Saturday, January 28, 2012

Gede Special School


 I know that it has been a while since I have updated everyone, but today I had some free time to take photos and give a brief update.  Today is Saturday and the kids are busy cleaning the grounds of the school.   My days are long and tiresome.  Every day presents new challenges whether it is with my signing or having to defend my sex to the male teachers.  So much is happening all at once and there really is no way to describe it other than to document it with pictures and maybe a few brief remarks.  I am going to give you some bullet points to outline the last month.

-  I teach classes 4, 5, and 6 subjects, KSL, English, Science, Creative Arts, and PE.
-  My children can not read or write above a 2nd grade level if that (some not at all, so it presents many challenges).
-  They have never been taught that they can use their brain to find an answer but rather copy it from a chalk board so critical thinking does not happen with out a lot of prompting guiding and scaffolding.
- 85% of the time the teachers are missing from their classes and the children are left unattended and learn nothing other than to copy from whats on the board.
-  Most of my children want to grow up and work on the beach or clean hotel rooms so we are learning about different options.
-  Tourist regularly visit my school they show up smoking and dressed like prostitutes, throw candy and pencils at the children, take a few photos for next year Christmas card, and then leave helping no one and sending a very bad message about all white people.
-  The best teachers at the school are the Deaf teachers.
-  The female teachers are second best and the male teachers should not be allowed to teach at all.
-  I am trying to teach my children the importance of work ethic and thinking for yourself.
-  My children are so happy and beautiful and I love them very much.
-We look at the moon together and I try to explain that the moon is not a star.
- I spend the majority of my time with the Deaf teachers ( get along well).
- I am starting a project with my children to use left over fabric scraps to make crafts to sell to the tourists so we can build a library.