Ayer (yesterday) we visited the escuela
altos de San Luis. This is a one-room schoolhouse, serving grades k through
6th. Yes you read it right…all of those grades in one place. There is about 23
students in this school. We met the principal, Angel, who is also the main
teacher (he has 1 volunteer teacher and one regular classroom volunteer). The
room is split into two. One side for the 1st through 3rd
graders, here they practice reading, math, writing but no English. The other
side is grade 4-6th, here they have computer class and English class
once a week. Tai, who has no training on how to teach, teaches both these. The
volunteer, Jennifer, use to teach in a title 1 school in the states so she has
education background. Kindergarten
has a small room off to the side but we did not meet the teacher or students
because, the teacher is a part of the strike (more on that later.)
Upon arrival, the school just looked
like a happy place. All of the walls are painted with murals, and everyone we
met was smiling, children included. I was shocked by the fact that the older
students had a projector, a group of small laptops and Internet access. We
found out that the school had been approved to be apart of a government program
to give them more resources since the school is so rural. Aside from those technology touches the
school was very simple. The rooms weren’t very visually stimulating. By that I
mean there were no posters of anchor charts or decorations up. We also were
able to see the cafeteria. One woman makes breakfast, lunch and a snack for the
students everyday so their families only have to be worried about feeding them one
meal. The government only give the school one dollar per student per day.. for
2.5 meals. The rest of the money comes from donations. This just doesn’t sit
well with me. The school isn’t given enough resources or money to feed the
kids, yet they are expected to because they may not have the means at home.
Those students who don’t have the means at home clearly don’t have the extra
means to help contribute to the fundraisers. It just seems like a never ending
cycle,, thankfully they are making it work and those families who can help do.
I just hope this continues.
Us
MSU students split into two groups, I went to work with two older students (4th
and 5th grade). I was teaching them numbers in English. At first to
see where they were in their learning I wrote some number down and had them
read them to me, they were blowing through this so I had them count verbally.
They went up to 90 before I told them they could stop. About this time we were
given a stack of flash cards, the cards were number 1-18 and had a combination
of words, the number, and an array of pictures. We played a matching game; I
think this really benefited, Carlos, the younger student because he had to
count the pictures to find the match. The young lady I was working with was a
pro at this already. After 2 rounds of this we switched to “fly swatter”.
During this game all the cards are in front of them, and I say a number and
they race to “swat” it. The friendly competition really drove the students to
stay focused and try their best. It was really nice to see the students having
fun while they were learning, the young lady even started to catch her mistakes
(she switched 8 and 18 a lot) before I could tell her to try again.
The
students were ready for a brain break and the little boy wanted to quiz me but
he made me say all the numbers in Spanish. We did this for only a minute or
two, I think he was a little disappointed that I was getting them correct. I
did this because it helped strengthen our connection, had some laughs, and it
showed them that I was learning another language just like they were so they were less afraid to make mistake in
front of me. I believe that relationships are important for any classroom, and
the better the student knows and trusts the teacher the more willing they are
to take risks and be themselves. Knowing we were coming back to this school I
tried to pay a little more attention to this aspect because when we return on
Thursday I want them to have a positive thought about learning from us, and
really give it all they have for our short time together.
I
can’t wait to return tomorrow...
 |
| The entrance to the classrooms |
 |
| Jennifer working with the 4-6th graders |
 |
| Donated playground |
 |
| Projector for the older children |
Our second day at San Luis was absolutely wonderful. Nate, myself, and Erika played a game with two groups of older students. During this game we showed all but one student a picture, a very UNrealistic picture. For example one was a huge hand with 9 eyes, a nose, mouth, and three legs. The student who could see the picture had to describe what to draw using English. This was so much fun, and overall very successful. I believe that is day was so successful because the students were engaged the whole time, talking, moving, drawing, laughing. The first picture was always the hardest on the students because they didn't expect such crazy pictures. We also drew a basic outline of a body and labeled different parts so the student would have a visual aid if they needed assistance. If I was able to do this again I would review more than what we did, we had the rattle off parts they knew verbally and explained why we had drawn the diagram on the board, which worked out okay but I think it would be better if we had them point to the part on their body when we or themselves said that part. This way we could do a better job assessing their prior knowledge. When all the student already had a turn to draw, we had them tell Erika and myself what to do, this reinforced the goal because they knew that we wouldn't response to the Spanish directions that were so temping to use for them. Based on our group discussion afterwards and personal experience, relationships came into play in a huge way because they were starting to get to know us and feel more comfortable taking risks, movement was much more engaging than sitting and listening for the younger students, and the fact that we were able to play games while they were learning was a fantastic bonus.
No comments:
Post a Comment