2-4-09

I only stayed a few hours again, but Mrs. Bartholomay was here today. She was trying to recooperate from being gone and getting her classroom back in order. I pretty much graded papers for a long time. I am now also helping the teacher check planners in the morning and pick up homework from the day before. Now I know all of the students pretty well, but as little girls are, they can be very clingy. They always want to hug on me. I learned that it takes a lot of patience to get all of the students attention at once. Mrs. Bartholomay was giving reading assessments, which she showed me how to give them and evaluate them. It was pretty boring but it is all part of the job. It targets not only the speech aspect of reading, but the comprehension as well. After I observed her giving a few of the tests, I went back to help in the classroom. The person sitting in for Mrs. Bartholomay was very impatient with the students. Mrs. Bartholomay gives fake coins out for positive reinforcement, and has students pull cards for negative. She also has a positive reinforcement for the whole class with a jar of marshmellows. If they fill up the second jar they get to have a special day. Also, after so many coins, they can trade them in to get a prize out of her prize box, use the leap frog learning book, or listen to an iPod. I like how she has both negative and positive reinforcement.