Sunday Funday!

Well we certainly had an interesting week. We had a split week. Our first group came M-W, the second W-F. As one group arrived the other group left. It was a bit crazy.

In my first field group i had some interesting characters. One, Andrew, was from Egypt. He has only lived here for about 2 months. He would constantly say things like "What is this thing called deer? We do not have that in egypt." or "What are we doing? I want to hunt and kill animal." He was funny though.

I also had Colin. He was autistic and he was very precious. We did our underground railroad simulation this week, and the teachers decided colin should be in the safe house with myself and Retha. This way he would not be uncomfortably scared. So he played the role of the deputy and had a blast. At one point he leaned over to me and said "This is awesome!"

The second field group I had we didn't really get to spend a lot of time together. I had 15 minutes with them on the first day, 2 hours on the second, and and hour on the last. (Normally we have at least an hour and half per day.) But they were very good and had a lot of fun building a fire.

As usual, here are some pics from the week:

On saturday we had a wedding here  on site and i went to the reception. It was for 2 ladies that work in the office. It was really interesting. They had a formal lunch, which I did not go to, and then a reception/party afterwards. The theme of the reception was halloween. So I felt very overdressed amongst the halloween costumes everyone was wearing. It was fun though.

Today we had sunday fun day here at the green house. Most of took a trip to six flags, new england. It was so much fun. There were not very many people there, so we did not have to wait in any lines. We rode every roller coaster in the park. It was pretty great! They were having a halloween theme, so I did get cased by zombies as I was leaving. That was really the only not fun part. Here are a couple pics from the park:

A crazy loud week

This past week was sure interesting. We had a group of sixth graders from a school called Millis. As a whole group they were crazy, but as small groups they were awesome. I had my most active and energetic field group yet. We did a lot of hiking and games to help them when they had to stay focused. They were also all loud naturally and liked to sing. You could always here us coming from a mile away. Their favorite activity was playing camouflage and building fires. We had a lot of fun telling stories a lot too. We would find a spot to sit and just listen to each others stories. Heres a pic of them sitting on hill at a spot called hemlock falls. 

Also, as always I will share the evaluation picks of the week. I had a lot of good quotes from them this week.

One of the most memorable students from this week was a students named Murrell. He was a student who stood out for many reasons, and had troubles making friends with kids. He was totally unaware of where he was in relationship to the others around him, he sang all the time, and would randomly blurt out whatever it was that he was thinking. In fact one day he was dancing and didn't notice that I was standing right next to him... and accidentally hit me in the face. He really stood out at our TNL night though. He was very funny during our skit and had all the kids laughing.

I am looking forward to the week coming up. I am teaching some cool classes. Just to remind you I am teaching:

Shark Dissection

Jelly-Belly-ology

Deer Survival (This is an ecology simulation, I am teaching it as a double with Retha)

Grossology- A class about the human body when your sick

Its going to be what we call a split week. We will have two groups, one group is staying mon.-wed. and the other is staying wed.-fri. Hopefully its a smooth transition between the two. It's also midseason evaluation week as well. Heres hoping I get a good one. 

It was nice Skyping with most of you yesterday and I look forward to seeing you all soon. 

Good Friends

This past week was a short one. The school I was with was here for wednesday, thursday, and friday. They were a montessori school, they were 3,4,5th years. They were very precious!! I worked mostly with the 4th and 5th years. My group was obsessed with finding salamanders. So basically thats what we did this week. I also wrote a new class (which I may get paid for once I submit it) about electrical circuit for the kids this week. They really liked it.

As I had mentioned, I had heard Rubina was a bit crazy. She was not really. She was a very nice lady. She was unable to fill out an evaluation this week. She did however say " I shall request you like I do Rebecca next year."

The joke of the week was "They'll do it when there are ready." Part of the montessori philosophy is letting the children do thing on their own time. They were generally late and sometimes had a hard time with the word no.

