As for my students on strike, the administration took their time dealing with the problem since classes technically weren't in session when their strike and series of shananagans happened (it was grade calculating time). I unfortunately did not attend (nor was I invited) to the meeting my counterpart had with admin to discuss their punishments, but he later explained it all to me. Unfortunately none of the punishments are directed just at the troublemakers, but rather the entire group of 45 must endure them. I feel really horrible about that, but of course there is nothing I can do. And so here they are- 1- The first week classes resume (this week), the class will not spend anytime in class, but will spend 8-12 and 3-7 everyday doing physical labor around the school yard. 2- The first schoolwide flag raising ceremony after the break (which was yesterday), the class must spend the entire ceremony kneeling on the rocky ground to show their shame to the rest of the school. 3- The class' conduct grade for both semesters of the school year is 10. The conduct grade is averaged in with all other subjects and counts as a subject in itself. It usually begins at 18 and sometimes is lowered to 16 or 15 for troublesome classes. A 10 is basically unheard of. 4- The entire set of upper-level classes also has a larger conduct grade they share, and this grade for all other upper-level classes will be lowered as well. 5- All parents were informed that if their students cause further problems this year they will be expelled. Unfortunately the school doesn't actually have the power to do that, but hopefully the parents and students don't know that? I think there was another thing or two, but I can't remember right now. Overall, I know these are really harsh punishments but I wish they were actually targeting the troublesome students.
As for me, my counterpart informed me how lucky we are that the students blocked the class and refused to enter the day of the strike. Apparently later in the week they attacked their philosophy teacher with some sort of itchy/stinging powder blown all over his arms. He had to leave immediately and go pour oil over it to sooth it. The powder comes from a local plant, and while for me that sounds annoying and bad enough, for them it is also seen as a voodoo spiritual attack. My administration decided to immediately remove me from this class for my own security and safety, but my counterpart will continue with them. During the strike they were calling for him to leave and me to stay, so admin and my counterpart are in agreement that he must stay to teach the students a lesson and not give them what they want. Furthermore, he explained to me that its better now, because "its black on black now". He comes from Ouidah, the birthplace of Voodoo in Benin, and he informed me that he is not afraid of them and knows how to protect himself.
Not only does the voodoo leave much of this out of my realm of comprehension, but my Peace Corps boss (who is also Beninese) also enlightened me to the fact that this is likely a highly politically charged situation. She said that some other teachers probably encouraged the students to act in this way in order to get my counterpart fired. When she told me that, it made so much sense based on comments he had been making. So really all of this has just been way over my head, which is probably why admin didn't really talk to me that much about it. Well...I'm happy to leave them behind and focus on my first years and helping my other colleagues!
In geography club news- When I was home over xmas I found $1 globes at Target and had my friend Ryan fly them over from the states. He got here a few weeks ago and when he came to the club with me we handed them out. The kids were so excited!! Stupid Target though, about 5 of the globes were totally smashed up inside the boxes, even though the boxes themselves never got smashed and looked fine. I know they were only $1, but I flew them around the world and the kids who opened them were so sad :-(. Luckily I have just enough extra so that everyone can get a good one! With Ryan we did the US and they were so excited to see US money. This week will be Egypt and next week Mexico!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
A giant game of telephone, anybody?
Knowledge and fact are sort of subjective things here in Benin. I can ask 5 different people when the rainy season will start and one will tell me "oh, soon. it will come, it will come", one would say April, another May, and someone else would just say, oh well, a month or two after the heat starts. So much is based on personal opinion and perspective that it's often hard to get a true or concrete response to any question. This only becomes more frustrating when a real problem exists that needs to be solved, such as my issues in November with the post office being closed for over 2 weeks. Nobody even noticed or cared enough to find out why or tell any authorities about it (I'm the one who informed the mayor's office that sits just next door).
