Teaching

Today was my first day of real work at the school! :) I helped out with several classes, but in particular I want to tell you about my double maths lesson with the Indigenous kids. It was a very small group of just 7 students, all of them in the middle school and all with extremely low literacy levels. Out of the group, only two were girls.

I'm finding that the Indigenous girls are very shy and closed-this is because of a few things, like culture and simply because of the fact that they are in a completely new situation which must be overwhelming and scary at times. One minute they'll be chatting to me just fine, and then the next day they'll completely shut off from me.

The boys in this particular maths class, however, were a totally different story! I particularly got along well with one boy, I would guess he would be about 14 years old, and oh my goodness is he a misfit! Wandering around the class as the teacher tried to take the lesson, picking up things, putting things in his pocket, swearing, hiding in the cupboard, you name it! But deep down he's a beautiful kid, really genuine and quite polite (would you believe)-as soon as I walked into the class he boldly approached me straight away, shook my hand and introduced himself to me!!

I think that from today's maths lesson, I've learnt a lot about classroom management! Instead of getting frustrated at kids when they muck up, you've gotta let them be kids, play the game and just get on with it without letting them get you worked up. The Indigenous kids won't respect you if all you do is yell at them.

I will now be working with this class almost everyday this week, which I am very excited about! I've fallen in love with the kids, they make me laugh and they're so affectionate! I think it'll be hard not to kidnap Dylan!! (I'm sure you'll hear more about his exploits in coming weeks!)

So that was my first day of classroom assisting, it was a very positive experience, and it has also really showed me just how important education is in empowering Indigenous people to lead the way for their people.