Two blogs ago I said I was confident in my schedule, I should have known better than to say such a thing.
Before I tell you what happened I am reminded of a scene from a movie. So the original Willy Wanka and the Chocolate Factory, the one with Gene Wilder(no offense Johnny Depp). In the movie there is one scene that keeps replaying in my mind when I think of what I said.
The scene goes something like this: Wonka says "so little to do, so much time we have," then he goes stop, strike that, reverse it. I'm not postive of the exact lines yet I can't help but think that I should be doing the same thing.
Whatever I have told you before, stop,strike it, and reverse it.
On Tuesday morning I was asked to help with the timetable because there were more changes to be made. Now I had been aware that some of the Senior 1 students had complained about not being able to understand my English accent, but I really felt that should not have stopped me from teaching these two classes. The students would learn to understand, not to mention that in the long run it would have been helpful to them to have a native English speaker speaking to them, but whatever, its not my choice, and I am not going to make it a big deal.
This means that I found myself spending another 4 hours remaking the timetable againg for that what?teenth time??(I stopped counting after 5 times). Well while I was working on it I found out that the classes that I teach had been changed. I am no longer teaching my two S1 classes. Instead I was given another S5 and a S4 class. My schedule at the moment is now, S5BCM1, S5BCM2, S4BCM, and S4PCM, for a total of 23 hrs/week. In theory I have no problem with this, but it is a little odd taking a class that has been taught by another teacher for the past 6 weeks, not to mention that I most likely would not have given them the same notes..which makes it a little hard to just pick up where they left off since I would have never left off there..haha
But on the bright side it does give me a good lesson in teaching, having to be prepared to teach anything at anytime, even if I don't agree.
Hopefully in the next month, aka the last part of my frist term my schedule will not change..so here's hoping. :)
Friday, February 27, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
No Man is an Island
I have touched a little on the language barrier and how teaching my students sometimes requires me to explain non-chemistry vocab. Well over the past few weeks I have become very good at guessing what words will prove difficult, yet sometimes I still get surprised when a student asks "Teacher what does that word mean?"
Here are some of the words I have been asked to explain:
room temperature, explosively, pattern, rigid, trivia, x-rays, hypothesis
(for whatever reason these are the words that I remember the most)
Now I want to give by far the best example I have encountered yet.
The set up:
I had my students coming up to the board and writing the answers to the homework. One of the students wrote the wrong answer and the class laughed. I then told them that that was not nice and everyone makes mistakes so we should help her, who wants to come up and help her fix her mistake. I further went on to say even I make mistakes(students say teacher you did not write what you said on the board..aka sometimes I leave words out by accident)
The comment that had me "whoa":
A student raises their hand and I call on them. She says, "no man is an island." I say where did you hear that. She replies by starting to explain to me what the phrase means. I inform her that yes I know what no man is an island means, I want to know where she heard it..she does not remember
The comment that sealed the deal:
About 5 minutes later I then had a student ask me what the word 'want' means.
The Deal, aka why this is the best example:
This example shows the disparity of knowledge. At times the students have an extensive vocabulary, yet the next minute they do not know what I would consider to be 'basic' english.
Meaning, I would consider the verb to want to be pretty basic, while the phrase no man is an island a little advanced. What this means is that one has to constantly ask the students if they know a word, which garners me, a yes we know that(as though how could I think they didn't)..yet one is still constantly surprised when a student then asks for a meaning and I ask if anyone in the class knows the word, and they don't..it boggles the mind.
But hey I guess it keeps me on my toes, right? :)
Here are some of the words I have been asked to explain:
room temperature, explosively, pattern, rigid, trivia, x-rays, hypothesis
(for whatever reason these are the words that I remember the most)
Now I want to give by far the best example I have encountered yet.
The set up:
I had my students coming up to the board and writing the answers to the homework. One of the students wrote the wrong answer and the class laughed. I then told them that that was not nice and everyone makes mistakes so we should help her, who wants to come up and help her fix her mistake. I further went on to say even I make mistakes(students say teacher you did not write what you said on the board..aka sometimes I leave words out by accident)
The comment that had me "whoa":
A student raises their hand and I call on them. She says, "no man is an island." I say where did you hear that. She replies by starting to explain to me what the phrase means. I inform her that yes I know what no man is an island means, I want to know where she heard it..she does not remember
The comment that sealed the deal:
About 5 minutes later I then had a student ask me what the word 'want' means.
The Deal, aka why this is the best example:
This example shows the disparity of knowledge. At times the students have an extensive vocabulary, yet the next minute they do not know what I would consider to be 'basic' english.
Meaning, I would consider the verb to want to be pretty basic, while the phrase no man is an island a little advanced. What this means is that one has to constantly ask the students if they know a word, which garners me, a yes we know that(as though how could I think they didn't)..yet one is still constantly surprised when a student then asks for a meaning and I ask if anyone in the class knows the word, and they don't..it boggles the mind.
But hey I guess it keeps me on my toes, right? :)
My Classes
So I know that more than a few weeks have gone by since I arrived at my school(can you believe I've been at my school over a month!), but only now do I feel confident enough to say what my classes are.