Well, this phenomenon has only become more amusing to me in the last 2 weeks because the entire South-Western part of Benin has been having huge issues with power outages. It's normal for the power to go out for maybe an hour or two at a time, but we've been having 12 to 16 hour outages with only a few hours of power in between. The first full day everyone was a little surprised and the giant game of telephone began! When I left school at the end of the day I started hearing all sorts of stories from colleagues and neighbors. One said we were being punished for political reasons. Another stated vehemently that it would remain out for 4 days straight (it came on about 4 hours later). There were reports of it out in all big neighboring towns on the highway, but then others said it was already out in Cotonou and the entire country. Some said power was cut from Ghana because our government didn't pay for it. Radio stations were apparently announcing all sorts of random things as well, just to add to the confusion.
Despite having been here for 19 months...we still totally fell for it! All the volunteers in my region were texting each other to complain about the outages and see if anyone knew why. Turns out we exchanged our local "theories" and none were even remotely similar! We also texted volunteers in Cotonou and the North and of course they all had plenty of electricity. So...here we are 2 weeks later and the outages continue! I have no idea why, but I think by now everyone is thinking it does have something to do with power coming from Ghana. I think it's basically like a rolling black-out situation. Anyway, it's really quite obnoxious and the hard part is that my part of Dogbo is on a hill and is mostly pump water (not wells), so once the power goes out, the water is cut an hour or two later because the water in the system runs out.
In other news, the first semester is officially over this week, I can't even believe it! Crazy how it's going so fast and quickly approaching the end :-(. I was looking at my lesson book from last year and realized that up until this point so far this year, I have given 27 lessons, but the ENTIRE second semester last year I only gave 9 lessons total. Due to the school breaks and exams it's really barely any class time, and it's pretty ridiculous. But then of course the 2nd semester grades count twice as much towards their final grade at the end of the year, even though they barely do even half the amount of work!
So we spent this last week giving the kids the final calculations of their semester grades. My two classes of first years did really fantastic, I'm so proud and it was so cute to see them light up when they saw their grades. Passing is 10, and I gave lots of 14s, 15s, and 16s. For most this is their first year of school and I saw that their grades in other classes are rarely above 10, and never above 12 if that. I'm happy to see that they all have been doing well even though I think I've been being harder on them recently.
Unfortunately I can't say the same for my 5th year students. Only about 8 of the 40 received passing grades, but even worse is--- get this--- they are on strike against me and the other professor I teach the class with. I give participations grades to all of my classes which get averaged in as quiz grade. For almost all of my students (including most of the 5th years), this grade increases their overall average and is often higher than one or both of their written quiz grades. Well, all of the students who received failing participation grades also happen to be the troublemakers (surprise, surprise), and the day of grade giving they started shouting and refusing to accept the grades. The system has been well explained and clear since the beginning and unfortunately they took it open themselves to try to "solve" this issue by then blocking the door with benches and desks the next day and declaring a strike. Since we aren't "technically" in class time (they stop class for 2 weeks for grade calculation), the administration hasn't sought fit to address the issue or the students at all. Honestly, I'm not too worried about it...the grades are in the book and the principal says they stay!!
In happier (and much less stressful) news, my friend Ryan is flying in tonight!! We're spending the week in Dogbo and starting our trip to Burkina Faso and Mali on Friday. It should be great!
Well, this phenomenon has only become more amusing to me in the last 2 weeks because the entire South-Western part of Benin has been having huge issues with power outages. It's normal for the power to go out for maybe an hour or two at a time, but we've been having 12 to 16 hour outages with only a few hours of power in between. The first full day everyone was a little surprised and the giant game of telephone began! When I left school at the end of the day I started hearing all sorts of stories from colleagues and neighbors. One said we were being punished for political reasons. Another stated vehemently that it would remain out for 4 days straight (it came on about 4 hours later). There were reports of it out in all big neighboring towns on the highway, but then others said it was already out in Cotonou and the entire country. Some said power was cut from Ghana because our government didn't pay for it. Radio stations were apparently announcing all sorts of random things as well, just to add to the confusion.
