School started mid January. All is going well. I teach Biology to Form I and II and Chemistry to Form I. John is teaching mathematics to Form III. Form I and II is similar to middle school grade students and Form III and IV like high school(9-10). For the first two months, Form I has Language Academy to improve their English. I am enjoying teaching language academy for the Form I as it reminds me of all the kinds of strategies we used for SPPS ELL learners. Also, it is what I went through to learn Kiswahili the last four months. Form I students and I are both “new” to the school so that helps us build a close relationship.
Students live at the school. The get up at 5:00 am and eat porrage and milk tea at 6am. The girls have cleaning jobs until 7:15am such as cleaning the ground and water channels of leaves, bathrooms, classroom floors and blackboards, ect. At 7:30 am all students gather in the main courtyard for Parade, which is a formal gathering for announcments, demontrations of student projects or writings, prayer, and inspection of uniforms. Classes start at 7:45am. There are 9 periods in a day with a 15 min break for tea at 10:45 and 45 min lunch at 1:15. Classes end at 3:30pm. Every Form has some days of 45 minute classes for each subject and some 90 minute classes. Math is always 90 min. after Form II. Every Year the students take Chem, Biology and Physics as well as Math, English, Kiswahili, Civics/History, Agriculture, and Religion. I teach one single period and one double period of Chemistry Form I, Biology Form I and Biology Form II every week. SO that is 18 periods a week of teaching. I also assist with Science Club, Music Club and Library after school.
I have already taught Saturday classes to catch-up on things we could not finish during the week for Form II. I like the option to teach evenings and Saturdays, it seems more relaxed and the students seem to like it too. Last Saturday, I coached my first Music Club session. There was not a plan to have a music club, but people heard me playing my Native American flute at night and when a group of students asked for a music club so that they could learn how to play the flutes in the school store, I was recruited. So, now I am discovering how to teach flute and it is a fun adventure so far!
I have found the resources I brought from my teaching and colleagues in America very valuable, both for teaching science to English Language Learners and for collaborating with my colleagues in creative lesson planning. These are simple things that can make a huge difference for the learner. These first months at site I have already had many opportunities to collaborate with fellow teachers on planning lessons and sharing ideas and resources. The Anatomy Coloring Book, a molecular model building kit, and the Bakken (Minnesota)curriculum for teaching static electricity by building your own equipment to generate static electricity without the use of current electricity have been a hit(Thanks Greg!). Also, the Atlas (vol 1&2) from AAAS has been useful to many of us in planning. The computer sent by MN friends and family has also helped gernerate reproducible documents that students can read and can show the video clips I brought from the SPPS Biology Curriculum on a flash drive. I am having students build life size human anatomy models using their own bodies as “forms” (taken from Ann Oubaha at Jackson ELementary.
In turn, the faculty of Tanzania has shown me how to get local supplies and how to engage fundis(carpenters, plumbers, masons, etc,) to build needed equipment. We have had fun scheming together to use the village people and landscape materials to create teaching tools.
Several Students have asked about wanting an American Pen Pal. Let me know if you know students in your class that are interested.
I have already experienced one of the frustrations of teaching children – anywhere in the world— a few students stealing from each other and bullying when adults are not watching. It has been very helpful to be part of this Tanzanian faculty and learn the way this is handled. The biggest contrast to my American school system experience is that the participation of ALL teaching staff members is required when the matter is discussed, when students come to be questioned and when students “fess-up” to their wrong doings. Although it was terribly sad to be missing teaching time, it was clear how important to the Tanzanian culture to have all the adults contribute to the problem solving equally and for the students to see that they are watched-over and concerned for by all adults. Obviously this can go awry depending on the integrity of the adults and leaders of a school, but for me, this was a positive experience even though frustrating from a teaching standpoint.
The biggest challenge at site is cooking in the dark. At first light I need to be walking to school to get there on time and more often than not, I return home just as it is starting to get dark. Without electricity, cooking by lantern light is a challenge, but it has made for some interesting meals. The month before school started, I had several people over for dinner, trying out all the different dishes that I learned in my host family home. I have had such a great time cooking and learning new dishes from neighbors and colleagues, I can do OK in the dark, but a few meals have ended up on the floor when I missed the jiko (stove).
One of the greatest joys has been expanding the garden outside my house. There is a papaya tree just outside my window where I planted the chaichai(lemon grass) cutting I brought from our CCT PEPFAR training in Morogoro. Then, I discovered the run-off from our roof could drain right to the papaya tree if I dug a little trench with my jembe. I then made two consecutive rings of plant beds around the papaya for planting matembele. This attracted the attention of the school shamba worker and the night watchman. They both offered to help water and this led to expanding the garden to include carrots, matenga, vitunguu, swiss chard, and herbs. After this, the school sisters offered to give me cuttings of flowers to put by our house. A few days later, a student was sent home with me, cuttings in hand, to plant flowers. Devota is still one of my favorite students to greet each day because we have the shared memory of planting flowers and talking together (in my “special Kiswahili “and her “special English”).
It has been fun and helpful to explore as much of the surrounding neighborhoods by riding bicycle. One day we were riding from school to town and met a man that was carrying a sack of corn kernels on his bike. The sack had fallen and corn kernels spilled on the road. He was patiently picking them up, one by one. I felt reverence for this culture to see that these golden kernels were so valued. It reminded me how dependent people are on the food that comes from their village land – especially with the decreasing rainfall. (In contrast, the value of a corn kernel in America is long ago lost due to subsidized farming and overproduction of this monocrop.) I stopped, to greet him and to help with the task at hand. We talked and laughed and enjoyed the time together. It started to rain and we worked a bit faster and eventually every corn kernel was retrieved. Because of this time together, he is another person I so enjoy seeing on the road when traveling to town.
Happy Valentines day!
Randee