I first want to explain up till now why I have not been confident. To start, only after 4 weeks of school did all the students arrive. For the first 4 weeks we only had 4 out of the 6 grades, meaning we were missing 7 classes, which is around 300 girls.
From the get-go I knew that I was teaching Senior 5 chemistry. The class was also one of the anglophone tracks previously, so they have been taught in english for the past 4 years. For those not in the know, this year all the schools in Rwanda have switched to being taught in English. Previously schools were either all in French, or had both anglophone and francophone tracts/sections.
I had also thought that I would be teaching all three Senior 1 classes, and one Senior 4 class.[senior 1 and 4 were the two grades that came late]
During all this the timetable of the school was also constantly being changed. Teachers would complain and then change the timetable themselves, so things would be messed up, and then it would have to be redone. About 2 and a half weeks ago I got put on doing the timetable. Let me tell you, not fun. Not fun at all. Really not fun. I think I must have redid the timetable 4 or 5 times because each time we realized that something had to be changed or a teacher complained enough so I was told to change it. Basically not cool.
One of these changes stemmed from my own schedule's change. Originally I was teaching 9 hrs/week for Senior 5, 9 hrs/week for Senior 4, and 3 hrs/week x3 for Senior 1, making 28 hours a week. Although a little duanting I was excited because it would give me something to do, not to mention I really do like chemistry. Well, the power at be decided that this was too much, so they took my Senior 1 classes away, giving me only 18 hrs/week.
Then the ministry of education changed the school program for hours per subject. They reduced the main coures of 9 hrs/week to 7 hrs/week, further reducing my own load to only 14 hrs/week.[Note how I am not commenting on the fact that 5 weeks into a school year the program of study was changed nation wide] This of course altered all the math and science teacher's schedules, therefore a new revision to the timetable was needed.
I will admit I was a little sad I was only teaching 14 hrs/week because that would give me a lot of free periods. But never fear, in the endless changes of the timetable, I was returned two of my Senior 1 classes, bringing my load up to 20 hrs/week.
And I happy to report that it has been just about a week and a half that my school has used one timetable and I feel not only do I know where I should be, but that when I have to be there(the first weeks were touch and go on that).
Now that the timetable seems stable(knock on wood) and I have taught a few lessons I want to describe my classes.
Starting with the class that I have spent the most time with: Senior 5 BCM2
It is a class of 29 girls. They have a pretty good grasp on English. I'm teaching them organic chemistry. Yes that is right, organic chemistry. And it is not watered down orgo, its essentially what I learned at UD, crazy right. So far so go. This week we will have our second test, so I should have a good idea about if they are really understanding what I am teaching..
Then there is my Senior 4 BCM class. They were all francophone students. Their english is not the same as my senior 5 class. This makes the class slower. Sometimes I have to be inventive to get a point across. And sometimes I have to tell them that it is just a chemistry vocabulary word. I tried to break the words up and talk about each meaning and how putting them together you can then find out the full word's meaning-->did not work. Made them more confused..lets just say I won't be trying that one again. At the moment I am teaching them nuclear reactions and radioactivity.
That leaves my two Senior 1 classes. English is obviously a big problem in the class. I have to speak slowly, write on the board everything I say outloud, and use very very simple words. And even then half the time they still do not always get what I am saying. But they are also the cutest girls ever. When you call on them to give an answer they stand up to answer. When I ask them questions they all want to answer, so the room is filled with this clicking sound(in rwanda they do not snap for attention, they 'shake' their hand so the knuckles crack on each other--I have not yet been able to copy this sound/motion). At the moment we are going over basic chemistry. We did the scientific method and now we are covering what are chemical/physical properties and physical/chemical changes. Soon I will do an entire unit on water and then air. Followed up with pollution. Although this is not necessarily the chemistry I really enjoy it is interesting planning to teach things I have not specifically studied in years(water cycle, water table say what..).
In an earlier blog I wrote down the schedule of the school day. Now that I have my schedule I can say that I teach 5 hours on Monday, 4 hours on Wednesday, 5 hours on Thursday, and 6 hours on Friday. Tuesday is my day off. All my classes are in the earlier periods, so I never have to deal with the last period tiredness that I'm sure exists.
**haha. so I wrote this last night at home, and am about to post it at school in the morning. Well what do you know, on my way to the staff room the dean of studies asked if I would be free later to work on the timetable.. is another timetable shuffle going to happen??.... stay tuned...**
I first want to explain up till now why I have not been confident. To start, only after 4 weeks of school did all the students arrive. For the first 4 weeks we only had 4 out of the 6 grades, meaning we were missing 7 classes, which is around 300 girls.
From the get-go I knew that I was teaching Senior 5 chemistry. The class was also one of the anglophone tracks previously, so they have been taught in english for the past 4 years. For those not in the know, this year all the schools in Rwanda have switched to being taught in English. Previously schools were either all in French, or had both anglophone and francophone tracts/sections.