Despite having been here for 19 months...we still totally fell for it! All the volunteers in my region were texting each other to complain about the outages and see if anyone knew why. Turns out we exchanged our local "theories" and none were even remotely similar! We also texted volunteers in Cotonou and the North and of course they all had plenty of electricity. So...here we are 2 weeks later and the outages continue! I have no idea why, but I think by now everyone is thinking it does have something to do with power coming from Ghana. I think it's basically like a rolling black-out situation. Anyway, it's really quite obnoxious and the hard part is that my part of Dogbo is on a hill and is mostly pump water (not wells), so once the power goes out, the water is cut an hour or two later because the water in the system runs out.
In other news, the first semester is officially over this week, I can't even believe it! Crazy how it's going so fast and quickly approaching the end :-(. I was looking at my lesson book from last year and realized that up until this point so far this year, I have given 27 lessons, but the ENTIRE second semester last year I only gave 9 lessons total. Due to the school breaks and exams it's really barely any class time, and it's pretty ridiculous. But then of course the 2nd semester grades count twice as much towards their final grade at the end of the year, even though they barely do even half the amount of work!
So we spent this last week giving the kids the final calculations of their semester grades. My two classes of first years did really fantastic, I'm so proud and it was so cute to see them light up when they saw their grades. Passing is 10, and I gave lots of 14s, 15s, and 16s. For most this is their first year of school and I saw that their grades in other classes are rarely above 10, and never above 12 if that. I'm happy to see that they all have been doing well even though I think I've been being harder on them recently.
Unfortunately I can't say the same for my 5th year students. Only about 8 of the 40 received passing grades, but even worse is--- get this--- they are on strike against me and the other professor I teach the class with. I give participations grades to all of my classes which get averaged in as quiz grade. For almost all of my students (including most of the 5th years), this grade increases their overall average and is often higher than one or both of their written quiz grades. Well, all of the students who received failing participation grades also happen to be the troublemakers (surprise, surprise), and the day of grade giving they started shouting and refusing to accept the grades. The system has been well explained and clear since the beginning and unfortunately they took it open themselves to try to "solve" this issue by then blocking the door with benches and desks the next day and declaring a strike. Since we aren't "technically" in class time (they stop class for 2 weeks for grade calculation), the administration hasn't sought fit to address the issue or the students at all. Honestly, I'm not too worried about it...the grades are in the book and the principal says they stay!!
In happier (and much less stressful) news, my friend Ryan is flying in tonight!! We're spending the week in Dogbo and starting our trip to Burkina Faso and Mali on Friday. It should be great!
Monday, January 25, 2010
A few cute notes...
I brought back a baby wild animals calendar with me ($1 at Target) for 2010 and put it on the wall right by my front door. The picture for January is a lion cub and it even says in large letters- LION, which is the same word in French. So far, three people have seen it and asked if it's a picture of my dog from the states. Gets me every time.
***
My dad bought me a blow-up globe to use with my geography club and we used it for the first time last week. While one boy went to the road to get it pumped full of air I taped my world map to the chalkboard. We started naming the continents and oceans. Most of them didn't know them, but atleast everyone could find Africa right in the center and had an idea of where the Americas and Asia sort of were. Well, in comes the globe. First, I had a little boy stand up and act as my 'sun' and I explained that the world was round and rotated around it. I ran around him and said...this is one year! They were full of oohs and ahhs.
The thing that really struck me however, was that once we started playing with the globe, they lost all sense of direction and location of the continents. We stood up in a circle and played a game where you name a continent or ocean, throw it to a friend, and they have to find it on the globe. They ended up turning the globe every which way and in some cases even had trouble finding Africa. It was amazing to see how working hands-on with a 3D object was really a new sort of experience for them. Given that their classrooms have no walls and no floors, of course they have no blocks or legos or balls to ever get them use to spatial reasoning. But it was fun to watch them have fun with it anyway and get so excited just to hold and touch it.
