The first swimming lesson for the week was an interesting one. Again, chaos is the best word to describe the Sunday lesson. Some children, according to Ajeeb, nearly 'drowned' that day. In reality, they had only swallowed some water. This event did spur changes to how we conducted swimming lessons however. Some of the other volunteers informed Ajeeb of our concerns: the choppiness of the water, too many kids in each session who didn't understand us, or pretended not to, and the kids' general lack of listening skills. In the end, the Year 1's were cut from the swimming lessons altogether and the following swimming sessions were arranged: Years 2 and 3 for 30 minutes, Years 4 and 5 for 30 minutes and Years 6 and 7 for 45 minutes. We quickly noticed an improvement in the lessons. While they were never peaceful, we didn't feel as if we were struggling to control a mob of uncontrollable children anymore.
We had also been asked by Ajeeb if we were interested in running English lessons with the parents. We devised a four night rotational timetable and negotiated to start the lessons at 8:00pm. On the first night, a few parents turned up because 8:00pm was prayer time. After hearing this I became incredibly frustrated with Ajeeb, simply because he didn't inform us that prayer was at 8:00pm and most of the parents wouldn't be free for another half hour. If we had have known we would have moved the lessons to 8:30pm without any hesitation. As it turned out that lesson was the first and last. Each afternoon we would approach Ajeeb to find out if English was on, and each time he would say, 'Not tonight.' I have no idea what was happening, or what had happened, behind the scenes, but such undertainty and confusion are feelings I became quite familiar with, very quickly.
School picked up however, and I was beginning to really enjoy my time in the classroom.
This week I taught material nouns to the students in my class and the other Year 5 class. I won't beat around the bush: my class just didn't get it. Oh the joys of teaching. The next lesson however was more successful - the kids picked up the concept really quickly. While the kids are fun to be around they are incredibly frustrating at the same time because they do not listen. You ask them to listen, they'll stop talking, then literally 5 seconds later, just as you're about to begin teaching, they are talking, looking out the window or fiddling with pens and rulers. A lot of raised voices, death stares and, 'Do you want me to keep teaching you?' were employed to keep them under control, but nothing ever really worked. We think it is more than likely because there is no behaviour management program or policy within the school. Maybe behaviour management programs are a Western thing? I certainly missed that structure. The other thing was that there was nothing that could be taken off the students as a reprimand. The kids never went out to play, so play time couldn't be taken away. They never really got homework, so extra couldn't be given out. They were never kept in as the teachers would be under the parents' wrath. It's an interesting case.
Caitlin, Nicole and I also managed to spot dolphins later in the week from the wharf proving that they are around, you just have to have the right weather and be very lucky.
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