I just had my first round of parent teacher conferences and it went well. It was interesting meeting the parents and trying to communicate with them as best I could with the help of another teacher. You can see where a lot of the kids get their personalities. What was interesting is that for some of the people they could not even write their own names. We had to write their names for them. That is one that I am really not used to seeing. Also it is crazy to hear how many parents of the struggling kids say all they do is watch television all night and then tell me how they are going to start giving them vitamins so they will get better grades. Vitamins are not a bad idea but I don’t think that is going to cure your daughter who is watching television or has dyslexia and really just needs a special teacher just for her. There were no parents who said anything negative about my teaching and were grateful overall that I was there so that was nice.
What was sad is that I have a lot of sponsored students in my class which means that they are very poor and someone else is paying their tuition for them. Now in some cases but not all cases these students sometimes have trouble getting homework in on time or just don’t study. Sometimes I struggle to figure out why this is the case and why they don’t try harder since they have such a great opportunity. Well I have come to the conclusion that for one 5th graders aren’t exactly looking ahead for their future as adults and really just want to play soccer everyday. The other case is that some of these parents didn’t even care enough to come in and pick up their son or daughters report card and talk to me. So I am sure they don’t exactly pay much attention to whether or not their son or daughter is doing their homework. When I was in fifth grade I probably wouldn’t have done my homework if no one pushed me to do it. Now, even if a student doesn’t do homework it doesn’t mean they aren’t learning. Every student in my class has a pretty good grasp on English and most subjects. Even if they get poor grades and don’t try very hard they are at least given the option of a life different from their parents who may not even know how to write their own name.
One last note is that in just a little over a month I will be back home for a couple weeks for my brothers wedding and to celebrate Christmas. I am quite excited to see some English speaking people. Dios Bendiga
P.S Since writing this post I just had a family at my church give the school a lot of money and we are going to be able to buy a whole lot for the school and everyone here is just extremely happy about it since the kids don't have a lot of the luxuries that we have in American schools. God is awesome
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