After my frustrating valentines day at Ringroad, I was worried about getting back into the swing of things with a new attitude. I had to go into my classroom with an understanding that the education these kids were going to get was not centered around my American ways of the alphabet and phonetics, but rather education here is a means to survival.
Today was a break through day. I was asked by a teacher, who I had previously though was the head teacher and turns out to just like claiming more authority then he really has, to grade some of the writing composition for the fifth graders. Grading English seems to have become one of my strengths in this position, every teacher wants me to do their grading. Most of the time it drives me crazy but today’s essays were incredibly insightful. Each fifth grade student was asked to write an English composition about his or her best friends. Their essays really opened up their worlds to me.
There were of course themes that came up again and again: best friends share food when there isn’t enough, best friends check on you when you are sick, best friends understand when you have a bad day at school. These kids depend heavily on each other and I feel so incredibly lucky that I got a glimpse into the deeply personal connections they have with each other.
I had to write down some of the lines from different essays that really made me realize the importance of coming together every day in my school (Spelling and syntax left the way it was found):
“I love my best friend as my mother loves me. My best friend is not stupid and foolish that’s why I love her and she loves me”
“I like her because she is a friend you can tell your problems and can help you. Pamela is a beautiful girl in the world”
“He is my lovely friend beauce he can help me to do work”
“My friend is fat like an elephant or a pig and his subject is mathematics mine is not”
“My loveist friend is the best that has ever been found in earth”
“He is as tall as a giraffe and brown as local soil”
“athough he is an orphan doesn’t mean enemy any more, you will never find my friend said or crying when im not encouragine him he is always clear in his words, deeds and thoughts”
After reading my stack of essays, I wasn’t afraid to stand up to these teachers. These kids need someone who wants legitimately to form some bonds with them. I went into the teachers office, all 40 essays corrected and told him Monday I want these kids to myself. I am going to go over each essay with the student alone, my reasoning was that my markings may not make sense to them because I am foreign. In reality, I need time with each student so they know that there is someone in addition to their best friend who will share when there isn’t enough food or notice when they are home sick from school.
Its time to take charge and shift gears just slightly. If I can get through to them my commitment I think I may be able to tackle the fundamental spelling and syntactical errors but first they must know I am not just here for a week or two.
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