Teaching at Bereket School

We had hoped that we would get some training, orientation or curriculum, but we are pretty much just winging it. We bought some books to help us with ideas for lesson plans. Last week was easy I just tried to engage the kids with questions and once the ice broke I had a lot of fun learning about their favorite things and telling them some of mine.

This week its down to serious business. I had my plan, teach the long and short vowel sounds. I entered my class room fearlessly, knowing I was armed with a full lesson plan. That went well with my 8th grade class and surprisingly good with my very big 5th grade class and even the 6th grade went smooth. Ahhh, sigh of relief only one period left and its the 7th graders, it’s a small class only about 14 students. This will be a breeze, I’ll just sail right through and in no time I’ll be home taking a well earned nap. Hah! My class had an entirely different agenda. It became readily apparent that they had very little interest in my lesson plan. What to do, how could I regain their attention……. after some quick thinking I devised a new strategy. I know I’ll take some photos of the class. Ok, those of you who actually are trained teachers can probably see the flaw in my plan but naively I charged on. Total chaos rapidly ensued. But we sure had fun and I’m reasonably certain they did learn a few words like ’silence!’ ‘Be Quiet!’ and ‘Sit down!’

What a great time I had, and the photos I have to say are some of my favorites! I plan to resume a more structured line of teaching first thing next week. Luckily I have an extra day or two to get prepared.  p.s. if you have any helpful ideas please feel free to post a comment on the blog.     <><  CW

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