While I was home I found mini-globes in the $1 section of Target!!! I bought about 25 and I'm having my friend Ryan bring them over to Benin next month when he comes to visit. I can't wait!!!! Especially now that I see how much they are going to learn from them just by being able to take them home and play with them all on their own.
***
We've all heard about the recent tragic earthquake in Haiti and even many Beninese people know about it from the TV. A lot of them think Haiti is in Africa though, maybe because they know it's French speaking and see darker colored people on TV. Anyway, another PCV said that people told him that lots of Beninese people in Cotonou and another big town of Bohicon are sleeping outside now because they think the earthquake is going to come here to Benin and they know they'll be safer outside. He explained it's far away, and they don't have to worry, and he even made the huge mistake of trying to get into plate tectonics. I told him he should have just told them the bad "gri gri" couldn't come this far :-).
***
My dad bought me a blow-up globe to use with my geography club and we used it for the first time last week. While one boy went to the road to get it pumped full of air I taped my world map to the chalkboard. We started naming the continents and oceans. Most of them didn't know them, but atleast everyone could find Africa right in the center and had an idea of where the Americas and Asia sort of were. Well, in comes the globe. First, I had a little boy stand up and act as my 'sun' and I explained that the world was round and rotated around it. I ran around him and said...this is one year! They were full of oohs and ahhs.
The thing that really struck me however, was that once we started playing with the globe, they lost all sense of direction and location of the continents. We stood up in a circle and played a game where you name a continent or ocean, throw it to a friend, and they have to find it on the globe. They ended up turning the globe every which way and in some cases even had trouble finding Africa. It was amazing to see how working hands-on with a 3D object was really a new sort of experience for them. Given that their classrooms have no walls and no floors, of course they have no blocks or legos or balls to ever get them use to spatial reasoning. But it was fun to watch them have fun with it anyway and get so excited just to hold and touch it.
While I was home I found mini-globes in the $1 section of Target!!! I bought about 25 and I'm having my friend Ryan bring them over to Benin next month when he comes to visit. I can't wait!!!! Especially now that I see how much they are going to learn from them just by being able to take them home and play with them all on their own.
***
We've all heard about the recent tragic earthquake in Haiti and even many Beninese people know about it from the TV. A lot of them think Haiti is in Africa though, maybe because they know it's French speaking and see darker colored people on TV. Anyway, another PCV said that people told him that lots of Beninese people in Cotonou and another big town of Bohicon are sleeping outside now because they think the earthquake is going to come here to Benin and they know they'll be safer outside. He explained it's far away, and they don't have to worry, and he even made the huge mistake of trying to get into plate tectonics. I told him he should have just told them the bad "gri gri" couldn't come this far :-).
Back to Benin!
So there are a couple of missing entries to fill in the past 2 months...most importantly...I went home!! Spending 3 weeks at home for Christmas and New Years was amazing, delicious, freeeeezing cold, and refreshing. Overall, the weirdest thing about being back was that it didn't feel that weird at all. The first time I approached the dishwasher and the washing machine I admit I was apprehensive for a split second about all the buttons, but all of a sudden my fingers knew exactly what they were doing. My first night home I did have a moment of wonderment at my parents "five fires" on their stovetop. I even said out loud to them, "Oh my god, do you realize you have five fires right here?" Of course it was the family joke for the rest of my stay. By the end I got to spend lots of time with my friends and family and I was so exhausted that all I could think about was getting back to my puppy and my couch in Dogbo!
For about 2 weeks now I have been back to Benin, and I couldn't have been happier when I got back. I was just so excited to realize that Dogbo really does feel like home to me, too. Sort of like returning to the dorms in college after break, I think. In the plane coming into Cotonou from Paris I looked up and saw the stars in the first time for 3 weeks and realized how much I missed them. When I arrived I also noticed a scab from a scratch on my foot- I didn't even know I had scratched it. In the cold winter weather I hadn't been able to pay any attention to my body because all I wanted to do was cover it with layer after layer of clothes!
