School

Each day we send Kid.01 off to a private (full-immersion Turkish) K-12 school on the service bus. We chose this school because the administration and teachers seemed flexible about having a foreign student, and they have lived up to their promises of extra help for our son.
Each week Hubby and I volunteer for a few hours at this school. In SoCal I volunteer in the classroom because it’s a good way to keep tabs on what's happening the eight hours you don’t see your kid. I haven’t written about these experiences here because they’ve been pretty traumatic. I teach fifth-graders conversational English with some art thrown in. I have seen teachers totally loose control of their classrooms, and they regularly yell at their students. I yell at the students. I’ve also seen a fight, and some other pretty upsetting stuff. To say the students are spirited and physical is an understatement.
But today I finally felt I made some headway. Each twelve-year-old was able to say the following: “Last weekend I ________ and this weekend I will ____________.” We also drew a three-frame comic. Small steps. For more insight on teaching young people in Turkey see www.kellyvaughan.net/blog/wordpress/