A Little More About School

I realized that neglected to mention the classes that I am teaching! The school system here is different and I could barely comprehend my schedule when I first got it, but I will do my best to make sense.

I start each day with Class 4 Science (Class 4 would be equivalent to 4th grade). The school has about 900 students and in the younger classes there are 3 sections for each grade. So I have science with all of Class 4, sections A, B, and C. I teach each of them 4 days a week. Then, my afternoons are crazy. I teach everything from Class 1 General Knowledge to Class 2 Library, and Class 4 Art. In all I see 12 sections of kids a week....if you think I know all of my kids names, not even close yet!...working on it though. One of my new favorites is a little boy named Brihat...he is in Class 2 and looks like an old man with chubby cheecks!

The building in the picture is where most of my classes are. My homeroom class is section 4B and they are in the downstairs hallway of this building.

So, my classes:
Science: Class 4 and one section of Class 2
Library: once section of Class 2, all of Class 3, and two sections of Class 4
Art: with my homeroom 4B
General Knowledge: all of class 1 and 2

You might be wondering what General Knowledge is....well, it is a wonderful subject that they have here, that involves me teaching everything from names of fruits, to which directions the sun rises to a room full of tiny children for 40 mintues. Let's just say it can be INTERESTING.

We are done with a month of school and I have given my first set of mid-term tests. The kids did fairly well, and I am confident that term tests will go even better now that we are used to each other. With classrooms of 32 kids, I'm getting a crash course in classroom management, but nothing to crazy has happened yet!

Sorry the blogs have been so sparse these days, but we have been having lots of difficulties from busy days at school, to no power, to transportation strikes. I will keep doing my best. Thanks again for all of your notes and love from back home. You are all in my thoughts!

Happy Memorial Day!

How You Can Help

Many of you have asked if there is something I need or something you could send that would be helpful. That is a difficult question to answer because there is often a difficult distinction between something I NEED and something that would be nice to have. However, now that I have started school, I have quickly come to realize that although we have some resources, we do not have an abundance of materials at the school here. The lack of materials, especially for the very young classes will definitely be stretching my creativity skills this year.

I have very few materials to keep the younger students busy in a constructive way. Plus, if I do find a good activity such as a dot-do-dot coloring work sheet, I usually cannot get enough copies or crayons for all the students.

So, here is how you can help:

First, find a good worksheet or activity that would be appropriate for approximately 1st and 2nd graders. Examples would be a coloring activity, dot-to-dot, naming and labeling, or a matching game.

Make 100 copies of the activity, which will be enough for all 3 sections of one class. If you have 2 activities, make the worksheet front and back! Twice the work occupies twice the amount of time.

If you do not have access to school materials such as worksheet, a set of coloring books would also be useful.

Also, I need crayons to hand out to the children. Take a set of crayons (used crayons will work just a good as new) out of the box and put them in a zip-lock bag.

How to get it here? The mail is somewhat inconsistent here, but we have good luck with the large, first class envelopes from the post office. Boxes do not seem to find their way to us. Put the papers or coloring books, plus the crayons (this is way I said to take them out of the box and put them in a zip-lock) in an envelope and mail it to:

Jesuit Volunteers International
Emily Roche
GPO 50
Kathmandu, NEPAL

Thanks so much for following along in my adventures. And, for those of you who decide to take on the challenge and mail me stuff for school, I will be indebted to you!