Journal Entry 29: Teaching is Hard Work, But Oh So Powerful!

This week I started volunteering at a daycare center on the university’s campus.  One of the teachers led me into a small little room of kids, sitting in their desks staring at me. They’re just as energetic as any other toddlers, but a lot more well behaved than I expected. She then led me to a small open space across from that room where a woman stood around ten four and five-year-olds, writing numbers “1-5” on a small chalkboard. A small little girl walked into the little enclosure and the teacher said to me, “She’s new. You can help her get up to speed. She probably won’t be able to write up to five just yet, so start slow and keep repeating”. I nodded and took a seat next to the little cheesy girl. “You ready?” I said to her with a smile. “Do you know 'one'?” I said. She drew a one on her small piece of recycled paper. “Good!” I said, as she smiled at me in satisfaction. “What about two? Can you draw me a two?”. She looked up at me as if she was pretending to know what I was saying and then looked down at her paper and scribbled. “Hmm…let’s try it together” I said. I took her hand and we traced out the two together. We spent almost an hour trying to draw “two”, but I wasn’t about to give up. She would get distracted every now and then and try to play with my bracelet, or look at the other kids when they were rowdy. “You can do it, come on”. I said. She finally drew some type of two, but it was facing my direction, not hers (even though I had been drawing the two in her direction).  “Very good!” I said in excitement, clapping my hands a little. She gave me a big grin. I was happy I got her to at least draw the right shape. I pointed to the numbers and said “what is this?”, making sure she could identify her “1”s and “2”s. At first, she only knew “1” and kept calling “2”, “6”. This is when I discovered the psychological aspect of teaching; I was struggling to figure out her thought process. I had to figure out a way to get into her head and figure out how she was thinking, so that she could draw this two. She didn’t get it that day, but I'm determined to get it down for next time.

On this day I also discovered the power teachers have over their students, particularly at such a young, vulnerable age, where kids are like sponges just soaking everything in. When it was time for me to switch classes, I left the four year olds and went over to the three year olds who were doing their “abc’s”. The first thing I noticed is that because the students didn’t have their own papers, they each came up one by one to draw an “a” on the board, as the others just sat and watched. The teacher had me come up and help them draw the “a”. I immediately noticed that the one boy that came up seemed to get it a lot faster than any of the other girls that came up, and that the teacher even let him go up to “d”.

After their letters, the teacher looked at me and said “It’s song/poem time”. I sat in a chair and observed the songs. I must admit that I found the songs fascinating, and I’m sure you will too. Here are little snippets of a few I picked up on:

“Read the Bible, Pray everyday, Pray everyday, Pray everyday

Read the Bible, Pray everyday

If you want to grow”

“A for Abraham, fathers of men

B for Bethlehem where Jesus was born

C for Cain who killed his brothers

D for Daniel, the prophet of God”

“Green apples are bad, yellow apples are good”

This happens to be my favorite one to point out. You might be able to guess why:

“Bobby Shaftle gone to sea

Silver buckles on his knees

He’ll come back and marry me

Bobby, Bobby Shaftle

Bobby Shaftle, bright and fair

Combing down his yellow hair

He’s my love forever more

Bobby, Bobby Shaftle”

I watched the kids as they repeated after the teacher, doing hand gestures and at some points just staring at me, looking at whether or not I was watching. At one point, I and the teacher were the only ones singing the words, so she said “Me and Auntie are the only ones singing. Come on and clap for me.” The kids clapped. “Now clap for auntie” she said, referring to me, and the kids clapped. (In Ghana, Auntie is a sign of respect shown for an older woman). With these songs she was enforcing ideas and values the kids will internalize and hold onto for the rest of their lives. 

The teacher eventually let them go out (I’m guessing to use the bathroom). When they came back in, the teacher decided to test their colors. She asked each child what the color of their chair was, and only one student got it right. One boy raised his hand timidly and gave an incorrect answer, so she quickly asked someone else as his face suddenly showed a drop in confidence. She made an expression of disappointment and went to go fix their lunch. When they were done eating, she had them go outside to play and asked me to draw animals and fruits on the board. She and the other teachers took a bucket and mop and cleaned the floor and about a half an hour later, she was setting up little pieces of carpet for nap time. She eventually called the kids in, “Come on and nap” she said, as they trickled in. “How long do they nap?” I asked. “Oh two or three hours, it depends”, she said.  It was about 12:30 when they started napping, and nap time ends at 3pm. I don’t remember how long my nap time was when I was in kindergarten, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that long. Observing how they learn was fascinating for me, and taught me even more about the power of being a teacher. You can break or make a kid’s confidence, and even more importantly, you can teach them ideas about others and themselves that will potentially stick with them for the rest of their lives.