Apologies for not having blogged in a while- It seems that the one week we initially got of reading and relaxing has been taking over by crazy lesson planning and after school revision classes. Both me and my project trust partner have been finding ourselves plenty to do- and even though we enjoy teaching we often can't wait for that end-of-school Friday feeling!
The first week of our project was thoroughly enjoyable. We had been warned in our Project Trust training week that the resources in some of the schools that we would be working at would be limited and at our project this was certainly the case. There were no shops to buy classroom decorations, no laminating machines, no colour printers and there was only a few pieces of card and scissors to use. This actually made decorating classrooms a really fun task. Everyone got to put their creative skills to the test. Having no stencils meant that we had to draw a lot of the pictures and lettering free hand- the last time that I had done this was probably during my GCSE Art class which seems a long time ago from now. I got to make labels of teachers names to be stuck on the classroom doors. I spent hours cutting round the lettering and making the different backgrounds but it was highly therapeutic and a fun activity to get to know people.
However the first few weeks in of teaching were fairly chaotic. We started off just teaching a few classes and assisting in most- however a couple of days in this soon changed and we have a very full teaching time table now. I teach First grade English, Second Grade English, Science and Spelling and Fifth Grade Maths and Maia teaches 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade Art (so she has lots of student names to remember!) as well as 4th grade science and 3rd grade spelling. It does sound like a lot of work but we both agree that lots to do it better than too little to do and the work here is very rewarding.
5 main differences between schools in Honduras and schools in England
The first difference that we notice was that Honduran children like to talk. A lot. Although this isn't the idea quality for the children to have when there is up to 27 of them in a class it does make the lessons very interesting. We hear a lot of funny stories and facts about the students, although some of them (or rather a lot of them) we're not quite sure are true. Apparently in 6th grade almost all the children by now seem to own a helicopter or a private jet! However one story which is surprising true is that there is a skeleton on the schools grounds. Yes, a skeleton. (Although it is only a plastic version.) According to the students and teachers it was founded quite a while ago and no one quite knows what happened to the person and how they got there. It's quite an interesting mystery and the children love telling us all their theories on the subject.
Another difference is the pride the children make over their country. Every child knows the Honduran national anthem off my heart which is an amazing achievement and quality to have as admittedly I don't think that I even know my own nation anthem off my heart yet. More than often their school day would start with an assembly where they would start singing it. I've started to sing along with the lyrics now and most the non-honduran teachers are in love it it- It's extremely catchy!
A perhaps more obvious difference is that the children here really don't have that much. They take a lot of care over their belongings and appreciate what they have. If a pencil goes missing in the class for example, the child won't simply forget and get out a new one. Quite often in second grade I would have a child in tears over such an event, and they would persist to stay after school in the hope of finding it.
There is also a big Make do and Mend attitude here as well. The amount of half destroyed water bottles I've had to tape up with duck tape within just the past week has been very impressive. Even me and Maia have been adopting this cultural custom, getting out the sewing kit and mending the clothing which in England, we would normally throw away.
And finally and probably one of the most significant differences is the fact that this school is Bilingual. Speaking to some of the older students even admit to saying that they speak better English than they do Spanish. Although this may seem ridiculous considering this is their second language it really is true when you thing of all the words you learn in school and not at home. For example, in biology and chemistry half the words you wouldn't have known in English if your teacher had not taught you- and with a second language the principles are exactly the same. It really makes me want to have gone to a bilingual school now- buy third grade most of the students are pretty much fluent.
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