Breakfast was more along the line of traditional Jamaican: porridge with banana mixed in, orange juice and toast with guava jam. I'm telling ya... I would stay here for the food if no other reason.
Two buses took off... one for Mountainside and one for Bigwood (where I will be tomorrow). Fourteen of us went to Mountainside since there are about 400 students there and only about 50 at Bigwood.
When we arrived we were instantly surrounded by students grades 1-5 whose main priority was to say hi and see just how playful we could be in return.
The schools here are structured very differently. Morning sessions end after an hour and a half with a fifteen minute break. The breaks allow kids to get out of the warm buildings, grab a snack ad re-energize before another session. Lunch time is an hour long and very social - the lunch are very well prepared and consist of the traditional rice and beans, a veggie and some sort of meat - today was stewed chicken... so good! Oh! I almost forgot to mention - the entire country is primarily Catholic or some sort of variation on Catholicism - except for the Rastafarian's and Animalists. So Church and State are not separated. There is something unifying about it too not on a religious level but on a unity level. You have to experience it to feel it.
Our lessons plan were simple but for the most part completely new for the students. We split up into teams: Literacy and Music Ed. The Literacy team focused on story reading and activities pertaining to the stories. For instance, on of today's readings was "Goodnight, Moon!" and the focus was on the letter "M." Also "Caps for Sale" where the children made paper hats and wore them around to show off.
I was part of the Music Ed team where songs like the Jamaican National Anthem, The River of Babylon, and In the Jungle provided movement and familiarity with the students. Movements were relatively simple and were coincided with the words to help create familiarity. The hardest part was remembering that the children mirror you and in return we must mirror them, so left was right and so on and so forth... Classes were split into male and female groups and three of us teachers to a group had twenty minute sessions. We would switch off male and female and singing and drumming.
The drumming lesson provided basic instruction on Rastafarian and African drumming patterns. By using terms such as "Boom" and "Da" the children learned tone, hand placement, sounds and were able to better follow instruction by what they both said and heard.
We did get rained out... the typical Jamaican weather is blue skies, hot sun and varying breeze but lately at about 1pm-3pm we would get a heavy shower depending on both altitude and overall weather. So classes were forced inside and improvising had to take place.... but have no fear we still had a great time!
The kids are so very excited to get visitors. The principle explained that in her 24 years of leadership they had never been visited at the school. We could hardly sit for two seconds without being rushed by excited students who wanted to take a picture with you, play, or steal your camera to take pictures for you.
I really hope that someday we almost make a requirement out of these experiences... you really don't know what an impact you have as a teacher and above all friend of these people until you get here.
Until next time, keep the music living!
-R
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