Barbara's teacher training -- I have a couple of corrections to make. I talked to her about it, just to be sure I get it right.

Last year in her senior year, Barbara took an Education 180 class, where she needed 30 hours of "observation" in the Fall quarter. Barbara became a kindergarten aide for 3-4 hours about twice a week, and actually got about 45 hours that quarter. She was supposed to learn about classroom management.

Then, on a strictly volunteer basis since she enjoyed the teacher so much, she continued to be an aide once a week for the next two quarters. There was an "art specialist" in the classroom only the last 6 months of the year, and Barbara really enjoyed being there for that. She's always enjoyed arts and crafts.

Now that she's working on her Masters in Education and California Teaching Credential, she truly is doing Student Teaching (I wasn't sure). And she actually got to stay two weeks in the kindergarten class to start. She was sad yesterday because she has an eye infection, and the only squeeze-in appointment at her doctor's office was at 9:00 this morning, so she'd have to miss part of her last day there.

So, she mostly observes and assists, and will probably present a lesson here and there. At the end of the year, she'll have two weeks where she "solo's" -- that is, runs and teaches the classroom on her own, with the master teacher observing.

I remember having a Dominican novice history teacher who was a student teacher in Sister Imelda's class in my senior year. I remember when she solo'ed. It made it really clear what a wonderful master teacher Sister Imelda was -- and I was so glad to get her back at the front of the classroom!

Barbara's started in-classroom training on Monday. She's assigned to work in two different schools with two different grades -- with 4th graders this semester (so she's with the older kids in elementary ed) -- and with kindergartners starting in January (which is the age she thinks she wants to teach after graduation).

However, since kindergartners will be very different in January than on their arrival into the classroom for the first time, they made an exception to her schedule, and had her report to the kindergarten teacher for the first week this week. Barbara had been an aide last year with a teacher in a Santa Cruz kindergarten classroom. (I think that's what it was. I think it was associated with some class she was taking, perhaps a prepartory education class. Ooh, I'm sorry that I'm so fuzzy on the details!) When Barbar had trouble finding her "new" teacher -- the "old" teacher escorted her to the room.... and gave lots of praise about her, and how lucky the other teacher was to have her.

Steve later told me that Barbara told him that Barbara was introduced to everyone as "Miss Craig". I wonder why Barbara didn't mention that to me. It must have made her feel really grown up. I remember when on my first job in Boston, and folks would refer to me as "Mrs. Craig", it felt oh-so-different!

They said that she needed to learn about "forming communities" both in the kindergarten and in the 4th-grade classroom, so she can't stay in the kindergarten too long. I don't think Sister Annene (sp?) formed "communities" when I started in first grade, nor in any other grade I attended!

So, Barbara's doing practical training for 1 week in nearby Santa Cruz kindergarten. Then she does practical training for the rest of the semester in a farther-out Santa Cruz 4th grade. Then she returns to the same nearby Santa Cruz kindergarten in January. She was just gushing over how cute the kindergartners were. She said that by comparison, the first graders seemed so old.

Maybe she's right about herself. I hope she'll make a great kindergarten teacher! She certainly seems to have passion for working with the little ones!