Despite all of my joy for returning to my life here in Dogbo, this past week has been a lot more difficult due to 2 unfortunate events. The first being that last Sunday my postmate and one of my best friends here, Catherine, left for home for good. She has been in 3 moto accidents in the last 8 months and found transportation to be too difficult for her to continue her time here. We all already miss her, and it will be harder for me now that I won't have her in Dogbo to relax with on a bad day. At the same time, I know it was the right decision for her and I wish her all the luck with moving back!
The second unfortunate event happened last Sunday as well, the day of Catherine's departure. Three volunteers coming down from the North were in a huge bus accident when their bus collided with a semi-truck head on. Miraculously none of them were seriously hurt, but people in the rows directly in front of them were actually killed. Understandably this sort of event has all of the PCVs a bit shaken up, but truthfully there is nothing we can do. The bus is still undoubtedly the safest mode of transport and we all knew the risk existed- it's just a bit more real to us now.
So, this last week wasn't quiet as great as the first, but I'm trying to focus on the positive and remember why I was so excited to come back. I think that one of the biggest realizations I've had since going home is just that this experience is almost over. It's only a few months until the end, and those months are jam-packed with event after event. Right now it's a little exciting to think about what's next, but also scary and overwhelming and mostly just sad to think about leaving friends and life here. It is possible for us to extend a 3rd year in Benin or another country if we want, but I think I want to go back to apply for grad school next fall. Of course it's all still up in the air, but if I do decide to finish this year I will get my official date of departure in late May. So stay tuned for that!!
For about 2 weeks now I have been back to Benin, and I couldn't have been happier when I got back. I was just so excited to realize that Dogbo really does feel like home to me, too. Sort of like returning to the dorms in college after break, I think. In the plane coming into Cotonou from Paris I looked up and saw the stars in the first time for 3 weeks and realized how much I missed them. When I arrived I also noticed a scab from a scratch on my foot- I didn't even know I had scratched it. In the cold winter weather I hadn't been able to pay any attention to my body because all I wanted to do was cover it with layer after layer of clothes!
Despite all of my joy for returning to my life here in Dogbo, this past week has been a lot more difficult due to 2 unfortunate events. The first being that last Sunday my postmate and one of my best friends here, Catherine, left for home for good. She has been in 3 moto accidents in the last 8 months and found transportation to be too difficult for her to continue her time here. We all already miss her, and it will be harder for me now that I won't have her in Dogbo to relax with on a bad day. At the same time, I know it was the right decision for her and I wish her all the luck with moving back!
The second unfortunate event happened last Sunday as well, the day of Catherine's departure. Three volunteers coming down from the North were in a huge bus accident when their bus collided with a semi-truck head on. Miraculously none of them were seriously hurt, but people in the rows directly in front of them were actually killed. Understandably this sort of event has all of the PCVs a bit shaken up, but truthfully there is nothing we can do. The bus is still undoubtedly the safest mode of transport and we all knew the risk existed- it's just a bit more real to us now.
So, this last week wasn't quiet as great as the first, but I'm trying to focus on the positive and remember why I was so excited to come back. I think that one of the biggest realizations I've had since going home is just that this experience is almost over. It's only a few months until the end, and those months are jam-packed with event after event. Right now it's a little exciting to think about what's next, but also scary and overwhelming and mostly just sad to think about leaving friends and life here. It is possible for us to extend a 3rd year in Benin or another country if we want, but I think I want to go back to apply for grad school next fall. Of course it's all still up in the air, but if I do decide to finish this year I will get my official date of departure in late May. So stay tuned for that!!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
If I had a million dollars...
