Week 2: Antsy students are bugging me a bit...but I still love them

​Grades 3 and 4

We had a fun time until it got too wild to control… for example today one kid BIT the another one. HE BIT HIM! I remember my third-grade class and I promise you no one bit anyone else… 
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The teacher was on a long lunch break (again) and I was left all alone. The poor kid just sat on the ground and cried. I felt awful. The other students were nice to him – one boy offered him a king coconut. (A king coconut is the sweeter version of coconut. It is orange and you can eat the inside flesh and drink the water). Being unable to control the situation I ran off to find the teacher and get her to come supervise. 

The lesson was the Natural Environment. It was fun and pretty regular stuff. Nothing much to say except this rainbow made everyone laugh...

Before class started.

This rainbow tho.

​Grade 5

​This class feels like it is moving slower than last year’s which worries me a tonne. On the bright side, I am teaching them the right way from the beginning. Remember my revelation about how teaching meanings of words are more helpful than treating each phrase as its own entity. Breaking the phrase to identifiable parts (individual words) makes it easier to learn other phrases with the same words. 

I just hope the pace begins to pick up soon. I hope it is my imagination but I think this year’s kids are a bit too excitable. 

The boys wouldn't take pictures with the girls and vice-versa. But i think both turned out pretty.

I had few pictures of the fifth graders last week so this week's post has a ton!

From the back of the classroom.

​Grade 6

The kids were playing with this deflated ball. They were having fun and all but...I still felt a bit sad. You see poverty in this school in all kinds of ways.

​Another disaster… Everyone was so loud. In both classes I found myself going horse. I will admit this year there are waaaaaay more kids to teach. I don’t think this is a bad thing – more kids are good – I want more people to be interested. Sadly, I can’t control them all. I think next year I am going to create some kind of enrollment system so I can have fewer kids at a time. The working idea is that I would allow 10-15 kids per class. The drawback would be that I would have to host more classes – thus have shorter classes. However, I believe it would be worth it as I feel that half the time in the current class is wasted by me having to try to control the students. 

By the way the lesson was Activities. There really isn't much to say except that we had a tough time going through the material because of the size of the class. 

​Grades 7-10

​This class was equally miserable. I know, I know – I am sounding really negative. Sadly, I want to document what is actually going on. There are four boys from the 10th grade that come and do nothing else but play on their phones. I don’t even have words. They won’t leave but they won’t pay attention either. It is a huge distraction for the other kids too… On top of that, the sheer number of students make it so the class gets wild pretty easily. They just can’t stop talking! It’s so strange – I beg them to stay silent or at least listen while I talk and they just do not. 

We had a full house.

​Grade 11

This is easily one of the most successful classes. Last week no one showed up but on Tuesday 9 people came. My plan for the class was using a book full of past papers. Past papers are just what they sound like: O/L exams from the past years. I found a book at the book store with 10 years worth of exams. My initial plan was to somehow transcribe each activity in the book onto the blackboard. Sadly, writing on the blackboard is a slower process than what I initially imagined. On Tuesday I learned this (we wound up just doing some fill in the blank stuff with me reading aloud) but on Wednesday I was prepared! My father and I bought 10 extra of such workbooks and let the kids read off of them. There are about 17 kids but only 12 wound up coming. This is good because we wanted to have one book be shared by two kids. 
To be fair a book is 250 rupees! I will not provide pictures in the book just because I am not sure the copyright involved with such a workbook. Honestly all the tests should be available online (I think) but it is worth getting them as convenient books especially because the cost of printing something in Sri Lanka is super inconvenient (you have to go to a print shop for printing or photocopying :P – believe me I know the experience, I always get my EARSL Reports printed at Dickwella’s cramped printing shop). 
Anyway, the book Past Ten Years Papers & Answers (O/L) edition and is by the Sarala Education Book Publishers.  

Until next time!

Lesson Links

Natural Environment
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1bDk_J49qp2Y7dy5EK4Er2VsEC-swcNILzTK6V026MbA/edit?usp=sharing

Activities
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CJbYFfTQ6VCHcpIqY5FsjFfkNKYT3GlG8LbG973kap0/edit?usp=sharing

Scholarship Material
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qar-eJ5JNFc1dq2p8rHw2xR5kfEtuv1Ih4wRtA-efwk/edit?usp=sharing