On day four I left my hosts'  house at 6:30am and walked with materials and took my 2 regular matatus to get to school and an hour and a half later I had arrived! First time I get to see the kids come into the school and it is so disorganized!

Carrying 3 bags in the middle seat of the matatu!

I entered 2 classrooms and kids were there but no teachers!!! After some time I got out of the classroom and one of the teachers was there chit chatting outside! 

By then I had been around for an entire week and still couldn't figure out if there was a schedule! I've asked about it and no one has a clear answer for me other than porridge at 9:30 and lunch at 12:30! I've noticed that schedule changes depending on "my needs" meaning that if I'm in a class and there is break the kids do not get to have outside time because I'm there! So bad for the kids not to have consistency!

My day started by going to two 5 year old classrooms and reading Dr. Seuss' ABC and teaching a couple of songs. One teacher spent the whole time on her phone and even went out for a call! Paid zero attention to what I did which defeats the purpose of me being there and teaching songs since the teacher didn't pay attention! So frustrating! And when I was leaving she had the guts to tell me that her phone was stolen and if I could give her one! I think that’s the down side of being a mzungu bringing in donations, they think I’m rich and I’ll get them stuff!

I think we were doing the itsy bitsy spider's "down came the rain" line

From there I went to my classroom where teacher Laura is the total opposite! While I was there she was open to learning and taped every single song and practiced them! 

We then started our day together by reading a number book and then did the number activity for the day! We sang songs with numbers in them and then I asked the kids if they wanted to color numbers and they went crazy! It was so gratifying seeing them so happy and excited about what we were doing.

While the children were coloring other teachers came in and started giving directions to the children, telling them to color better, to fill in the white, and at times even took pencils and crayons and drew on the kids' paper to sow them how to do it! It made me so mad! 





I actually stopped a teacher! I told them that the kids could do whatever they wanted! I said that it was art, that it was for the kids and that whatever they did was fine… It was their paper, their work, not for us to put our judgement and our standards of beauty. I told them that instead of criticizing their art when children show us their work we need to DESCRIBE what we see and not tell them "it's pretty" "you are smarter than that" "you can do it better!" "It is still not finished", I told them "we have to say: 'I see you used many colors' or 'I see pink'" and to let them be "unfinished" that we shouldn't come between the child and its art.

A very quiet classroom working on their numbers

Hopefully the teacher got to learn a little bit on how to put the child first and how to relate better with the children. My classroom could barely communicate with me but with a smile, making eye contact, treating them with respect and kindness we were been able to create a bond; kids came and hugged me or wanted to touch my hand... it was beautiful!

After doing so many activities teacher Laura's classroom was beautifully decorated with letters, numbers and their bodies! The kids were so proud of their work and the smiles on their faces were priceless!!!

I decided to bring snacks to my classroom and while they went out to wash their hands I put up a napkin with a banana, some apples, and a madazi (fried bread) and by the time the kids got in I started putting some lemon bread on their napkins and the kids started clapping and saying "cakei." Then all of a sudden they started singing happy birthday 😂

I went from table to table and one of the kids showed me his apples and said "apple" and then "thank you!" His friends then said thank you and one of the kids said "thank you VERY MUCH"... I fought hard to keep my eyes dry!

Having snacks!

Everyday I asked them: "what's your name?" (Since I kept messing them up) and that day they were asking each other: "what's your name?" So cute!

While the kids were eating teacher Laura said "I have really appreciated you, especially when it comes to discipline"... you know that feeling when your heart sinks deep into your chest? That's how I felt! 

That day we did shapes and introduced a version of Montessori's three period lesson. 

First I drew 3 shapes on the board. 

Then I said "this is a circle, this is a triangle, this is a square" and then I asked a kid one by one to come and "point to the circle/triangle/square" and after everybody had come I asked again for everybody to come one by one and asked: "what is this?" While I pointed to a shape and they had to name it. When they were wrong I didn't tell them it was wrong, instead I repeated the names of the shapes and asked again. This way teacher Laura could see that by repeating instead of correcting the child will get to the same result without the shaming of being wrong.

After the lesson I gave each kid a printout with shapes to color and while they were working teacher Laura said "I've learned that you don't write on the top or middle of the board but at the bottom so it is at their eye level and the child can see and touch"... I loved her observations and the fact that she was paying attention and most importantly… Learning!