I had also thought that I would be teaching all three Senior 1 classes, and one Senior 4 class.[senior 1 and 4 were the two grades that came late]
During all this the timetable of the school was also constantly being changed. Teachers would complain and then change the timetable themselves, so things would be messed up, and then it would have to be redone. About 2 and a half weeks ago I got put on doing the timetable. Let me tell you, not fun. Not fun at all. Really not fun. I think I must have redid the timetable 4 or 5 times because each time we realized that something had to be changed or a teacher complained enough so I was told to change it. Basically not cool.
One of these changes stemmed from my own schedule's change. Originally I was teaching 9 hrs/week for Senior 5, 9 hrs/week for Senior 4, and 3 hrs/week x3 for Senior 1, making 28 hours a week. Although a little duanting I was excited because it would give me something to do, not to mention I really do like chemistry. Well, the power at be decided that this was too much, so they took my Senior 1 classes away, giving me only 18 hrs/week.
Then the ministry of education changed the school program for hours per subject. They reduced the main coures of 9 hrs/week to 7 hrs/week, further reducing my own load to only 14 hrs/week.[Note how I am not commenting on the fact that 5 weeks into a school year the program of study was changed nation wide] This of course altered all the math and science teacher's schedules, therefore a new revision to the timetable was needed.
I will admit I was a little sad I was only teaching 14 hrs/week because that would give me a lot of free periods. But never fear, in the endless changes of the timetable, I was returned two of my Senior 1 classes, bringing my load up to 20 hrs/week.
And I happy to report that it has been just about a week and a half that my school has used one timetable and I feel not only do I know where I should be, but that when I have to be there(the first weeks were touch and go on that).
Now that the timetable seems stable(knock on wood) and I have taught a few lessons I want to describe my classes.
Starting with the class that I have spent the most time with: Senior 5 BCM2
It is a class of 29 girls. They have a pretty good grasp on English. I'm teaching them organic chemistry. Yes that is right, organic chemistry. And it is not watered down orgo, its essentially what I learned at UD, crazy right. So far so go. This week we will have our second test, so I should have a good idea about if they are really understanding what I am teaching..
Then there is my Senior 4 BCM class. They were all francophone students. Their english is not the same as my senior 5 class. This makes the class slower. Sometimes I have to be inventive to get a point across. And sometimes I have to tell them that it is just a chemistry vocabulary word. I tried to break the words up and talk about each meaning and how putting them together you can then find out the full word's meaning-->did not work. Made them more confused..lets just say I won't be trying that one again. At the moment I am teaching them nuclear reactions and radioactivity.
That leaves my two Senior 1 classes. English is obviously a big problem in the class. I have to speak slowly, write on the board everything I say outloud, and use very very simple words. And even then half the time they still do not always get what I am saying. But they are also the cutest girls ever. When you call on them to give an answer they stand up to answer. When I ask them questions they all want to answer, so the room is filled with this clicking sound(in rwanda they do not snap for attention, they 'shake' their hand so the knuckles crack on each other--I have not yet been able to copy this sound/motion). At the moment we are going over basic chemistry. We did the scientific method and now we are covering what are chemical/physical properties and physical/chemical changes. Soon I will do an entire unit on water and then air. Followed up with pollution. Although this is not necessarily the chemistry I really enjoy it is interesting planning to teach things I have not specifically studied in years(water cycle, water table say what..).
In an earlier blog I wrote down the schedule of the school day. Now that I have my schedule I can say that I teach 5 hours on Monday, 4 hours on Wednesday, 5 hours on Thursday, and 6 hours on Friday. Tuesday is my day off. All my classes are in the earlier periods, so I never have to deal with the last period tiredness that I'm sure exists.
**haha. so I wrote this last night at home, and am about to post it at school in the morning. Well what do you know, on my way to the staff room the dean of studies asked if I would be free later to work on the timetable.. is another timetable shuffle going to happen??.... stay tuned...**
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Grab that Goat
So for those of you who do not know, farm animals are very important here in Rwanda. And unlike in America, it is not just farms that have them. If someone has the land/space they get them. Why? Well they provide food or money, both very important things here.
For instance, cows are still used as bride prices. Not to mention the milk they provide or the eventual meat they provide is very much needed. Same goes for goats and chickens. Many times when walking along a road one can see chickens roaming or goats tethered down.
Now when I had first thought about animals and such, many people might automatically think where are the horses? I know I thought this, and honestly only recently did I find out why they don't have horses here. And by not having horses I mean there are people here who do not even know what a horse is. Some of you can probably guess the reason why they don't have horses, but for those of you who can't I will let you in one the reason.
Can a horse produce something you can sell or eat?eggs, milk? No.
Can a horse be killed for good meat? Technically yes, but we will say no.
So add in that the terrain here is rough and you would have to feed them, it just is not worth it. In America we might use a horse to plow a field, sorry people do that here. And why would they go out riding when there is work to be done, so sorry no horses in Rwanda.(note I am aware there are some horses, but I am talking in general)
Now that I have done that little intro, lets get down to the real story.
