My Typical Daily Schedule

7:15 am- Students and teachers begin arriving at the flag pole in front of the school

7:30 am- Students line up by grade level to say the pledge, sing the school ode, and sing the national anthem

7:40 am- Students and teachers go into the auditorium/chapel for devotions and announcements

8:15 am- 8:55 am -1st period: Language Arts

Currently in Language Arts we are working on basic phonics and phonological awareness. We have been learning about vowels, and the difference between a long and short vowel. Next week we will begin word families. We are also talking about sentence structure, and how to write a good paragraph. This week we focussed on capitalization and punctuation. The students are doing a lot of creative writing, and we are talking about the difference between fiction and non-fiction books. One of my main focus points is comprehension. We are learning how to make predictions, re-tell a story, discuss our favorite part, and what the book reminds us of. 

8:55 am- 9:35 am- 2nd period: Math

We are going back to the basics! We are reviewing doubles, and doubles + 1. They have a quiz tomorrow, so we will see how that goes! I have also introduced even and odd numbers. The students seem to be catching on pretty quickly. We have also been reviewing place value. I hope to get into double digit addition next week. 

I have introduced several Math games to the students. Most of the games are played with dice and playing cards. The students love the games, and ask every day if we can play them. Tomorrow I am introducing some computer games. The students do not know how to use the computers yet, so we will be playing the games as a whole class, using a projector. They are really excited about this too!

9:35 am- 10:15 am- 3rd period: Science

We just finished covering the 5 senses, and are now doing some fun activities to review. I gave each student a piece of hard candy. They had to write about what it looks like, smells like, feels like, and tastes like. Of course, they love the tasting part! They have a quiz next week, and they are going to use fruit snacks! I can't wait to see their faces when they I show them!

10:15 am- 10:55 am- 4th period: Social Studies

I have really enjoyed teaching Social Studies! We have been talking about communities and neighborhood. They have talked and written about themselves, and their families. We also have started talking about maps, and map skills. I showed them Monrovia and the school on Google Earth. This was such a neat and new experience for them. Awesome! Next week we are going to talk more about community service. The students are going to write letters to the security guards, custodians, farmers, the nurse, etc. to say thank you for all that they do for the school. 

10:55 am- 11:40 am- RECESS!

 This is basically unsupervised time where the students can play, buy a snack, get caught up on homework or studying, or get help from a teacher. It is also used as detention sometimes... I have already had couple of students experience this. This is normally seen as a break for the teachers, but I am getting ready to start using it as an opportunity for more individual time with my students. My goal is to make a schedule so that every day 2 students can stay in the room with me. This will allow me to help them with anything we are covering that they don't understand. I will also be able to introduce them to activities on the computer. It will be good quality time for us!

11:40 am - 12:20 am- 5th period

On Monday we do an Art activity, Tuesday and Wednesday we have Bible, Thursday we go to the library, and Friday we have PE. I really like this period at the end of the day because it is fun! I have really enjoyed teaching Bible, although it is very hard to grade. It is a great way for me to encourage and empower the children. They love going to the library on Thursdays. Right now we have just been reading with partners, but hopefully the computers will be up and running soon. I am hoping to do some fun projects this year! I love that we end the week with PE. This is a great way for us to bond as a class. We play all sorts of games, and do team building activities. 

At 12:20 the school day is technically over for elementary classes. I am realizing how hard it is to cover all of the material in just 3 1/2 hours of school. I am so used to 7 hour days in the US. However, I have students that come visit after school and soon I will have study hall and tutoring available. This also will allow me to have more one on one attention with them. Basketball season is also getting ready to start, so we will have practices in the afternoon. Holly and I are also trying to go eat lunch with the boarding students a few days a week. Lunch is at 2:00 pm. There are lots of other school and extra curricular activities in the afternoons/evenings!