Today was our first day in the schools. I was put into the Infant I classroom (first grade back in the states). The ages of the students range in age 4 to 6 years old. 
Students must be 4 years 6 months by September 1st to be able to attend Infant I. There are six students in the classroom; two 4 year olds, three 5 year olds, and one 6 year old. One of the 4 year olds is a boy, and the rest of the students are girls. The teacher, Mrs. Kate, is originally from Rochester, NY, but moved to San Pedro about 4 years ago. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from NY in art education, but she had no formal education training though. She use to teach at Isla Bonita, but is now at Ambergris Caye. She has one boy that I think is in either Infant II or Standard I, and she is expecting another baby soon. She will be very useful to talk to about to gain more information about the child-care in San Pedro.
The room is very, very small. It has enough room for six old wooden desks and chairs, and a teacher desk. This is a picture of my classroom I will be in for the next five weeks. The only
thing not shown is the teachers desk, which is directly to the right of where the picture was taken from the door to the classroom. The room does not have a white board, but it has a chalkboard, which I think is common in this school. There are no toys, math manipulative, center areas, or computers. There is a small bookshelf that holds books that were donated to the school. On top of the bookshelf are the very limited school supplies for the classroom. While there for the day, I noticed most students did not have full pencils or one at all. By this I mean, if they had a pencil it was most likely broken in half, and using the pencil without an eraser. Erasers were also limited, and students had to share the one girl's eraser for the whole day.
The first thing I noticed when I walked into the room was the decorations on the wall. Up near the chalkboard was the alphabet with upper and lower case letters, and a picture
to represent the letter. On the wall near the chalkboard, was the months of the year, the calender, and student's writings about their favorite animals. There was also pizza fractions and other pictures to represent fractions. Yes, fractions for 4 to 6 year olds. On the other wall, were pictures of the natural environment in which the students were learning about.
The main subjects for Infant I are math, language arts, science, social studies, religion, Spanish, and health. This whole week will be different because they are about to end there second term (there are three terms all together), and they (all grades) will be completed the end of term tests. The Infant I has to take five written tests; two on Wednesday, two Thursday, and one Friday in health, math, language arts, science, and social studies. I was looking over the health, math, and language arts test, and it blew my mind what they are expecting of these young students. Some sample questions were; the Earth rotates in a (day or year). The Earth rotates around the sun in a (year or day). We live on the planet ___. Does the moon have light on it. Health questions talked about germs, bacteria, prevention, and healthy versus junk food choices. Math included the time (o'clock and half past the hour), fractions (which fraction is greater, less than, or equal), number sentences (addition and subtraction), word problems and producing number sentences, and much more.
My first thoughts were wow. It is a lot for this age group, and where they are at developmentally. The two youngest kids were defiantly having some trouble. One of the two 4 year olds is from England and is having more trouble, but both 4 year olds do not seem socially mature enough to handle some classroom situations. In all, my first day went well though. The students are reviewing for their tests on Wednesday through Friday.
Students must be 4 years 6 months by September 1st to be able to attend Infant I. There are six students in the classroom; two 4 year olds, three 5 year olds, and one 6 year old. One of the 4 year olds is a boy, and the rest of the students are girls. The teacher, Mrs. Kate, is originally from Rochester, NY, but moved to San Pedro about 4 years ago. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from NY in art education, but she had no formal education training though. She use to teach at Isla Bonita, but is now at Ambergris Caye. She has one boy that I think is in either Infant II or Standard I, and she is expecting another baby soon. She will be very useful to talk to about to gain more information about the child-care in San Pedro.The room is very, very small. It has enough room for six old wooden desks and chairs, and a teacher desk. This is a picture of my classroom I will be in for the next five weeks. The only
thing not shown is the teachers desk, which is directly to the right of where the picture was taken from the door to the classroom. The room does not have a white board, but it has a chalkboard, which I think is common in this school. There are no toys, math manipulative, center areas, or computers. There is a small bookshelf that holds books that were donated to the school. On top of the bookshelf are the very limited school supplies for the classroom. While there for the day, I noticed most students did not have full pencils or one at all. By this I mean, if they had a pencil it was most likely broken in half, and using the pencil without an eraser. Erasers were also limited, and students had to share the one girl's eraser for the whole day.The first thing I noticed when I walked into the room was the decorations on the wall. Up near the chalkboard was the alphabet with upper and lower case letters, and a picture
to represent the letter. On the wall near the chalkboard, was the months of the year, the calender, and student's writings about their favorite animals. There was also pizza fractions and other pictures to represent fractions. Yes, fractions for 4 to 6 year olds. On the other wall, were pictures of the natural environment in which the students were learning about.The main subjects for Infant I are math, language arts, science, social studies, religion, Spanish, and health. This whole week will be different because they are about to end there second term (there are three terms all together), and they (all grades) will be completed the end of term tests. The Infant I has to take five written tests; two on Wednesday, two Thursday, and one Friday in health, math, language arts, science, and social studies. I was looking over the health, math, and language arts test, and it blew my mind what they are expecting of these young students. Some sample questions were; the Earth rotates in a (day or year). The Earth rotates around the sun in a (year or day). We live on the planet ___. Does the moon have light on it. Health questions talked about germs, bacteria, prevention, and healthy versus junk food choices. Math included the time (o'clock and half past the hour), fractions (which fraction is greater, less than, or equal), number sentences (addition and subtraction), word problems and producing number sentences, and much more.
My first thoughts were wow. It is a lot for this age group, and where they are at developmentally. The two youngest kids were defiantly having some trouble. One of the two 4 year olds is from England and is having more trouble, but both 4 year olds do not seem socially mature enough to handle some classroom situations. In all, my first day went well though. The students are reviewing for their tests on Wednesday through Friday.
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