This next week we have large group of 6th graders coming. I am teaching jelly-belly-ology, eye dissection, megastructures, deer survival, and inside out kid. I am also going to hosting Thursday Night Live with the kids this week. It should be fun.

This past weekend I was suppose to be working and then go to Boston today. However I have come down with a cold. So I spent yesterday sleeping and watching movies. However I have amazing friends here. They came in to see how I was doing, brought me saltines, and ginger ale! It was awesome.

Also, recent news about the truck: It does in fact need a new transmission. At first I was not going to do but then we talked to Terry. He said it was a worth while price for they need to do. So in order to help me afford it I am going to apply for a credit card. Hopefully it works out, because I love my truck, and I do not want a new car.

Finally, I have discovered that I will in fact be at the table for thanksgiving dinner. I will be home on the 18th of November. So I will see you all then.

A feel good week

Well, my luck never ceases to continue... Yesterday morning I went to go run errands and my truck no longer would work in reverse. Thankfully though I have good friends here that helped me push it out from the parking spot I was in. Thankfully I can still drive forward. I drove around to several places, only to find that they were either closed or couldn't help me. I found a place to take it in to, however I wont be able to take it in until Tuesday. Monday is Columbus day. Lets hope there is nothing seriously wrong with it.

Other then that I actually had a really good week. I had a great group of kids in my field group. They liked being outside and had a good knowledge about the outdoors. There was one particular kid in my group that made me feel really good. His name was Kyle, and he has an anxiety disorder. He was anxious about everything the whole week. His teacher came with him to every field group and class he went too, and he would only really interact with her. He also went home every night because of his anxiety as well. On the second to least day Kyle took my class Inside Out Kid. he moved much faster than the rest of the group and he kept having to look out the window. I noticed near the end of class that he was just sitting there with his head down. After we cleaned up and the other students left I had a chat with Kyle. He was upset because his teacher couldn't be there, and he did not know where she was. We found her together, and I left them to talk about things. I was, at this point, feeling bummed that Kyle had such a rough time in class. He went home early that day and had said that he wasn't going to come back for our last day. The next day came and after breakfast I saw Kyle standing outside. Turns out he forgot his luggage. He decided to stay for our final field group. His teacher was not going to be able to join us either. At the beginning Kyle just meandered slowly at the back of the group. I stopped at a point on the trail to talk to the kids and hand out IALAC beads. (IALAC beads are shoe ties we give to our field groups at the end of each week. They are individual to each field group. IALAC stands for I am loving and caring or I always love a challenge, or I am like a conductor.) I told the student about a group of kids who helped end segregation in Birmingham,Alabama. In order for the kids to get their IALAC bead they had to tell me one thing they learned about themselves this week. Well, I am not sure when it happened but Kyle got a smile on his face, he was talking with the group members, and finding salamanders to share with the group. At the end of their time right before he got on the bus Kyle came over to me, he gave me a giant hug and said "Thanks for being the best field group leader." I was really glad that Kyle had a good last day here. He may have only opened up for a little bit of his time here, but I think it made a difference in how he viewed his time here at Natures Classroom.

The teacher that came with that group gave me a really nice review at the end of the week as well.

Also, this week I got another chance at hosting TNL with my pal Retha. We had so much fun. We dressed up in crazy costumes and had the kids laughing all night. Just to give you all a chuckle here is a picture of us in our crazy costumes.

In other news, I have an answer for that question you all have been wondering about... When will I be home. Its not a definite date but I'll be home anytime between the last week in October to the second week of November. Were waiting to see what the number our during those times. ( So I'll most likely be there for thanksgiving dinner :D )

This upcoming week is a short week for me. I'll be helping out on Monday and Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday through Friday I am working with a small group of kids. They are 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders from a Montessori school. Ill be teaching classes about electricity, magnetism, and plants. There will be me, another teacher, and 18 kids. I will also be in charge of quiet song for this group as well. It should be a good week with a lot of stories (apparently the lead teacher from the school is a little crazy).

This is part of the review a student gave me. I just thought it was funny the things they wrote.