Field Blog-St. Joseph School Visit 4

On my final visit to St. Joseph School, the day started like normal with announcements, the pledge of allegiance, and a decade of the rosary.  When that was completed, the students worked on their daily Simple Solutions.  After everyone was finished, they checked the math problems together as a class.  While checking the problems, the teacher had the students take turns reading the questions and answering them.  The students then went to the library.  The librarian read them a story, and the children got to pick out books that they could check out.  The students went back to their classroom where they got to switch seats.  The teacher allowed the students to pick where they wanted to sit and only had to switch a few students around.  After they had finished switching seats, the class had to pick parts for the Mass that they were in charge of the following week.  In order to pick who got to participate, the teacher pulled sticks with the students’ names on them.  If the teacher picked the student’s name, they got to decide what they wanted to do in the Mass or if they didn’t want to participate at all.  After picking their parts for Mass, the students went to computer class.  When they got back from computer class, the children received a piece of paper telling them the steps of confession.  Together as a class they went over the steps in preparation for confession that afternoon.  They then started their math lesson for the day.  That day they were learning about patterns.  While going over the problems, the teacher gave the students’ opportunities to participate.  Once they completed the lesson, they had to finish a workbook page to practice their skills.  When everyone was done, they checked the workbook page together as a class.