Day 1: (My) First Day of School

August 27th

This was my first day in the classroom with the students (it was the students' second day of school). Prior to this I had a two hour meeting with my teacher and I attended two full day in-service days with all of the teachers from the school (which is only 10). I arrived at the school at 7:30 and I was very excited to meet all of the students in my class. For the remainder of this semester I will be in a first grade classroom for 3 days a week. I have 8 students in my class, 5 girls and 3 boys. With it only being the second day of school a lot the material was review for the class. The day began with a morning meeting. The class reviewed the date, which day of school it was (number 2), the schedule for the day, and a brief introduction of material to be covered later in the day. During the morning announcements I had my first "this is going to be a lot different than my schooling" moment. I went to public school, and I am doing my internship at a Catholic school. The students recited three different prayers before it was even 8:00am. This was only the first 3 of many more to come throughout the rest of the day. I am not Catholic myself so I did feel slightly out of place at first during this, however, I'm sure it is something I will adjust to in time.

One thing that I immediately loved on the first day of my internship was that I wasn't just sitting and observing like I had done many other times to complete observation hours throughout the past 3 years. After the morning meeting the students were broken up into center groups and I had the chance to go around and assist the students and make sure they were on task. While I was doing this, my cooperating teacher, Ms. DeGuzis was completing sight word assessments with the students one at a time. I had the opportunity to review the assessments with Ms. DeGuzis later in the day. There are students on a wide range of ability levels. One student is very below grade level, while another mastered the third grade sight word list. I think this will give me a great insight into differentiating instruction throughout the time I am in the classroom. My first day exceeded my expectations and I am looking forward to returning next week.