Friday, January 30, 2009
Why hello everyone! How is everyone doing? I’m going to apologize for the huge load of reading material that I posted last week, I know it was a lot. There is SO much to tell and I want to make sure that I inform you of everything that is going on, so I hope that no one minds.
This week has been one full week but I can’t believe it’s Friday already. The past week has flown by and I was again shocked to find out that it was Friday this morning. It has been my first full week of teaching and I really have been enjoying it. I will admit that Monday was very overwhelming. I know I mentioned before that I was helping in one of the grade 1 classes with the slower children but while I was in class I realized that these students (there are around 12 of them) don’t get much one on one attention from the teacher. And, that is kinda what they need. Most of the kids didn’t get a chance to go to nursery school so they are quite far behind and they would get lost in the class because there was never enough time to give them the attention that they need. So they were basically coming to school empty and leaving empty – learning nothing. The sisters have been trying to remedy the problem but there hasn’t been an opportunity. On Saturday last week, Sr. Cecile and Sr. Odile had asked me if I wanted to take the 12 students from the class and give them the necessary attention that they needed. I said that I would love to! I didn’t realize what I was exactly in for. I had prepared the night before for the class. And really, it’s grade one basics and I had really just planned on seeing where they were at for the upcoming week. So Monday morning we had the classroom all arranged and we took the students into their new classroom and we just started with basics, like if they even knew how to spell their name, sing songs in English, introduce themselves, etc. I hardly got through that during the day because I spent the ENTIRE day disciplining them. Honestly……honestly…..I came home with the biggest headache and I went straight into my room and took a long nap. I didn’t really think they were going to be angels…but I sure didn’t think they would be so all over the place. I was honestly very frustrated and later on that night I went to the chapel and had a good heart to heart with the Lord about it. I just kept saying over and over, “Lord, you’ve brought me all this way to discipline kids?” I hated the fact that I didn’t know exactly where the Lord was calling me while being here and the last thing I wanted to do was to come here and have the worst experience of my life. And I thought that if every day was going to be like this, this would really be the worst experience of my life. Honestly though, how many of you really know me? Can you see me being the disciplinarian type?! Me either, so I thought. The thing is, is that these kids have not had the opportunity to be shown that they can learn or that they are even capable of being someone smart. They’re only in grade one so this may be their first time going to school and so they’ve just slipped through the cracks just getting by and no one following up with them. And….this is huge….they don’t even know basic manners like please and thank you, or even how to just sit in their desk and ask to use the bathroom or sharpen their pencils. Seriously…I’ve never thought that a tiny little sharpener could make so much stress in a classroom. For all of you teachers reading this….I APPLAUDE you for a job well done. Not only about mastering the sharpener situation, but about continuing to be a teacher after the first day in a classroom. AH! I was So overwhelmed! And I only had 12 students. Again, like I said I’m sure it would be quite different from school in
The next day, I really really wanted to give up, and if the Lord hadn’t given me the patience or the strength, I really would’ve. I went into the next day (which was Tuesday) not knowing how I was going to handle it. But, looking back on it now, I realize that the Lord gave me incredible courage. When the bell rang the kids of course were running around and had no control. They were ALL over the place – like animals in a zoo. For some strange reason, I just took the bull by the horns and just MADE them each sit in their own desks and just SIT. I thought, “well, if they haven’t yet learnt how to just sit in their desks quietly, then that’s where we start.” I can honestly say that by the end of the day, we hadn’t gotten through much other than ABC’s and learning how to sit in their desks and there were a few little boys who were falling asleep in their desks. They just hadn’t had a whole day where they actually had to concentrate so they were pretty tired. I came home with a bit more strength that day, and a little bit better plan as to how I was going to approach this teaching business. J
