SAIL visit # 1

So I went to SAIL this past Tuesday after spending the last three weeks at Peabody, and what a contrast.

Well like I said in the meeting afterwards, my initial reaction to SAIL is "OMG ! CHAOS!" Not that I didn't enjoy it, I did. I think Hernan agreed (correct me if I am wrong) that it was indeed chaotic in there. He also brought up some good points about what a different environment it is from PEabody, and of course they are dealing with a different population of students. All very good points he made and nothing that I disagreed with.

But I think my initial and strongest reaction of "OMG CHAOS" is partly due to me own home environment. I live in a house with 4 Korean females who all think they are the alpha-female of the group. And let's not forget we have 2 little kids running around, and so all the alpha-females are trying to regulate on them. Anyways, what I am saying is I deal with constant noise like that at home (apparently its just the Korean version of the indoor voice). So when I am at school or out somewhere else, its hard to deal with.

It will be interesting to go back keeping the classroom climate evaluation tool in mind. And also I will be paying more attention for the rest of the semester to my reactions to things like this and where exactly those reactions are coming from.

I did enjoy SAIL very much though. I was able to sit with the children and work with them (also in contrast to a slightly different role I took on at Peabody). So there was a lot more conversation between me and the students. Random kids who I didn't even get to say hi to would come up to me and show me their work. That was also very different from the students at Peabody who seemed to be more reserved and quiet, as a whole.

Anyways, next week I will be a little bit more prepared then this past Tuesday so I look forward to it.