Saturday, February 10, 2007

Afternoons at Mirror Lake Elementary School



My son-in-law is the best 4th grade teacher I know! Because I'm recently retired and generally have too much time on my hands, I volunteer in Dusty's fourth grade classroom at Mirror Lake Elementary School.

The kids of Room 122 have been doing science experiments the last couple of times I've been in class. Can you imagine 23 students exploring the scientific properties of water? The kids are hilarious, but I think they are really learning about surface tension, absorption rates and other valuable pieces of earth science knowledge.

Dusty is a very skilled communicator who has the obvious respect of his students. The kids are quite the communicators also. (That's my way of saying that they sure talk a lot!) Although many of the students speak English as their second language, they all have MANY things to tell me when I show up in their class. Unfortunately, none of what they want to say has anything to do with what they have learned in class. Many of these students are behind grade level in reading and math, and seem to be falling farther behind each week. I wish there was more that I could do for these boys and girls....

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