Today I had my first day of Teach for America instruction and damn was it intense. I was up at 5:45 AM to get ready and get on the bus to go to school. We went through an intense morning of training. The teachers followed their lesson plans to the second, no joke. Anyway, after four hours of instruction this morning we ate lunch. I was finally awake at this point. After lunch and another session of crammed material we learned our teaching assignment for next week.

Next Monday I, along with three other people, begin teaching kindergarteners the next month. We will be teaching small children how to do the following things:

Math

• Describe and identify an object by its attributes using informal language.
• Compare two objects based on their attributes.
• Compare situations or objects according to temperature such as hotter or colder.
• Construct graphs using real objects or pictures in order to answer questions.

Reading

• Understand sound-symbol correspondence.
• Demonstrate print awareness.
• Demonstrate comprehension after a selection is read.
• Demonstrate phonological awareness (an understanding that spoken language is composed of sequences of sounds)

Listening and Speaking

• Listen actively, attentively, and purposefully.
• Use higher order thinking skills and their associated language to participate in academic discussions and activities.
• Present dramatic interpretations.
• Connect own experiences and ideas with those of others.

Science

• Observe, describe, and record changes in size, mass, color, position, quantity, time, temperature, sound, and movement.
• Identify basic needs of living things.
• Describe properties of objects and characteristics of organisms.
• Recognize and copy patterns seen in charts and graphs.

I don't know about you, but I sure as hell couldn't do this stuff in Kindergarten. This is going to be pretty tough -- especially given language burrier issues. On top of this ... it's me. Scary stuff. My group isn't terrible to work with. Two girls are really great, but the third one is a know-it-all that won't concede anything and directs the discussion far away from where we need to be to get things done in order. It's kind of like a UDems exec meeting -- under ANY of the three most recent presidents.

UPDATE: The group got much better to work with today. We're actually far ahead of everybody else at our elementary school and probably in the institute.