Teaching in Kingston

Having the opportunity to teach children at Alpha this week was a life changing experience. I have learned so much about children that will help me as a future teacher, and I have also learned so much about another culture that I can carry with me in all aspects of my life. The students in my first grade classroom were all loving and inquisitive young first graders, they loved looking at pictures of snow and playing with my hair, everything about encountering us was so new to them. They asked me lots of questions about living in America that I was happy to answer, their questions were all great questions that with my answer I hope they learned something about American culture. I also learned a lot about Jamaican culture and Jamaican schools this week. Being at Alpha during a testing week was especially eye opening because I was able to see how important high stakes tests were to the students. As we have learned in class, testing in very important for Jamaican students as they progress through school, and as I learned in my class students are very determined to get the right answer, and they will ask many questions to see if they have answered each question correctly. I also learned more about Jamaican culture this week, the students in my class called me Auntie Sarah, and I discovered that auntie is a term kids use to refer to trusted adults in their lives, it warmed my heart to know the children trusted me and were happy to see me each day. Overall it was a wonderful week teaching and learning and I know I will miss the children I have met so much!