Last Saturday I was walking home from town(about an hour walk). As I am coming down this hill I see this goat chilling on the side walk, and I think huh, interesting, never seen that one before. Next minute I know there are two little children trying to grab the goat and they are holding a rope, so they obviously want to take it back home somewhere. If you have never seen someone try to grab a farm animal, let me tell you, it is not easy. The kids tried to corner it, it did not work. The goat went running. Suddenly random people on the street are trying to help. One man in a full suit even came close, at first look I thought he got it, but he didn't. In the end the goat kept running up the hill, and I had to keep going down.. All I can assume is that they eventually got it, but man was it funny to watch. Yet at the same time, totally normal. As we all started to walk again(a group of us had stopped to watch) we sortof chuckled together... so I guess even for them its not every day that one has to chase a goat up the sidewalk.
To finish this up I would just like to give props to the man in the suit who tried to grab the goat.. how many american men in suits would have done the same?
For instance, cows are still used as bride prices. Not to mention the milk they provide or the eventual meat they provide is very much needed. Same goes for goats and chickens. Many times when walking along a road one can see chickens roaming or goats tethered down.
Now when I had first thought about animals and such, many people might automatically think where are the horses? I know I thought this, and honestly only recently did I find out why they don't have horses here. And by not having horses I mean there are people here who do not even know what a horse is. Some of you can probably guess the reason why they don't have horses, but for those of you who can't I will let you in one the reason.
Can a horse produce something you can sell or eat?eggs, milk? No.
Can a horse be killed for good meat? Technically yes, but we will say no.
So add in that the terrain here is rough and you would have to feed them, it just is not worth it. In America we might use a horse to plow a field, sorry people do that here. And why would they go out riding when there is work to be done, so sorry no horses in Rwanda.(note I am aware there are some horses, but I am talking in general)
Now that I have done that little intro, lets get down to the real story.
Last Saturday I was walking home from town(about an hour walk). As I am coming down this hill I see this goat chilling on the side walk, and I think huh, interesting, never seen that one before. Next minute I know there are two little children trying to grab the goat and they are holding a rope, so they obviously want to take it back home somewhere. If you have never seen someone try to grab a farm animal, let me tell you, it is not easy. The kids tried to corner it, it did not work. The goat went running. Suddenly random people on the street are trying to help. One man in a full suit even came close, at first look I thought he got it, but he didn't. In the end the goat kept running up the hill, and I had to keep going down.. All I can assume is that they eventually got it, but man was it funny to watch. Yet at the same time, totally normal. As we all started to walk again(a group of us had stopped to watch) we sortof chuckled together... so I guess even for them its not every day that one has to chase a goat up the sidewalk.
To finish this up I would just like to give props to the man in the suit who tried to grab the goat.. how many american men in suits would have done the same?
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Mr. Frog
So tonight(Monday), mister frog was back in the house. No I have not named him, nor will I, so don't ask me what his name is or what I will name him. Mister frog and I are not friends. He seems to think that my house is his house. I've driven him out three times, but evidentally he still is not getting the memo, cause he comes back.
Now many of you might say why worry about the frog. Well I will tell you why. Yes I know that he can't 'hurt' me, but really he can. First of all, the lizards that chill in the house also eat bugs, and they scadatol when I come near. Not so with mister frog. Second of, he is a lurker. He hides in the shadows so when I open the door to my hallway and before I make it to the lightswitch in my bedroom he is there. And sometimes if the shadow is just right I miss him till I am right on top of him. And he doesn't move. He stays in my way. I make noise. He stays. Sometimes he even comes towards me. Obviously this can't work out between us and he has to go. So once again I chase him out with the broom(which is not as easy as it would seem). But somehow he managed to get in before, so I'm sure in a few days I will see him again. Finally, the third reason why he has to go, I don't like the fact that he reminds that he can slip into the house somehow, cause if he can, what else can.. I'm just saying.
Now many of you might say why worry about the frog. Well I will tell you why. Yes I know that he can't 'hurt' me, but really he can. First of all, the lizards that chill in the house also eat bugs, and they scadatol when I come near. Not so with mister frog. Second of, he is a lurker. He hides in the shadows so when I open the door to my hallway and before I make it to the lightswitch in my bedroom he is there. And sometimes if the shadow is just right I miss him till I am right on top of him. And he doesn't move. He stays in my way. I make noise. He stays. Sometimes he even comes towards me. Obviously this can't work out between us and he has to go. So once again I chase him out with the broom(which is not as easy as it would seem). But somehow he managed to get in before, so I'm sure in a few days I will see him again. Finally, the third reason why he has to go, I don't like the fact that he reminds that he can slip into the house somehow, cause if he can, what else can.. I'm just saying.
Goodbye Bull, Hello Food
A few blogs ago when I was describing where I lived I mentioned that there are cows at my school. Well last week I was talking with my headmistress and one of the teachers who is in charge of the cows and the farm part of the school. I found out that they were debating whether the calf was ready to be castrated and whether or not the one bull was big enough to feed the entire school if they killed him. I was like what.
Now I am a full meat eater. I love meat. You can even ask my mom how when I was young there was a period of time I would only eat ground beef, so I have no delusions that animals have to die to feed me, BUT I do not need to be part of the discussion as to when the guy gets killed.
