Weekly Internship Post 2

Weekly Internship Post for the week of March 4 (monday) to March 7 (thursday)


On the 4th, I worked with the Leonsitos (3-4yr olds) at FEVI/Muñequitos de Lumbisí.
Recently I've been feeling quite exhausted from this cycle of waking up at 5:20am and leaving the house at 6:15am and taking 45-60minutes to go to Lumbisí to go run around chasing the children around, going to class and taking 3 hours trying to decifer 4 pages of the spanish readings and taking 2 more hours trying to make 50 sentences.

Not to mention the laziness that has taken over my body since coming to Ecuador which has also transformed me to a person that never checked nor posted on Facebook to an addict.

But of course, I knew working with children is not easy, I knew it would be physically demanding but this is what I agreed to do so I want to be able to get the most out of these experiences.

So, what I've been observing about the Leonsitos is that they always lack volunteers compared to the Ositos (4-5 yr olds).
Even though it is only a year difference, they are also A LOT more difficult to manage and organize.
One simple activity outside or inside the classroom is impossible to organize because there are always a group of boys or girls that do not want to participate nor follow directions even after being told multiple times to come back to take part in the activity.

Perhaps they are in a mini phase of rebellion since there are definitely a couple kids that just do things just to make the teachers and volunteers upset or break the class rules knowingly and enjoy running away after seeing the supervisers' reactions.

Anyhow, it's been interesting seeing the different personalities of children.
The differences in how they behave is also quite interesting to observe even when they are only one year different from one another.
Maybe the Ositos are a little more mature in that they want to be recognized for their ability of following directions.

D.Bryan recommended me to read The Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner after having a meeting with him about the creative journal project and discussing my possible topic on childhood education and the balance in life.
I  saw the different learning styles that were written, I hope I can see some connection with the different learning styles with the children as well.

                  On the other hand, I worked with the big kids at CENVIDA for the first time on Tuesday. Honestly speaking, although it was definitely a lot easier than working with the younger kids who do not speak at all, it was more difficult working with the older kids because there was nothing much I can help out with. Perhaps it was just that the teacher didn't have anything for me to teach that day or I just could not find work to do. But even though the older children are able to speak a little bit, it was still difficult trying to understand them and a little sad when they would immediately turn to the teacher when I didn't understand something they said rather than try to communicate with me a couple times. Being here definitely makes me realize the difference of organization between CENVIDA and FEVI.Most of the time the kids at CENVIDA have a task to do but also are just standing around or are very easily distracted (I am not sure whether the inability to hear has an effect on that) and it seems as though many of the lesson plans are not planned.  I wonder what kind of aid or protection children with hearing disabilities have in this country.