day 44... last day of classes

i finished teaching today. went to kindergarden in the morning, and my usual primary school in the afternoon. we had all the parties yesterday and today. the turkey-making went really well, and so did the worksheet i made. everyone loved finding the states where they know people. and of course the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were a big hit. at the end of the day one of the students said, ´if you like english, raise your hand´... of course this was in spanish, but not important. they like english now! i got so many kisses and hugs today. one class attacked me with kisses, which was great and was super cute, but they had just eaten cheetos!! i washed my cheeks for a while. i got so many cards and a couple of gifts. i think i did make class fun for the six weeks. i dont know how much english they learned, definitely some, not a ton, but i did change the teaching style at least for these weeks, and the students learned that learning can be fun. (i know, thats cliche...) anyways, now that im done in the panama school system, here´s my review:

1. the discipline system:
while the teachers yell, even scream at the kids, there are no actual consequences besides hurt feelings for a couple of minutes. the teachers yell at kids directly, trying to embarrass them, and i have even heard a teacher call a student stupid. not the way to go, in my (and most peoples´)opinion. while the yelling may have some threats, such as point deductions on quizzes, or missing recess, they never ever follow through. when recess is taken away from a kid for being bad, the student never actually has to stay in. so clearly, there is no reinforcement. the kids know that nothing will happen.
rewards are unheard of. so there are no motives for the students to act well. even the small things that i´ve done here made the kids smile or do better. like, im talking really small things. i drew a smiley face on their paper if they got less than two things wrong. usually they just receive a check mark. the kids wanted that smiley face on their papers! definitely not a hard thing for anyone to do. other times, ill give the students some high-fives for getting an answer right, or even just participating without screaming the answer and giving everyone a headache. stickers are a high reward. i didnt give out as many stickers as i initially thought i would, because the kids really are so crazy. but id like to believe its not really their fault. its the culture. the kids are crazy in the school system. they really are. there is no motive and no reason for the kids to act well.

2. teaching techniques:
the only technique--copying, copying, and copying more from the white board. the kids have a notebook for each subject. the teachers will write paragraphs on the board, the students spend the hour copying it. (it takes an hour for a couple paragraphs because the teacher has to stop for a half hour to yell for a while) when theyre done copying, the students take it home for the night to memorize. usually there is a test the next day. there´s never a cumulative final, so i betcha there is no real learning for the long term. to give the teachers some credit, the kids are learning how to make this method work. and they dont know any other ways. but it was a shame for me to see. i know tehre are so many other things to do in a classroom, and im not even a teacher! sometimes tehre will be a practice test before the real test, but the students know the teacher wont look at it, so they dont study unless its a real test. theres no such thing as a popquiz to keep the students motivated to study. there are no games. there are no discussions. there are no opinions within the classroom. yes, they are young for discussions, but theres no room for questioning. in fact, questioning is bad.
heres what i did: i convinced the english teacher that she could teach the first half of the lesson for copying and such, and then i would reinforce her teaching with games and other activities. i was lucky to have a teacher that really agreed, and wanted to learn new techniques. i did activities that got them moving out of their seat. of course, many times they did get too crazy with these games, but the stickers came in handy at this time. if worst came to worst, the loud kids had to run a lap around the school to get their energy out, and then were not allowed to play until the next game. rule i taught the teachers: dont make the crazy energetic kids sit out of recess...they need to get their energy out, not keep it in. anyways, i did games such as bingo, hot potato, musical chairs, fly swatter, blindfold guessing, coloring projects, etc. all of these are new in the classroom. i hope that these ideas will spread as different teachers hear about them.

3. ¨the special ed department¨:
this name is in quotes, becuase really there is no department for special ed. i think that its great that the school system does recognize that there are students with special cases and mental illnesses, but the system has no idea how to handle these kids. therefore, they think every kid with a disability has the same problem. for instance, a student with adhd and a student with some level of autism will be treated the same way. a student who has a speech impediment is thought to have learning problems, not speaking problems. so there is one person who will walk around the school checking on these students. she might write their notes for them or read aloud the board. but she never helps them overcome any obstacle or tries to include them in the class. these kids are given different tests (basically just a shorter version of the original) because they assume none of these kids can process the information, but it is obvious to me that a lot of these students could very well process a lot more information that the teachers think. but they are never forced to take the hard version of the test, and so they use their disability to their advantage by slacking or leaving the classroom to walk around. when i help these kids individually, i see that they can read and write and process information.
i saw one extreme case where a clearly autistic boy was put in a desk in the corner of the classroom facing the back wall, because the teaching didnt want him distracting the other students with his noises. of course, i suppose it is amazing that this boy´s family even sends him to school at all.
the school doesnt have the resouces about special education, and so i understand why the program is how it is. i think panama is liberal enough to want to do better if they knew that they could. i believe they would consider bettering the system if they knew how. they just dont have the resources.

4. teaching behavior:
...i noticed this behavior right away. and it still bothers me after my six weeks teaching. the teachers will talk about the students and their failures openly in front of other students and teachers. if a kid answers something wrong, the english teacher will look at me, usually roll her eyes, and make a comment. i learned not to make eye contact with her when a student does something wrong. this very obviously makes the kids feel horrible, i can tell. at least the english teacher will talk to me in english, so the kids dont understand, but the other staff members dont have this option.
other than that, the teachers act as if they are there for themselves, not for the students. they will talk to other teachers in the middle of class if another teacher comes in. when i yell at all the students to stop talking, the english teacher will continue talking to whichever other teacher is in the room, knowing the rule does not apply to her. and it kills me!! their conversation is too loud and the kids have no respect for the rules when even the teacher is not following it. i have had so many urges to yell at the teacher, but i have to remind myself its the culture, and definitely not my place to yell!

anyways, i know i am crushing the school system right now. but obviously there is a stable system, and thats great. most of the families i have met take education very seriously. panamanians know that knowledge is important, and the parents will crack down on their kids to study. i mean, my host siblings are ALWAYS studying really. so while the system doesnt have the resouces to change immediately, i think that panama will make advancements in the future, as soon as the money and time comes along.
i think the next group of english volunteers for learning enterprises should really teach the teachers more than teach the kids. the teachers i met were eager for suggestions. i know there are some teachers who are too proud to want to learn more, and thats fine. teach the ones who want to learn. and if learning enterprises can teach these teachers some new ideas every year, soon enough the classroom will look completely different. i cant teach a ton of english in six short weeks. but i definitely was able to teach a handful of new activities to the english teacher.
i did love my kids, despite how ridiculously crazy they were a lot of the time. and i do think that learning enterprises should continue to come to panama. its a greatly developing country with a lot of potential.