When the weekend came along I had a feeling it was going to happen, and since I had been explained how they would do it, I wanted to make sure I was not near my window when it happened.
Normally the cows are pretty chill. They don't make too much noise, just the occasional moo. Well on Sunday morning the first thing that made me think something was up was all the cows were screaming. I did not know cows can scream, well they can. But since I was not going to go to the window to see what was distrubing them I was left in the dark. Then around 10 am one of the cow hands(I dont know his name, nor his official job title) came a knocking at my door. He was holding a HUGE metal bowl. Bigger that most metal bowls we keep as mixing bowls. He gestured that it was for me(he does not speak English). He lifts the other bowl that was being used as a lid and I see it is FULL of meat. FULL of meat. RAW meat. Now remember, I don't have a fridge, and since I live by myself I had to decline the meat. But man did I want it. It looked good, real good. Though being realistic I knew I couldnt eat it all in one day, and even if I could cook all of it, I couldn't even properly keep the cooked meat safely.. so goodbye red meat.
Now I am a full meat eater. I love meat. You can even ask my mom how when I was young there was a period of time I would only eat ground beef, so I have no delusions that animals have to die to feed me, BUT I do not need to be part of the discussion as to when the guy gets killed.
When the weekend came along I had a feeling it was going to happen, and since I had been explained how they would do it, I wanted to make sure I was not near my window when it happened.
Normally the cows are pretty chill. They don't make too much noise, just the occasional moo. Well on Sunday morning the first thing that made me think something was up was all the cows were screaming. I did not know cows can scream, well they can. But since I was not going to go to the window to see what was distrubing them I was left in the dark. Then around 10 am one of the cow hands(I dont know his name, nor his official job title) came a knocking at my door. He was holding a HUGE metal bowl. Bigger that most metal bowls we keep as mixing bowls. He gestured that it was for me(he does not speak English). He lifts the other bowl that was being used as a lid and I see it is FULL of meat. FULL of meat. RAW meat. Now remember, I don't have a fridge, and since I live by myself I had to decline the meat. But man did I want it. It looked good, real good. Though being realistic I knew I couldnt eat it all in one day, and even if I could cook all of it, I couldn't even properly keep the cooked meat safely.. so goodbye red meat.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Strike a Pose
Tyra has got to watch out, because aside from making science/math educated girls, my school is also producing wannabe models.
For Real.
On Saturday night there was an 'event' at my school. I had thought that it was a dance to welcome Senior 1 and Senior 4 girls to the school since they had arrived the previous week.Well I was wrong.
I showed up at 8, since thats when they told me to. Mistake. Nothing happened till 9.30. For the entire time all the girls(around 700) were seated on benches on either side of the dining hall facing in, and there was about a 15 yard gap between the two sides. Being a teacher I got a front row seat.. there were a few other teachers who stopped by.
So it was time to start. A group of senior 6 girls were in charge of the music. The first song they played was a remix version of Toto's Africa(not kidding). I thought I was in heaven. And then it started. A handful of girls from S1 and S4 had been picked to be models. They were wearing traditional outfits. They had to walk up and down between the rows of girls(who were now all standing).
Essentially CRAZYNESS.
The walks were so fierce. This was taken very seriously.very seriously. Now let me tell you, if the crowd did not like the outift or the walk, they let the girl know. At times it was brutal.
Inbetween the outfit changes the 2 MCs of the event would call people out of the crowd and make them dance by themselves in front of everyone. More crazyness. I eventually got called up, and of course I went(we all know I love a good dance party).
The place went wild. The more I got into the music, the more they screamed and laughed. There were times I could not even hear the music. And of course I must mention the song I had to dance to: single ladies(put a ring on it) by Beyonce.. HAHAHA... to funny,let me tell you. I even had two students come up and dance with me... which made the place go more wild. I wasn't even sure which part they 'liked' more, the fact that a teacher was dancing, or that the white teacher was dancing....either way it was a good time.
I left before they announced the model winner..but they raged on till midnight..haha.. me being the 'old' person that I am had trouble staying up till 11.
For Real.
On Saturday night there was an 'event' at my school. I had thought that it was a dance to welcome Senior 1 and Senior 4 girls to the school since they had arrived the previous week.Well I was wrong.
I showed up at 8, since thats when they told me to. Mistake. Nothing happened till 9.30. For the entire time all the girls(around 700) were seated on benches on either side of the dining hall facing in, and there was about a 15 yard gap between the two sides. Being a teacher I got a front row seat.. there were a few other teachers who stopped by.
So it was time to start. A group of senior 6 girls were in charge of the music. The first song they played was a remix version of Toto's Africa(not kidding). I thought I was in heaven. And then it started. A handful of girls from S1 and S4 had been picked to be models. They were wearing traditional outfits. They had to walk up and down between the rows of girls(who were now all standing).
Essentially CRAZYNESS.
The walks were so fierce. This was taken very seriously.very seriously. Now let me tell you, if the crowd did not like the outift or the walk, they let the girl know. At times it was brutal.
