Sensibility

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of observing Daisy and Marino's classroom for the deaf students at Escuela Especial. What a world of difference recently departing from Senora Jenny's classroom of intriguing verbal outbursts and the need to guard the door on a minute-by-minute basis. The moment I entered the room, a deafening silence (no pun intended) encompassed me, a sense of peace and serenity. Picture 6 students dressed in clean, pressed blue and white uniforms, hair neatly slicked back or pulled back into Rapunzel-length ponytails, extremely attentive and optimistically overwhelmed with a passion for learning. 


The lesson on the whiteboard, likewise the only whiteboard in the school, listed terms such as lavadora, computadora, luz, dinero and agua. After learning and practicing the sign for each, students were asked to hold up one or two fingers, corresponding to yes and no, upon using their rationale for the posed questions. With exquisite facial expressions and intense emphasis behind the hand movements, I listened intently as the students communicated back and forth with Daisy and Marino, intermittently releasing delightful squeals and monosyllabic vowel sounds. If a student signed too quickly, Daisy immediately corrected them, typically with a hush of both hands as if she were a choir director. This classroom leaves no room for sloppiness, which is both refreshing and encouraging, for it reminds me of my own classroom environment. 


This particular classroom housed a variety of personalities, and were spitting images of my shy, eager, confident and humorous students back home in Colorado. (love you all!) For the most part they were very well behaved, but I could feel inevitable restlessness setting in when boys started pinching each other. However, as soon as I found myself taking note of observable behaviors, I quickly missed content of the lesson. Considering myself a veteran multi-tasker, this classroom forced my attentiveness, both visually and kinesthetically, and I struggled to keep up with the pace. Nonetheless, this experience sparked a curiosity within me, giving me the drive to learn something new. With drive I can thrive. 


The last morsel of content I need to share comes with frustration and anxiety, not because it revolves around the solar system lesson presented yesterday, but in the fact that no real teaching transpired from the lesson. With an outdated poster as reference, students were instructed to copy the spelling of each planet onto the whiteboard, one at a time--such a waste of time in my opinion, but who am I to judge? I know these middle school students are capable of so much more, and the plethora of resources I have back home could foster wonders here in Nicaragua, so my future involvement with Escuela Especial Sor Maria Romero remains auspicious. Much room for growth combined with eager Escuela Especial teachers truly invigorates my soul.