Day 7: New classroom

Since I had work at the regular time that I volunteer on Friday's I got the chance to go in earlier. I went into my regular classroom and caught the end of first semester. Some of the students that are in our class were helping other students. Therefore, there wasn't a student who really needed my help. I just walked around and and briefly talked to some of the students and the other volunteers. When the bell rang the room cleared out and Mrs. Johns told me and another guy that she had permission to use this next period as planning. Therefore, she didn't have anything for us to do. She said that we could go down to the other English teachers classroom to gain hours. This was the first time I saw the downstairs aspect of the school When I walked in the teacher introduced himself. The first thing I noticed was the size of the room compared to the one I usually volunteer in. It was relatively large and wasn't very decorated. The students began coming into the room and the teacher began setting them up with their assignments. It was another computer based class. The teacher told us that most of the students were working with Beowulf. When the teacher offered our help to one of his students she rejected. The next student to walk in wanted my help which was great! The teacher informed me that I should help her recognize when would be a good time to take notes and help with general questions.When we began at first she was working on her own. When she got to the assessment test she immediately looked at me for help. We were able to finish 2 out of the three assessemts. The teacher wanted her to aim for a 65. I looked at her and said we can definitely do better than that! The first assessment was filled with grammar questions. We managed to make an 90% on the test. She was so excited. We looked at a question together and I always asked her first what she thought the answer was and to explain why. Afterwards, I would tell her if I agreed or not. If I didn't agree I would provide her with reasons why I liked other answers more than others. When we started the second assessment it was a combination of grammar questions and was to combine sentences within a paragraph to make it stronger. I let her take more control on this assessment and only chimed in when she was really uncertain about a question. She scored an 80% on this mini test. The last assessment I was able to help her for a while until she needed to go to work. There was one question where the teacher came by and helped us with a question I didn't even know the answer to. Around 11;40 she said she needed to leave to make it to work on time. I told her it was no problem and I really enjoyed working with her. Afterwards, I just walked around until the period ended. I think today was one of my favorite times volunteering by far. Cant wait to see what next week brings!