Day 7 (Tuesday July 30, 2013)

Day 7 (Tuesday): Today was our first day of teaching, and I think it went quite well. I helped Danielle teach her class first period, which I think helped because I got to hear how she wanted to explain the material, and then I got to do it myself and adjust to how I saw fit.

When I first started teaching my class they could not understand me well, and I have a hard time understanding them. Although, Joseph says that if the students are quiet that it means that they understanding, and if they are not that they will ask questions. However, when people are giving you the "I have no idea what you are talking about lady" stare, how am I supposed to feel confident in my teaching abilities. Even though students do the same thing when they understand at home, it would nice for someone to just ask one question to reassure me that they are grasping the material. Those stares can be intimidating.

The only problem I really had was getting the children to work in groups. I have one of two guesses, either the children are really shy because they all came from schools across the country, or that group work is not practised here as much as it is at home. The children had a very hard time understanding how to sit in a circle and work together as a group. I think it was a great challenge though to get them to interact with one another, and I feel they learned a lot and had fun while doing so. The children really love math and English, but I am hoping that they will love health science just as much by the end of the month.