Study Duty Week Has Drawn to a Close!

3/2/2013

This week, I was on supervisory duty for study sessions in the afternoons, evenings, and on weekends.  Every week day, the learners study from 3:00-4:30 and from 6:30-8, then on Saturday from 10-12, 3-5, and 6:30-8 and on Sundays from 10-12 and 6:30-8.  They work very hard at homework and studying for exams. And I have to be on campus for all of those times in addition to class times from 7:15-1:25 Monday to Friday.  Today is my last day!! YAY! And last night, we watched Pirates of the Caribbean instead of having study.  The kids (and some teachers) laughed so much, and it was really relaxed and refreshing.  Even though our speakers weren’t very loud, and the English was often old fashioned and fast, that movie is hilarious in any language! The kids deserved a break, and I’m happy I could give it to them.  Now I just hope they don’t expect a movie night every week.  I think in two weeks, we are having a Valentine’s Day Pageant or something or other. Mr. Fungo is organizing that one. 

I got the movie from Nathan at the malaria control research camp down the road.  Man that place is so cool! It was set up as a research facility, with bungalows for people to stay in, a gym, pool and dining facilities, but it has been left unkempt for almost 15 years.  It’s sort of Great Expectations-esque going in there.  Like the old lady Haversham (or whatever)’s house.  But Nathan is setting up a garden, and there are a lot of boys that go there as sort of a community center, so he’s getting life back into the place.  It’s pretty awesome.  And he has two dogs as pets (American style), so that was really nice to love up on some puppy dawgs for a bit!

Mr. Kapisi teaches agriculture, and he and I have gotten to be really good friends! I am really hoping that he starts a garden soon, and that I could help with that at school.  I feel like that would be a really worthwhile project.  Plus I just want to be doing something physical.  His (Mr. Kapisi’s) family came to visit this weekend, and he took us to Divava Lodge.  Before a light lunch, I taught his daughter some swimming basics in their pool.  Holy Goodness Gracious, that was unbelievably awesome.  I snuck in a number of laps and it felt so, so, so (so so so so so so so so so) good.  And his daughter, who is six, just had an absolute blast.  And I got to teach through play, which is my all-time favorite way of teaching anything ever. 

I’m struggling with the teaching style here.  I am a firm believer in “I hear (or read once), and I forget. I see, and I remember.  I do, and I understand.” That is not so much the general educational practice here.  I try to work it into my teaching as much as I can, though.  It’s especially hard in computer classes, because we don’t have computers yet. Right now, I’m doing a lot of having the kids pretend to be different parts of the computer.  This works best when I can show them, at least on the projector, different programs etc.  At least we have the projector.  But I don’t want to rely on it too heavily. 

I also want to get extracurriculars started—like the garden, and a drama club.  One Saturday evening toward the end of the term, I want to have the Grade 8 art classes perform plays, and maybe a Grade 11 drama club or something also perform.  Or maybe that’s two separate Saturdays.  Spreading it over two weeks means that they have two weeks of Saturday evening events.  Two Saturdays it is.  Thanks for helping me settle that one!!