Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The First Visit of Phil the Nurse

A nurse who works at the Mayo and is attending Winona State has to do a "community project". He wanted to do a lesson with first graders about washing their hands, but none of the mainstream first grade teachers would make time for him. He needed one hour.

So naturally, as the ESOL teacher, I offered him my students. It was quite recently that I was scrambling around, begging teachers to allow me to come into their class and have 30-45 minutes of their time. The only issue is that instead of one class for one hour, he has three classes and really only has three 20 minute chunks of instructional time.

My friend, Phil the Nurse, came to observe me today. Of course it was a bit of a crazy day since I was doing stations so I can get them exposure to their sight words and get some small group time with students. I didn't know how Phil the Nurse would handle the chaos of first grade stations, or how much he would judge me for singing and dancing and making overly dramatic facial expressions. It was amazing, though, because he got right in there! He did the morning greeting and "boogied down"! He participated in "Baby Shark" and "Tony Chestnut"! He even participated in stations with kids and made sight words out of play-doh!

What are the chances he wants to come be my permanent volunteer para? I could really use the extra set of hands! And he's a nurse! And he's going to teach them how to wash their hands! They need to learn more of those things! Future lessons might (and should) include:

* Not licking pencils
* Don't wipe your boogers on your friends
* Cover your mouth when you sneeze or cough
* REMEMBER to wash your hands
* Keep your shirt and shoes on at school


And that's just the beginning!

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