Unity School - Ms. Cara, Kindergarten - 5.5 hours
Lots of copying and pasting this week! The student use this method to learn a lot of different things. We made skeletons to learn their bones and also use it to learn spelling words. They are surprisingly good at it, with very minimal messes!
I got to witness something (I found) very interesting this week. In PE class they're in their swimming unit. This school is very fortunate to have a swimming pool at the school for the kids to use. There is a full size pool and a kiddie pool that's only a few feet deep. I didn't join them in the water, I sat on the bench trying to stay dry from splashing. There was one boy who hasn't brought a swimming suit to school since the swimming unit started. His mother sent a note this week that said he keeps forgetting his suit because he is afraid of the water. The PE teacher had an extra suit for the boy to wear and asked him if he wanted to swim. He did, and he didn't act afraid of the water. He was jumping in the big pool and swimming as well as the best of them. To us (me and the PE teacher) it seemed like maybe the mother was afraid of the water and not the child. This makes me think of the bigger picture...to me the teacher did not do anything bad for this child, but did she go against the parent's wishes? As a teacher do you find yourself in situations where your gut instinct may conflict with parents wishes? And could situations like this get you in trouble? Or is it okay, as long as the child isn't put in harms way? Are there policies for situations like this? I image the boy came home from school and told his mother he went swimming when he told her about his day. I hope the PE teacher doesn't get any grief for this action, because to me the boy was very happy and LOVED his time in the pool!