Day 5

It's just another day...........

Third graders

While I was shushing down the loud classroom I realized none of the third grade students were talking anymore. But why was there still a white noise of student’s shouts? It is then that I realized the constant stream of voices was coming from the fourth grade classroom. I was tempted to go look and see what they were up to. I thought it might seem rude to whatever teacher was there so I just ignored it. I realized that while the open concept classroom style is really nice in the hot weather, it does little to contain the sounds emitted by each class. So having first, second, third, and fourth graders learning and shouting in the same environment can’t be easy for teachers. That aside, the lesson went great. We finished Fruits in one day. Boom. We are on track again. This is especially amazing because I needed to figure out how to make up for the day we missed yesterday.
Also, a student asked me how much my tablet cost and it made me feel all icky inside. I obviously didn’t tell him. These students are so money-conscious. They would never even waste one piece of paper. They will use pencils until they are at the stub. I bring my iPad for two reasons: a. I have a GoogleDocs app that I pull the lessons up on and b. I want to show students new things they may not see everyday. I don’t want to flash stuff around I want to let them see how my keyboard works and take their picture. Whenever I take a picture I walk around the classroom and let each students look at it. At the same time I am still waving around this fancy thing some of them can’t afford... So should I be taking an iPad to teach? I can see many answers. So far, I think students like looking at it and touching it more than they are wistful of it. I wish I had validation for some of the decisions I make but more often than not, with this project, I have to go with my gut feelings.


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Fourth graders

We got done with the lesson in this class as well. It was pretty uneventful. There was a teacher in the classroom so I think they were feeling a little...well...scared. I don’t think there was anything else eventful. *shrug*
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Fifth graders

Remember my rant about how classes can hear each other through the walls? Well. I think I am pulling the same trick because I am pretty sure the sixth grade class can hear me speaking to the fifth grade class. I talk loud - my “teacher voice” comes from a weird shallow part of my voice that is a little deeper than my usual voice and a whole lot louder. I enunciate really well. I hope I am not too loud. I don’t think I am much louder than the usual teacher so it should be okay...?
The dictation went well. I must say it takes a looooong time. We did 12 words for dictation (from Thursday) then I taught ten new phrases and gave five for dictation tomorrow. I am hoping to cover more ground on the material. I just don’t know why the Scholarship exam is so ridiculous. One subsection is - I can’t make this up - words used in farming language. Not like “tractor” but like actual nearly obsolete Sinhalese words that farming communities use. Ahem. wHy? (I am not even going to try google for this one) I am happy I was displaced to America for the sole reason being I never experienced this exam. They choose maybe eight words and phrases to test on the exam out of maybe one hundred. Not fair... Especially when there are not proper study materials for English and teachers are not equipped to prepare students enough.

Sixth and seventh graders

There were fewer students and the class went so much better. We finished up the lesson. I would like to practice more but something has got to give with the missed day yesterday. As interesting as English is - most questions were related to when I would be giving them chocolate. For those who don’t know I do give them chocolate every year. In Sri Lanka, people who go abroad do generally bring something back. It’s a social norm. It’s an insult if you don’t. So there I was dropping some major cash on bags of Costco chocolate.
We played Simon Says and they loved it so much. It was so cute. I love it when I can make learning fun. We also drew a human body to label it (human body is me drawing a stick figure). The students really do take pride in their work — they were so careful about it and wanted my approval all the way. In the end I told everyone to line up and give me their papers or books and I gave them a approved marking and a little star sticker.

Eighth and ninth graders

This class went pretty darn well too. There are a few students who are all about the competition. I had never seen Simon Says played in such a cutthroat manner. There were very few students but in all fairness it is sometimes better to just have fewer students so the class stays on track more. The graph of “# of students” vs “time spent on productive I learning” is a negative quadratic. There really isn’t much more to say. We took some nice pics too! There is one slightly sad part I want to talk about but that will be addressed a little later.
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Tenth and eleventh graders

To trust is delicate balance. One must know when not to trust as well. I thought if I let them have their worksheets and take them home and such, they would bring them back the next week. That obviously didn’t happen. We managed with one book and huddling around it. I mean I am not completely upset because apparently one student gave it to his teacher and they were going to share it with the entire class. I can’t complain. It was a struggle and no one in this class particularly wanted to learn. The were more interested in when the chocolate would be coming. I mean I can’t blame them but still, priorities anyone?
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The students who need a little extra from me

There are a few students who need a lot more than most other students. In third grade there is a possibly dyslexic student. I am no doctor but I find it fishy that he writes everything backwards. I wrote him “Bb” Which he wrote as a Bd (but more wonky than this typed version). He writes at a pace a tenth of other students and his writing is little more than illegible. I decided to give him handwritten alphabet practice worksheets. I basically take one of his pages and write

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee

then I make him rewrite them for practice. He was still have trouble copying cold turkey so I added dotted line versions of the letters for practice too. He loved the dotted lines and requested more. It’s always weird to me when students here beg for work. If I say I am about to leave the classroom they will shout until I agree to give them one or two more vocabulary words. It’s a real trend here — they don’t like to do the work but they will still ask for it.
In the fourth grade classroom I also have a student with different needs. I don’t know what his story is but everyone just says “he is still learning letters”. By that they mean they are still learning Sinhalese letters so I wasn’t sure if he was ready for the English alphabet too. I decided to give him some letters to practice writing anyway.
Finally, I have another special child in the 6th and 7th grade class. She is in 6th grade and had a terrible time keeping up with the rest of the class. At first I thought she was punking me or just not paying attention. With time I realized she was paying attention but it just takes a while for her to register things. I usually have the English on the poster then I go through and translate them so students can write the translation down. Since she needs her own pace, I just put the translations on the posters as well so she can move without the rest of the class. I like it - I wanted to be able to move everyone at the same pace so I had some control over the class but this isn’t that large of a sacrifice and if it helps that girl it is fine with me.