The Penultimate

Tomorrow is the last day of teaching and the last day of the "Club de Ninos". These 4 weeks have gone by so fast, and it seems as if we were just having orientation and meeting our host families for the first time. As I've said before, I teach 5th and 6th grade and I though it would be a good idea to reflect on what I've done, how I feel about the teaching, ect. To be honest, I'm not sure how effective our teaching has been. I don't know how much English the kids aquired and how much of it they will be able to use in the future. I don't know if I mentioned it in a previous blog, but the students normally only have English classes for the few weeks that we are here in May and in August. I know that the kids must pick up on some of the information we teach them, because some of the kids will already know a few English words that we haven't taught them. However, we teach the same material (more or less) that last year's group taught. If we are just teaching the same stuff year after year, is it really worth it? Is it worth the time and cost of the students and the teachers? There is also another volunteer here who teaches English a few times a week, so perhaps he is staying longer and can actually teach the kids a solild basis of English. Another problem that makes the classes difficult to teach is the attitude of some of the kids. For example, the 5th grade class as about 30 students in it. Of those thirty, there are about 4 kids who cause trouble every single day. They fight, punch other kids, yell, ect. They get the rest of the class riled up so even the students who are really dedicated to studying and want to learn get distracted and stop paying attention. It's the same in the States, but the teacher has zero control over these kids and gets no respect. Today, a group of 3 or 4 boys were wrestling in the middle of her class (concrete floors) and she just watched and then went on with what she was doing. Also, she apparently told Steven (a guy in my group) that one of the kids was bored, which meant he was acting up so we should do something about it. Somehow, we are expected to entertain and teach while having no disipline power and little respect. I'm honestly not sure how to go about that and the class is really stressing me out. Another part of the situation that confuses me is the fact that this school isn't free; the parents are paying $30 a year in tuition. Although thirty dollars doesn't seem like much, it is a lot for this community. Paying tuition is a financial burdon for the families, and it is suprising that the kids who misbehave would choose to act out and not pay attention. I know if my mom was paying a ton of money for me to go to school, I would study and try to get the most out of it. It seems disrespectful not to.
At the same time, there are other kids in the 5th grade class who are fantastic! Today lunch was served in the middle of class and most of the kids just stopped doing work because they were eating (and even the ones who weren't eating stopped paying attention). One girl, however, Areilly, kept copying the words down in her notebook and had her food on the floor. I was really shocked to see it, because I'm sure she was hungry and I was happy that she was so dedicated to her work that she waited to eat until she was finished.

6th grade is about half the size of 5th grade and is, for the most part, more well behaved. I think part of the reason is that 6th grade is the last grade at the school, so this is the last year of school for many of them. They are bright, interested in what we are teaching, pick up on things fast and seem to enjoy the class. I was really pleased today when we were reviewing the concept of "apostrophe s". We haven't seen the kids since last Friday and we were worried that they would forget all the information we taught them. We wrote a sentence like "Casa de Maria" on the board and asked them to translate it. This girl that I was working with last week 100% remembered how to do it and help me explain it to some of the others. I was so proud that she knew how to do it! Most of the girls in the class seem to think that they aren't as smart as the boys, so it was awesome to see her understand and to see how proud she was that she understood! 

Although I'm not sure how much English the kids will retain, we made a lot of personal connections and friendships with the kids that I hope they will remember. I hope that we have affected their lives and made them brighter for a month. I am one of a (small) handfull of volunteers who managed to stick with the "Club de Ninos" (Kids' Club) for the three weeks (and I was also called a Saint) (there was a lot of parenthesis in that sentence!). Kids' Club is tiring for us, and a lot of fun for the kids. We basically come up with a craft (mainly coloring) to entertain the kids with and then let them play football and/or jumprope for an hour. A few crafts that went over well were the masks, cootie catchers and a weaving project. We are also making books tomorrow for the Dia de Mama (Mothers' Day). It is basically a time for "kids to be kids". I'm really going to miss Kids' Club because it's a time to "hang out" with the kids from class. It makes everyone (the volunteers and students) see the human side of each other.