Finally!

They showed up! This week each of my classes had atleast 55 kids and I was able to really get started. I have two classes of 6ème (first level) and two classes of 5ème (second level) and there's such a difference between the two! The 6ème kids are brand new to the school and English, so their mostly just scared right now. Most seem really engaged though and we've actually gone through all of my lessons faster than expected.

The 5ème kids, on the other hand, are much more difficult to handle for a variety of reasons. My first 5ème class on Tuesday started protesting in French when I was speaking and giving all directions in English. Then they were mocking me and talking so much I made them stand until they were silent and ended up waiting 20 minutes. After that things went much smoother, and much to my surprise my second 5ème class that afternoon was actually very respectful and well behaved. Another challenge I face with my 5èmès is that they only got halfway through the 6ème book, and I'm finding that review exercises are turning into re-teaching exercises. I'm hoping this week might move a little quicker and hopefully we can begin with some new stuff next week.

A very interesting challenge is a Nigerian boy in one 5ème class. Since they speak English in Nigeria, my class is basically useless for him. While he doesn't need the basics of 5ème, I know his more advanced English does need work, and although it's nice to have my own personal helper when nobody else understands, I want him to be challenged. So I'm really going to sit down and think about what types of things I can do with him. I asked him to think about it as well and whether he might like to write stories or read books or work on more advanced exercises. It's a fun opportunity to do something a little outside the box and I'm pretty excited to see what we come up with. I asked the other English profs if they've ever faced this and/or if they had any ideas. They didn't seem to understand the problem and so I left it at that.

This week was also the first meeting of the English dept. It's scheduled weekly from 10-12 on Thursdays (so we started at 10:45) in the "teacher's lounge". The teacher's lounge is an open cement platform covered by a tin roof in the middle of the school grounds. There is a large table and about 8 chairs. During breaks, teachers sitting here send female students to buy them food from the Mama's selling food at the school's entrance (I fully intend to do this with male students on occasion). Anyway, so at the meeting I found out there is a new female English teacher. This is her first year teaching and they told me I was in charge of teaching her how to teach the material. Now, this is ironic not only because I myself am a first year teacher, but also because we had just finished a discussion about how I won't be using the English book and they were a little upset by that. (Peace Corps encourages us not to use the book because they find that volunteers often create more dynamic and effective lessons on their own, and kids don't have books anyway). I'm pretty sure there is no experience or certification necessary to be a teacher in Benin, so I'm happy to help her get started, but it won't be at all helpful in explaining the rigid structures that profs here feel bound to follow. She'll also be teaching another 5ème class, so it'll be interesting to see how the two of us progress.

In other exciting news...word around town is "la lancée" (the tall one) speaks Aja! The French doctor who I take Aja classes with every week told me that someone at her church told her that, and I'm so excited! For one, it's nice that people are so happy with me for trying to speak and practice Aja, and for two, it's nice to know that people are saying good things. Dogbo is also in no way a village, so the fact that my Aja is getting around the town is a little surprising. I've still got a long, long way to go, but so far just practicing little by little has made me lots of friends and is a fun addition to marché visits.