Teach a bunch of 10th graders how to use if clauses and then ask them to write a paragraph about what they would do if they had 5,000,000 cfa (approx a million dollars). Then, explain to them what it means to 'be creative' and remind them that a paragraph is not a list. Then remind them that this is not group homework and that I should be receiving 50 different paragraphs, not the same one copied 50 times. Wait until the next class, collect their papers, and among all the randomness about buying motos and calling parents this is what you might get:
"If I had 5,000,000, I would had visited Mme Kristin house in USA and I would have got in mariage her sister. After The mariage I would not have let her suffer from any danger. Arrive to our country she would not have returned to USA and I would have taken her the audience to see our president of republic." (authentically replicated with typos and grammatical errors intact for your reading pleasure)
Hilarious. Luckily for him I was too pleasantly surprised while reading this that it wasn't until later that I got mad at him for obviously NOT following my lesson about the correct tenses to use in if clauses. I let my sister know about the proposal right away but she declined. Too bad, it would have been nice to have a sister in Benin so I could come back and visit often ;-).
P.S. Post office is still closed...Turns out the "replacement" for the normal lady took about 50,000,000 cfa and ran. Great. After trying for 2 days to see the mayor who keeps going out of town, I threw enough of a fit this morning that they were like "oh, well there is the deputy mayor"...So I went to see him and although the mayor's office is next door to the post, nobody at the office had any idea of this closure. He was actually really nice and made some phone calls right in front of me although of course he didn't have any number for any kind of post office. What he did learn was that the post does actually know of this closure and they are doing an investigation. I said I just wanted to open the door and get my packages and he said that's not possible because the justice officials are involved and I have to wait until they complete their investigation. So, I'm assuming I'll get the packages sometime around July.
"If I had 5,000,000, I would had visited Mme Kristin house in USA and I would have got in mariage her sister. After The mariage I would not have let her suffer from any danger. Arrive to our country she would not have returned to USA and I would have taken her the audience to see our president of republic." (authentically replicated with typos and grammatical errors intact for your reading pleasure)
Hilarious. Luckily for him I was too pleasantly surprised while reading this that it wasn't until later that I got mad at him for obviously NOT following my lesson about the correct tenses to use in if clauses. I let my sister know about the proposal right away but she declined. Too bad, it would have been nice to have a sister in Benin so I could come back and visit often ;-).
P.S. Post office is still closed...Turns out the "replacement" for the normal lady took about 50,000,000 cfa and ran. Great. After trying for 2 days to see the mayor who keeps going out of town, I threw enough of a fit this morning that they were like "oh, well there is the deputy mayor"...So I went to see him and although the mayor's office is next door to the post, nobody at the office had any idea of this closure. He was actually really nice and made some phone calls right in front of me although of course he didn't have any number for any kind of post office. What he did learn was that the post does actually know of this closure and they are doing an investigation. I said I just wanted to open the door and get my packages and he said that's not possible because the justice officials are involved and I have to wait until they complete their investigation. So, I'm assuming I'll get the packages sometime around July.
Monday, November 16, 2009
mr. the post of dogbo is not high on my list of favorite people right now...
So, even after that long letter I had to write to get the post box in the first place, and even after all the sucking up I've done in the last 7 months to the lady who works at the post office so she wouldn't steal my mail (I bake her banana cake all the time), turns out that all means nothing now that 3 boxes are waiting in a back room with my name on them. Normal post lady is on a 3 month vacation in the North and she introduced me to her replacement a week and a half ago. Turns out he came to work last Monday morning to put a note in P.O. box saying 3 new packages had arrived, and then he put up a sign saying he would return at 3 pm. Well...over a week later the sign is still there and he hasn't been back. Oh Benin.
Because it's Benin there really isn't anyone to get in contact with about it. I stopped at a phone station next door and asked if they knew and the guy told me to be patient and wait out this week, "surely they'll send someone eventually," he said. So, my Dutch friend gave me the post lady's cell number and today I went to talk ask my friend who is the mayor's secretary about it. They hadn't heard a thing (even though all of the hospitals, NGOs, and schools in town have a PO box, I guess none of them have noticed or seem to care). So, if the man doesn't come by tomorrow I have an "appointment" with the mayor in the afternoon to inform him in hopes that he can talk to somebody. If not, I'll have to interrupt the post lady's vacation and possibly head to the regional capital on Friday to talk to the post office people there. If it's my thanksgiving package I need it!!!!!!
