Friday, February 12, 2010

Happy, Motivated, and Saving the World One Student at a Time

Le 12 février 2010

I forget if I made a special shout out to my family and friends who have sent me packages, so I'm starting this blog with a big THANK YOU to all of you who have sent me packages or letters: I love them and really appreciate them.

My In-Service Training in Ouaga in early January went well. And it was nice to see everyone whom I spent my initial training with again. We talked about how our first trimesters went, shared ideas, commented on our initial training, learned about starting libraries in village, soap making, starting a garden. We had our usual medical, administrative/financial, and security sessions. We enjoyed each other's company and I enjoyed my internet and skyping time. :)

My second trimester started with a bunch of nerves, anxiety, and uncertainty about how it would go with my nearly complete class schedule change. I went from 4 English classes and one environmental science/biology (SVT) class to one math class and 2 environmental science/biology class. I no longer teach the 2 older grades, so it was a change.

It wasn't too long before I found my own and got into a groove that I found much more quickly the second time around. I find I really enjoy teaching math. I like the subject matter a lot which I think helps. SVT is coming along. I'm getting into the human body with my youngest kids and I find that much more interesting and applicable to their lives. The class where I talked about STI's was interesting. I had a couple smartypants students tell me they didn't know what sex was. I was surprised to learn that they didn't know the word vagina, especially since it's a basic and integral part of female genital anatomy. That was fun explaining in words they could understand!

I give more tests that other teachers do. We're required to give 2 per trimester. And that's what most people give: 2 and only 2. I think it's much better for the students to give more than that. With math I can even assign homework to collect and grade. Giving at least 3 tests gives the students less material to study for each test, a greater chance to pass when averaging 3 grades as opposed to 2, and it also gives the me the option of rewarding my students for good behavior by taking the 2 best grades. I will not be doing that. My students talk way too much during class. I'm sure a large part of it is because I'm too nice and let it go way more than I should. I'm working on it. I started a new technique where I write a -1 on the board and start to draw a box around it when they're talking to much. If I finish the box, everyone receives -1. If my students stop talking, I stop writing and they don't. If I start this 10 times in one class, it's -1. That works a little bit, but often it'll work for the 5 seconds I'm writing it on the board and then as soon as I stop they start up again. We'll see. I need to be more strict, because it's disrespectful and not good for the students who actually pay attention and want to learn.

I started a girls club with my youngest girls and I have around 20 who show up every Tuesday evening. We spend the first hour doing an activity that I choose and the second hour is for them. They have thus far opted to use it to do schoolwork and homework. And then I”m there if they have any questions or need explanation. The first week I did an informational meeting to introduce the idea and talk about what we could use that time for each week. The second week and first official meeting, we played a name game and started putting together money by each of the interested girls to use to throw a party at the end of the year. The third week, I tried a Life Skills activity to introduce the terms aggressiveness and passivity. It all but crashed and burned which I initially thought was because of my poor French. I learned later figured out that it was because of their poor French. Their level is so low, it's no wonder they don't understand a lot things, including notes I give them in class. And of course, they don't ask questions when they don't understand, even though I've told them more times than I can count that they need to ask questions if they don't understand something. Anyways, for the third week I decided to find an activity that would force them to think and use the brains I know they have and also something that they couldn't or shouldn't copy their friends and neighbors. I don't know if it's laziness, a lack of self esteem and self confidence, a mixture of the 3 or what, but they're complacent with repeating what their neighbor or friend tells them to say. They're complacent with looking at something once and telling me they don't understand instead of trying to use the knowledge they do have to figure it out. Frustrating. One of the reasons we emphasize critical thinking here and try to find ways to work that into our teaching, because it's not often taught here. It's typically route memorization and that does nothing. So, after giving it some thought, I had them write a list of life goals, because I figured that no one has ever had them think about that. It took me 30-45 minutes to explain what goals were and how to write their list and how they didn't need to copy down everything I had written on the board to explain the activity. After we went a bit over the first hour, I wanted to give them time to do their schoolwork, so I told them to bring the lists next week, because we're going to share goals. And I'm making each girl share a goal that's different that all the others. I will not accept a repeated goal. Then I think I'll give them time to think about what they can do, what steps they can take to make their goals a reality. In any case, I often feel awkward and unsure when I'm doing my girls club activities, but I must be doing something right, because my girls keep coming back.

I spent about 5 weeks at site without leaving for the first time and could have stayed longer. I'm definitely coming into my own and getting comfortable with where I'm at. I visit a couple who are my friends every night, I started djembe lessons, and I am slowly and inconsistently incorporating working out into my schedule. I like my site, I like my colleagues, and I like my students, even though they frustrate me and drive me up the wall sometimes [read often].

Right now I'm spending the weekend in Ouaga to participate in an ISO softball tournament. We tied the Japanese team 6-6 today in the last inning which is a total bummer because we were up! Oh, well. Next game. It was a blast and we looked pretty decent. We've got another game tomorrow and then on Sunday. A second game on Sunday if we win and are in the finals. I'm going back to site Sunday and will therefore sadly be missing any and all games that day. We have subs though. However, one particularly awesome female volunteer said she would offer bribes for us to stay... :-)

Life is good. Can't complain too much. Wouldn't want to anyways. I'm happy.

Oh, also, I'm probably going to start my first grant-writing experience to help my CEG get a library and possibly help with raising money to build a second building in order to divide the classes and make them smaller. I'm excited because I've never done anything like this before and it'll be a great learning experience. We'll see. It's going to be a lot of work, but I have absolutely no problem with that.

Until next time. An bi dòni. (See you soon – been taking Jula lessons, too.)