Inbetween the outfit changes the 2 MCs of the event would call people out of the crowd and make them dance by themselves in front of everyone. More crazyness. I eventually got called up, and of course I went(we all know I love a good dance party).
The place went wild. The more I got into the music, the more they screamed and laughed. There were times I could not even hear the music. And of course I must mention the song I had to dance to: single ladies(put a ring on it) by Beyonce.. HAHAHA... to funny,let me tell you. I even had two students come up and dance with me... which made the place go more wild. I wasn't even sure which part they 'liked' more, the fact that a teacher was dancing, or that the white teacher was dancing....either way it was a good time.
I left before they announced the model winner..but they raged on till midnight..haha.. me being the 'old' person that I am had trouble staying up till 11.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Mr. Creeper
Dear Mr. Creeper,
Although I am happy to be in your country that does not mean that I am happy to be with you.
Just because I am polite to you please do not take that as a sign of anything. Since I am new to your country I am trying to be as courteous as possible, so at times I know our cultural subtleties get masked. Therefore I am writing to you to let you know how I really feel.
No, I do not want to marry you.
No, it does not matter how many cows you could give me, I still do not want to marry you.
No, it does not matter that you can make me a citizen of Rwanda, I still do not want to marry you.
No, it does not matter that you offer me your more attractive friend, I still do not want to marry him.
and finally, No, I do not want to marry you.
Now I know this might have been hard for you to understand so don't worry, I will just keep rejecting all your offers.
from,
this white girl
Although I am happy to be in your country that does not mean that I am happy to be with you.
Just because I am polite to you please do not take that as a sign of anything. Since I am new to your country I am trying to be as courteous as possible, so at times I know our cultural subtleties get masked. Therefore I am writing to you to let you know how I really feel.
No, I do not want to marry you.
No, it does not matter how many cows you could give me, I still do not want to marry you.
No, it does not matter that you can make me a citizen of Rwanda, I still do not want to marry you.
No, it does not matter that you offer me your more attractive friend, I still do not want to marry him.
and finally, No, I do not want to marry you.
Now I know this might have been hard for you to understand so don't worry, I will just keep rejecting all your offers.
from,
this white girl
Monday, February 2, 2009
My First 2 Weeks of School
I am going to try and give only the highlights of the weeks.
To start off on Monday morning(Jan 19) I left my house at around 7.50(school starts at 8am) and I ran into a fellow teacher(or so I thought). As we walked to the main building and went to the head office I soon realize that she is my headmistress. Note at this time I had no idea that she lived right next door,I just assumed she had come from another one of the houses.
She welcomed me to the school and apoligized for not being able to pick me up on Saturday, she had sent the Dean of Studies to do that. She then asked if aside from my teaching responsibilities if I would also be able to become point person for this internet forum between my school and a school in England. I said sure, not really knowing what it was or what I would be doing..haha..
Then I spoke with the Dean of Studies and she introduced me to the Head of the Biology/Chemistry department. I proceeded to sit in on one of his lessons, for over 2 hours. Not going to lie although it was nice to see "how a Rwandan teacher teaches," it was a little boring. For the rest of the day I either sat in the staff room or went to different classrooms to have the girls ask me questions.
Although it was nice to speak to the girls, they sure do ask a lot of questions. The most common question asked is are you married, single, or searching, and I kid you not they used the word searching. Just to give examples of the types of questions I get asked I will share with you the 'best' ones: -Are you born again? (aka what religion are you)
-Can you manage to run when you are fat?(at first I could not believe that she asked that so I didn't have a response, so the girls thought I did not understand, they then mymed it for me)
-Does it hurt to have multiple holes in your ears?
Now I had been prepped on the fact that the students would ask many questions and that it is up to me if I would answer them. I answered a great many, but I did say a few times that I would not answer. The reason for this was that since I did not know what students I would be teaching I did not want to get too friendly with them too quickly.
Another 'interesting' thing that happened on Monday was lunch. So we had been told on the previous Friday that unlike what we originally thought, lunch would not be provided for us. Thinking this I packed a PB&J for my myself. Well what do you know, my school has lunch for teachers, but I was not going to let my food go to waste, so I ate it. This puzzled many teachers, and many told me that from now I shouldn't bring my own lunch.
Tuesday consisted of me sitting in the staff room waiting to be told what I would be teaching. I did find out one of my class: S5 chemistry. S5 would be our equivalent to 11th grade.
On Wednesday I had my first lesson. It was supposed to go from 8-10.30, I only made it till 9.45 with what I had prepared.
Luckily on Thursday it went a little better since I only had to teach for 50 minutes. I also found out on Thursday that I will be teaching chemistry for S1 and S4 once those students arrive, which they aren't sure when that will be.
As far as I can tell Friday went a little better too. It was a 2 hour class and I planned to play Jeapardy. Believe it or not it went over pretty well. Instead of having individual contestants I had the entire class play against me. Basically it went like this, after the category had been picked I would read the question and then wait for one of the students to shout out the answer. If none of them knew the answer then I got to answer it and get the points. As designed the girls won. I had picked categories that could be a review, but also fun. By far the favorite category was Famous Scientists, which was a little funny because this is the category that I got the most of my points in.
