I have never wanted to be a teacher, especially one for small kids. However, when the volunteer organization I'm working with said they were desperate for teachers I didn't hesitate to lend my lack of teaching skills. It's been quite an interesting adjustment to their methods of teaching and disciplining the students. The children are not very disciplined and only react to physical punishment. I can't bring myself to hit any of the kids, (even though I certainly think about it at times) so for the first week they pretty much did anything they wanted. It's hard to get control of a group that doesn't speak your mother tongue very well. For the past few weeks I've worked out a sort of reward and punishment system that has proven semi-successful. Everyday is still a serious trial of my patience.
I've been given five periods to teach 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th graders. The school already has english teachers so I've been told to teach whatever I feel like teaching. At first this sounded easy enough, but creating class material out of nothing everyday has proven very difficult. Five 40 minute classes, 6 times per week is 1200 minutes of classtime to fill. My sympathy goes out to every parent and teacher in the world. I'm glad somebody is up to the job, because it's definitely not for me. Teaching that is. I'll probably give parenting a try at some point in my life.
Despite the few difficulties, working with and getting to know the teachers and students here at Nava Ratna English Boarding School is turing out to be a very rewarding and enjoyable experience. I'd be lying, if I said I didn't look forward to my one day off each week with extreme enthusiasm, but who doesn't like a day off. Everyday I'm facing small challenges, mostly due to the language barrier, and I feel like I'm handing them relatively well. Patience is definitely not my strongest trait but is improving on a daily basis here.
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