Over the past few weeks the structure of Hoa Bin Thanh Xuan has slowly been revealing itself. It seems the teachers change rooms every few weeks so as to tend to the needs of different students. When Mai and I first came to Thanh Xuan we had a different teacher who was then replaced by the one we currently work with, and recently she was replaced by a new teacer Co Hoa, the teacher in charge of our group of volunteers. The physical therapists who work with my colleagues have also been changed recently, replaced by new therapists who are much more receptive to their presence. Co Hoa has also been very receptive of us in her classroom, giving us an hour or so to take charge of the classroom.
This past week she immediately gave Mai instructions to start grammatical pronunciation with the children, as opposed to the other teacher who would always ask the younger and more local volunteers to teach for her. I felt kind of guilty and sad that I couldn’t help more, as I then felt useless in the classroom and I wanted to take some of the burden off of Mai. Though it is obvious why a non-Viet speaker would not be asked to teach Vietnamese, especially to a class who needs extra care in learning correct reading and pronunciation. Then during Mai’s lesson she prepared the children’s notebooks to begin writing the letters they were assigned, u and ư. This is much different than the structure provided by the previous teacher who did not have the children write after the verbal lesson, as she would then move on. I cannot speak for the kids but as someone who would like to see the kids learning even in the afternoon, as opposed to the previous teacher’s schedule, this is a lot more productive than story-telling or just sitting time as the kids obviously still are learning their reading and repeating skills.
The rest of the children’s day from 8am-1:59pm I am unsure of what the kids are doing, but I have heard that they rotate around according to a certain schedule which is pre-determined and set. This sounds like a good idea for the children to keep them constantly occupied and active, as opposed to the afternoon when I feel activities are a little less structured and laid-back. In a couple weeks Mai and I will also switch our Tuesday time to morning work and I will be able to more accurately reflect on the schedule then.
The organization itself seems set in its ways. I have seen a few volunteer groups come and go, with different ideas and activities, and though they change the pace and what the kids do during their stay, I haven’t seen any permanent change in the way the organization incorporates the new ideas of the volunteer groups. I have seen evidence of programs to increase the computer, art, and musical skills of the kids, but nothing exists of these programs today. Even the art programs they do now, if the kids don’t exactly follow the program (such as making a card) they are not corrected simply because they are doing something. And while I feel that it is good to keep the kids entertained and focused, if the activity at hand has a certain purpose, that should be upheld and enforced. This would probably be beneficial when these kids/people take their knowledge into the bigger world and deviation from a task is not tolerated. In addition, some change in program might also be helpful for the children to keep them more interested. Maybe we can give suggestions in the follow-up letter that Thay Thai would like us to write at the end of the semester.
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