After the first week I was feeling pretty good that it had not gone horrible so that gave me some encouragement that maybe I really can do this. All I had to do then was worry about week two.
So week two was comprised of 2 things. Me sitting around the staff room on my computer and me teaching my one class(which only amounts to 9 hrs a week).
Overall my classes went well. I had my first encounters with some discipline issues and I think I firmly showed them that I would not tolerate anything like that. I know that I might have been a little more stern then the situation warranted, but I wanted to make sure that the girls understood my position on how I would run class.
Another interesting aspect of class was the inquires about my notebook. So like most teachers do I have a lesson plan for each class, and maybe more importantly the notes that I am going to give. It should be noted that the students do not have text books, so any and all information has to be given from me in note form. Well after class the students ask for my notebook; evidentally that is sometimes how it is down here. I am not okay with that. If I am taking the time to write it on the board and making sure I give enough time for them to copy it, there should be no reason why they don't copy what I write and then expect me to give them my notebook. I informed them that never in my secondary or univeristy history did I ever see or hear of a student asking for the teachers notes because the student had decided to not take notes during class.
My second week of school also had me assigning my first homework, or as they call it dormwork(I'm at a boarding school). Now I had expected them to do the work together, but I assumed they would get the correct answers then. Wrong. Out of five questions I believe that they got 2 of them correct and another almost correct. This was a little of a let down because I had thought I had made the homework easy..
Now I must explain why I sit for such long hours in the staff room. The first reason is that I know once S1 and S4 come to school I will be teaching more hours and I want to get used to be at school during the day. Also since school does give lunch(for free), there just is no reason for me to be elsewhere at lunch time.
The other reason, and most likely the main reason is because the staff room has wireless internet. And lets be real, like most young Americans I am addicted to the internet. In my case I am mainly addicted to cnn.com and then I switch between bbc and nytimes. For those of you who know my routine of reading through cnn every morning you can imagine how my 2 and 1/2 weeks of orientation made me feel out of touch with the world. Also since internet connections here are not as fast as in the US the other times I did go to internet cafes and pay I did not want to waste my money on waiting for news pages to load. So the last week has made me feel a little more at home since I feel more "in-touch" with the outside world.
Well thats about it for my first 2 weeks of school. I can say that I am very lucky to really like(dare I say love)chemistry, so I oddly enough really do get a joy out of reading my text book in preperation for classes. I will also admit that I give major props to teachers after I have experienced those blank stares of students or those long pauses when noone answers your question..haha.
I also want to admit my 2 strongest fears regarding the upcoming year. The first is that I think I can cover the material in way less then a year or that there is no way I will be able to cover it all in a year. My second fear is that I have been entrusted with covering a set of material and what if when I looked at the curriculm and then planned my lessons I did not include some information that the students will later see on the national exams they must take.
Speaking of fears, I found out that this week(starting Feb 2) S1 and S4 will be in attendence. That means I will now have my full schedule(though I have yet to find out what that will be(said on Sunday night). So this means that I essentially have another entire first week to go through... I can only hope that it will be as good as my first first week.
On a great side note about my school, the national O-level exam that the students take after S3, the grades/rankings came back and my school moved from 9th place in the country to 3rd place. wohoo for them!
Also for the sake of putting it up, here is the daily schedule:
8-8.50: 1st Hour
8.50-9.40: 2nd Hour
9.40-10.30: 3rd Hour
10.30-10.50:Break
10.50-11.40: 4th Hour
11.40-12.30: 5th Hour
12.30-2:Lunch
2-2.50: 6th Hour
2.50-3.40: 7th Hour
3.40-4.30: 8th Hour
To start off on Monday morning(Jan 19) I left my house at around 7.50(school starts at 8am) and I ran into a fellow teacher(or so I thought). As we walked to the main building and went to the head office I soon realize that she is my headmistress. Note at this time I had no idea that she lived right next door,I just assumed she had come from another one of the houses.
She welcomed me to the school and apoligized for not being able to pick me up on Saturday, she had sent the Dean of Studies to do that. She then asked if aside from my teaching responsibilities if I would also be able to become point person for this internet forum between my school and a school in England. I said sure, not really knowing what it was or what I would be doing..haha..
Then I spoke with the Dean of Studies and she introduced me to the Head of the Biology/Chemistry department. I proceeded to sit in on one of his lessons, for over 2 hours. Not going to lie although it was nice to see "how a Rwandan teacher teaches," it was a little boring. For the rest of the day I either sat in the staff room or went to different classrooms to have the girls ask me questions.
Although it was nice to speak to the girls, they sure do ask a lot of questions. The most common question asked is are you married, single, or searching, and I kid you not they used the word searching. Just to give examples of the types of questions I get asked I will share with you the 'best' ones: -Are you born again? (aka what religion are you)
-Can you manage to run when you are fat?(at first I could not believe that she asked that so I didn't have a response, so the girls thought I did not understand, they then mymed it for me)
-Does it hurt to have multiple holes in your ears?
