Teaching at Alpha Schools

After studying the Jamaican education system during EDUC-262 I was especially excited to beginning observing and teaching at the Alpha schools. Immediately, the children and faculty were warm and inviting. It was unfortunate that our visit landed on a test week. I was unable to observe any formal lessons. Only multiple choice assessments were administered every day. Throughout my time in the class, I noticed two major differences: class size and energy level. Room 4P was a small outdoor room with cement walls and two fans. There were 37 students in this room. Often, the students would get aggregated at the lack of personal space available. There was also a lot more energy in the Jamaican fourth grade compared to my student teaching fourth grade. While the students were fun and smart, they struggle with speaking out and staying on task. These were the only differences that I drew between American classrooms and Jamaican classrooms. Rylie and I were lucky enough to have time to create and implement a lesson. We chose to design a lesson comparing Jamaica to the USA. This was wonderful timing since the week after we leave Alpha the class moves into a unit on relating to countries outside of Jamaica. We used a Venn Diagram to organize thoughts and then students were able to do some free writing about the commonalities and differences they found. This was a neat opportunity because this classroom had never been exposed to a Venn Diagram before. The students did wonderfully and drew out some unique similarities and differences. My personal favorite was probably that both Jamaica and the United States have KFC. Teaching at Alpha was a unique opportunity that I will cherish forever. These students touched my heart and it hurts knowing that I won’t be seeing them next week.