PROJECT: Reflection, Fourth part

MV was a problem child in the beginning. Some kids are mischievous by nature in the best possible way and MV was one of these. She loved action and loved causing a ruckus. It is unfortunately true that I spent a disproportionate time with the children who caused problems, and eventually Sonja and I had to devote quite a bit of time to MV. It turned out that she had just been bored, after we gave her some attention she became one of our best students, and especially loved working with Sonja.

A more difficult case was X. X was one of the older students, but somewhere along the line something must of happened to make her overly afraid of being wrong. She never wanted to attempt things; many of the other students had this problem, but not to such a degree as X did. Instead of correcting her own attempts during our writing exercises she would rip out a page from her book and write them all again. In our classes, where most children write extra small to conserve space, tearing out a page is an extreme action. She had little confidence in her own abilities, and would not read unless I stood by her, validating her every pronunciation, most of which were correct or very nearly correct anyway. I hope we were able to give her some confidence in her abilities.

N. was unusually quite and studious. Among our students the quiet personality type was very rare only 4 or 5 of the bunch would sit quietly and read for the entire class without taking some sort of break or nap on occasion. N. also stood out as the only student who liked the Winnie the Pooh books. Winnie the Pooh is a fixture of American culture (in which this particular brand has been over-commercialized with an abandon reserved for few others). Because of this I was very surprised by the lack of interest in the Winnie the Pooh books, N. was the only student who liked them. He would sit and sound out the words and read, I mostly left him alone only checking up on him every so often, or answering his questions about the pronunciation of specific words. He was already at the point where my involvement would have probably just hindered him, he had already learned how to learn and he needed the book more then he needed me. In addition, and what I found extremely interesting, was that N. was not among the best students in the class, at least in the beginning and certainly not when he started reading the Winnie the Pooh books. Although it is difficult to say with certainty, I believe that N. was the student who improved the most during our time here.

Despite the occasional problem the enthusiasm the children brought to reading was incredible. Given that we taught at the end of the day I found it hard to believe they would be able to last an additional hour and a half. But usually they did without a problem. Especially when we started writing exercises as well. Some students didn't want to stop reading at the end of class and I basically had to pull the books away from them (even on the last day, right before vacation).

As mentioned in previous posts we began writing exercises around the middle of our volunteer-ship. I wish we had started it sooner, but I didn't because I thought that children of such varying levels couldn't benefit from the same drills. But I was wrong, even the children who didn't understand the drills probably gained something from copying them down. We mostly had the children unscramble sentences. These drills proved to be a good difficulty level for most of the children in the class.

I felt blessed to be able to have this experience. It deepened my respect and gratefulness in so many ways. I encourage everyone with the time and the will to take on such a project, as is usual in such situations, you get more then you give.

//Tomaz

(V četrtem delu refleksij nadaljujem s ohlapnim pregledom najinega dela ter situacij s katerimi sva se soočala. V prejšnjih delih ste že spoznali nekaj profilov najinih učencev, zadnji del pri tem ne bo izjemaJ)

MV je zelo nagajiv otrok (v najboljšem smislu besedeJ). Rada ima dogajanje, akcijo, rada kakšno ušpiči. Prišel je čas, ko sva ji, ravno zaradi njenih nagajivih prigod, posvetila več časa. Presenetljivo - hitro se je izkazalo, da je želela le pritegniti najino pozornost, saj je po tistem postala ena najinih najboljših učenk.

Drugačna, bolj kompleksna situacija je bila z X, eno od najinih najstarejših učenk. Je zelo nesamozavestna, ima izredno malo zaupanja v svoje sposobnosti in znanje, kar je otežilo njeno vključevanje in sodelovanje v skupini. Bila je tiha, v ozadju, vsako sodelovanje in izpostavljanje je predstavljalo zanjo velik stres. Že ob najmanjši napaki je bil pri njej opazen slab občutek in sram. Upava, da sva s svojo vzpodbudno držo vsaj malo omilila njeno težavo. Upava tudi, da bo kateri od prihodnjih učiteljev ali dolgoročnih prostovoljcev zaznal njeno blokado in ji jo pomagal preiti, ter razvijati njene številne talente.  

N. je zelo tih in študijozen. Med tamkajšnjimi učenci je tak značaj bolj izjema kot pravilo. Bral je skozi celotna srečanja, brez premora. Sedel je, ter mirno, počasi, glasno bral. Razen tega, da sem ga vsake toliko pogledal, mu morda pomagal s katero od besed, N. ni potreboval veliko pomoči. Bil je že na tisti stopnji, ko bi bilo moje vmešavanje kvečjemu moteče. Bolj kot mene je potreboval knjige. Kljub študijoznemu značaju, N. ni bil med najboljšimi učenci v skupini, vsaj v začetku ne. Zdi se mi, čeprav seveda ni mogoče trditi z gotovostjo, da je N. v času najinega projekta najbolj napredoval.

Ob misli na entuzijazem, s katerim so se učenci vsako uro znova lotevali branja, sem ganjen. Zdi se mi prav neverjetno, posebej zato, ker so bile najine ure ob koncu šolskega dne, otroci pa utrujeni. Posebej začuden sem bil vsakič ob zaključku naših srečanj,  ko sem pričakoval, da bodo veseli odvrgli knjižice ter oddrveli domov, a je začuda peščica učencev vedno znova ostala v klopeh in brala. Tudi ko sva že pospravila učilnico in svoje torbe, so oni še kar sedeli in skušali izkoristiti zadnje “bralne” minute.

Od zaključka najine odprave mineva že mesec dni. Izjemno počaščen in vesel sem, da sem imel priložnost pridobiti to dragoceno življenjsko izkušnjo, ki je v številnih ozirih poglobila moje spoštovanje in hvaležnost. Vsakega od vas, ki vas privlači misel na podobno izkušnjo, vzpodbujam – ne odlašajte, bodite pogumni in se priključite kateremu od številnih podobnih projektov. Prejeli boste toliko več kot boste podarili!