One-two-three Clap!

 Rhythm--clapping, tapping, stomping--did you know all that fun lays the foundation for doing math? I sure didn't. My friend Marleen Schönthaler, the educator behind most of Davar: Bridging to Literacy, had put rhythm games like
Repeat the Rhythm into Davar Start Games. I thought those games just had something to do with listening and concentrating. 

They do. But they do even more. When you repeat a clear rhythm, you are unconsciously counting. Kids who have never been taught to count can still accurately follow a rhythm like this one:  clap, clap-clap, pause, clap, or even far more complicated ones. This calls for a sense of how many, for a sense of--you guessed it--numbers. It is math preparation.

So while these kids are clearly having fun, if they were following a set pattern they would also be practicing math skills. 

Much more fun than drills like multiplication tables. Though there are Davar games that help with that, too . . . .

Series: Learning from Roma and Sinti Teachers who teach Roma and Sinti Children

 “Our children are everything,” a Romany* Bible club teacher told me. 

Another said, "I feel like my calling is to work with children. I haven't done anything else in my life since I was twenty."

This series will profile a few of these dedicated Roma and Sinti teachers. The teachers come from different countries (Moldova, Slovakia, the Netherlands . . .). They have different levels of formal education. They come from different church backgrounds. They speak different languages.

They have in common a commitment to serve God and make a difference in the lives of children.  "We started to teach children about having a relationship with God . . .. After twenty years, we see many of the children in church."

All of these teachers also have a deep understanding of the children they teach and the communities they come from.  

"We can understand their background, so we can speak on the same level, the level of their struggle, of their difficulties," a Roma  leader said. 

I have learned much from talking with these Romany brothers and sisters in Christ. I hope you will learn and be inspired through this series, too.

And if you know of a Roma or Sinti Bible club/Sunday school teacher who would be willing to share about their experiences, please contact us! (via comments or on our Facebook page)

Mary van Rheenen

 

OP TIJD BEGINNEN

Wat is op tijd? Een tijd op de klok? Als je er klaar voor bent? Als je zin hebt? Als je vrienden ook komen? Als het programma begint?

Op veel plaatsen waar relaties en gemeenschap belangrijker zijn dan kalenders en klokken, is de echte tijd om te beginnen wanneer de gemeenschap, de betrokken mensen, zich hebben verzameld. Wat bracht hen ertoe om samen te komen? Meestal geen vaste tijd op de klok.

Wij hebben gehoord van mensen die kwamen als het licht in het gebouw aan gaat, als de leider zijn auto er staat, als het saaie gedeelte van het programma voorbij is, als andere dingen klaar zijn.

We hebben er van geleerd:En als laatste, maar belangrijkste tip: Maak je zelf niet druk, herhaal voldoende en leer iets aan met een spel en een activiteit. Dus altijd dubbel. Op die manier als je een kans mist, komt er nog een.

• begin met iets leuks
• geef een visuele prikkel (licht is aan, auto staat er, vlag hangt uit, …)
• geef een auditieve prikkel / maak herrie (estafette met toeter, iedereen die er is, gilt zo hard hij kan …)
• haal de mensen op (maak een slinger van mensen, geef iedereen een hoedje)
• geef een beloning aan iedereen die er de hele tijd was.

En als laatste, maar belangrijkste tip: 

• Maak je zelf niet druk, herhaal voldoende en leer iets aan met een spel en een activiteit. Dus altijd dubbel. Op die manier als je een kans mist, komt er nog een.

Marleen Schonthaler

  Foto: Grzegorz W. Tężycki, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

START TIME

You’ve planned a program. You want to start on time. What does that mean?

Is the start time a time on the clock? Is it when people are ready to come?  When their friends also show up? When the program has started?

In many places where relationships and community are more important than calendars and clocks , the real time to start is when the community, when the people involved, have gathered. What triggered them to gather? Usually not a set time on the clock.

For instance, we know of situations where people gathered when they saw a light on in the meeting building; when the leader’s car stood in front of the building; when the boring part of the program was over; when they themselves were finished with other things.

What we, as clock and calendar people, have learned from this is:

• start with something fun
• give a signal people can see (light is on; car is in front of the building, flag hangs out in front again . . .)
• give a signal people can hear (ring a bell, set up a sort relay race through the community with a horn or other noise-maker, everyone who is already gathered shouts as hard as they can . . .)
• physically gather the people yourself (make a chain of people; give everyone in the chain a hat)
• give a reward to everyone who was there the whole time.
• learn the local rhythm of life and choose a time when people are likely or able to come.                                                                                                               

And the last but most important tip:  relax and repeat. Repeat the core content of the program several times and in several different ways, perhaps with a game or an activity. In this way, if one chance to share an important point is missed, you know that other chances are still coming up. 

 

Photo: Grzegorz W. Tężycki, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Be Faithful

“Never to give up," is Ivetka Olahova's advice to other Roma who are also working with Roma children. 

"Be faithful, and they will see the fruit of this ministry. Because sometimes they will not see the results. But if they will continue, God will bless their ministry. We need to invest in them. Serving the kids is difficult, but we need to do it with God and not to give up.”

Ivetka has been leading Bible clubs for Roma children for 21 years, first in Sabinov, Slovakia, and now in Jarovnice, one of the largest Roma settlements in Slovakia.

Note:  This photo is not from Slovakia, but it is of Roma children at a Bible club.

A Dutch friend and I were talking about the recent birth of a baby. The friend asked about the customs in
America--when do friends and family come for visite to bring gifts and see the baby for the first time. 

The answer is, they don't. That is not part of American culture.* 

Don't we all do just what this Dutch friend did--don't we all take our culture for granted? It's hard not to. We assume all the time that people will act in certain ways and will communicate in certain ways because that's the way we do. I recently read a module that highlighted this: Cultural and Linguistic Differences: What Teachers Should Know.

For example, most teachers in America come from white, middleclass backgrounds like me. We expect kids to tell stories in a linear way--beginning, middle, end. Frankly, I have trouble following other styles of organizing information. A Latino friend, for instance, uses a circular way of telling stories or explaining ideas. This has fancy academic names--which I also didn't know called--topic association or topic chaining. 

This realization makes me wonder whether she has as much trouble following my storytelling style as I have had in following hers. It also makes me wonder how, if I had students like her in a writing class, I would teach them to write in the linear way which is expected in most American academic settings while also honoring and appreciating the cultural style those students know and use so well.

Insights into this and related issues of the classroom as a foreign culture will be welcomed!

Mary VanRheenen 

*Dutch parents send out a geboortekaart or birth announcement card which includes times when people can come to visit. Guests who come op visite will be given beschuit met muisjes (Dutch rusk spread with butter and topped with either pink or blue anis-flavored sprinkles). Guests will also have brought a gift for the child (and perhaps also the parents). 

The first whole week or at least for the first few days the new parent(s) will also have a kraamverzorgster for whole or half days. This trained health professional will help them care for the baby, gradually having the parent(s) take on more and more responsibility. The kraamverzorgster will also prepare the beschuit met muisjes for the visitors. 

And instead of handing out cigars at work, a new parent might bring biscuit met muisjes to announce the birth and share the joy. 

Oral Preference Learners & Print Preference Learners: A Handy Comparison

 This handout in Romanian and English is from a workshop given at the Rroma Workers Network Conference in Romania this past May.