Week #2: Finance and Field Trips

La Casa de Don Pedro

In last week's blog post, I stated that one of my goals was to get to know the kids more at La Casa because I had not really been around them. I finally got in the classroom when it was time for me, Joanne, Keshia and Nicole to teach them the finance lessons for the week. I understand that they did not want to do it, but some of them were incredibly rude and disrespectful. I was actually somewhat amazed at the level of disrespect that was occurring. It was actually kind of funny though to see Nicole in the disciplinarian role. She was the officer in the back of the classroom, trying to restore order.

It is really good to see that the kids are really excited about the talent show. As soon as I walk into the classroom, that is the first thing that they ask about. After seeing their attitudes towards the finance piece, I did not know how they would react to the talent show idea, but a lot of them were really excited about it. Antonio came in the next day with two raps that he had written and wanting to do three different things in the show. I am sort of sad that we will not be there to see their show because their ideas are great!

Abington

This week at Abington, I went on my first field trip. On Tuesday, we went to the Turtle Back Zoo with about 30 of the Abington kids. When we arrived, we split the group into two. I had 16 girls and 2 boys (1 who wanted to be with his sister and Jose, whom I have gotten pretty close with and wanted to be away from 3 of his brothers in the other group). I have not really been around the girls as much since I am usually playing games with the boys, but this was the perfect chance for me to get to know them more. I thought that having the girls would be easier than having a group of rowdy boys, but boy was I wrong! The girls varied in age from 7 to about 12/13. The 7 year old (who we think may not really be 7, but about 5) is very tiny and could not keep up and would also wander off to other exhibits.There were times when I literally had to carry her because everybody else was so far ahead and getting impatient. I buddied them up, but everybody wanted to be my buddy, so finally I just gave up on the buddy system and just told them to make sure that they knew where their partner was at all time.

I remember being 12/13. I thought I knew everything and had the smartest mouth. At least I know that the trend has stayed the same. There were times I had to hold myself back from making a smart remark like I would with my sisters. At one point in the trip, they asked a group of Jewish girls if they were Jewish. The girls yelled at them in Hebrew and of course, my girls yelled back. I had to sit them down and explain to them that that was rude and that they could not do that. They did not realize or understand it at first so I had to ask them how they would feel if somebody did the same thing to them. Later on in the day, one of the girl's shirt flew off the the train and we had to ask the surly conductor to go retrieve it off of the track for us. I could do nothing but close my eyes and shake my head, yet try not to laugh.

When I got home, I was EXHAUSTED and vowed to never go on another field trip again. However, I admit that I had a blast regardless of the little snags and would probably do it again. Somehow these kids got me in a bird house, feeding birds off of a stick with birds flying at my head and in the reptile house with a 9 foot python. I am terrified of reptiles and the kids had a grand old time making me stare at this huge thing that looked like it could break out of the glass and attack me at any time, but I did make a friend with a pig. All in all, it was a good trip and truly an experience.

                                                 
This week we survived a heat wave, thunderstorms and entertaining 100 kids in a small gym. Maybe the heat got to me or it's probably the kids, but I am really looking forward to this final week.

4 days, 17 hours, 8 minutes and 35 seconds until break, but who's counting?