Today was my fourth day of teaching and i can honestly say that i feel like i have been teaching forever and already have a teaching degree, with the responsibilities i have in the school. I am already organising and teaching classes by myself. Most would assume a volunteer would just assist another teacher which we do do, however we also take classes by ourselves on a daily basis, which requires a lot of planning and preparation in advance. I can finally respect and understand the effort my teachers put in for me in and out of the classroom, because after school we spend time making activities or planning the classes for the next day which is time consuming. The two factors that make teaching here so tiring is the fact that the children are young and the fact that they don't speak English well enough to explain something once!
My first class every morning for two hours with a local teacher Anu, is UKG English (6 year olds) a class of 17. This is the cutest class! however the most preparation is needed as they are so young. They are currently learning the alphabet and counting 1-40. English songs/poems/words are also taught. They already knew "Twinkle twinkle little star" and "1,2,3,4,5 first i caught a fish alive" I taught them Insy Winsy spider which is now their new morning song. The thing i have noticed with this class in particular is the need for extension work as some students finish writing the alphabet in five minutes and some take half an hour to write the date and their name. The need to always have a back up plan and games/activities in your head can be stressful, however over time I'm sure we will be pulling them out of our ears! I have finally learnt the names of this class as i have them every day at the same time, where as all the other classes after them change daily.
The classes i am currently assisting are UKG English, year 1, 3, 4 and 7 sport and the little bubs (LKG 4/5 year olds) in games. The classes i am taking by myself are Craft for various years and Drama and reading for various years. Drama is the busiest as we are currently teaching them a small poem/play and introduce new warm ups/ games every class. It is so surreal teaching the kids a small drama game that we would not be enticed by as we do it so often, however their eyes light up and everyone wants to join in.
School starts at 9am and finishes at 3:15 and we walk to and from everyday. The youngest classes UKG and LKG (4 to 6 year olds) however, leave at lunch time.
Lunch time at school is the funnest! The other local staff here are super friendly and fun! They have about 10 female teachers and 3 male staff and even the principle is cool. At lunch we have formed a little group with 3 of the female teachers, where we sit and all share the lunch we bring, it is really cute. Our host family packs us something different everyday, either rice and Dal/ spinach and chapati/roti etc. They don't however pack cutlery so unlike at home we eat with our hands, which is a massive struggle. We also teach every second Saturday so our proper day off is always Sunday.
In summary school here is so much fun! The staff are so welcoming it feels like we have been here for ages! Every morning the children line up and sing the national anthem and a national song. The year 7's read a quote of the day e.g "honesty is the best policy" and every morning they also do general knowledge questions e.g this morning it was "who is the prime minister of India", "how many planets in the solar system" "what does USA stand for" I think every school should do it!
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