Wow, time for our first day of school! Jeff and I started in KG2, which is like their second year of Kindergarten. They were wriggly and hyper, but they actually mostly paid attention and we were getting through the alphabet identification with sounds pretty well. Then, the headmistress got in (she doesn't get there until about an hour to an hour and a half after school technically starts), and we had to go with Aankit to meet her and get our actual assignments. We spent ten minutes with the headmistress telling us that we are guests and have to follow her rules and lessons. We were told that we aren't allowed to coddle the kids or let them get away with anything. She had us write down our names, then told us where we would be. Kathryn and I were placed in the KG1 class where we were supposed to be teaching these kids what rhymes are and how to make them.
So, we meandered on over to the classroom, and went to the front of the room. We were sharing the duster (chalkboard eraser) and chalk with the KG2 classroom, so we ended up just writing anything we thought we'd use on the board so we wouldn't have to erase or write anything throughout the morning. Since these kids did not even know their letters, much less the sounds of the letters, we didn't feel like we could teach them rhymes yet. We focused on finding letters that the kids usually got confused with (M vs. W) so we could help them learn. We got in a little trouble for this when the headmistress came to check on us. However, we didn't think it would be helpful to the kids to write rhymes on the board and simply have them parrot the words back at us, which is what she wanted us to do.
Unfortunately, we had another fairly major problem. None of the kids spoke English with any sort of accuracy, and we didn't speak Twi (or Hante or Fante - Twi dialects). Many of the kids hadn't ever seen a white person before, and those who had knew we wouldn't hit them, which is the only form of discipline they seem to be used to in school. So, they didn't listen to us. Instead, they fought, hit, kicked, cried, ran, touched, bit, pushed, and threw things. Aankit was right when he said these kids act like monsters. They're younger than most other grades, and they're just exploring their world, but knowing that doesn't make it any easier to figure out how to get and keep their attention to try to help them learn.
After an hour of trying to break up each fight (Daabi = no; gai = stop; ydiinya = listen; tenaase = sit) or holding them by the hands to keep them at least in one spot, Kathryn and I gave up. Eventually, we just sat in the front of the room singing "Twinkle, twinkle, little star..." and "Ring around the rosies" because we were supposed to be practicing rhyming. At one point, we did get a group of about 5 kids to do Ring around the Rosies, but that ended quickly due to arguments over who would hold whose hand. When we got back, Aankit laughed at us and said we both looked traumatized. In a way, I guess we were. I made up my mind to keep trying, and work on ways of at least getting some kids to learn. I had no illusions about getting everyone in the classroom to pay attention or learn, but I wanted a few to be able to say, yes, I did get something out of this odd white girl who came in to talk funny sounds at us for a few weeks.
And, that was school. I was extremely worn out by the end of the day. But, at least I had a new goal to work toward while I was there.
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