Coloring shapes

During lunch teacher Virginia said that in the morning the kids drag their parents and older siblings to the classroom and show them the things we have done and say "teacher Maria, teacher Maria" and they point to the art❤️❤️❤️❤️

Ann, my visitor!

Teacher Virginia reading Dr. Seuss' while kids slept.

That afternoon I went and visited class 6 and class 8, the last two classrooms in the school! So by then I had met 700+kids on that week. By me going to every class the number of kids following me has decreased incredibly; the kids now feel like I've taken my time to get to know them. The whole school has now learned how to greet in Spanish and while walking around I hear so many "hola" and "cómo estás?"

My day ended by talking to the principal and introducing the idea of getting together with 4-6 teachers and having a little session where I would talk about "teaching with grace" and introduce them to some activities with my teaching method.

After school I was invited to teacher Laura's house to meet her baby and had cut up some fruit for me. When leaving the principal insisted on giving me a ride! I did not want a ride from him! The week before he gave me a ride that ended up being sooo long, he really took the very very long way, and even stopped by his house to “pick up a paper” (i never saw such paper)! I think he just wanted to show me where he lived! 
On that day I accepted the ride because I felt pressured and only because another teacher was going to go with us but on the way he even said "if I get you a house like that one and land would you stay? you know... some religions accept polygamy" Was this guy for real?!?! I politely said "I am not interested” and learned my lesson to never ever ever again get a ride from him! 

My weekend was spent shopping and making a lot of Montessori material to leave for teachers to incorporate in their classrooms. I really believe that by letting the kids manipulate some of the materials it helps their brain process the information faster and more easily. The Montessori matching and nomenclature cards I thought would be the perfect addition to the classroom. I know that it is unrealistic to think that it will become a Montessori classroom but I hoped for the cards to be a nice break from the regular teaching method of repeat after me and fun for the kids.
Most of my budget from the donations went to creating materials that could last more than glue and paper. I printed and laminated more than 400 pages of materials, the staff at the copy center in Westlands even said "With these cards I want to become a teacher, how do I volunteer at your school?" It warmed my heart!



On saturday afternoon I picked up all the materials and went back to Joan and Dos' house to cut the full size laminated papers into the cards. The people at the copy center even let me borrow their cutting machine for the weekend! So kind!

The kids started the week by learning about animals!

We started with yet another Dr. Seuss’ book and then I brought out the domestic animal chart. I did the three period lesson with the children in the circle and asked one by one to show me one of the animals. That was very successful so I moved into giving each child a card with the picture of an animal. Every time I said the name of one animal those with the card had to stand up and show it to others. 

From there I introduced the matching cards to the children and it was very successful! 
What I love the material is that is self correcting, meaning that the teacher doesn't have to correct the child when he/she makes a mistake; instead the cards themselves teach the kid that there was an error and they can correct it on their own.

I told the teachers that such activities help with their concentration, coordination, brain development, get familiar with order, organize and retrieve information etc.

After lunch I was able to sit with the six teachers I've given materials to and talked about discipline and my teaching method. Teacher Laura shared with the other teachers some of the things she has learned from me and how it has impacted the classroom. She even said "I personally have benefited a lot!"

I started our talk by saying that children will either forget a teacher, remember a teacher because they were mean, or remember a teacher because they were kind and made a difference in their life. I then added that I wanted to be the third option and that based on that is how I interact with children.

I talked about making eye contact with the children, get down to their level, using sign language, how to be kind in interactions, letting the child "be", letting them touch and experience the environment, praising children, using a nice tone of voice, giving positive attention, to model the behavior they want to see in the classroom etc. I also gave them a handout I used when I was doing therapy with families on how to enhance relationships.

I also had time to show them some of the Montessori materials I made, how they are used and what is the benefit of each one of them. They were all very receptive and asked a lot of questions. 

At the end of the session a teacher said "You are God sent to us" and they said that they never knew about any of this and they haven’t gotten any training in many years so it was very helpful! 

One teacher even asked if I could go to her classroom and observe some of the children to see if I can help. 

Before we left a teacher said "We don't need to be harsh or beat the kids, or have a stick"... she is so right!