is the best thing, for sure.

The other thing, of course, was the snowfall that we all woke up to see. There, apparently, were a lot of parents who didn't want to walk their kids to school yesterday morning, or didn't have the proper snow attire to send them on the bus alone, or didn't trust the traffic and roads for a first snowfall commute (which was crummy, by the way). It probably didn't help that most of the kids were not familiar with the school since we were drawing from the area and neighborhood rather than just our own students. I am the only staff member, besides Brian, our custodian, from World Cultures/American Indian Magnet and we are one of the chosen sites. Last year, I worked with one of the teachers whose room I am using for the class. She was thrilled to know that I would be there instead of a stranger, because she could give me instructions about how to care for "Speedy", her turtle, etc. She was expecting to have to hide a great deal of her things, but she totally trusts me and knows I'll be responsible for taking care of her stuff.

Needless to say, we had 20 kids total, instead of the 60 who signed up. I'm sure the weather was to blame. I felt like the day was a huge success with my 8 students. Too bad we couldn't have that kind of class size all the time! Only four weeks left....