Blog Entry #4

The teacher I did my fieldwork with had a lot of clerical and preparation tasks for me to do. Every morning I she asked me to start by taking all the pencils to the teacher's workroom and sharpen them since the first graders had a hard time doing it themselves and the classroom pencil sharpener was broken. The teacher also asked me to do a lot of artistic preparation like making posters. I am really looking forward to this part of teaching. I am not a fabulous artist, but I do enjoy it a lot. The most boring job I was given was grading papers. Math tests were not too bad, but homework assignments were harder. I struggled with understanding the teacher's system. She told me to give the students points for right answers, but a lot of the time the students would have all the right answers, but they added in some wrong answers. It was confusing and a little frustrating. When I am a teacher, it will be easier because I will be able to set my own standards and I will know what I expect from my students' homework. What I noticed the most was how grateful the teacher was when I finished a preparation or clerical task. Although they are not usually difficult, they are very time-consuming. Having no classroom aids can make it really hard for teachers to finish all the prep and clerical tasks they need to teach the next lesson. It's important to look ahead and start preparing early for lessons.