Good Goodily...I Need Naps at Work! My Adventure Teaching Summer School

So, I may have mentioned that I am teaching Extended School Year. Well, let me just say, I am more tired in 4 hours with these kiddo's than I am in 7 hours with my own students. Let's break this down... ESY is not held in my building. Thankfully it IS held in a building with A/C, but I do not have easy access to my own materials and supplies. We are supposed to not use the materials and toys in the classroom, but this is soooooo hard for my students. They just don't understand that all of this great stuff is not for them.
So you ask with interest, what materials do you use during your daily four hour session? Answer: Each teacher referring a student to the program is to send the materials and supplies necessary to carry out the objectives being worked on. I was a bit worried that the materials provided would not last us the four weeks so I went to my classroom and gathered materials and games, based on their objectives. I have the session all organized and planned out for the first day. Hmmmm, thought of the day, ..."Smile and Teach On"....or "When In Doubt Improvise", because everything I planned was WAY too hard. Side note: when preparing a craftivity make sure you have glue, scissors and markers because you may have difficulty with assembly without them. So, the plan? Throw out the plans and start again.
Day Two: Activities are better, students are engaged for the most part minus a temper tantrum or two. Some things are still too hard though. So today when I got home I raided my boxes in the garage from when I taught preschool and loaded the car with activities. Let's give tomorrow a try...
How many more weeks does this program last?
Have a fabulous week!!

9 comments:

  1. I can't believe that nobody gave you anything!! I'm sorry to hear that you have to go through that. I hope it gets better for you!
    Lisa
    Learning Is Something to Treasure

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think the summer program has a bad reputation for not returning materials so the teachers send things they don't mind losing forever. I am very careful though. I just made them a new game and I gathered some things from my class for them.

      Delete
  2. I always hate not being able to teach in my own room! You just can't plan for every single thing that you may end up needing.
    Lori
    Conversations in Literacy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Life would be so much easier if I was in my own class. I might even trade air conditioning for being in my own class with all my fun goodies.

      Delete
  3. I hope it gets better for you. Keep your chin up. That is a bummer that you cannot teach in your own room where you know everything is and that is a major pain that you were given nothing :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It got better as the week continued. I got some things from my classroom and that helped a lot.

      Delete
  4. You already know about my experiences in ESY this summer, so I totally feel your pain! We also are not supposed to use anything in the classrooms (the teacher who owns the classroom actually covered up all of the shelves with butcher paper so we wouldn't be tempted)and, although we were also supposed to get materials, nothing was sent. I got one little ziplock baggie of word cards for Billy and that was it. Also the administrators said they would give us lots of supplies... they gave us crayons from Oriental Trading Co that snap in half every time you touch them, Dollar store markers with no ink, a few sheets of paper, etc! I am not sure I would ever work in an ESY program again unless it was in my own classroom!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree! Luckily my school is 10 minutes away so I can get my own materials for the children. I also made them a fun new game.

      Delete

Thanks so much for reading! I appreciate your comments! :)