First Day Of School.

Today was the first day of school and my head is spinning! Four of us rode the Center bus, which could easily fit 50 people, to the downtown Center at 7:00 am. Luckily, the ride was only 30 minutes. When we arrived we were early and didn't know where to go because we didn't have room assignments or class lists. Originally, all of the volunteers were scheduled to teach Special Education for the first two hours of the morning but when we met with the principal she told us there were too many teachers and two of us would need to assist in a lower level class. Michael and I were volunteered since the other three volunteers speak better Spanish than us me. Five minutes after class had started I was brought to the second grade classroom. The second grade teacher is "Roccio" and she has been teaching for 19 years. She is very nice and incredibly patient with me. I picked an empty seat at the back of the classroom and listened while she explained the classroom rules. Next, the kids were told to draw a picture of what they did over summer vacation and Roccio asked me to help her sharpen colored pencils. She handed me a box cutter and a handful of pencils and the kids watched in awe as we stood over the garbage can shaving off pieces of their pencils until they were sharp again. If there were an Olympics for pencil sharpening, Roccio would win gold. I would blame my inadequacy on my dull box cutter but she gave me a second one and I was still riding the struggle bus. I managed to get just enough color out of each pencil but I could tell the kids had caught on that I was a complete pencil idiot. After I was done sharpening, I walked around the classroom and asked each student their name and complimented their drawing. They are all so sweet and SO STINKIN' CUTE! I don't know if they were afraid of me or afraid of being punished for talking in class but they whispered their names so quietly that I only managed to hear one, Matteo. Once they had finished coloring, Roccio asked me to look through a pile of used notebooks and cut out the blank pages so the kids would have paper to write on. Before I knew it, it was time for my first English class. 

Sixth grade English was the equivalent of opening Pandora's box - it was complete chaos. Normally, the Ecuadorian homeroom teacher is supposed to stay in the class and help with classroom management but the second Oihane and I showed up, our homeroom teacher vanished. The class had about 30 kids, four of whom were girls. My sweet, sweet, 6th grade girls...I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if someone told me the boys ate pixie sticks and Mountain Dew for breakfast, they were off the walls. Thank God Oihane is fluent in Spanish because without her, I don't know what I would have done. We started the class with a name game, explained the classroom rules, then finished by letting them color their name tag - productive first day. There were kids pretending to sleep, pretending to cry, pretending to forget their name, wrestling on the floor, yelling out the door, asking to go to the bathroom, basically a teacher's worst nightmare. Oihane and I did our best to control the situation but it was no use. The two of us need to rethink this class but luckily, we only have it Mondays and Fridays. When it came time for class to end, the teacher was nowhere in sight. Oihane and I anxiously looked at each other, certain that if we left, the kids would burn the building down. We were already late for our next class but we couldn't just leave them there so we decided to wait until the teacher came back.

Next up - 9th grade English. This one was interesting because we found out that morning that there were too many kids to combine into one classroom so Oihane and I had to split up and teach on our own. Since we had planned the first week of lessons together, we were a little taken off guard. We quickly divided up the supplies and I was left standing in a room full of 30 high school kids. AAAAAHHHHH! I actually ended up really enjoying this class. The kids were silly but not disrespectful. We played some games, did some coloring, and listened to some music to end the class. They kept asking me to play Reggae music but my collection isn't updated - yet. I recognized some of the kids from the summer program talent show and when I told one kid I liked his dance moves, he almost died of embarrassment. "MOMMY LOVES YOU PUMPKIN!" 9th grade was challenging but also a lot of fun. I felt like they understood more of what I was saying and I was able to get through class no problem.

After English class we rode the metro back to Center #2 and enjoyed a long lunch before the afternoon began. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I have "Girls Program" with 11 4th grade girls. In my head, I like to call them Ocean's Eleven. It's lame, I know. Girls program starts with an art project (jewelry, greeting cards, Christmas decorations, etc.) but since we hadn't discussed a project and had no materials, we couldn't really do much. I sat the girls in a circle and asked them countless "getting to know you" questions but they were growing pretty restless. To eat up some more time, we played a singing/hand slapping game I had learned at camp and at one point I ended up singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas." Don't ask me how that happened, your guess is probably better than mine. 

Every day, the kids take showers and brush their teeth. Half of my girls claimed to have already taken a shower that morning. I'm not totally convinced they did but I'm not about to call them on it if I don't fully understand what they are trying to explain. They presented a united front so...I'm assuming they were telling the truth. The rest of the girls walked up to a window where a woman signed their name into a book and they received a dry towel and squirt of shampoo on their head. I'm assuming the water was cold because they were all screaming and seemed relatively unamused. While the rest of the girls were waiting, they completely lost their minds. At that point, I wasn't trying to teach them anything so I metaphorically threw my hands in the air and said f*ck it. The Girls Program director walked by just as two of my girls were wrestling on the floor and she seemed unimpressed. She told me there was a mistake in the schedule and that we were supposed to be in the library but I explained that half of my group was currently in the shower so there wasn't much I could do. I called into the girls to hurry up and they were dressed and ready to go five minutes later.

Once everyone was showered, lined up, and relatively quiet, we made our way to the library. Library may be my favorite part of Girls Program because the girls were on their best behavior. It reminded me a lot of the scene in Toy Story 3 when the kids in one room are off the walls and the kids in the next room are complete angels. I read a few books to some of the girls while the rest read quietly to themselves.

Our last activity was "free time" for the girls to play outside and run around on the playground. Two minutes in, I look over and a girl is literally hanging out of a tree. I didn't know the words for "get down!" so I ended up yelling "RESPECT THE TREE!" Smooth Kel, real smooth. The rest of the girls were swinging on a swing set and running around the playground. At one point, an adult started yelling over to me but I couldn't understand what she was saying. I assumed it was something along the lines of "it's time to go" so I gathered the girls and started walking back but realized we still had 30 minutes to kill. We walked back to the library and the girls were able to play on the computers until it was time to go home. I left class with such an adrenaline rush but also in a complete daze. I was happy that I was able to make it through the day with limited Spanish but I have so much to learn. The first thing I did when I got home was call the Spanish tutor. We have a lesson scheduled for this Saturday so I'm hoping we can work some miracles. I'm glad the kids were patient with my limited Spanish but I could tell most of them were thinking "I'm on to you, lady". 

When the volunteers reconvened for dinner, we shared the details of our day and I felt better knowing I wasn't the only one who experienced a little chaos. I was so nervous for the first day of school, I'm glad it's under my belt. As I get to know my kids better, I know I will be a better teacher. I'm excited for the rest of the week, stay tuned!