After I leave the little ones, I go to my English classes. I have 7th and 9th grade every day and both classes are unique. The first week has been interesting because we still don't have class lists so it's hard to learn names. There are about 30 kids in the 7th grade class and for the most part, they are well behaved. Their homeroom teacher stays in the class with us and she always greets us with a warm smile and big hug. Our first few activities were basic "getting to know you" games. The most challenging part has been getting the kids to practice their english. When you talk with them one-on-one it's easy for them to repeat a sentence back to you but we can only be in so many places at once. If we spend too much time with one kid, the others grow restless.
9th grade is fun but challenging since I'm on my own with about 20 kids. My 9th graders love playing games but hate sitting down. They like to ask me lots of questions, none of which are english related, and see how much they can get away with before I give them my best "I'm serious this time" look. Most of the class stays in their seats and pays attention but there are a few kids I have to consistently ask to sit down. Also, there are a few romantic couples in my class and the fact that I know they are couples after three days should indicate enough. For now, all I have to do is give them the "seriously??? we are in school..." look and they back off but TRUE LOVE WILL NEVER DIE!
Tuesdays/Thursdays Emma and I assist in the art room for the last three hours of the day. The art teacher is very talented but there are SO MANY KIDS in one class it's hard to keep everyone focused. The first day, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade all did the same project, drawing circles/squiggles on a blank sheet of paper for one hour. I get that it's important to teach kids shapes and colors and to encourage them to follow instructions but after the second hour, I was ready to draw a circle through my brain. There is a lot of energy in art class and I'm slowly learning that I can't control everything and that sometimes, kids are just going to be kids.
Today was also my second day of Girls Program and I swear, it's going to be my greatest challenge this year. My group went from 11 to 14 4th grade girls and it's my responsibility to organize a craft project that they can sell in the WBC store. Projects range from bracelets, scarfs, greeting cards, Christmas decorations, etc. I get frustrated so easily because for now, I only know a few simple commands such as "sit down" "quiet please" "let's go" "give it to me" "no fighting" etc. and the girls have clearly caught on. The first part of Girls Program is almost two hours long which in my opinion is too long to try and keep 14 girls occupied. Today, I gave them all a sheet of colored construction paper with their name on it so they could decorate it and I could take their picture and start to learn their names. After about 20 minutes they were almost finished decorating their names so I gave them each a page from one of my adult coloring books and we colored for the rest of class. I need to rethink my strategy because there is group of older girls in the same classroom (the art room) and the table is enormous so there are far too many distractions. Every time I got a corner settled, someone would be crawling under the table, crawling on top of the table, screaming across the table, running around the room, you name it, they did it. At one point I looked over and saw three girls rubbing "makeup" aka chalk on their faces. I confiscated the chalk and some actual makeup and put it in my pocket along with a tube of toothpaste one of the girls was using to brush her teeth...in the middle of class...with no water...God only knows where the toothpaste went when it left her mouth...I suspect her backpack. When I asked her why she was brushing her teeth she just looked up at me and smiled a foamy white smile and I couldn't help but laugh and roll my eyes. Chicas!
Shower time was another adventure, we were about ten minutes early which was a huge mistake. I kept telling the girls to sit down but that only egged them on. The volunteers who saw me that afternoon could tell I was frustrated in about 5 seconds. Like I said before, I need to learn how to choose my battles. Even I'M getting sick of hearing myself ask them to sit down and be quiet so clearly it's on me to try something new. Our final stop before the end of the day was library/computer class. Honestly, I'm "this" close to just buying them all an iPad, they are angels in the library and truly pleasant to be around when they are on a computer. A few of the girls sat on my lap as I read them books and it reminded me why I love them in the first place. While they are full of energy and mischief, they are just kids and at the end of the day, they are very sweet. I funnel ALL of my energy and patience into loving them and making them feel special, I just need to learn some more Spanish so I can be one step ahead of them...soon!
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