Hello everyone! It's a beautiful week for us all
You can tell from the excitement of children what they expect from you and how eager they are to learn especially in an academic environment and when they have developed an attachment of emotions with you just like they do towards their parents.
Sometimes teaching or instructing little kids feels interesting especially when they appear smart and brilliant. On some other beautiful days, their aclaimed beauty in smartness can be frustrating when they find it difficult understanding what you taught them or finding it hard to replicate what they were taught and most times when it has to do with sketching or drawing.
I have only few pupils' in my class, just about three in number. They appear in order of height and colour of skin . Working with them gives me joy considering some factors depending on the educational exposure of the environment they found themselves. My students in this case happens to fall in an environment where it's hard to find a high school student or high school graduate been able to read or speak in English in a country where English happens to be her official language. This challenge happens to be common to all in this geographical location. But my pupils in this regard seems to have scaled the cycle of not been able to read, write or communicate in English.
Some of the cause of this degradation in academic excellence and performance in this very location is actually the negligence of parental responsibility of many of the parents here which is also due to the fact that the grandfathers, so to say of the current parents may not have placed much premium on education but on farming. This has then degenerated into affecting the younger generation in a developing country. Oh, this is actually a digression but it's worth it.
My three pupils on the other hand, have seemingly educated parents which reflects in their disposition to learning. But their cooperation in reading together despite their average age of seven is the greatest asset they have all got. This helps them to grab what they are being taught faster and easier.
Today, despite their smartness, while trying to take them some elementary primary mathematics on the topic "TIME", I discovered that they all find it difficult to make the simple sketch I gave to them which took them hours or say periods based on our usual daily work schedule. Our teaching calendar is divided into daily periods from the start of the day's activity until the close of the day. Today, making a simple sketch of a clock took them about three periods or more. Although they had to go for a siesta in-between to enable them rest their brain since "all work without play makes jack a dull boy". I tried all possible best to help them out to getting it done but achieved only a little. Well, I guess this was because it's their first time attempting such sketch. This was my encouragement when I got frustrated because they aren't getting things right.
When I saw that they couldn't do the CLOCK sketch, I deviced a means for them by offering them a water bottle cover and afterwards a syrup measuring cover to guide them to achieving this big task since it has become a task for them.
Eventually one of them got it done to a reasonable extent even though not up to my satisfaction and the other kept sketching an unknown shape or better put , an amoeba. I had to make numerous corrections in this regards.
In all these trials, their understanding of the topic was not affected but just the challenge of doing and having a perfect sketch of the CLOCK. Just a freehand sketch of a small circle.
I trust and hope that in my next class with them, they will be able to perfect their CLOCK sketch while I guide them and they also employ their initiative. I trust to have them think faster and have high intelligence quotient so as to stand out amidst their peers when they eventually graduate into high school and the university.
Since we learn each day, my conviction to be patient with primary pupils and even high school students aggravated. Since our desire is to impart accurate knowledge, we must never be in a hurry. Parents and teachers have similar job description towards children and should take it easy with them always.
There is a saying that " the journey of a thousand miles begins with a step". I'd like to add that the steps should be maintained. That step is patience.
Thank you for visiting my blog and reading up my post. Have a fruitful week ahead.