The past 2 Tuesdays I've been volunteering at an evening childcare program for families who are taking English classes. The description of the program was that the kids would do homework, art projects, snack and get some playtime. So far, I haven't seen the homework aspect. The "art" projects have been crappy and boring. The only things that have been consistent with the description are the playtime and snack. One thing that really angered me this week was how the teacher disciplined one of the girls. Okay, so the situation went like this: Aysel (girl) and Dejan (we call him Dan) were sorta bickering back and forth and playfully calling each other names like most kids do. I was sitting at the their table and was witnessing this. The lead teacher calls Aysel out and tells her finally to move to another table, which by the time he did that, she wasn't even doing anything. We only had 2 tubs of markers and she didn't have any markers at her table so naturally, she had to get up and come back to our table to get some. EACH TIME she had to do that, the leader kept yelling her name telling her to sit back down. I was irritated! She would sit back down at her table without really protesting and then if she needed another marker, then of course, she had to come back over quickly. You guessed it, he'd say her name again and tell her to sit down. She stayed near me and was talking to me and minding her own business when all of the sudden, he says, "AYSEL! GO TO THE CORNER!!" My frustration and irritation raged inside of me because she wasn't doing a damn thing!! (sorry for the language, I was doing that for emphasis). She was being so good and not even talking to Dejan and he made her go sit for like 5-10 minutes in the corner. What sense does that make?
The art project was lame too. I know V-day is coming up on Saturday and he wanted to have them make Valentines for whomever but it was sooooooooo laaaaaaaammmme. I was even bored and I knew some of the other kids were bored too just by hearing what one girl said: "Are you kidding me?? We have to sit here for that long? I have spelling I need to study at home!" See? This kids either need real homework time or a meaningful, short lesson/activity to keep them occupied. Not some lame heart sheet to color in. I didn't mention that this lead teacher is a Geometry/Physics teacher in high school...Well, in case you're asking why I didn't say anything, I just don't feel like I have any right to usurp his authority. I know how that feels and I don't want any hard feelings but I don't know how much longer I can stand being in that room with him. I guess I could be grateful that this is probably gonna give me some good material for my research paper but geez...does it have to be torture? I ended up making a Valentine for the girl because I felt so bad for her. My message said: "To Aysel, You are one cool kid! From: Jennifer". She was surprised that I had made her one and she told me that I was really sweet.
So, my paper will have something along the lines of my experiences with this program and what I witnessed (unfair discipline, stupid activities, etc) and then I will give suggestions as to how I would personally run the class for those 2 hours. Once I'm more focused, I'll share more details.
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