Being the worrier that I am, I took a trip to the location of the school in order to become familiar with the area and parking. Needless to say that it really helped me because my first day was an easy trip. I entered the school surprised by its location. It is turned away from the main road, which I realized after when I actually found the name of the school posted on the building. The building itself looks relatively new inside and out. When I first entered the school, I noticed the wide, open spaces between all of the classrooms and administration offices. The central theme to the building as far as the color scheme could be explained as crisp and clean with bright colors: white, light blue, yellow, green.
As far as the classrooms that I tutor in (kindergarten and first grade) the general space of the classroom is used quite well. Everything seems to have a space; whether in a cubby or box, books, crayons, pencils, computers, etc. are widely used by the students in both classrooms. Kindergarten and first grade is clearly more centered on colorful pictures and graphs representing the days of the week, colors, letters of the alphabet and so on. There are a lot of colors and things going on on the walls of each classroom but somehow the students know where everything is and are reminded of their representation every day. The teachers also integrates this as well. I observed their routines with the students every morning. For example, with a new and improved alphabet song to get them started with reading time.
The feelings that I associate with this school are wide ranging from diversity to caring friendships. The students come from such diverse backgrounds with languages that are completely opposite from English. However, the way the teachers teach the students helps them learn as a unit the real fundamentals of the English language. Being a "Reading Buddy" is so gratifying just knowing that I am contributing to a students knowledge of their second or perhaps even third language, English.
