#carhours

Adventures on local school. 

Local school is basically going to a local school that is around 5 minutes away from Greengates by car and teaching children from grade 1 to 5 math or spanish. Going there makes me respect my teachers so much. I know I am a difficult student, but teaching little children is impossible. They don't listen, they don't work and everything is just a mess.

The first class we brought candy. Worse. Mistake. Ever. They saw the candy and we barely managed to work. Next week we forgot about the candy and so it has been ever since. We first decide to teach math and we noticed some severe differences in knowledge between children in the same class. There were some that could barely do simple sums, and some I could ask basic multiplication and they knew how to do it. We decided to divide the children in 3, by levels, so that they could make progress at their own pace. I was teaching the ones in the middle, so doing some more complicated sums and starting multiplication. Teaching is really hard because it is difficult to get the children's attention and then it is even harder to transmit concepts that are abstract for them like why 3*2=6.

Let me tell you a side story. 

A very good friend was doing an art project with the children, but the groups we had chosen got mixed up. She and her team ended up in one of the older classes with a very draconian teacher. Apparently she was a devil to them. Our CAS coordinator tried to solve out the problem and the conclusion was that the ones working with that group had to be strict (me) and know their spanish (the guy I'm working with). So we changed groups.

We have been with them now only twice and it has not been too bad. We are teaching composition that is : Introduction, Development and Denouement of a story. We face the same problems of the other class, that is that there are differences in the level of each student. Some understand very quickly what we mean to say and know how to write fairly OK for 10 year old children, but some cannot spell some words and have a harder time understanding what we are trying to explain. I believe that this understanding we are trying to reach can only be achieved with loads of time and practice but I'm afraid the teacher they have will get sick of us teaching the same thing over and over again. i guess we will have to wait and see.

My anger management problems have been put to test again like they are constantly in local library. I'm a person with a very strong character so having children not listen to me really get on my nerves. I have obviously never been to a behaviour management class like teachers so one of the counsellor teachers that goes with us to the school has given me some tips on how to make them listen to them more. Since they are already used to a severe teacher it is better to use a mildly loud but decisive voice and they normally start working.

Funny story:

My partner in the class was trying to teach them indentation in a text so he said : When you change paragraphs you leave a space of about three fingers in between them, this is called indentation. And one of these kids actually left a space in between the paragraphs, like, vertically. I guess it was a problem with his diction but we corrected it immediately to see if anyone else had had this confusion.

Learning outcomes:

worked collaboratively with others

developed new skills

undertaken new challenges

+6 hours

C: 13/50, A: 13/50, S: 23/50 , T: 49