November 17, 2011 My classroom.

I began teaching yesterday. Ma'am Rachiel teaches 6 sections of Grade 6. Each of the classes is from 50 to 60 pupils. We are dividing each class in half and she is teaching English Reading and Writing and I'm teaching Speaking and Listening. The first two days have gone well. Just having such reduced class size is a boost to teaching.
Classes in the Philippines are homogenous, placing children in levels according to their performance. Therefore, there is a marked difference from one "level" to the next. Although I present the same basic lesson 6 times, I amend it continuously to adjust to their abilities. For instance, Level 1 played the 'Mystery Bag' game where we sat in a circle and passed my backpack, from which a pupil pulled an object out and told something about it, blending it in with the ongoing story. They did that all in English. That is very good for 6th grade English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. On the other hand, with some of the groups, I abandoned the lesson plan and used simple games to teach directions, such as Hokey-Pokey to teach them left and right.

I could not tell you which pupils I prefer to work with. I enjoy the engagement and intellect of Level 1 and 2, but I love working with children who've been discouraged or frustrated. I love seeing their intelligence.  And I love learning with the children, like I did in homeschooling. I'll be learning a lot more than the subject matter in these classes. Every day here is self discovery.
Rachiel has made this as easy and encouraging as possible. She arranged for this spare room to be my classroom and she got the room cleaned (I was sick the day it got cleaned.) Now we just do our work and watch what happens.

My classroom and my little cleaning elves.