On Monday, I started to teaching my classes. I was basically assigned all of 5th grade classes: Spelling, Grammar, Creative Writing, Science, Reading(Literature), Social Studies, Independent Help, and Completion of Tasks. For a couple of weeks because the teacher went away, I'll be teaching 4th grade Grammar and Reading as well. My classes are pretty spread out throughout the day so that gives me plenty of time to prepare.
The formality of entering a classroom is quite nice. Before coming in a student must stand in the doorway as say, "Excuse me Miss" sometimes followed by a "Good morning Miss Marisa." I stand at the door and let them in if they say that. They all then walk to their seats, stay standing, and all say "Good morning Miss," to which I respond, "Good morning class, you may sit down." At the end of class, they stand and say, "Thank you Miss Marisa." My 4th graders follow these rules perfectly, my 5th graders though...not so much. haha
On my first day, we went through names and wow, I am having such a hard time with them. I can't put names to faces and I am most likely mispronouncing them. Hopefully I'll get better. The 4th graders take a long time to write down whatever I write on the board and constantly raise their hand to say, "Miss, you didn't put a dot over your i." There are not many resources here so it can be difficult to use "normal" teaching methods. For example, there are no printers or copiers, so today when I gave a quiz I had to write the questions on the blackboard for them to copy in their notebooks. It took all period to give a quiz. The 5th grade has some issues with behavior. There is always a constant sound of little voices. Hopefully they will get better.
Since there are some behavior management issues at the school, on Monday we started a demerit system. If you misbehave you get a demerit and if you get 3 in a day you get detention. The school was divided into houses(Mother Theresa, Nehru, Gandhi, and another name I forget) and every time you get a demerit, you lose a point from your house total. In December, the team with the highest points will get a watch. Some teachers asked their students to write a paragraph on whether or not they like the behavior management system. One 6th grader wrote, "No I do not like it because a wristwatch is not a good prize and instead the winning team should get 4 cows." I thought that was hilarious! So far I have given out a couple of demerits. One boy lied and said another boy through a piece of paper with a drawing of a couple(which I think was me) at his head, another boy hit a girl over the head with a book, two boys were hitting each other, and my personal favorite a 12th grader pulled a chair from underneath a girl as she was studying.
The kids ask so many questions though, and you have to be creative on how to answer them! One student asked when I was describing how fast your nerves communicate messages, "What if I'm talking and someone says stop talking, how does my mouth stop talking if my brain wants to talk?" They really want to understand everything and ask a lot of "what if questions."
So far though, I really like teaching.