work – discovery

teaching tidbits

Teaching is about the dynamic: every mood, focus, and student’s motivation. I am tested on my patience every single day. My triggers are: students acting out, not taking their work seriously, constant disruptions, a tedious slow-progressing day, sleepiness. But peace is: seeing students adopt good work habits, respectful attitudes towards others, and confidence in their own ability to do well. Thinking about the positive outcomes allows me to stay constant and maintain as unaffected as I can be by the negative moments in my teaching day.

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Outgoing students are easily distracted by external stimuli—that is more controllable and measurable than students who are extremely passive in their learning. Shy students tend to be distracted inside, as if they withdraw (e.g. daydream, are distracted, etc.).

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When a student cheats, he gets a big ZERO in my book because even if he got 100% on that particular assignment, it means nothing.

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Teaching is repetitive, structured like any other job, but it has more outcome. To me, it is very satisfying. It requires me to serve as guidance, practice humility, patience, love, and support, and requires me to be the best person I can be, to model good citizenship and good work habits for my students. I am too often tempted to give up at times, but I keep teaching as a form of investment in their futures, because I believe it makes a difference.

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However distraught I am, tired or distracted, I stay strong. I have been sleeping early, eating healthy, and being the best me I can be, so that I am a happy, witty, encouraging teacher for my daily classes.

Kindergarten

(June 1)

It’s not fair that any of these children were born under these conditions. There are too many of them, and not enough resources, nor an efficient system, to serve them and/or train them into the best citizens that they can be for their country, their families, and themselves.

The little boy with the club foot, Josie, is just lying on the mat while the kids all play outside.

As each mother brings their child, they do it out of love for their kids’ well being.. but, as each new child is brought in to the kindergarten, it in turn jeopardizes their own chances of learning well because more and more children are brought in. The kids all end up just sitting there, not learning much. How do we overcome this problem??

Kindergarten.

The classroom became more of a daycare, as children kept arriving. At the most count, there were close to 50 children in that one small room. It was incredible to see all their little slippers outside the classroom. It was a sign to hear all the children sing the ‘Baby Jesus’ song to start off the class. I’m still figuring out what I think of the intricate tie between religion and education here.

Pretty soon, the sheer number of kids caused mayhem, and then we started to understand why teachers here use threats of punishment to control the students… it was impossible to manage all the interruptions as children cry, argue, tire, inquire, etc… Teaching in this cultural setting (i.e. having so many children in one room) requires a totally different set of skills than those used in our system back home. In N.A., teachers use particular sets of teaching styles, material, punishment, etc., to teach different grades. In that one room, there were children ranging from 3 years old to 7 years old. When a 3 year old started crying, the volunteer, Harriet, who was also our translator, called on his 8 year old sister to take care of him and stop his crying. How is that inductive to her learning at all? I’ve never seen an 8 year old called upon to care for her 3 year old little brother in a classroom setting.

Toward the end of our class, we were all exhausted. We wondered, how does the system here work?! What kind of system can accommodate for all these children and people and chaos? Step back, step back. Culture shock is all. We saw an older teenager, 18 years old or so, take the aforementioned 3 year old little guy, and their relationship was so comfortable and amazing that we began to appreciate the culture of the community… relationships between young and old and families are so important and so strong that somehow all the ‘chaos’ is manageable, and the community sustains its own system of learning and living.