Gimme A Break

Over Spring break, I participated in a program called Gimme a Beak. The program allows students the opportunity to go out of state and do a community service program depending where you are interested in. I was able to go to South Dakota with two other students where we worked at Red Cloud Indian School. It is an elementary school that was designed for those who are Native American and are Sioux Indian descent.

At the school I was with a first grade classroom. Right away I was able to see some differences in how they function in the classroom compared to what I know first hand. The students were more respectful to the teachers and those that they came in contact with during the school day. Instead of calling their teachers by mister or miss’ they referred to them by their first name. I thought this was odd as we were brought up that you had to call the teachers by their last names as a way of respect. Another thing that is different is that there was a small amount of students in each grade. They only had one class for each grade. There were only 22 students in the class that I was in.

When I first got there I was unaware of the different things that I was going to do. Right away the teacher had me help the students with the work that they were doing. I was also placed on recess duty where I had to take the class outside for 20 minutes and watch them all by myself. This was overwhelming as I didn’t think that this was something that they would have me do on the first day when I didn’t know any of the students. All went well though. However the whole time I kept counting the students to make sure I didn’t lose anyone. By the end of the week, I was more relaxed when on recess duty. Also I felt more comfortable in the classroom while I took charge of some situations that were presented to me.

For me the experience allowed me to become closer to the other two girls that I went with. By being in the first grade classroom for the week, I am now positive that I am making the correct decision to be an elementary teacher in the future. It was an experience that I will never forget. All the people that we came in contact with were so respectful and willing to try to make you feel like a part of their world. I hope that I will be given another opportunity to do something else like this in the future.