Choosing a class

As you might have read before, we volunteers get the chance at our project to once visit every class at the school before we can decide at which one we would like to stay. With a total of 18 classes that’s a lot of impressions to experience. Each of the classes is different from the others, different children and youths with different needs and different things to learn. It was a very interesting time to visit them all.

Finally deciding for a class in October was quite a process for me. From when I arrived at the project on I always imagined myself ending up with a class of quite young children because I thought that’s what would suit me best and also most of my experiences from my former workplace in Austria were with younger children. At the “Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialiojo Ugdymo Centras” there are some really nice lower school classes with really lovely children, most of them already falling around my neck the first time they met me. Quite soon I visited this one class, it was a second grade, which I really really liked. I liked the lessons, the way the teacher worked and of course also the children though they were a very lively group. For a long time after that day I was sure I will choose this class and that there couldn’t be anything that I’d like more.

In the end my decision was a completely different one. After some time I started visiting the higher grades and Special Classes. The lessons there are a lot different than what I had seen before. You know, the younger children and especially the ones from the Developmental Classes need a lot of physical help. Many have problems with staying concentrated, so you have to try to keep them focused; they just started to learn things like reading and writing, so you have to support them a lot, count with your own fingers with them or practice writing one and the same letter with them for a while. The higher grades are more used to the structures of school, they know that you’re supposed to be quiet during the lessons or stay seated. And the youths in the higher Special Classes are very autonomous, they can do a lot of work all by themselves. But they also have a need for support, it’s just very different from the one of the smaller ones or the pupils of the Developmental Classes. The problems of the higher Special Classes are more about their behaviour and their understanding of social interaction.

As I started visiting the higher Special Classes I found that I really liked them. Of course, in some lessons there wasn’t a lot to do for me since I don’t yet understand most of the talking. But I always had an interesting time observing the youths and trying to understand their behaviour. Also I had a lot of fun with them while communicating with them during the breaks – as far as it was possible with my poor Lithuanian. In fact I noticed that I liked those classes so much that I couldn’t imagine anymore to be in a lower grade. After visiting all the classes once I had a week time to revisit all of the classes that I liked best. Among those there were still some lower grades and I still liked them when I visited them the second time, I just felt that they’re not where I want to spend my whole time at the project.

I finally decided for a ninth grade Special Class, with pupils around 15 years old. It’s sometimes very challenging to be with them or to try to understand why they behave the way they do. But I like being with them and I’m really interested in them. I’d like to get to know them and understand them and therefore I’m even very motivated to learn Lithuanian as fast as possible (though that’s really not the easiest thing to do). I’m looking forward to all the time I’ll spend with them and I’m already wavering over what I’d like to do with them during the next few months. I’m excited!

Viso gero,

Monika