My internship started last week at a preschool called Gan Eliyah. There are four classrooms. One class is babies, though they range from 8 months to 2 years. Those on the older side have more developmental problem than seeing problems while the babies are more developmentally on track except for the processes affected from their eyes. The second classroom is ~2 to 3 years old. In this class, all the kids are basically developmentally normal, but they have seeing problems. They can walk and talk and comprehend which is better when it comes to a relationship with the child. The third classroom is also 1-3 year olds, but the have developmental problems as well as seeing problems. The fourth classroom is a kindergarten, the kids are 4 or 5 and the majority of them are normal. There are 2 kids who are completely blind and 2 or 3 kids who are partially seeing-impaired. These kids, since they're older, can talk and play, etc.
The first day in a new classroom is always hard. You don't know the kids. They don't know you. With babies, it especially hard to form a relationship because they don't talk at all and they mostly sleep the whole day. The older kids are speaking Hebrew and they speak slow enough so I can understand, but not always clear enough. Plus, they are still learning the language themselves and when they mispronounce a word that sounds like a real word, I just stand there thinking "what are you saying???". One of the girls in the Gan said to me "You don't speak well." Well, thanks for boosting my confidence. Also in the Gan are two kids that speak English and I don't think they knew that I also spoke English and when I said something to them they were baffled. Since they are the only two that speak English, they pride themselves on it and don't like that I know what they are saying. The boy, however, gave in when I helped him find his shoe which was in the chest of dress up toys. The girl still has yet to say something nice to me.
My schedule was very erratic last week since my supervisor didn't really know when she needed me, but she made a set schedule for me. I'm working 4 days a week, including Sundays and Fridays. Most Israelis work Sundays, but not Fridays. So, my days off are Wednesday and Thursday, when no one else has a day off and I'm the only one in the Kfar Studentim (where I live). It will give me time to go to the shuk and clean which as of I now, I desperately need to do, there just won't be anyone to go with. I'm going to try to ask for one of the weekend days off instead of one of the weekday ones.
Also, instead of being in all 4 classrooms in the course of a week, I am now with one room, the 1-3 year olds. The kids are so adorable, one of them reminds me of my sister when she had glasses. (Sorry Leah). His parents are American so if I get frustrated with him, I can just speak in English. Although, he has not been a problem at all. He's very sweet. Another girl is just learning to speak and her favorite word is "Todah", but she mostly just says "dah". This got me thinking about the psychological process of learning. "Dah" is the easiest cluster to say, but in America we assume it's "dada" and we praise the child or repeat "Dada, daddy, etc." In Israel "Dah" is short for "Todah", but even if the child say "Dada" it sounds like "Todah" and the child is praised for that word instead. The cutest girl in the class (I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but she's also the baby of the class so there's the justification) has the wide eyes and she is just about to walk. By the end of November, she will definitely be walking and standing on her own. There's one boy who is partially blind and fussy. There's 2 other boys in the class, but I don't know what's wrong with them. Most of the kids in the class have an astigmatism in their eyes and/or have a lazy eye.
My internship is basically the only thing I'm doing because after being out of my apartment for 12 hours, I don't feel like going out or doing anything. I also don't have weekends off (yet) so whenever I'm chilling with friends, I'm usually about to fall asleep. What I'm saying is don't expect any interesting posts or pictures for a few weeks. I think we have a seminar in a few weeks in Sderot and one in Ein Gedi so you can expect pictures then.
No comments:
Post a Comment