As the end to my second week in the schools approaches, I feel I find school to be exhausting, astonishing, and a huge test of my patience. (I also have a whole new appreciation for teachers.)
For starters, these classrooms have a complete lack of stimulation. The walls are bare and there are no games or supplies to help keep the children busy and engaged. There is a whiteboard, a desk for the teacher, and desks and tables for the kids. That's everything. Although just yesterday this big board of letters and numbers was delivered and put into each classroom. At least now the children have a model to reference. The teacher has a very small, limited set of crayons; though it is not nearly enough for the class so luckily some of the kids bring a few of their own. I really wish there was an extra supply of pencils in the classroom because most of these kids are writing with pencils that are right down to the nub. That can make it extra difficult for them to form the letters correctly and just as hard for me to show them.
I am becoming all too familiar with the stresses of many teachers, I would imagine, when it comes to actually trying to help children learn something. Keeping their attention is half the battle but I feel like I run out of ways to teach them. Today, I had one child read aloud the words he had just written (mama, mima, mapa, etc) syllable by syllable but he still kept putting the wrong sound with the syllable. I kept repeating them so he could hear me but he wasn't completely making the connection. Also, most of the time they just guess and you have to try and tell them to think before they guess. All day long I hear symphonies of "no puedo" (I can't) and "ayudame" (help me) from the children all before they even begin what they are working on. I see this as a result of a severe lack of confidence. So I always just say "yes you can!" and then after if they've really tried I will go back and help them. Overall, working one on one with the kids is much more effective and I try to do this as much as I can.
I find there is a lot of idle time in the classroom (for both the students and I) which I think further hinders their learning experience. The "lessons" are executed with space between them in which the children get all wound up again running around the classroom. (And a lot of the time outside of the classroom. Picture each classroom individual of the rest so there's no hallways or anything; just the door to the outside. There was actually a stray dog sitting in our doorway today.) There is this one boy, who is by far the worst behaved and continually tests my patience, who just runs outside and after a while the teacher will forget about him or gets busy with something else so he just stays out there. He certainly does not listen to me. I am consciously working on my disciplining skills but it is extremely hard when even the teacher does not discipline very well. The kids are sure not going to listen to me when they hardly listen to her.
I have been studying and taking Spanish lessons and hope that once my Spanish gets a little better I can be more efficient in the classroom. Our volunteer organization has a weekly meeting and it was mentioned earlier this week that our volunteer office has some resources and workbooks we can utilize. If there is a certain exercise or worksheet we think would be beneficial we can ask to have copies made and bring them to our class. I don't want to overstep my welcome, however, with my teacher so I need to first learn how to talk to her about this in Spanish...
And then there are the sweet, sweet moments. The other day at recess, this girl who is not in my class, probably about 6 or 7 years old, came up to me and wanted to be picked up. I picked her up and was surprised when she clutched on to me hard. Most kids are antsy and moving all around but this girl just nuzzled right into me and held on tight. I don't even know her name. I felt like I was doing something right.
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