I finally was given the chance to take over the classroom with my fellow volunteer Laura. We were excited to plan a full day of English activities, art, and games. But also a little nervous. 13 kids didn't seem like too many, right? How chaotic could it get??? Welll......our first day in the classroom, after several failed attempts at controlled chaos went...chaotic. The kids were still in full holiday swing and the idea of creating paper mache balloons ended up as a floury salty mess. I went home discouraged, annoyed that my first da y as a volunteer hadn't gone as perfectly as I had wanted.
But never say never! We went back to the drawing board with the lesson plans, agreed that splitting up the groups would be the best, and attempted once more. And to our delight, the day went much, much better. The day after their teacher came back from holiday, and things were back to normal. Relief. So my first few days as a teacher? Every day a challenge. But it is a challenging group for many reasons. First, the students are at different levels academically. Some can speak English fluently (such as the son of the school's founder, a woman from New Jersey), while others can barely speak in complete sentences. Some students are 13 years old and very mature for their ages, while others are as young as 6. All in the same class!!!
But there is one thing that almost all of these children have in common: they are bright and eager to learn. I have never met children so excited to come to class (ok I have, but not a huge group like this) and some of them retain so much of what you teach them that it blows you away the next day when they recite everything from yesterday's lesson. It will take a long time for me to really get to know these kids, which is alright. I have 6 months.
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