For a lot of these kids, no one has followed up with them, I mean as far as their parents. So, when they tested my patience or tried to test me when I told them that if their bags weren’t on the floor under their desks or they didn’t have their shoes on their feet before class started or they were playing with pencils or papers, etc….that they would become mine, they didn’t think I was serious. All I’m going to say is that I had a PILE of book bags on the top of my filing cabinet at the end of the day and there were a few kids that went outside for break without any shoes. Haha…it sounds harsh I know, but honestly to them, it’s just a different way of disciplining them rather than how their parents usually do….unfortunately by beating them. That’s just how they do things around here. So taking something away from them doesn’t sit well with them. And in my defense, these kids play bare foot all the time, the worst part for them, was that I actually took the shoes away and they couldn’t get them back until the end of the day. They didn’t think I was serious. The next big lesson for them was that if they were going to be playing in class, then they weren’t going to get to go out and play for break. NONE of them liked this concept. I had a few students who didn’t like the idea that they had to stay in class while all the other kids went out to play. One little girl thought it would be better that I would beat her rather than hold her in for break, and I just said, “woah…hold on here…this is an interesting picture.” She would’ve rather just taken a beating and gone out to play than to actually just sit quietly in her desk. Of course, that’s not how I do things, so she spent the time in the classroom sitting quietly….and pouting the entire time. I honestly was quite shocked. Like I said….things are different around here and slowly I’m trying to wrap my head around it all. And slowly they’re learning that Im serious. I know all of you are probably thinking, “wow, that’s kinda mean,” especially about the shoes part. But, I think that it’s always easier to have control of a class and then gradually be nicer than to be nice at first and have NO control what so ever over the class. I have thought SO much about my elementary days while being here over the past few weeks, and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of Mrs. Peters, my grade 6 teacher. She was the teacher you NEVER wanted to mess with, and everyone knew it. So everyone was good in her classes. But, even though she may have been mean, we learnt a lot and I have very fond memories of doing a lot of fun things in her class. Maybe once these kids learn just how to sit in their desks and learn a few manners, we can have some fun and the kids will have a few memories to take away from their year “Miss Jennifa” came to teach. One thing I’ve realized that a sticker is like GOLD around here. Before I came, I had gone to the dollar store to buy a few things to take with me and I bought these sheets (with probably 100 stickers) for a dollar, and I thought they would go over well with the kids. And oh my, do they ever. The kids in my class love them and we do a lot of Phonics, word association and spelling and when they get answers right they get a sticker. Oh boy…it’s hilarious to see and it’s really given them incentive to remember what they’ve learnt. And it works…haha J I think that’s most important. There are even kids from the other classes who love the stickers and I always have 3 or 4 girls who “call” sweeping my floor after school so that they can get a sticker.
One thing I’m grateful for over the past week has been that I’ve gotten to spend a little bit more time with Sr. Odile. I’m trying to get to know each of the sisters individually and working with Sr. Odile at the school has allowed me the chance to get to know her a bit more. Sr. Odile is the principle of the school and what I love most about her is that even though sometimes she seems like she has this serious look on her face, she will all of a sudden burst out laughing at something and it almost catches me off guard. She’s so easy to talk to and I enjoy the mornings since we eat breakfast together in her office. We both like “pancakes” so very often we’ll buy them off the street and eat them for breakfast. I really appreciate that she’s behind me in the whole disciplining the kids aspect because there have been a few times where I’ve had to send kids to the her office. And they usually come back sitting up straight and listening, which I appreciate. I imagine I’ll be spending the most time with her over the next months that I will be here.
I can see why Sr. Cecile has spent so much time here. There is a joy that I’ve seen in her while I’ve been here that I have never seen while she is at home. You can just tell that she LOVES it here. This has definitely been her calling and I can see why. There is a joy that comes from doing the Lord’s Will for our lives and no one can ever put a price on such a thing. But, we all have to search for that and in searching we realize what makes us most happy…in doing the Lord’s Will in each very different ways.
In Jesus and Mary,
Jen
1 comment:
Hey Jen. I love your blog! This class sounds like one of the grade 8 classes I teach this year.
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