Apprenticeship

★THe                     Apprenticeship

 

 

       

 

         Our semester was jam packed with requirements and fun activities but I would have to say that the apprenticeship was one of the most enjoyable among them. We got to interact with the children without the burden of having to write a lesson plan. At the same time, we got to know them a little so as to prepare us for our demo.

 

         Together with Chell, Awie and Maica, our group was assigned to K-Kamia. We were supposed to just facilitate some games and get to know the kids but we decided that it would be good if our session had a theme. We came up with the party theme. We read them a story about a birthday and played birthday party games like popping the balloon and longest breath contests.

 

         It was fun working with a lot of kids but it's also a little hard to manage since we were not yet that experienced in managing a classroom. It was a good thing that there were six of us so it was less stressful.

 

         During the apprenticeship, we were given a sampler of how the kids would behave on our actual demo. We go more familiar with their names and faces, which kids are active, which are too active, and other small things that might help us in the demo.

 

         As expected, they could get a little rowdy when playing  but they were still really well behaved for kindergarten students. They followed instructions pretty well but of course there would still be those who didn’t listen as well as the others. They liked talking to each other so it can get noisy at times.

 

         One technique I learned when you are not the teacher in front and a kid is not listening and doing something that's distracting to the others, you could simply sit beside them and they would usually stop talking and pay attention to what's in front.

 

         Aside from the unavoidable noise a thing that is harder to handle is when someone cries. In our case there were two boys who cried that day. The first one is Joaquin who doesn’t really like loud noises. He got scared when a balloon popped so he had to go out of the room (which I later on found out he often did). The other one, no one really noticed but me. It was Yue.

 

         I believe I am somehow sensitive to other people's emotions in such a way that I could tell when someone is upset even if they are trying not to act like they are. So right after the game, I immediately noticed that Yue's expression changed. I knew that he was about to cry because he didn’t win the game so I sat beside him. The thing is, even if I do recognize that he is upset, I didn’t know how to address it. Was I even supposed to talk to him about it or let him sort his feelings on his own?  What I did was I asked him why he was sad. He didn’t answer. Silly me. Of course, he didn’t want to say that he was crying because he lost. So I asked him if he was sad because he didn’t win, and he nodded. I just told him that it's okay not to win sometimes and we had other games later that he could join. Soon enough, he stopped crying and participated in the games. This is partly why I like kids. They get upset and cry easily sometimes but they forget bout it just as easily. They fight and occasionally hit each other but they'd play together again after they stop crying.

 

         What I really like about the apprenticeship and interacting with kids in general is when they are the ones who approach you. They are really and tell you stories about their lives even without being asked. It feels nice because technically, we are still somewhat strangers since this is the first time we talked to them. All the other times before, all we ever did was visit and observe. Now this kid is telling me stories about cheetahs and his aunt, grandmother among others. They ask help in putting on their hat or name tag as if they've known you all school year. It is a nice change since most of the time, I'm used to kids who are really shy towards me. Just now, I thought that maybe this is because when we are in the classroom, we are no longer random stranger danger. We are teachers who they could trust and look up to.

 

         I've told Teacher JM and Teacher Yvette but I think I'd put it here so that I could read it in the future. After our apprenticeship was over, the kids kept going out of the classroom to say hi to us. There was this one little girl, Avielle, who told me "Teacher, you are so ganda."  In any other case, I would probably think "What is wrong with you? What do you want from me?" But I think this is one of those moments that I actually believed that I'm beautiful because it was a kid I barely know who was saying it. In general when a small child tells you nice things and shows you affection, those are the some of the best moments of being a teacher. Aside from being able to touch lives and the future, that is. 

 

 

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