Learning in School

At both schools now, Agape in PaP and Loving Hearts in Mirebalais, we have separated the kids into three classes. There are around 20 kids in Agape with six teachers, and 50 kids at Mirebalais with five teachers. I like that we have split the kids so there are not as many surrounding me and I can go faster with the older ones who are picking it up. I also like that there is routine in the day. Both schools start the day by raising the flag and singing the National Anthem.  

At Agape I start with the oldest kids; 2^nd through 4^th graders. They have already mastered colors, letters, and how to greet each other. We have worked on numbers up to 20, I write the day of the week and date on the chalkboard in English underneath where it is written in French, and I just started animals with them. Then I move to Kindergarten and 1^st graders. They know the words for the colors and can sing the alphabet song but don’t comprehend what the English word they are saying means.  After lunch and recess I work with the youngest kids; 3-5 year olds. They have the shortest attention span so try to switch up what I do when I see they are getting bored. I think they all understood numbers 1-10 this past week.

 In Mirebalais I start with the youngest kids. We have been working on the colors and I just started the alphabet. The middle and oldest kids know the alphabet now and can say 1-100 with help. This is the first year of school for a lot of the kids at Loving Hearts.

At first Carline told me what to teach the kids but now I am starting to plan what to teach next. This week I am going to try and teach the kids to make a sentence describing the color of an object. Ex. The hat is yellow.  

Back to Mirebalais

After church on Sunday we headed back to Mirebalais. LovingHearts orphanage and school is in Mirebalais, depending on traffic, about 2 hours north of Port-au-Prince. School started Monday with about 50 kids, including those from the community. We split up into two groups putting about 15 kids in the younger class. Carline and I taught the kids how to say Good Morning, how are you, I’m fine, what is your name, and my name is. The kids also learned the name of their school and about the five senses. In the older kids class we learned the English words for body parts and I taught the alphabet. I stood at the chalkboard and pointed to each letter as we said it. I felt like a real teacher.

After school, some of the girls decided to do my hair. They took turns combing and braiding different parts. We played hand clapping games. I’m slowing learning the words to the songs. Carline found some coloring pages for me to paint to decorate the house. I let the kids choose which color I painted each object. I learned that where I would choose a similar color to what I think the object should be, red for tree trunks for example if there was no brown, the kids just pick any color they like. We ended up with pick leaves and lime green hair and it was beautiful.  

Instead of Martin picking us up today to come back, Carline and I rode in public transportation. It was a 15 passenger van that runs back and forth between Mirebalais and Port-au-Prince. We were the first ones in the van but only had to wait about 45 minutes for it to be full, so that’s not long at all.

First day of school!

We had 12 children at school. School is in the church building. Everyone arrived and was talking at their tables excited to see each other again and start a new school year. We started the day by praying and singing songs to God. We split up the younger kids from the older ones. Carline and I took the four younger ones. We sang “Good Morning, How are you? Very well thank you, and you?” in French and English. Then we practiced shaking hands and using the phrase in a conversation. Carline sang some other songs with them as well.

After eating and recess all the kids come to one table and I taught them colors in English. There was a song in one of the books Carline has and she gave me legos to point to and ask what color each one was. The kids seemed to be understanding and not just repeating after me. We also sang the Good Morning song with the older kids and added, “What is your name? My name is…” and everyone went around the table to introduce themselves. The kids learned other things today from the other teachers; they aren’t just learning English. Overall it was a great first day of school!