FieldBlogPost8-GESU

Today was my last day of field observation at Gesu Elementary School. It was a Friday, and it was the day before Halloween, so we did a lot of fun Halloween activities. When I got there, I had a great conversation with the lady in the front office. It is always a good thing to be outgoing because you never know what kind of connections they may have. When I walked into the classroom, the kids were making Halloween birthday/get well cards. They were making the cards for the custodian at Gesu, Mr. Eugene, who is currently sick. While they were making the cards, Mrs. Nemeth had me and another student observer, Haley, look up educational Halloween games on the iPads for the kids to play. The next class then eventually came in and they had to take their bone/muscle test. She gave them the test, which looked like a model of a skeleton where the kids had to name the bones and muscles, Along with the model of the skeleton, she wrong additional questions on the chalk board. When the kids take tests, Mrs. Nemeth asks for complete silence and all eyes on their own papers. If she sees a kid look around or talk, she will move them to another desk. It is very proper of her to do this because then the kids will learn to study and take in information on their own for evaluations. After the test, that class made their Halloween birthday/get well cards. While they did that, Mrs. Nemeth had me and Haley go to the bookstore to get orange paper. We then went to the meeting room and made a giant jack-o-lantern because Mrs. Nemeth was planning to play pin the nose of the jack-o-lantern later in the day. When I returned to the classroom, the next class was in for reading. They were sharing all the things they found and learned on the word they looked up Wednesday. Some of the stuff was very interesting!
Two important things Mrs. Nemeth stressed today was that technology is huge and you must be flexible. We were on the iPads a lot and there are so many forms of technology around her classroom that are helpful, such as microscopes, iPads, the document camera, etc. You must be flexible on days like Friday. There are so many things going on and it seemed very hectic because of Halloween, but it seemed like Mrs. Nemeth had everything under control no matter what and was going with the flow, but still managed to have a lot of activities planned.
Overall, my experience at Gesu was unforgettable. I was able to not only learn from Mrs. Nemeth, but also from the kids. Before the experience, I was just thinking I wanted to get my feet wet and see how things were at an elementary level. By the end, I seemed to really enjoy the atmosphere and the way the kids acted towards me. I made many connections within the school and am very grateful I got to work with the kids and help out Mrs. Nemeth!