First impressions of school

So on Tuesday we started observing at Mathus. I really like the kids. They're super energetic and excited. We're going to be teaching Tuesday - Friday from 4:15 - 5:15 and 6:30 - 7:30 and Saturday 9am -11 or 12. My first class is a beginning class with kids from 5 to 7 years old. They know English surprisingly well for their age. They can all speak basic stuff, name, how are you, etc. They know most of the letters and their sounds as well. They're were really cute when they met me, and one girl kept saying my name and when someone came in late she'd shout "aaleeesaaa" to introduce me to them.

The teacher I'm replacing for those two classes is the head teacher and she's very organized and has a lot of good systems in place. They sing a lot of songs and are very silly most of the time which is excellent. They laugh at any of your jokes which is important because the only reason I'm a teacher is because adults stopped laughing at my jokes.

The second class I teach are older kids 9-12 and I'd call them intermediate. They're the sardines, the first class are the squirts. I have yet to completely understand how they got their names. They were less silly, but still very excited. They seem to understand a lot and you can talk to them in almost regular English and they'll still understand.

Wednesday we went to the High School and observed there. The kids there have pretty poor English, especially spoken English. They all have matching uniforms that today were the boy scout designed ones. They all have matching haircuts too. Girls are above the ear and boys have crew cuts. I would say they were more excited and rambuctous than the 5 year olds. Immediately when we got there they surrounded us and asked our names, where we're from, etc. One kid said "hey baby" to me. It's a lot like being a celebrity when you're there. The kids are also really touchy feely. Especially the boys with other boys and with you. It's a little bizarre.

Also the teachers hit the kids for punishment with rulers and we heard about one teacher who cut a chunk out of one kids hair as a punishment. She apparently tried to glue it back onto her head the rest of the day.

These classes seem less structured than the Mathus ones. Each grade is divided into an upper and a lower level but they're not paced differently at all. The lower level have to maintain the same speed as the upper level. It's frustrating because you're supposed to be teaching them the difference between simple present, present progressive, and simple future, but they don't seem to understand what the word "now" means or really any of the vocabulary their using like what the verb to play means.

Here are some pictures I took from Mathus.









These is the front office. These ladies are super sweet!!







This is my new desk!!








Justin's desk is the empty one.










This will be my classroom.























We'll be writing more regularly once we get internet at our place. I'm slowly adding photos to the album in Picasso, so you can keep checking that too for new photos. Thanks for all the comments and emails!! Hope everyone is well!