UI Day 1

My first day at San Miguel Middle School was wonderful! When Lacey and I got there, the front door to the building was locked. We figured out from a Spanish/English sign with pictures that we were supposed to press the intercom button and talk to the secretary. What we didn't know is that the security camera is hooked up to a tv screen in the office that a lot of people see. So I'm sure we looked like idiots trying to figure this one out. But we got in and followed some students upstairs and checked in at the office.

We met with Sister Mary, who as Jake said, is very nice. But she is so formal and gives me a weird vibe. I guess she just is not like a St.Ben's sister. She gave us some information about the school. Like for example, in their mission statement, they say that they will have an extended school day. This extended day goes from (7:45 free breakfast) 8:20 to 4:50. They have this because many of the students are immigrants and are already grades behind their ages, so they spend more time learning. Another part of the mission statement is that they will have good manners. This was shown by having almost all of the students in the school (49) come up and shake my hand saying "Hi, my name is Maria. Welcome to San Miguel". One student from each grade eats lunch once a week with the Principal, President and a person who has donated; this teaches them how to eat formally.

I was basically just thrown right in to the classroom, with barely an introduction to the teacher, I was sent to work with a student on poems. The teacher is great though. Ms.Gergen is very nice, helpful and a great example for me. I like her teaching style and how she is so close to the students.

I got to teach half of the class about posessive nouns (apostrophe s). I also helped many students on editing their poems. I went to music class and saw a teacher in desperate need of a lesson on classroom management.

When working with the eighth graders on their justice poems, I learned a lot about what they and their families go throught. Many of the poems talked about hard workers, like how their parents are never home because they have to work all the time. They talked about how everyone should be able to get a job, even if they don't have the right papers or an education. They talked about how racism affected them.

I learned a great many things in this first day and actually appreciated the extended day. It allowed for more experiences in different subjects, with different teachers and working with students.