11 April 2011

The Color Yellow

     It has been a while since all of my Pre-school and early childhood courses from school. Which feels so weird to say that since I just finished school less than a year ago, but the last two years was mainly focused on the Special Education aspect of my degree- so it was weird starting to teach pre-school this past week. It was definitely a new, challenging, and really fun experience for me, it is going to be an interesting year for me of testing patience, getting kids to stop crying and hitting each other, getting them to use the bathroom properly, and at the same time teaching colors, numbers, letters, values, art, music, PE, and everything else that comes wrapped in curriculum.
    So, a little more about the colorfulness of my week. First off, we finally received the curriculum from the regional head last Friday as we were literally driving to the highway to head home for the weekend. So, my preparedness for the week wasn't what I was hoping it would be, but we survived. The week wouldn't have been possible without my new friend, Vasti. Vasti came with Auden and Wendy on their return trip from the US for a few weeks, and last week she was my assistant- a God send because nothing in Peru goes how you thought it would. I anticipated that there would be many late arrivals, given the nature of generally all Peruvians, on the first day, so we began by coloring and just chatting with the kids until about 45 minutes after the start of school- and some kids still didn't get there till an hour after the start. There were also many interruptions the whole first week. There was the painter who came and needed things, but I couldn't deal with him, so the Senora helped out in that. There were all the rest of the mothers trying to enroll their kids in the middle of the school day, I finally put up a sign for them to come before school the next day and the ages yet the persisted to knock and interrupt. There were children who were leaving their moms for the first time in their lives, one kid even broke the glass on the door with his fist, but he promised not to break it the next day he just kicked the metal bottom of the door. One lady even tried to leave her 3 year old at the door, even though I told her we couldn't accept any kids that were just three, had to call out the door to her to come back.
       Don't worry in all of the chaos there was also learning! We learned about circles, the color yellow, the creation of the world, we read stories and checked for some hint of comprehension, we played games, and learned how to wash our hands. But the week was an overall success for not having all the materials I would have liked to have. In this week I hope to find more of a rhythm to settle into. The kids are awesome, and most of them really excited to learn. Vasti and I already were picking out the personalities of who is going to be the class clown, the leader, the hitter, the crier, etc. This week we are moving onto the color red, sharing, and other fun things.
    

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