Thursday 15 September-Friday 16 September
the coolest kid ever
This week has been crazy because grades 4-7 are writing tests. They are only writing for two hours between 9 and 10 and 12 and 1 but my teachers aren’t doing anything but grading so I’ve been helping out with that. Not fun but it has to be done.
On Thursday I did more grading but I also got to do a one to one with this learner named Chris. This kid is the coolest. He just sits there and laughs at me. Apparently I’m hilarious (who knew?). He seriously has the best smiles I’ve ever seen. I’m working with him on literacy and he definitely needs the attention. He struggles to sound out words and even knowing the different letter sounds so we worked on that. I was hoping to get through the entire alphabet but we only got through A-F. He is so much fun to work with! I’m trying to convince Mel to let me continue to work with him for the rest of my time here. She’s not exactly happy about it and I understand. It’s hard to signal out one learner when so many of them need help. But this kid is so awesome! It would be amazing to get to work with him for the rest of my time here so I can actually see the difference I’m making. It’s hard with my job to feel like I’m making a difference, let alone see a difference.
Friday was a half day and I had thought that I had to work with the Grade 4’s but I didn’t. I completely that they were taking tests as well so I did one one to one with Chris again which was amazing. Seriously this kid is awesome. On Thursday we went through flashcards (a-f) so on Friday I traced the flashcards and had him label the different words associated with the letter. He really enjoyed that and he seriously makes me want to be a better teacher because he is such a joy to teach.
During the rest of the week I have been doing sports. I would have literally driven myself insane if I would have just done grading all week. It was a lot of fun. We worked with Grade 2 and they were so cute. It was so much fun. We warmed up and stretched and then divided them into two groups. Chelsea and I working with one group and Emma and Matt on the other. We worked on passing and throwing and then divided up the groups even more and had them do different drills and race each other. The kids obviously enjoyed it and I absolutely loved it. A whole lot better than being stuck in a classroom and grading all day. I did go back to the classroom and did some more grading. I even got an entire class’s exams to grade tonight. Hooray! I’m not exactly excited about it but I do want to help.
Since I only had one one to one on Friday, I helped out with sports. They worked with Grade 1 and they are so cute! They are the tiniest little things ever. It was so much fun. We did the chakala song which involves running around holding hands in a circle and screaming the words which go a little something like this: chakala, chakala, chakala, woo, woo! And every time you say woo woo you have jumped down. I don’t really know how to describe but it’s a lot of fun and exhausting. Then we divided the learners up into two groups. Chelsea and I usually worked together and then Rodrigo and Matt worked together if Matt was actually helping. Then we got into a circle again holding hands and they would have to go through a hoola hoop without letting go. That was the hardest part, getting them not to let go. There was one point when I was working alone so I just had them do it over and over again with me in middle making sure they were holding hands and NOT letting go. It worked! After all that practice when it was time to actually compete against the other group. We dusted them! They were so good. It was awesome.
Another thing we did which was kinda awkward but super cute was have a tennis ball under your chin and you couldn’t touch it with your hands but you had to pass it to the next person. It was really difficult for them to do that. But it was hilarious and so cute to see them try. So many good photo moments. I hope they got some good pictures of that.