2nd Day as VIPS Volunteer 10/11/07

I was looking around the classroom for anything that I missed in my observations on my first visit. I noticed more things like the school supplies for the children: pencils, pens, rulers, glue, crayons, and colored pencils. There was a Welcome banner, the alphabet, and a calendar on the walls. I also noticed there were bins that held their different papers they were working on, such as poetry, literature, and handwriting. This time I noticed some murals in the halls that I missed last time. I got to explore the murals and the different hallways while the students were in the library when I first arrived at the school. The kindergarten area had murals on the walls, probably because they are younger. There was also a mural in the Library wing. It was a mural of students of different colors. I am now getting used to Ms. Chippis, the teacher, and students’ schedules. Today, they worked on Math, adding and subtracting, and multiplying by not even knowing these words directly. I saw that kids who did not cooperate with each other, which always seemed to be while they did activities on the rug, were sent to the back of the room to sit at their desks. During Reading time, they all sat in a circle, but when it was Math time, they sat in rows on the rug. Time went by so fast. It was 3:00 already. Instead of a dismissal bell, there was music. I wondered why they played music instead of a bell. Every kid in a class got in a single file line just to go outside. You can tell this school is very organized, but this could also be one of the reasons why these students can get a little boisterous. I can also that the teacher is very stressed in trying to get what she needs to get done. Because of this, she tends to vent her stress on her students by yelling, which is not good.