School

After some debate as to where I was teaching, I finally started teaching 5th grade homeroom at the Ebeye elementary school. Ebeye is about a 30 minute drive from the island I live on, on a small bumpy dirt road. The small school van picks me up at 7:30 each morning.

After almost 4 weeks with this class, I'm still not sure if I'm seeing progress. I have 24 students, though usually only 20 show up, and even less return from lunch. I have a small classroom that doesnt have enough seats for all the students. I have countless discipline problems. I've never seen my entire class sitting and quiet at one time. I'm not sure if it is because I don't use any kind of physical punishment as is rumored most teachers do (though I have never witnessed), or simply because I'm nice to them so they think they can walk all over me. While no day goes perfectly, some go better than others. On a good day, I'm able to get through all my lessons with mild disruptions, having majority of the students sitting and half quiet and listening, have nothing stolen from my desk, and have only 5 students staying after class to write "I'm sorry Miss Liz, I will listen in class" 100 times.

On a bad day, the class is too wild to even sit down never mind be quiet. I can't even attempt a lesson. The whole class but one is on the board to stay after school. It makes me wonder sometimes what I'm doing here, wasting my time trying to teach these children who have no respect for me and don't care about learning. I've had to lock them in the classroom to step outside and take a few deep breaths to keep from going crazy. I have (as a last resort) had the principal come talk to the class.
I've tried positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, assortments of punishments and rewards, and on any given day any of them could work or not work. I have realized though that they do in fact like me, so I've learned not to take their poor behavior personally. Some days I'm constantly surprised with how well they do. Students will take the initiative to come to me to retake tests they've failed. The worst behaved boy will stay after school 2 hours voluntarily to help me clean. I have also become much more optimistic when I remind myself that they don't speak english, so getting them to do as much as they have done is success in itself. What I've realized is that it is in fact a bumpy road, the good days are great and the bad are horrible.


My class:



This is during recess so most of the class is outside, but there aren't even enough seats for everyone