Standing still...and not so still.
That's the best way to describe my work here in the Eastern Caribbean around the 6 month in mark. While some things are not being acomplished so far, other parts of life are moving so fast it's hard to keep up. My primary assignment here in SVG is still, and will continue to be, as a literacy educator at Brighton Primary School. I'm currently working in Grade 1, with children ages 6-8 or so. Grades and requirements are set up differently here, so the age ranges within each class vary. One boy, for example, should be in Grade 4, but according to the teachers, he "slept through Grade 1-twice" and so remains in 1st grade.
Right now I am basically a second teacher in the class, I instruct some of the Language Arts lessons, as well as Science and Social Studies. The classes here are set up in 'block' schedules, and so each subject is taught at certain times-usually for 60 minutes. The children are loud, undisciplined, and wild-and while they usually do not listen to a word I say, I love them all. There are some who have amazing potential but suffer in the environment of the classrooms here, while others have no desire to learn anything-somehow these are the ones I am in love with most.
The age group I am with is in the basic stages of learning phonics and 'sight words' (words they need to know by looking at them-according to St. Vincent's Ministery of Education). Basically, we are teaching them the sounds that letters and blends (two letters together, such as 'ie' or 'ay'). While it is slow going, they are very creative children and love to make sentences on the board with you. A typical lesson consists of a picture story to go with each sound, followed by listing words that use that sound, and finally creating sentences with those words. It is a slow process, but it can be very rewarding to see them succeeding in both small and big ways.
0 comments:
Post a Comment