Playing with kids

So as I've alluded to a couple of times, I'll be spending my Tuesdays and Thursdays over at a local integrated school, helping out with a class of nine year olds. I've had two days over there already, both of which were a lot of fun. First, some background on the school, though. As I mentioned, this is an integrated school, which means that it has both Protestant and Catholic students and faculty. Such integrated schools comprise less than five percent of the schools here in Northern Ireland, and are a very recent innovation. The school that I am at has been going for fifteen years. The goal of these schools is to try to ease the sectarian tension between Catholics and Protestants by having the kids grow up along side each other and make friends with each other. As it stands now, it's hard to see the effect that this is having on the peace process. The principal of the school explained to us that their charter requires that at any given time the student population must be at least forty percent Catholic and forty percent Protestant. The same holds true for the teachers and staff as well. While the original intent of the integration was merely to bring Catholic and Protestant kids together, they have also opened their doors to the few minority students that are in the area, as well as many kids with learning disabilities. They have a strong concept of the educational rights a student is entitled to, and have posted all over the school Articles out of something called The Convention, so that kids can learn what their rights as students are. I was impressed by this, and am trying to track down a full copy of The Convention.

The first day that we arrived happened to be Sport Day. This is an all day event for the older kids, and includes basic track races and creative group games, all aimed at earning points in competition with other teams. The kids are split up into Houses, which they stay members of for their time at Oakgrove Primary, and whichever House has the most points at the end of the day gets the House Cup. I was originally supposed to work with the music teacher here, but since because of Sport Day there were no music classes, the Principal put me with Bann House for the day. Mostly I helped the other teachers try to keep the chaos at a minimal level, while encouraging the kids in their competitions. The kids needed little encouragement, however, as throughout all the races and games they would scream their House songs at the top of their lungs, as well as cheering wildly for their fellow teammates. During recess I got to talk with some of the kids, who were very excited to learn that I was from the U.S. One girl, Puja, took it upon herself to lead me around the playground and introduce me to everyone. She wasn't kidding when she said everyone, and there is no way I will ever remember the fifty some names and faces that were flashed past me. Several of the kids eagerly asked me questions about the U.S, like where in the country different landmarks were, and if I had ever been bitten by a mosquito (I somehow managed not to laugh out loud when asked this). The vote was split on whether the way I spoke was cool or weird, and most agreed that the U.S. was a far more exciting place than Northern Ireland. In the afternoon I helped run the group games the teachers had set up, such as the Spud Run, Net Shoot, Free Point Shot, and Bean Bag Toss. Bann House ended up coming in second, which they seemed satisfied with. The big upset came when Crana House, which according to the kids had won the House Cup for the past several years, came in last place. I think the kids were more excited by this than they were with their own ranking.

Yesterday I was with Mrs. Mahon and her class of eight and nine year olds. I started off making circuits for them in their electricity lesson coming up. The teacher explained that it was going to be an exploratory lesson, in which the kids would be split into groups and given a basket with two lead wires, a bulb, and a battery, and told to make the lightbulb light up. I wasn't told how many were needed, so I dutifully kept making them until Mrs. Mahon came out and asked how it was coming. I proudly said that I had made eighteen circuits. Turns out she only needed six or eight. Oh well, now the whole grade level has circuits. I went out with the kids for their PE lesson, in which I got them in small groups and played baseball with them. Most picked up on it quickly, and were excited to play an American sport. The only part they didn't quite get was the idea of staying on a base so they could throw the ball to each other, as every time the ball was hit my entire infield would go dashing off for it. It was pretty funny to watch. In the afternoon I took the kids to their library session, where they can pick out books to read during the next week, and took two of the kids off to work on their spelling and sentence structure. The teacher said that they were having trouble with it and needed some extra help. I found that they were capable enough, but were just easily distracted. Working on the lessons with just the two of them I was able to keep them focused by asking questions about the lesson, and they finished it up without much trouble. At that point Mrs. Mahon let them out early for a half hour or so of recess before the buses came to pick them up, so I took them outside and made up some games for them to play with the balls and racquets we had. At three o'clock I saw them off to their buses, with the promise that I would be back on Thursday.