I had a hugely wonderful opportunity to volunteer up at a school in Salem. I have gone up every Friday for the past 5 weeks and stayed throughout the whole day interacting with the children and observing the teacher and her teaching methods. I didn't realize how attached I would get to these kids in such a short amount of time... I think I'm going to be a "crier" when I eventually start teaching, every time my class moves on I'll start bawling.
It was very different being in a classroom for a full day rather than just part of it. I also liked being in a different district where I saw some things that they don't do here in Eugene. The school in Salem was low-income, and so they are trying out a new type of curriculum. The kids get there every morning at 8am and go to "team time". Team time is when the kids get exercise in, helps reduce tardies, and gets the children awake for school. The kids then come into the classroom and eat free breakfast while the teacher starts up the day. The kids are in school until 4pm every day except for Fridays, when they get out at 2:30. It was interesting for me to see how the kids showed up tired, then got energy, then their energy drooped towards the end of the day. This is something that you don't get to experience when you are only in a classroom for a few hours out of the day.
The kid's personalities were absolutely ridiculous and I loved 'em to death. Each one had his or her own way of doing things, thinking, acting out, being kind, and learning; it's making me a little nervous for how I'll adapt my curriculum to fit each and every one of the kids in my classroom. It's somewhat of a good nervous though. I was waffling when I chose teaching as my major, I didn't know if it was right for me or not. After going up to Salem, however, I know that teaching is for me :)
