Danielle's testimony about her EVS in experience in SKIP (Peru)

Danielle in the school teaching project

“I graduated, I got an MA, I worked and I realised what I wanted to do. The question wasn’t what I wanted to do, but how I would realise it. EVS had bridged that gap and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity.”

 

Working in SKIP is always a pleasure, particularly when you're fortunate enough to be working with the youngest children currently attending school. Group one consists of 20 five year olds who have just started school. I work with them twice a week in an educational context and a typical day starts at 2:30pm. All teachers go to the front of the office and call for their groups who get in line. I ake my group to their classrom and they wash their hands before entering. The next half an hour is a chance for those who have homework to complete it and recieve the appropriate help. Those who do not have homework are read to by my lovely reading assistant. At 3pm all the children gather on the rug at the front of the classroom to learn how to write and identify letters. We work on one letter a day. Yesturday's letter was the letter 'b'. We recapped what we learnt the lesson before and I asked them to guess what letter we would learn today. I then read the children a short story with as many words as possible beginning with 'b'. As I was reading, I stuck pictures of the 'b' words on the blackboard which had the word written below. We then looked at what the words had in common - the letter 'b'. I then explained to them that the capital B looks like a pregnant woman in profile and showed them how to write the letter 'B'. We then looked at the lower case 'b' and I explained that this letter looks like a man with a big belly and demonstrated how to write that letter. The children then came up to practice writing each 'b' on the blackboard. They then all returned to their tables to complete the 'b' section of their letter books. 

At 3:40 we packed away and said 'hola' to the maths teacher who led a dynamic session on straigh and curved lines. In this we all pretended we were trains - one on a curved track and one on a straight track - and had a race. Straight track always won. We then did an exercise to consolidate our findings. 4:20 had us shouting 'HELLO' to the English team who work independently with the kids outside using games and activities to teach basic English. This time gives me an opportunity to mark work and prepare materials for the following session. 5:00 welcomes my group back to the classroom and gives those with homework a second opportnity to finish their homework. This particular time, one child (who can't write) has been asked to write a sentence underneath a series of self care pictures explaining what is happening. After ten minutes the boy told me he had finished and I asked him to show me his work. He proudly did so, reading his work as he showed me. He confidently pointed at each 'word' and stated that he had written 'The boy is washing his face'. I looked down to find a neat line of the letter 'a' - the only letter he knew. 

Those who don't have homework lay on the rug and calm down whilst listening to a book read by myself. After this, each child is given an activity challenging logic and skills, such as completing a puzzle; writting letters in a sandbox or putting a series of pictures into the correct sequencial order.

At 5:20 we pack away and hand out stars to those who have worked and behaved well throughout the day (ten stars equals one prize) and they are allowed to go home.

The kids are great as are the team and I don't think I've ever had so much fun in a classrroom!

Danny, volunteer teacher in SKIP (Peru)

Project part of BREAKING BARRIERS
BUILDING PARTNERSHIP
and supported by EACEA

and the Youth in Action Programme

of the European Commission.

For more information about BREAKING BARRIERS BUILDING PARTNERSHIP, visit the special webapge in clicking here.