First Day at Stephens

Well, the first day is over and it was a really different experience from any other that I've had while doing practicums. The school is a great environment and everyone was very inviting and welcoming. As we were walking through the halls for our tour, teachers introduced themselves and told us to "never hesitate to ask" if we ever needed anything. Our classroom is set up in the Montessori style setting, which is very different for me. There are no desks in the classroom and everything is done on individual floor rugs with the students. They work in a very individual setting on their rugs with periodic "presentations" by the classroom teacher. During the work time, we were able to walk around and engage ourselves in the tasks with them. Some of the students were working on a map of South America that they were learning about this week. They had various things that they were to locate and label on their own map to turn in. Right now it seems like it will be a little difficult adjusting to the setting of our classroom, but it will be a great learning experience and I'm sure we will definitely learn a lot from it!