las reglas de la sala (classroom rules)

for 2007 i have had to incorporate a few changes. since we have between 50-60 on average in attendance each week, i have felt the stress of teaching. getting the kids to settle down and pay attention has been the biggest challenge in the last several months. imagine a regular school teacher and the stress she feels with a classroom of 20 children. Imagine 3 times that amount! it is (has been) absolute insanity. The kids' ages range between 1 and 13. AND, all the kids are in a small room about 20 sq meters in size. But i think the biggest thing is that these children do not receive much parental care. The preschool aged kids run around alone all day, while the older ones many times are victims of physical and mental abuse (sometimes sexual abuse also). The majority of these children live with alcoholics. They don't receive the love and nurturing at home that they need in order to grow and become successful individuals in life. They are able to attend school but the teachers are not there to make them better people. The teachers in peru are disciplinarians, often times hitting the children themselves.

So of course our method needs to be MUCH different!! I do not express anger and try to always be give positive reinforcement. Many times the children don't know how to respond to this... they think I am their best friend, their auntie and they love me (and i love it!) but they also don't understand how to respect someone like me.

After I almost lost my voice a few times in December, I decided I needed to make some changes for the new year. So I began researching what elementary school teachers do to start off the new year:

Classroom Rules

I followed an example that I read about, that advised in letting the children decide their own rules instead of me doing it. So we spent our first Saturday back in January deciding on the classroom rules. I wrote them all down and we went over them until we all were in agreement. And then I had them written and posted up on the wall for the next week. We put some consequences in place (although we didn't post the consequences).

Ever since then, the children have been much better behaved. Not perfect by any means.. and it is still a challenge to have such a large group tucked in a small space, with dogs running in and out from time to time. But we have seen a difference. Thank you Lord.