Show and Tell

Every Tuesday morning I help out in Climber's classroom. It's part of the 'parents as classroom helpers' program at our school. In our first year at school, under the super-organised Tim, we:

• had a roster.
• had 2-4 parents on each day.
• heard reading from a group of kids, usually including our own child within that group.
• helped out with a variety of literacy activities.
• were greeted when we arrived and thanked when we left.

It was great fun.

Our teacher this year, K, is less talented administratively and thus the 'parents as classroom helpers' has been far [far!!] less structured. This year:

• I think it's only me who does it on a regular basis.
• It took a few months for K to work out what he wanted me to do.
• I ended up working predominantly with the kids who are struggling with reading, which given that I am not a literacy specialist was slightly daunting at first. NB They are both getting a LOT of specialist literacy support, the school is really well set up for these situations.
  
• I was never greeted or farewelled, which I missed because it's so cute ..."Good morning Caroline" ... I've taken to engineering my own greetings etc by announcing breezily as I walk in "Good Morning 1K!" And they all answer in chorus, they know what to do even if K doesn't.
  

K thinks I'm a good thing now and always looks crestfallen when I say I have to leave, and has muttered forlornly once or twice about how nice it would be to have help every day. Which, you know, K, if you'd been organised you could have had... there were well-trained parents willing to volunteer at the start of the year who drifted away, so to speak. He's a nice bloke is K, but he needs to get his act together.

I still have fun. I like hanging out and getting to know all the kids, plus I get a bit more insight into classroom dynamics (like for example the fact that K has now separated Climber from Angelina because they got too distracted together.) And I've developed a special little relationship with the 2 boys who can barely read. Today I had quite a result with one of them; I got him to read a 'd' level book to me (he is still on 'a' level with his home readers) and afterwards he was just SO proud of himself, and all fired up about reading. It was great.

But the real bonus to doing all this help is that I get to watch Climber doing his weekly Show-and-Tell. I love the concept of Show-and-Tell, the fact that the kids are getting up and articulating in public about things they like or have done. The reality, however, of Show-and-Tell is fairly humdrum. Oh look, another boy has brought in his Footy Swap cards. Oh and here's a little girl showing us the latest addition to her sticker book. Wow. And here's another lego creation. Seeing as how I get to witness K's ennui at this sort of presentation, I do my best to send Climber off with something mildly interesting. Which is not always easy to do, especially when you only remember what day it is 10 minutes before you leave for school.

But I am pleased as punch to announce that Climber blitzed his Show-and-Tell presentation this morning! And it's all thanks to Nell and the way that she follows through, in a practical manner, subjects in which the boys have expressed interest. (We are very lucky to have her.) So, stemming from the Harry Potter fixation round our way, the whole concept of writing with a quill and ink became reality for Climber recently. Nell's mother Daphne made Climber a proper quill from a goose feather and Nell bought some ink.

Turns out that the class has been focusing on The Olden Days and K's eyes lit up when the quill and ink were produced this morning. A lively lesson ensued, to which the kids all paid fascinated attention. No squirming, wriggling or talking! And Climber was thanked at the end of it for bringing in such a great Show-and-Tell and his little face beamed proudly as he sat down.

Way to go, Nell and Daphne!!