In other news...things are good. I've officially got 2 kids out 40 to send e-mails to their new US penpals. I'm basically going to be spending every afternoon for the next 4 or 5 weeks at the cyber teaching them how to use computers. So far so good though...
Because it's Benin there really isn't anyone to get in contact with about it. I stopped at a phone station next door and asked if they knew and the guy told me to be patient and wait out this week, "surely they'll send someone eventually," he said. So, my Dutch friend gave me the post lady's cell number and today I went to talk ask my friend who is the mayor's secretary about it. They hadn't heard a thing (even though all of the hospitals, NGOs, and schools in town have a PO box, I guess none of them have noticed or seem to care). So, if the man doesn't come by tomorrow I have an "appointment" with the mayor in the afternoon to inform him in hopes that he can talk to somebody. If not, I'll have to interrupt the post lady's vacation and possibly head to the regional capital on Friday to talk to the post office people there. If it's my thanksgiving package I need it!!!!!!
In other news...things are good. I've officially got 2 kids out 40 to send e-mails to their new US penpals. I'm basically going to be spending every afternoon for the next 4 or 5 weeks at the cyber teaching them how to use computers. So far so good though...
Saturday, November 7, 2009
It's nice to get a little positive feedback now and again...
So, the government of Benin has this law that being a "full time" teacher at any public school is limited to 18 hours of work a week. 16 hours of class time (4 classes for 4 hours a week) plus 2 hours of the weekly teacher meeting. So, the full work week is considered 18 hours and they are NOT allowed to work more than this at one school. While they are happy to consider an 18-hour week a full time job, they are definitely not happy with the amount of money that gets them. So what all of the teachers do is take 1 or 2 classes from multiple other schools in the area where they are considered "part-timers". The results being as follows: my school has only myself and 2 other full-time English teachers, and between us we cover 12 of the 36 classes that need teachers. Every other teacher that 'works' there only has 1 or 2 classes.
In actually a great jump forward this year, however, the government now requires that both part-timers and full-timers attend the weekly teacher meetings. (Last year it was just me and my two colleagues discussing our few couple of classes and I never even met most of the others). It's really encouraging that they are demanding this, and this year they also limited the number of schools a professor can work at.
So, this past week we had a bunch of these new part-timers attend our weekly English meeting for the first time. These meetings have been really productive so far this year, and next week I'm leading a session on visual aids. It seems like they want me to be leading most of the sessions, but I'm trying to get them to present their ideas and strategies as well. Anyway, this past Thursday we were just getting the newbies up to speed and I told them that we already discussed how important it is for us to only speak English in the classroom, and not give in to students' demands to speak in French. Of course the responses were mixed.
It's easy to look at them and see based on their comfort level if they really can speak English or not. One man (who didn't look so comfortable) raised his hand and responded (in French), "please, I respect what Madame has said, but when I talk to my second level class they refuse and refuse and refuse." Then we asked him what class specifically and it turns out it is a class I had last year as complete beginners, and all they got from me was English!! Immediately I said, "no no no!! That is impossible, those kids follow directions very well in English and understand perfectly." Then he went on to say that when they pronounce the verb "to be" they incorrectly say "I'm, you're, he's...etc" and I was like..."Of course they do! I teach them that in reality we speak in contractions, and they learned from listening to me". I then went on to explain to all of the teachers that speaking in English to their classes does not mean giving 15 minute monologues, but rather, short, quick instructions- "copy! finish! listen! repeat!"
