Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Teaching my first lesson already..

Today(or yesterday) was my first full day at the school. My ride came to pick me up around 7:15. I got to the classroom and there was only about 2 kids there, the school day is supposed to start at 8 but usually noone is there on time. The actual teacher wasn´t even there yet! Ha! That´s so funny to me but normal. The american missionary girl was there though. Her name is Hailee or Heidi I´m not quite sure. Everyone that tries to speak in english has such a thick accent I wasn´t sure what they said and I never even thought to ask her myself what her name actually is. Oh well. I really like her though, she showed me everything that they do there. It doesnt seem that hard. Atleast I won´t be teaching math or anything like that..I barely know anything about that myself. The beginning of the day was nice. The kids were still pretty tired so they are mostly calm. We had reading groups and I helped with the more advanced readers. Even though I think they might have been faking the fact that they couldn´t read what the little booklet said. So I just had them repeat after me. After that they had a worksheet to do. Haylee asked me if I wanted to teach them for that portion. At first I was like no way but then I thought about it and they are 5 year olds, they arent going to judge me and be mean! So I guided them through the worksheet and helped them learn about words that rhyme and vowels and constanants. They are such smart kids. Most of them have pretty good pronunciation in english too.

Well since it was still pretty wet outside they didn´t have recess once again. But after they had lunch the main teacher (I forgot her name), came up with the brilliant idea to let them go outside and run a couple of laps around the futbol court. Well once we went outside, me and Haylee lined them up outside. She had the boys and I had the girls. So then we all started running. But all of a sudden they werent running in a line anymore it was like a whirlwind of children running in all different directions screaming and laughing uncontrollably! There are 2 goal nets at each end, when the first few kids reached the last one they started to climb the net. I ran over there and had to pull them down and tell them to get down. Luckily they didnt reach the top. So as I pulled them down they ran off. I was relieved to get them down. But then this little crazy kid named Piero was rolling around in a huge puddle! And he had dragged another little boy named Franco with him! They were soaked! Haylee picked them up and then I look up and all the kids I had pulled off the goal net the first time had gone to the other one and were climbing that one!! Ahh! So I ran over there and tried to pull them off. But one little girl named Adriana, she is one of the cutest little girls I have ever seen (other than my nieces if course), was all the way at the top and she was stuck! She was too scared to get back down. So I had to kinda climb up and get her down. It was such chaos! So as we tried to gather the 23 kids I see Piero throw himself in the huge puddle again. This time he was rolling around in it! We got him up and not even 10 seconds later we see him push a little girl into another puddle! This whole idea of letting them run around was a disaster! But it was hilarious to me at the same time. The other teacher came outside and we took them all back into the classroom. She lectured them for about 20 minutes about obeying their teachers and then we had to get their clothes dry. So the ones that had soaked clothes had to change and we put their clothes in the dryer. It was craziness. But at the same time it was the cutest thing to me that they got so crazy when we took them outside. The rest of the day was kinda chaotic as well. Once something out of the normal structure happens it´s hard to get kids back to the normal routine. I did a little lesson about Italy and gondolas and the leaning tower. It was so cute to see them all sitting up listening to every word I was saying. I really love doing this. I wish I could go again tomorrow but my mom gets here in the early morning. actually in about 1 hour I am headed to the airport to pick her up with Becky, Fernando and tia Mimi. I am so tired right now. I think I might start hallucinating soon. I am going to try to take an hour nap before I have to go. I can´t wait to see my mom! I really miss her. I don´t know if I will be able to go back to teach at all this rest of the week. Im staying in El Callao and thats like an hour from Stefani´s house which is in Surco, so it´s even further away from Jose Galves. I will definately be going back Monday though.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hola Chica :) sounds like you are having the time of your life in Peru! I am sooo happy for you! Sounds like you really have the teaching thing down...You are soo good with kids, I'm sure they all just adore you! I miss you, and I love you! I think about you ALL.THE.TIME. Have fun, and take care, beautiful girl!
-Cindy

Unknown said...

Hey Raybaykeen,
It sounds like you are thoroughly enjoying yourself in Peru. I can totally relate to the chaos that sometimes occurs when you are teaching kids. I learned so much patience during my years of teaching. People sometimes don't realize how difficult teaching can be, both physically and psychologically. As Tupac said, "Keep yo head up!"
Peace!