Children as teachers

This visit to Insights was an enriching experience for all of us. Talking with those smart kids taught us many different things. First, the way they express themselves is impressive. As English is their mother language they talk so fluently that I felt I learned a lot from them.

That´s one of the ways we can be benefited. Because speaking with the children help us to improve our English and to feel more confident in front of a public. For me it was surprising to see how they received us. I mean, I thought maybe they could feel wired with us because we speak different or look different, but it wasn´t like that! They were so happy with our presence.

We taught them some nice games but they also show us some others. It was very fun to shared with them. I thing we could figure out about more games of our countries and bring them to the school, so they could learn more words in another language and also get more information about our countries.

It also would be fun if they make a research or ask their parents about our countries so they may make us questions. We can play with maps or flag and do more things that reinforce the memory about the new things they´re learning.

Learning for life

When I was in elementary school I used to be very anxious while I was waiting for the recess. Usually it was because my mom prepared me a great breakfast and I just wanted to eat it! And of course, because I wished to play in the park we had in my school.

Of course I also remember how awful used to feel all those days we had Physical Education. I was such a bad player, almost every game was difficult for me. Probably I could fit a puzzle or playing chess, but no! my teachers wanted to see how the ball hit me because I was so clumsy.

Anyway, the rest of the time was very fun because I had a lot of friends and we were always talking, buying candies etc.

Now I can say, I still remember almost everything about that stage of my life. It was beautiful... It is so nice when you make a flashback and realized that you really enjoyed those times. That you remember the name of you favorite teacher, of the most strict, that probably taugt you more than any other. All those were experiences that showed me something relevant about life and now are a very important part of me.

Books and dreams

The visit to the book fair in the Oxford Elementary School, was another nice experience. The library in that school is so colorful and beatiful. This time it had more books and was decorated for the book fair.

Althouhg most of the books were only for children, I decided to buy one of them for my Reading class. First, I know I´m gonna enjoy it; second, it had a great price.

While I was looking around all the place, I saw several kids going with their own money to pay a book they chose. It was a nice picture. The way they encourage children to read and to be responsible with the money at the same time.

In Venezuela, if you´re a child and you go to a book fair with your mom, she´s gonna pay for the book you pick. So it´s not that fun as when you do it by yourself.

Furthermore, in my country, book fairs are not very common. When you want to buy a book or something, you go directly to the bookstore. The book fairs are made only once or twice a year in the universities or other open places where parents can go to search for books needed by their children. However, in Caracas, there´s one place that look like a book fair all the year. It´s located under a brigde! and you can find cheap books and old magazines.

During my childhood, I´d love to have a book fair in my school! I just imagen myself buying all the fairytales with my own money! amazing! And the way they did it in this school was pretty good, they were making groups of children and letting them go to buy something and come back.

I think that my classmates and me enjoyed a lot this experience!

In this picture: The Community Conections class after the book fair!!

Schools: Venezuelan style

In our last Community Conections class, we went to visit an elementary school in Oxford,MS. Since now I have to say that it has been the most interesting place I´ve seen since I arrived to the U.S.

This school showed us how americans are raised since they`re kids. The creation of "real enviroments", such as a market, a bank, a postal office and many other places, was really surprising for me. When children have contact with real situations, they learn how act in front of different things they`re going to live during their adulthood.

The Oxford elementary school show me in a wide way, how this educational places work in the United States. They are very organized, clean and warm.

In my country (Venezuela), things are different in some ways. Only private schools are able to create beautiful and friendly places like this one we saw. The public ones, usually are in bad conditions, restrooms don´t work, desks are very ugly and broken.

Teachers from those schools, work "with the nails" as we say. The Goverment doesn´t give them the resources in order to create better enviroments for the children. Some of those kids grow up sorrounded by poorness and not by toys, books or places like those we can find here.

Specially for me was a beautiful experience to see how those kids are been educated here. I`ve been in contact with some public schools in my country and I just felt so sad seeing that reality they live day by day. I used to go during several months to teach 8-9 years old kids how to create their own newapaper, I remember those little faces so interested in what we were teaching to them. Maybe that was the only "magic" thing they could learn in a lot of time.

In the picture: Ender Márquez, one of my students.