Being an assistant

I went to Furman for college. I received my degree in Elementary Education, and my master's degree in Early Childhood Education. I taught 4th grade and 2nd grade for a year each, and then K4 for 2 years. I loved teaching even though it was tough job. It's a job that you take home with you - literally! And those three months during the summer that the general public thinks teachers have "off" - not so much. I still worked most summers setting up classrooms, collecting and making materials, and writing unit and lesson plans. And now that Pinterest has set the education creativity standard extremely high - there's no telling how much time will be spent finding, preparing, and implementing new activities, designs, and classroom organization strategies.

However, education has certainly changed since I was in elementary school - ask any veteran teacher. The amount of planning, preparing, testing, paperwork, "paper trails", curriculum standards, behavior management plans, meetings, and even teacher homework, has sky rocketed. Don't misunderstand - these new standards are for the benefit of the students for sure - it just means a lot more work for the teachers.

This year, it took until school had already started for me to get a job. With budget cuts and not as many teachers retiring early, it was hard to find any opening. However, I did find one - and I'm LOVING it! At first I was worried about "transitioning" from a lead teacher to an assistant - but you know what - it's been wonderful!

I don't have to do any planning, just plan for small groups if I want to (which I will start doing in a couple of weeks), I don't have to worry about testing, grading, or paper work. The lead teacher (a.k.a "LT" from now on) is also a Reading Recovery teacher/tutor, so she has to work with 2 first graders every day for 30 minutes each, so I still have "my time" with the kids and can teach lessons (which she is planning now, but if I wanted to plan, I could, and will start as well). I interact with the kids, teach them, and show them who's boss manage behavior when needed. Basically, I get to be a teacher without all the added stress of being a teacher.

However, I would say one of my main responsibilities is helping LT's day go smoother, easier, and without all the small hassles that would take her away from teaching.

Here's a look at some of what I do:

I sharpen pencils at the end of the day so the kids have fresh ones in the morning. 

I prepare their morning journals. They have to write their name 4 times and draw a picture every morning. This won't last much longer though; we'll start transitioning them over to a given topic to write about each morning.

I check folders in the morning, looking for notes, homework, or papers. And in the afternoon I stuff folders, and fill out behavior sheets.

I prepare the tables for Writing Workshop - paper, pencils, date stamp, and a basket of crayons. I love helping these kids learn to write! We're working on writing words to match pictures. We encourage "inventive spelling" right now - and it's so fun to see what they come up with! We're working on "popcorn words", and will continue to teach new words every day. 

I made a lunch choice board - it's not the prettiest thing in the room right now, but it works. I spent a couple of nights finding images of the lunch choices, printed, laminated, and organized them. The kids can now find their name on a clothes pin and make their own lunch choice. Today was breakfast for lunch - french toast sticks, or egg and cheese biscuit, or fruit and yogurt plate. I remember french toast stick days from my days in elementary school! I swear they are the exact same!!

I put all of their work into their cubbies. I have almost all of the kids memorized in alphabetical order and by number! At the end of the week all of their work goes home.

I made these floor squares with the kids as a small group math activity. Each square has the numeral and word form of the number, plus that many stickers. They serve multiple purposes. First, the kids each had a number, then they had to count out (math skill) the stickers and put them on the paper (fine motor skill). Second, they help the kids know where to stand in line when we line up to go somewhere. Third, we can say "go stand on number 6" and the kids have to find the number. For the ones who don't know numbers past 10, we can tell them what color to stand on. And for those who get bored, we can tell them to count the stickers for something to do. 

I lead a shared reading every day before lunch while LT is tutoring. One thing we do is read the letter poem and take turns finding that letter in the poem. It's amazing how quiet and still 20 five year olds will get when they're told they have to sit still and quiet in order to be called to come up and find a letter!

 I also teach math a couple days a week. We've been working on numbers 1-5 this week. Most of our kids haven't been to any form of pre-school so we had to start with the basics. 

Next week will be really interesting. Part of my job requirements include training and obtaining a CDL - that's a bus driver's license for those who don't know, 'cause I didn't know at first!! Like I've said before, this is a small, country school district and school. There are two buses for our school, and a short list of subs. In the case that a bus driver is out, and the subs aren't available, then I might be called to drive the school bus!! I don't know if I'm more scared and anxious, or kinda excited about this. We'll see how training goes next week.

I have really enjoyed being back in the classroom. The kids are really good and crack me up all day long. I've already formed special bonds with some of them, and I can't wait to see all that they will learn and do this year. I'm so glad to be with them.

God Bless