Thursday, October 9, 2008

Elementary School Rocks!

Today was the 2nd day for me at my elementary school site, Gatewood, in Hopkins. Just like last Thursday, at the end of the day, my brain hurts! There is so much activity and energy within those walls, that it's fun to be a part of it. Surprisingly, there are a lot of "disciplinary" problems to deal with, but at that age it's mostly teaching kids to make the right decisions, and to see the consequences of their wrong choices.

I even got to work briefly with one student by myself today! His name is Paul, and he is struggling at home and a bit at school, and his teacher was glad for my involvement. We went outside during lunch and threw the football around. I got the chance to introduce him to a few other students on the playground, and I think that helped him somewhat. I'm going to be meeting with Paul each Thursday that I am there, getting to know him better and giving him someone else to talk with and open up to.

I was also able to observe some classroom guidance today, with it being 4th grade Class Representative voting day. The kids were excited to give a short speech to their classmates, and they were really excited when we tabulated their votes and announced their reps. It was really cute hearing some of their speeches as to why they should be elected (maybe Obama and McCain should have been there taking notes)!

I really enjoyed my day today!

5 comments:

Jamie said...

Chuck...that's awesome man. Paul's life will never be the same because of you.

Jamie said...

This makes me so happy right now...dreams being fulfilled and little lives being encouraged- sounds like a win-win-win!

gretchen said...

sorry that last post was from Gretchen ;) I was using Jamie's computer--I am sure you figured that out though, cuz that doesn't really sound like Jamie at all.

Eric said...

Chuck! This is so cool....I'm pumped to see that you're pumped - like Gretchamie (monster?) said....seeing your passions and dreamed being fulfilled is amazing. Hopefully the future is filled with thousands of stories like these.

Full of JOY said...

ohmyword. If I had your job, I'd be crying all the time!!! Wow. More then pumped for you! AAAANNND, I thought Gretchen was Jamie, and that really freaked me out....