Today was my first official day as an official teacher. Being beyond nervous coupled with fact that I had a lot of other things on my mind I barely got 3 hours of sleep last night.
Kids can be the most honest creatures on the planet and are not afraid to show either verbally or physically that they don’t approve of something. To include the new “Black American” teacher that is standing in front of them. To my surprise my students actually loved me. I mean who wouldn’t (bats eyes). I had observed a few of the other teachers and they were inexperienced and boring as hell. My mission was to be the fun teacher.
I currently teach what is known as “Standard 2”. I would compare it to second grade in the states but the curriculum is all over the place and so are the ages of the students. I have 23 kids who are anywhere from 7 to 10 years old ind my class. Makes no sense to me but I guess it does to them. Anywho, I teach Math and English every day for this particular class. I also teach English to what is known as “Preform 1”. The students have just graduated Standard 7 and are on there way to secondary school in January. On top of all that….I teach English as a Second language to Adults in the evenings three times a week. That I can officially say is the worst of the three. I thought it would be extra challenging to teach children but teaching adults is the WORST!!!! Especially ones who would rather be taught by my younger Vanilla counterpart Daniela. It seems that with matters of education and knowledge they believe white people are probably more intelligent than the black American girl who is a “descendant of slaves”. (I promise I will write a separate post on that… I just can’t muster up the energy to do so just yet..trust and believe it will be highly entertaining reading material).
In regard to knowledge, the kids have some learning challenges but I think most of this can be attributed to how they are being taught. The teachers simply write the lessons directly from the workbook on to the board (to include pictures)…the kids copy what is on the board…and that is all. They can read English almost perfectly but some can’t understand one bit of it. God only knows why they are being taught English by teachers who don’t even speak English well. But I guess they are working with what they have…
Anyway. The rest of the day included me observing kids picking their noses and wiping it on desks, pushing each other into walls, sharpening pencils with their teeth, and getting beat with a stick after school by the Academic director while the rest of the students watched.
I’m pretty surprised that I have a knack for teaching children. Although this is a fantastic form of birth control and I am actually enjoying myself I do not expect to be running back to the states to go to school for teaching. That most definitely is not my purpose in life. God would not do that to me and my nerves 😉
I knew they would LOVE you!! So, do the kids get tested at the end of the semester on what is being taught to them?
They have monthly exams at the school but I started each of my classes off with a test before I taught my first lesson. They didn’t know much at all. The teachers were more concerned with finishing the lesson plan book than the students learning the information so I started from the beginning and gave a test on Mondays. The amount of improvement was astounding.
Did you connect with one kid more than another?
Hey Patty Cakes. No, not really but there were a handful of kids that stood out for one reason or another. Some that appeared to enjoy and benefit from my time there.