Anyway, so after all of this I was still a little sad about my previous class now demanding French and refusing English. But that afternoon, as I was preparing for class with a first year group I'm teaching this year, about 15 of the now second years walked up outside my door. I walked over and said hello, and then joked with them (in French) that I was very mad! "How can you refuse English?" I scolded. "Madame, Madame, no!! He can't speak! He makes no sense and we need you to come back and teach us!" Then they asked me why I didn't follow them to year 2 and asked if I could switch. Then, to my crazy surprise, they told me they would come in every Saturday if I would do make-up classes with them. Since I'm in the capital this weekend, I told them that couldn't work, but that occasionally I'd be happy to work with them, and especially right before exams.
Then, just to reassure myself that I did a good job, I made them all stand there and repeat the conjugation of "to be" for me. Indeed...they do still remember it correctly...thank god! Then I promised them that I'd come visit their class this Monday morning and watch their new teacher. Afterwards I'll hopefully be able to give him some pointers about communicating better with them in English and hopefully seeing me will encourage the students as well.
All in all my students' little visit made my day...and while I do sort of feel like I abandoned them this year, I'm also having lots of fun with my new first years. I don't necessarily regret it because I'm glad I can get another group of kids off to a good start...even if I can't control who will come in the years to follow me...
In actually a great jump forward this year, however, the government now requires that both part-timers and full-timers attend the weekly teacher meetings. (Last year it was just me and my two colleagues discussing our few couple of classes and I never even met most of the others). It's really encouraging that they are demanding this, and this year they also limited the number of schools a professor can work at.
So, this past week we had a bunch of these new part-timers attend our weekly English meeting for the first time. These meetings have been really productive so far this year, and next week I'm leading a session on visual aids. It seems like they want me to be leading most of the sessions, but I'm trying to get them to present their ideas and strategies as well. Anyway, this past Thursday we were just getting the newbies up to speed and I told them that we already discussed how important it is for us to only speak English in the classroom, and not give in to students' demands to speak in French. Of course the responses were mixed.
It's easy to look at them and see based on their comfort level if they really can speak English or not. One man (who didn't look so comfortable) raised his hand and responded (in French), "please, I respect what Madame has said, but when I talk to my second level class they refuse and refuse and refuse." Then we asked him what class specifically and it turns out it is a class I had last year as complete beginners, and all they got from me was English!! Immediately I said, "no no no!! That is impossible, those kids follow directions very well in English and understand perfectly." Then he went on to say that when they pronounce the verb "to be" they incorrectly say "I'm, you're, he's...etc" and I was like..."Of course they do! I teach them that in reality we speak in contractions, and they learned from listening to me". I then went on to explain to all of the teachers that speaking in English to their classes does not mean giving 15 minute monologues, but rather, short, quick instructions- "copy! finish! listen! repeat!"
Anyway, so after all of this I was still a little sad about my previous class now demanding French and refusing English. But that afternoon, as I was preparing for class with a first year group I'm teaching this year, about 15 of the now second years walked up outside my door. I walked over and said hello, and then joked with them (in French) that I was very mad! "How can you refuse English?" I scolded. "Madame, Madame, no!! He can't speak! He makes no sense and we need you to come back and teach us!" Then they asked me why I didn't follow them to year 2 and asked if I could switch. Then, to my crazy surprise, they told me they would come in every Saturday if I would do make-up classes with them. Since I'm in the capital this weekend, I told them that couldn't work, but that occasionally I'd be happy to work with them, and especially right before exams.
Then, just to reassure myself that I did a good job, I made them all stand there and repeat the conjugation of "to be" for me. Indeed...they do still remember it correctly...thank god! Then I promised them that I'd come visit their class this Monday morning and watch their new teacher. Afterwards I'll hopefully be able to give him some pointers about communicating better with them in English and hopefully seeing me will encourage the students as well.
All in all my students' little visit made my day...and while I do sort of feel like I abandoned them this year, I'm also having lots of fun with my new first years. I don't necessarily regret it because I'm glad I can get another group of kids off to a good start...even if I can't control who will come in the years to follow me...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
