Chilling Lessons - from Kids

Interactive Museum Exhibit. Like our classes: organised chaos

Things were going pretty well this morning. Ok - who am I kidding. The kids weren't settling down, they were running around, chattering, banging on the keys on the classroom piano. One boy in particular, let's call him Miko, was refusing to join the group when the other kids finally were starting to quiet down and the control freak in me was going slightly nuts. 

Miko ran to the bookshelf and started pulling on magazines and ... a rag.

Were we regressing? I wondered. Things seemed so much more peaceful when we had the 9-12 year olds only and we had our "one conversation at a time" rule. It had taken a long while, but we'd gotten to the point in which we didn't even need to raise our voices to get the kids' attention - just raise our hand to indicate we were about to talk.

Now we've got everyone from 6 up, proportionally fewer volunteers, and for a few long minutes, it felt like bedlam.

Better than Weekend Brunch

A core group of us have been going to the Whampoa Family Service Centre for more than two years now. Our goal - to help the kids communicate in English, build confidence, make learning fun.

The first six months were pretty confusing and scary. The kids didn't know us, we weren't sure what to expect, and none of us knew anything about working with kids or what a lesson plan even was.

It took us months to build trust. Then the kids started responding. Then they started noticing when we were travelling and when we skipped weekends. The first time a kid said to me "Why you so long never come here?" I felt a mixture of guilt and gratification - wow they remember me!

Two really cool things happened last weekend. One of the girls made us a heart shaped thank-you card for teachers day and gave it to us before class started. A totally terrific surprise.

And, halfway into the session I asked a brand new volunteer how he was doing and he said, "It's great. I'm learning to help the kids learn how to learn."

And that, I guess, is what we've been doing many many Saturdays in a row.

And it's worth it.