Day 20

Photograph by: Goodwin-Frazier Elementary School

Today was the last gym day of the week. I am so glad to be done with the same exact thing over and over and over. I have managed the same gym class 24 times in a row! I watched students run laps around the track while I marked their hands to show how many laps they’ve run and then watched them play with the gym stations…over and over and over…every single grade, every single class.

I am ready for something new!

Today, my cooperating teacher was out so I was paired with a substitute teacher. I liked working with this teacher and observing his teaching style. It always intrigues me to see how others teach. This person was direct and blunt with the students, but fun and playful at the same time. He would ask students how their days were going, start up friendly conversation with them, and even played with them during their stations times. I saw him toss a football with some 2nd grade boys and start a hula hooping contest with some 4th grade students. I was completely floored when we were lining up all of the kindergarten students at the end of their class period and he used his booming voice to take control of the entire grade. He started a competition between the four lines of kindergarten students to see which could be the straightest and quietest. I’d never seen the kindergarten students so well-behaved, and even their teachers were stunned to see them so straight and quiet when they came to pick them up. The music and gym teachers seemed to like this substitute as well, as the music teacher requested he sub her class in late May and the gym teacher wanted him for three days in June.

Today, there was a constant luminous storm seeming to be coming. We were outside with the students all day and sometimes it would start sprinkling, but it never picked up into a full rain. During the last class period, there was some incredibly loud thunder claps, but there was no visible lightning. The substitute and gym teacher started discussing when the requirement to bring the students in was.

“Do we have to bring the students in? There’s thunder,” the gym teacher said.

“There’s no visible lightning though. I think it’s when we first see lightning,” the sub responded.

I wasn’t sure, myself. A few minutes later, though, the gym teacher called all of the students inside and we spent the last 10 or so minutes in the gym. When the students can’t go outside, the inside of the gym is so crowded with them all playing with all the various stations. It really makes you appreciate that outside space.

Of course, the one moment it did decide to start down-pouring was during outside dismissal duty when I was standing outside of the front of the school without an umbrella, helping students into their cars. After I got pretty soaked, a teacher came and took my position so that I could grab an umbrella for myself and the gym teacher from the front office. I was thankful for the umbrella afterwards, but I had already gotten pretty wet. Once I got home, I had to switch out of all my wet clothes.