Awesome Experiences

I don't know how many people know this, but I'm getting my Bachelor's in Elementary Education. I'm taking a course called Introduction to Education. The course requires 15 hours spent doing field experience. This means I have to spend 15 hours volunteering at a school and witnessing teachers or working with students. I decided to volunteer at the elementary school my sister-in-law teaches at.

The volunteer coordinator hooked me up with the 1st grade teacher. We met and made a schedule. Today was my first day of actually volunteering. I went in and was introduced to the kids and informed that I will be working with them individually on Great Leaps. I'm to work with these kids on Phonics, Letter Recognition, Sight Words, and such. How perfect is that? I want to help young children with reading as a primary goal as a teacher, so this is a fantastic opportunity.

Well, today I've already had a tear jerking moment with a student. This little girl came into the room with me. She's 7 years old and we're working and simple phonics, what sound does this letter make. The kids have 60 seconds to get as far as they can on the worksheet. Then I help them with the sounds they had a problem with. Well, she was perfect on all ONE letter sounds, /a/, /m/, /t/, /i/... But she just couldn't put the two together sometimes... Like at... she said "ah" instead of at. Then some of the sounds on the page were mat, sat, and tat... Well, of 48 sounds, she got 32... That's really quite good. But, she had 7 mistakes. Evertime 2 or more sounds had to be put together she struggled. So, for privacy sake I'm going to say her name was Melanie... It wasn't, but we're pretending. I said, "Melanie, what sound does this make" and pointed to an "a". She said, "ah". Perfect. I congratulated her. Then I pointed to the "t" and she said, "tuh"... So I told her she was right again. Then I pointed to "at"... and she said, "ah". Now I said, "Melanie look... see what sound does the first letter make" and she responded correctly, so then I said, "what about the second letter?" and she responded correctly. So then I said, "Put them together now." She said there concentrating with her brows drawn together silently mouthing the sounds. And after a few second I said, "Say it out loud, I want to hear you." and she sounded out "at" out loud. Then she said, "at?" I said, "That's right... now what about this word?" and pointed to "mat". She sat there struggling, and I covered up "at" with my fingers and said, "now say it out loud." She looked up at me and said, "mmm". Then I said, "that's right, now this." and moved to cover the "m", to which she replied, "at". "So put it together..." She said, "mm. at. mm. at. mmmat. MAT!" Then I pointed to sat, "sss. at. sssat. SAT!" Then I pointed to "tat", "tuh. at. TAT!"

Somewhere while figuring out "mat" she sat up and got all bright eyed. It was like watching someone turn on a light bulb. She was so excited.

If I had any question of what I wanted to do, it ended today.