Since I would like to have a more profound experience and reflection with my internships, I will be writing a weekly blog about the two locations and write a final reflection blog on my own at the end of the semester.
Firstly, I intern every morning from Monday to Friday.
Monday and Wednesday: FEVI + Muñequito de Lumbisí: leave my house 6:10am-12pm
Tuesday and Thursday: CENVIDA: leave house at 7:30-12pm
I started volunteering (interning) with the two schools at the end of January, except the schools here have a two week vacation prior and during carnaval so I recently just resumed with the kids just two weeks ago, after my return from the Galapagos (honestly speaking I wanted to stay there forever).
Now, here's the run-down for the two schools I volunteer at:
FEVI/ Muñequitos de Lumbisí
A school for children 3-4/4-5 years old. There are two basic classes: the Leonsitos (3-4yrs) and the Ositos (4-5yrs). Each class has more or less about 25 children and the classrooms are a nice size with tons of posters on the walls and resources to utilize for these children.
The coordinator there, Jaime, spoke to me passionately about his system of teaching, "art of play" (I believe is what he said..). Rather than forcing the children to stay in class and make them concentrate and participate in the class work/activity, his method is to let the children concentrate on class work for a certain amount of time and after each activity, allow to go outside to play.
He spoke of his responsibility to teach the children who will become leaders of the 21st century; the issues of the machista culture that is still very much dominant in Lumbisí; the hope of getting computers in the near future to have computer classes for the children; and the methods of teaching related to the educational laws that exist in Ecuador.
I feel a deep sense of care for the children from Jaime, and I am not sure if that is the reason, but the children also listen to him much more than the other teachers (the other teachers are women, I am not sure if that is a result of machista culture as well).
CENVIDA- Centro Escuela Nueva Vida
A tiny school for deaf-mute children ages 2-17.
There are three classes, generally divided into the youngest, middle, and oldest children that go to the school.
I have mostly worked with the youngest group here, just so that the comparison between FEVI is easier to do. (Although comparing children that can't hear and can hear are very much different)
The classes are more or less about 5 students each, the classrooms are rather tiny and the school has much less resources and the posters on the wall are all hand drawn/written.
The hardest part about this place is obviously communication.
To start off with, my spanish speaking skills are still very much entry-level.
Working at FEVI is definitely a struggle trying to communicate with the children what to do, what not to do, why not to do something, and disciplining them by explaining things to them clearly.
However, the chidlren at CENVIDA can't hear.
This would be a struggle in the United States, but trying to teach deaf-children here has been such an obstacle for me.
Most of the time they are in class, there isn't much of an issue because the teacher is looking over them as well.
But the most difficult thing is stopping a fight, finding out a way to have them be on good terms again but having them say sorry by not having to say sorry (if that makes sense) and having them share the swings, showing them what not to do, etc.
In both cases, I have really felt the importance of parents and surrounding adults being good influences and great role models for the children.
No matter what age or whether they are deaf or not, children learn by looking at how their parents/adults act, interact with one another, greet and thank others, etc.
Children catch up on so many more things than we think, and the way we raise/encourage/discipline/support/etc them will really shape their personalities and inner strengths.
In that case, it is really important to do the best to give the children the most we can so that we can provide a strong foundation for them to become successful people in the future.
For now, there are so many little struggles that I am facing trying to handle them, but so far it has been a pleasure working with the children (no matter how tired I am, I am instantly energized [to a certain degree that is] when I see their adorable faces :) ).
I hope I can make a personal connection with all the teachers and as many children as I can while I am here :)
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