Journals and Turtles

This week was really great! We are finally getting into a routine at school and the kids are starting to pick up on it.  They are starting to raise their hand without talking but if I don't look at them right when they raise their hand they yell, "teacher!" and expect me to come over right away.  They also make this, "Chch" sound when they want to get my attention because it's not technically talking.  My housemate, Diana, said her second grade kids did that too so I guess it's a cultural thing.  It does drive me crazy though.

I am learning how to communicate with the kids without speaking to them and I've even learned some Samoan to help the process.  The kids also love teaching me Samoan words so I allow them to do that at the end of the day.  I even read them a book in Samoan which they loved, but I think it may have confused them.  I think they think that I speak Samoan but won't speak to them in Samoan.  Things do get a little tricky at times with the language barrier though.  For example, I have a journal for each of the kids to "write" in every day.  The ones who can write will write a couple words and they others will just draw.  Well, every day of the week all my kids were drawing were turtles.  I was confused but I thought that they must love turtles here.  By Thursday they started groaning when I mentioned journal writing time.  I had no idea why they didn't like journal writing time because it's essentially free draw, I figured they would love it.  Finally after talking to the kids a little more I realized that all this time I had been telling them to draw in their journals, and they thought I was saying draw a turtle.  They thought their crazy teacher was telling them to draw a turtle every single day. Oy, no wonder they were groaning.  When they finally realized that they could draw what ever they wanted, they were much more excited about journal "turtle" time.

I also decided that when I leave American Samoa I'm going to quit teaching an become and ESL textbook writer....Okay that's a lie but someone needs to do it.  We have many good teacher resources here, the same stuff that is used in the U.S. but rarely does it apply to ESL students.  They often have a little section at the end of each unit explaining how to teach the unit to ESL students.  Well, this would be great if I could actually use it with my ESL students.  Clearly the people who wrote these textbooks never actually taught ESL children.  Here is an example of a Beginner 1st grade ESL tip:

Learning the "L" sound.

Learning the "L" sound may confuse some ESL children because "el" is not just a sound in many other countries but also a word.  To help them understand tell them that L is short for elevated railroad...

Seriously? My kids just learned "Stand up" but I'm sure they'd understand elevated railroad. Thanks...

Another....

Again aimed at 1st grade ESL kids.  If they are having trouble understanding the concept have them act it out using the proper vocabulary.

Well, don't they have to somewhat understand the concept to act it out??  I'll just figure it out on my own.

Anyways, everything is really great here.  It's almost impossible to get stressed out because there is really no pressure.  Everyone just does their own thing and that's okay.  I don't have to constantly fear that I'm going to get yelled at by a parent at the end of every day.  The kids are so independent.  We have half an hour lunch in which the kids just run around.  even, walk down to the store, as long as they're back in class by the time the bell rings it's all good.  Plus the kids are in beast mode here.  This one little 2nd grader rides around on his bike with no breaks, to stop he just puts his bare feet down on the pavement.  They're pretty hardcore. Oh, and my front yard is the ocean.    How can you possibly be stressed out when you fall asleep to waves crashing every night.  You can't. We're going to finally explore the island tomorrow and do some snorkeling. Can't wait!