Alpha Primary

Our week at Alpha has been an eye-opening experience. Our first day was a rush of children excited to see us and touch our hair. We all felt very welcomed by the students. The devotions in the mornings were fun to be a part of and listen to the children sing. The singing of the national anthem the first morning was very beautiful to listen to. I know our classroom experience was impacted by the amount of testing, which cannot be helped. It was difficult at times to manage children's behavior when they had nothing to do after they finished their tests. We saw some revisions, but no formal lessons it seemed. We also experienced a lot of choral reading and oral reciting of directions and some instruction. We did discuss this in class and how it is included in classrooms across grade levels. I also found it interesting to see how if children were misbehaving, they were sent to another teacher’s classroom. Our 3rd grade classroom was smaller, with 31 students, compared to other classrooms because it contained the students that were lower abilities. Taylor and I taught a lesson on Friday when there were no more tests. Our teacher told us that the next unit for integrated studies had to do with Jamaica and their relationships with others. We saw this as a great opportunity to discuss our experiences as tourists in their country visiting different attractions. We showed pictures of where we had been in Jamaica, and how we met Usain Bolt. We also shared what are considered tourist destinations in the United States with pictures. We talked about Chicago, New York, and Florida. To learn more about Jamaica from the third grades, we made interview questions using the 5 W’s, which was related to the standards for their curriculum. I loved interacting with the kids and seeing how they make the best of the situations they are given. The large class sizes and tight classrooms make learning very difficult, but the kids are still determined to learn. While some of the days at school were more challenging than others, I am grateful for the experience at Alpha.