As some of you know, this year my brother's grade school could not afford a gym teacher. I went in and volunteered to be the teacher for grades k-8. I have never taught gym before nor have I taken any classes to do so. As a volunteer they weren't complaining. I get a free lunch and I get to spend time with my brother and about 10 cousins. I enjoy my time there for the most part. I do struggle with getting the kids to pay attention to me though. I still haven't figured it out completely, but it seems to be getting better with time. I knew so many of these kids before I started teaching that I think they thought I was more of a friend than a teacher. I do want them to know that I am there for them, but I can't be walked all over.
In October I kept 4 kids (3rd graders) after class to discuss there inappropriate behavior. They didn't participate like they should in regular activities. Two of them were singing and not participating in yoga. Which I had chose to end gym classes with, I had a teacher ask me to do so. Because she knows that is what I want to do with my life and it will calm the kids down to go back to class, instead of them being all riled up. The kids that I kept were late back to class, the teacher asked them why and she sent them to the office. The principal came down and talked to me and informed me that they would all be getting detentions.
Well my family is close to 3 of the kids' families and one of them is my boss's daughter. I was scared of how they would all respond. My boss's wife has barely acknowledged me at all since then. Another parent came in and complained that yoga is a form of Hinduism and he didn't want his child participating in it. I had NEVER taught the religous aspect of yoga and never intended to do so. The principal informed me and said that the parent had brought in a list of other 'stretches' I could use that were not yoga. Well she is a yogi herself and she told me over 3/4 of them were yoga poses. She suggested I continue on and just not call it yoga. For a while I completely cut it out of my lesson plan, I was pissed off.
I am almost positive of who it was and this person has been close to my family for years. It does not surprise me at all, but it really hurt my feelings. I asked the principal if I could print off the benefits of yoga for kids and send them home with the kids and she suggested I just drop it. Which I did and I did bring 'streching' back into gym class. It still upsets me though. What kind of person comes in to a school to complain about a volunteer?
In November I started tournaments for 2nd and 3rd grades, 4th and 5th grades, 6th grade, and 7th and 8th grades. I wrote everyone's names down and drew them randomly. The older kids have really enjoyed the basketball season, we will have a tournament after each team play each other once. I mostly just let the Kindergartners and 1st graders run around and try to shoot the ball and dribble as much as possible. They seem to enjoy it and it's pretty easy for me :)
1 comment:
When I was in high school we did some pilates. It's kind of like yoga in that it's stretching and calming, but doesn't come with the whole religious aspect. I also went to a catholic school, and we did some yoga. I think it is ridiculous that the parent said something about it being about Hinduism. I think that it would only be related if you were doing some sort of chanting and talking about Hinduism while doing it.
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