A Week in KBR

So a person might begin to wonder exactly what it is that I do all day during my KBR class. On a normal day we start the day off correcting homework. I try to play music that I think they might enjoy but they just tell me it's yucky. So after a little while of correcting homework I want to pull my hair out and then I regain my mental capacities and begin with the hard-core learning. We are currently on the second set of consanants: R,N,G,P,H. We have been working on them for about a week now and I think that we will be moving on soon. We practice making the sounds and writing, not drawing as they like to say, the letters. Here we have Bairt working hard on his letters. Probably the best student in the class.

After we have practiced the letters for a little while we read a story, or rather I tell them a story from a book with lots of pictures. It is suppose to build their language skill. By this time we have been in class for about one hour and we really need a break and this is where the real fun begins. On Monday I only had six of my eight students because Melody, my one girl, was in Korea and William was sick. While on our break the subject of girls came up. The boys began teasing each other about who they liked and I was surprised that most of the boys confessed their true love. I suppose that I was quite surprised that they would all admit as to who it was they are crushing on but I guess girls are still cool. I think this picture was taken immediately prior to our uplifting discussion about girls. I tried to get the guys to pick a girl for me to like but they were thoroughly disinterested.

I also discovered a great game last week that I played on Friday and left me quite entertained. Joseph had taught kindergarten in the morning in my classroom and had forgotten to erase the board. I erased almost everything except a man's head he had drawn and then I got an idea. I could ask the children what it is they wanted me to draw for them. I drew a circle body, candy bar legs, spider arms, horns and an elephant nose. Then he needed a way to get around so he acquired a scooter with a pet dinosaur. The story could go on and I suppose if you are truly interested you can inquire but if not just enjoy my interpretation of their ideas.

However, class today is what truly inspired me to blog. The first hour was simple enough but then break got a little interesting. Ray found a book that he enjoys looking at and can almost read all of the words, or has them memorized. You can see Ray below with the book that started all the action.

He came up to me today and decided to sit on my lap. Then Jasper came over and wanted to sit down and because I have two knees it was no problem. Well pretty soon four kids wanted on and I decided I needed a picture. One of my students offered to take the picture but I declined and asked him to get a secretary to take the picture. Sometimes I forget that these are just little kids and they just need a little lovin' every once in a while.

After our break we practiced reading letters and making the proper sounds. They did surprisingly well so I was pleased. Then we got to go outside and put bugs and other random things into our bug catchers. It started off kind of boring at the beginning, just finding snails and the occasional dead bug.

But then the grand daddy appeared. I am told by my students that it was not Michael that discovered the artifact but some other boy. We discovered a rat skull that had been there so long that the body had wasted away. Of course everyone had to touch the skeleton and hold it. I refused to do so, probably because I was afraid that I'd acquire rabies. After we finished our search for random items around the yard I made Michael throw the skull over the fence so that no one would be tempted to play with it.

We also had to wash our hands with mounds of soap. The activity turned out pretty well. It was followed up by our counting tokens (when they speak English we give them tokens to incourage them to speak) and handing out stickers ( I bribe my kids to behave by giving or taking stars away based upon made up criteria). We ended class and I raced to the post office to mail a letter home.