Nivelación

This week was the last week of Nivelación, which is an after school tutoring program that I have been helping out with as one of my projects here. This is coordinated by Nadia the school psychologist and two of the Jesuit Volunteers who work here help out as well.  We mostly patrol the classrooms to ensure that work is being done and try to problem solve as things come up. We also take attendance and other logistical things like that.  Nadia and the primary school teachers identify students in those classes who are getting poor grades and need help with their homework.  Then they find students from the high school who are willing to work as tutors. The program has been after school on Mondays and Wednesdays since about mid-September.  So Wednesday was our last day and we had a "compartir" or small party to celebrate the end of the year.

We had 19 primary students and 14 tutors, so it was quite a group when we gathered them all in one place.  Before we got to the food part of the party, we had a contest where each of the students (with the help of the tutors) had to draw a picture of what nivelación meant to them, or what it was all about.

 

It was interesting to watch this process take place as some of the students dove right in and others wanted the tutors to come up with ideas and took a long time actually putting something concrete on their papers. The older ones seemed a little more hesitant than the little ones (we have grades 2 through 6). 

We did let the tutors help with the coloring once the student had done the drawing, which you can see above (the tutor is in the middle).

We also had the kids fill out a brief survey on what they liked and didn't like. Most of the students liked everything, several said their grades had improved, and there were a few who had personality conflicts with their tutors.  The tutors mostly enjoyed getting to be helpful but some were frustrated that the students didn't always listen to them and could be disobedient, all of which seems pretty fair.

Then, we got to have cookies and soft drinks, which is the standard fare for a compartir, and took a picture with almost everyone to remember the year:

Peruvians tend not to smile in photos--no idea why, but I think they were pretty happy with the party!