The First Week of School

After the previous week of trying to clean up my room for the 2nd grade, I thought surely things would improve when the children came to school. Dream on! Monday morning came and I had not even seen the room that I would be teaching the 4th grade in. Everyone here says "Don't worry" so I am beginning to take that to heart and stop worrying!



I am teaching 2nd grade in the morning and 4th grade in the afternoon. The teachers must report to school by 7:15 and the students start arriving by 7:30. Classes are "supposed" to start at 7:45 although this week we had something special to do each day at 7:45 so we actually got started about 8:00 or a little after. I am guessing that will eventually change and we will start at 7:45.



I teach the 2nd grade from 7:45 until 11:05 and then change to the 4th grade and teach there from 11:05 until 2:45 when the students start to go home. There are some "special" teachers who come in for 45 minute classes scheduled throughout the week. For example, the children have P.E., music, artistica (i don't know what this is yet) and critical thinking, swimming and there may be another that I have forgotten. These classes are scheduled once a week. At least when the special teacher comes in, I have a few minute break where I can sit in the room with the students or go outside and sit in the sun and drink a warm Pepsi Light!



The man who controls the AC in each classroom turns it on about 7:30 and off about 2:45 so when I get there in the morning, I turn on the extremely noisy overhead fans in the 2nd grade room until the AC kicks in. In the afternoon, there are no overhead fans in the 4th grade classroom so when he turns off the AC, it gets extremely hot very fast.



On Monday morning the children came in as all kids do on the first day of school: happy and expectant. Many of the parents brought their kids in and introduced themselves to me. One parent told me that she hoped I stay for the whole year because last year her son had 4 teachers. I'm sorry but that tells me a whole lot about this school. This year one teacher quit before school started and now one of the 6th grade teachers is considering leaving due to lack of organization on the part of the school.



The classrooms are concrete with nothing to absorb the sound. The class next to mine is so loud that we often can't hear in our room. I mentioned to the teacher that they are very loud, and she said "Oh?" One day it was raining so hard that the rain on the roof and the noisiness from next door, my students couldn't hear me and I couldn't hear them. We just had to stop for a few minutes.



From 9:15-9:35 every day they stop for breakfast, or lunch, as they call it. Most of my children bring their lunch but a man comes into the room with a large tray of food on it and asks me "How many"? Since I have no idea what he is talking about, I just look around and see who doesnt have food and get enough plates for those children. I have 1 child who gets food from the school. I don't know if his parents paid for, like a month, or if he is on subsidized food. Don't know. No one to explain it to me. Finally on Friday, one of the other English teachers explained to me about the lunch so now tomorrow when I go back, I will have some idea of what I should do.



Going to the bathroom....the kids just ask to go to the bathroom whenever they feel like it. Well, that doesn't sit well with me. I am teaching a lesson and some kid decides he wants to get out of class so he goes to the bathroom. So now, I have organized the 2nd graders and i take them to the bathroom before the lunch and the 4th graders before their recess. I figure their bladders can hold it for at least 2 hours at a time and there will be no getting out of class for bathroom breaks. And don't forget to take the toilet paper with you when they go to the bathroom! My toilet paper sits on top of the big water bottle in my room. The children can fill up their water bottles from the big one when they need to.

Going home in the afternoon is a big circus! One cannot believe, that this is the 6th year for this school and they have such a mess in the afternoons. At 2:45 a man gets on the loudspeaker and literally shouts the name, grade and section of each child whose parent is there to pick them up. "Mary, primary, grade 1A" "Johnny, primary grade 3B" and so on for 45 minutes or longer. One day there was such a mess in the parking lot that no car could move. A few children ride the school bus, which are like vans, but most are picked up by parents.

On Thursday it rained hard all day. Since someone had taken my umbrella from the classroom the previous week, I found a plastic bag to put over my head to keep my hearing aids dry and went about my business! There was so much standing water on the concrete that I had to tip-toe through it to get to the next class. At 2:30, a man came to my room with little slips of paper which I was to give to each child. They decided to cancel school on Friday for a "rain day" (my words, not theirs). They said the weather bureau was expecting more hard rain on Friday. School for the kids was cancelled but the teachers had to report at 9am.

Friday dawned with beautiful sun! The primary principal had a 5 hour meeting! I wonder what she would have done if the classes had not been cancelled. Each one of these meetings opens with a game that the teachers play for 15 minutes, 30 minutes or more. I sure can't understand that! Anyway, not being able to understand anything that she was saying, I did get my hot glue gun working and put up the posters on the wall (for the 3rd time) and I hope they will still be on the walls tomorrow!

At the meeting on Friday, the principal asked us to evaluate the students---after seeing them for 4 days. Man, I didn't even have the going to the bathroom down yet and she wants to know if they can read and write in English. I had made up a diagnostic test and gave it to them on Thursday. I took the test questions directly out of the 1st grade book. None of them could pass it. I gave the same test to the 4th graders and a few of them knew some of the answers. My 2nd graders are supposed to be the advanced English language learners and the 4th graders are beginning English learners. I talk to them in English and they can't understand me. They talk to me in Spanish and I can't understand them. What fun!

So this is how the first week of school went. Really pretty rough. I can hope for some better days ahead. They have told us that these first 2 weeks of teaching is only about getting settled and that the "real teaching" doesnt begin until the first of Sept. I hope this coming week is a little better! I will let you know.

Hasta luego.