Week #8 Prompt: Experience in a Classroom

I spent my Thursday afternoon in a 3rd grade classroom learning about Henry Ford, natural resources, Spanish, and how to send e-mails.  This is the second classroom I have spent time in since starting my degree at Michigan State.  The first classroom was in Lansing.  I found it very interesting that these two classrooms were so different just because of the location and types of people attending the schools.  The Lansing school was very urban.  I saw a mix of races, where white was a minority.  There were several kids that didn't know how to read, and even more behind in math.  I spent most of my time in that classroom working with individual kids trying to get them caught up from missing so much school, or helping them understand what was going on in class.  In the school I visited today, white was definitely a majority.  I spent most of my time observing and walking around the classroom to help kids when they had questions.  I worked with one student for a while on reading and understanding, but that was only for about a half an hour.
A common interest shared between both groups of kids, was an interest in computers and technology.  The Lansing school used computers as a station, where only 4 kids could use the 4 classroom computers at a time.  The school I visited today had computer lab time where each kid checked out a laptop and a lesson was taught about how to send e-mails.  It was hilarious to watch the kids send each other e-mails and then race across the room to see if their friend got it.  I'm not sure they understand that the point of an e-mail is to send a message that doesn't require face-to-face dialogue.
This hands-on experience is much different than reading about teaching in a textbook.  A teacher can be well prepared and still have a lesson flop if they aren't willing to be flexible.  Trying to lead 25 children in a direction is a difficult task, and it requires much patience.  Every day is different, it makes the job like an adventure, which makes it exciting.  However, no textbook will ever prepare a teacher for teaching.  Hands-on experience is really the only way to go.  After all, a textbook doesn't teach you how to deal with broken computers, chaos, and classroom visitors all at the same time.