Escuela

When I got to the kindergarten yesterday, my teacher was there so I was very relieved. However, that relief ended about three minutes later when my teacher told me to give them puzzles and she would be right back. I think she said she had to go make copies, but I don’t know because I was in the classroom alone with the kids for an hour and a half. It was awful. They did puzzles for half an hour, but what 5 year old can concentrate on one thing for much longer than that? They started fighting, throwing puzzle pieces at each other, destroying various things around the room. Also, I don’t actually know much Spanish, so I guess one kid was asking me to go to the bathroom, but I was distracted and didn’t know what he was saying so I kept telling him to sit down…until he wet his pants. I was so frustrated, and not even candy and my camera were able to settle the kids down this time. I finally got them all outside, figuring they could run around and burn off their energy. Wrong! Being outside was surprisingly worse than being inside. First of all, the kids heard a truck down the street and most went running after it. I tried to get them back, but couldn’t. Eventually they all came back, but my life was not any easier. There is a lot of construction going on at the school and there was an electric cement mixer sitting in the middle of the yard, unprotected, that the kids started playing with. There were kids throwing big rocks into the mixer part, kids playing with the wires and buttons, and kids using the steering wheel on the mixer to spin it around. At first it was only a couple of kids and I was able to stop them, but then more and more came and as they saw me get more and more frustrated they started laughing at me and ganging up on me. I was being bullied by 10 five year olds. I was the only adult in the yard and eventually there was nothing I could do, so I let them play with the machine unsupervised. I felt like crying, but thought I was doing a good job of holding myself together, but apparently not because two girls came over to me where I was sitting down and pointed at my face. I realized that I was crying. It was very stressful, to say the least. I was so mad at the kids, but they’re five and haven’t been taught any better. I was furious with my teacher. I didn’t say anything to her and she didn’t apologize to me. I didn’t know what to do, but luckily I had a care workshop yesterday afternoon which happens every Tuesday afternoon through Projects Abroad and is a time when everyone working in Kindergartens come together and discuss ideas and what has been going on in their classrooms. The care workshop was good. For the first half hour we talked about introducing a game to the schools that will teach kids the “real meaning” of numbers rather than teaching them to memorize what the numbers look like. The second half hour was dedicated to going around the circle (there were about 11 of us) and talking about what’s been going on in our classrooms, both the good and bad. It was nice to hear about what’s been happening at other schools and I was able to share what has been going on at my school. Yessika said that she would come to my school the next day (today) and talk to the teacher. I was so glad! Today, the teacher came to class only half an hour late - a big improvement! The kids watched Dora the Explorer for the first 20 minutes and then I did some adding practice with them on the whiteboard for 10 minutes until the teacher got there. At least this time the teacher apologized for being late, saying that she had a bad headache and stomach bug. Although class ran much more smoothly today and I was able to help out instead of leading, I was still so happy to see Yessika around 10:30. She talked to me a little just to see how today was going, since I had already talked to her yesterday. She said that she had already talked to the director of the school before talking to me and he had said that he would make sure that someone will come and help me if my teacher arrives late or does not come to school. He also said that it is unacceptable for her to be showing up late or not at all so frequently. After talking to me, Yessika talked to my teacher who gave various excuses for being late, I guess most of them health related. She explained to Yessika that she would try to be on time, but sometimes she can’t help it because she has a morning doctor appointment (so why can’t she tell me when an appointment is coming up?!). She also said that the director is already mad at her because of her absences - I don’t know if this means she will try harder to not be absent. Yessika said that she found the conversation promising, but if things don’t change, she will talk to the teacher again next week. It is so nice to have an advocate from Projects Abroad! Also, Yessika and the teacher talked about what kinds of things I might start doing in the class. They talked about having me teach some English words and also bring in fruit and help the kids make fruit salad to teach them about healthy foods. I think that both of those would be fun to lead! I am feeling hopeful about having a better time at this kindergarten, but if it does not work out, it seems like Projects Abroad really listens to complaints and does not have a problem switching placements during a volunteer’s time. So, if this continues, I can always move to another kindergarten. On the other hand, even though my situation is extreme with having my teacher absent so frequently, it seems like it is not unusual for the teachers to be extremely disorganized and to occasionally not show up to class. I think I am starting to adjust to Peruvian educational standards, but it is a big leap from U.S. standards and will take a long time to get used to, and even then I am sure that I will constantly compare Peruvian life to the United States - it‘s so hard not to!