Now I had been prepped on the fact that the students would ask many questions and that it is up to me if I would answer them. I answered a great many, but I did say a few times that I would not answer. The reason for this was that since I did not know what students I would be teaching I did not want to get too friendly with them too quickly.
Another 'interesting' thing that happened on Monday was lunch. So we had been told on the previous Friday that unlike what we originally thought, lunch would not be provided for us. Thinking this I packed a PB&J for my myself. Well what do you know, my school has lunch for teachers, but I was not going to let my food go to waste, so I ate it. This puzzled many teachers, and many told me that from now I shouldn't bring my own lunch.
Tuesday consisted of me sitting in the staff room waiting to be told what I would be teaching. I did find out one of my class: S5 chemistry. S5 would be our equivalent to 11th grade.
On Wednesday I had my first lesson. It was supposed to go from 8-10.30, I only made it till 9.45 with what I had prepared.
Luckily on Thursday it went a little better since I only had to teach for 50 minutes. I also found out on Thursday that I will be teaching chemistry for S1 and S4 once those students arrive, which they aren't sure when that will be.
As far as I can tell Friday went a little better too. It was a 2 hour class and I planned to play Jeapardy. Believe it or not it went over pretty well. Instead of having individual contestants I had the entire class play against me. Basically it went like this, after the category had been picked I would read the question and then wait for one of the students to shout out the answer. If none of them knew the answer then I got to answer it and get the points. As designed the girls won. I had picked categories that could be a review, but also fun. By far the favorite category was Famous Scientists, which was a little funny because this is the category that I got the most of my points in.
After the first week I was feeling pretty good that it had not gone horrible so that gave me some encouragement that maybe I really can do this. All I had to do then was worry about week two.
So week two was comprised of 2 things. Me sitting around the staff room on my computer and me teaching my one class(which only amounts to 9 hrs a week).
Overall my classes went well. I had my first encounters with some discipline issues and I think I firmly showed them that I would not tolerate anything like that. I know that I might have been a little more stern then the situation warranted, but I wanted to make sure that the girls understood my position on how I would run class.
Another interesting aspect of class was the inquires about my notebook. So like most teachers do I have a lesson plan for each class, and maybe more importantly the notes that I am going to give. It should be noted that the students do not have text books, so any and all information has to be given from me in note form. Well after class the students ask for my notebook; evidentally that is sometimes how it is down here. I am not okay with that. If I am taking the time to write it on the board and making sure I give enough time for them to copy it, there should be no reason why they don't copy what I write and then expect me to give them my notebook. I informed them that never in my secondary or univeristy history did I ever see or hear of a student asking for the teachers notes because the student had decided to not take notes during class.
My second week of school also had me assigning my first homework, or as they call it dormwork(I'm at a boarding school). Now I had expected them to do the work together, but I assumed they would get the correct answers then. Wrong. Out of five questions I believe that they got 2 of them correct and another almost correct. This was a little of a let down because I had thought I had made the homework easy..
Now I must explain why I sit for such long hours in the staff room. The first reason is that I know once S1 and S4 come to school I will be teaching more hours and I want to get used to be at school during the day. Also since school does give lunch(for free), there just is no reason for me to be elsewhere at lunch time.
The other reason, and most likely the main reason is because the staff room has wireless internet. And lets be real, like most young Americans I am addicted to the internet. In my case I am mainly addicted to cnn.com and then I switch between bbc and nytimes. For those of you who know my routine of reading through cnn every morning you can imagine how my 2 and 1/2 weeks of orientation made me feel out of touch with the world. Also since internet connections here are not as fast as in the US the other times I did go to internet cafes and pay I did not want to waste my money on waiting for news pages to load. So the last week has made me feel a little more at home since I feel more "in-touch" with the outside world.
Well thats about it for my first 2 weeks of school. I can say that I am very lucky to really like(dare I say love)chemistry, so I oddly enough really do get a joy out of reading my text book in preperation for classes. I will also admit that I give major props to teachers after I have experienced those blank stares of students or those long pauses when noone answers your question..haha.
I also want to admit my 2 strongest fears regarding the upcoming year. The first is that I think I can cover the material in way less then a year or that there is no way I will be able to cover it all in a year. My second fear is that I have been entrusted with covering a set of material and what if when I looked at the curriculm and then planned my lessons I did not include some information that the students will later see on the national exams they must take.
Speaking of fears, I found out that this week(starting Feb 2) S1 and S4 will be in attendence. That means I will now have my full schedule(though I have yet to find out what that will be(said on Sunday night). So this means that I essentially have another entire first week to go through... I can only hope that it will be as good as my first first week.
On a great side note about my school, the national O-level exam that the students take after S3, the grades/rankings came back and my school moved from 9th place in the country to 3rd place. wohoo for them!
Also for the sake of putting it up, here is the daily schedule:
8-8.50: 1st Hour
8.50-9.40: 2nd Hour
9.40-10.30: 3rd Hour
10.30-10.50:Break
10.50-11.40: 4th Hour
11.40-12.30: 5th Hour
12.30-2:Lunch
2-2.50: 6th Hour
2.50-3.40: 7th Hour
3.40-4.30: 8th Hour
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