I'm at the school again today. And I'm just loving it! But I'm still glad I don't teach kindergarten. :)
After morning fundamentals with the UKG kids, we had a bit of a break while the school had morning announcements and prayer. I watched (and tried to hear) and was once again blown away at how well behaved these kids are! I really just want to record them and show them to my students and say something like "If these little kids can do it, so can you." But cameras aren't allowed at school. :( Before reciting the Lord's prayer, the little kids (I think UKG and 1st standard) sang all 3 verses of I Am a Child of God. I could barely hear them, but it was so easy to tell that they truly believe it! They know that they don't necessarily live in the best of circumstances and that their needs really are great. But they always find a way to make the best of it. Always.
We then headed up to computer time with the UKG kids. It was a lot more interactive this time. I worked with Swetha and a little boy who's name I can't pronounce to even sound out how to spell it. Swetha was flying through her shapes and numbers; it was awesome! And I loved how excited she was to show me every time she got one right. The little boy, on the other hand, was giving me a headache. He's one that has a harder time understanding English still, and when I would delete his answer because he told me the right number but typed it in wrong, he would just shut down. Ugh. He finally started to get it and be excited about it when the bell was rung and they had to leave. Go figure. Next was 1st standard games and activities. I was a little bit excited because I knew more of what to expect having taught first grade last year. I got to read the book The Way I Feel, and then we split into groups and made paper plate faces for all the feelings. It was awesome! Unfortunately, we ended up with not quite enough planned, and it was chaos for the last 10 minutes. We then went to games and activities with UKG. I worked with Velankanni and Jegadeesh. Love them both! We had popsicle sticks and made numbers and letters with them. I can handle kindergarten in small groups like that; we seriously had a blast!
After lunch I got to play lead teacher for our 5th standard reading comprehension lesson. We read a short passage about a coat as a class. They then had to read it themselves and draw the coat in their sketch books. I was so surprised at how many of the most common words for me they didn't understand! For example, I had to explain the words patch and lower several times. It was my favorite lesson here so far because I feel like I was really in the zone of teaching instead of just following someone else's lead. We were supposed to go to 9th standard for value education afterwards, but I guess they had a test or something going on. I'm okay with that; there's a reason I didn't do secondary education! We ended with 1st standard value education. It was a bit of chaos all over again. And we're pretty sure nothing stuck for them. But it was another successful school day here at Rising Star. :)
Every day here at Rising Star is not only a gift for the kids that are here, but for me as well. Their lives will be better because of their education and my life is better for having the chance to know them.
After morning fundamentals with the UKG kids, we had a bit of a break while the school had morning announcements and prayer. I watched (and tried to hear) and was once again blown away at how well behaved these kids are! I really just want to record them and show them to my students and say something like "If these little kids can do it, so can you." But cameras aren't allowed at school. :( Before reciting the Lord's prayer, the little kids (I think UKG and 1st standard) sang all 3 verses of I Am a Child of God. I could barely hear them, but it was so easy to tell that they truly believe it! They know that they don't necessarily live in the best of circumstances and that their needs really are great. But they always find a way to make the best of it. Always.
We then headed up to computer time with the UKG kids. It was a lot more interactive this time. I worked with Swetha and a little boy who's name I can't pronounce to even sound out how to spell it. Swetha was flying through her shapes and numbers; it was awesome! And I loved how excited she was to show me every time she got one right. The little boy, on the other hand, was giving me a headache. He's one that has a harder time understanding English still, and when I would delete his answer because he told me the right number but typed it in wrong, he would just shut down. Ugh. He finally started to get it and be excited about it when the bell was rung and they had to leave. Go figure. Next was 1st standard games and activities. I was a little bit excited because I knew more of what to expect having taught first grade last year. I got to read the book The Way I Feel, and then we split into groups and made paper plate faces for all the feelings. It was awesome! Unfortunately, we ended up with not quite enough planned, and it was chaos for the last 10 minutes. We then went to games and activities with UKG. I worked with Velankanni and Jegadeesh. Love them both! We had popsicle sticks and made numbers and letters with them. I can handle kindergarten in small groups like that; we seriously had a blast!
After lunch I got to play lead teacher for our 5th standard reading comprehension lesson. We read a short passage about a coat as a class. They then had to read it themselves and draw the coat in their sketch books. I was so surprised at how many of the most common words for me they didn't understand! For example, I had to explain the words patch and lower several times. It was my favorite lesson here so far because I feel like I was really in the zone of teaching instead of just following someone else's lead. We were supposed to go to 9th standard for value education afterwards, but I guess they had a test or something going on. I'm okay with that; there's a reason I didn't do secondary education! We ended with 1st standard value education. It was a bit of chaos all over again. And we're pretty sure nothing stuck for them. But it was another successful school day here at Rising Star. :)
Every day here at Rising Star is not only a gift for the kids that are here, but for me as well. Their lives will be better because of their education and my life is better for having the chance to know them.
You are a gift to them . Love Grandma
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