Week 4 - Week 2 Mulandi

Week 4 (Week 2 Mulandi)

Things continue to be interesting over here at Athi River, Kenya.

Monday: Monday was an challenge because it was the first time I really had to teach all day. Last week, there was always something going on, an exam or something that did not require me to be teaching 100% of the time. I think I did ok, but I am still confused on what I am supposed to be doing. I felt pretty out of it, and just like I was not in the right place all day.

Tuesday: Today I made the decision to just teach what I want and see what happens. I taught math and that went ok. I tried to teach subtraction with borrowing and that seemed to stick a little bit better than yesterday. It is crazy the need for differentiation, because about 6 of them got it on the first day, and were bored of it. Although I don’t really think the students here get bored, they just get done early and then get into trouble or read  one of the 5 text books… I will have to see what I can do about that. Then I decided to teach them how to write letters. I will admit, this is somewhat selfish, because I want to do pen pals with Jessica VanDyk’s second grade class at Daystar Elementary in Chicago. They learn about Kenya at the end of the year and I think it could be really cool if they can have letters from some Kenyan students. I have no idea what would happen if I told them to write whatever they wanted, but I will have to try it sometime and see. They only copy from the board.

Wednesday: Today was even better than yesterday. I feel like I have a bit of a routine, running in the morning, going to school, then coming home and doing work or sitting outside and reading for a bit till dinner. I go to bed pretty early, because its so tiring, but I wish I could stay up and make better friends. My roomates are really really great, but I think they think I am a little strange for going to bed so early and getting up to run everyday J School started like any other day, and then in the middle of it all, the kids got called outside. They had already did their morning flag routine and prayer stuff, so I was a little confused. They were called out because they needed to pay their school fees. They were sent home to get their parents so they could have the money, and not allowed to come back till they had gotten it. I waited for this to be over, went back into my room, and had four students. Only four out of twenty two had paid what they owe. By lunch time it had made it up to 13, but it was crazy to me that they couldn’t come back to school till they paid. I understand, because I was talking to the head teacher, and she had been paying for them for a long time, but it is really hard with so many students and she has to buy a lot of the stuff for school herself. The morning was pretty laid back, and was actually nice I got to work with some of the students one on one with their math. The rest of the day I decided to just teach normally, but a lot of students missed out.

Thursday: Today I was told that I have to have lesson plans. I told her that I did, but I couldn’t print them. She gave me a book, so now I have them written. It is so interesting what the government requires. They want the date, grade, how many students, topic, subtopic, objective, learning sequence, references, and blackboard summary. It is pretty similar to America, only there was no real goals that need to be achieved. It is actually really nice to write them out instead of have them on the computer, because then I can just teach right from the booklet. The blackboard summary is what ends up on the board. Since I plan it all out the night before, I can plan what I want to teach and then just go off that. 

Friday: Today Jessica Bordenaro  came with me to observe! I felt bad that she had do observe me, but I am the only one who can really understand that she is not a teacher, just coming to watch. The other teachers don’t teach a whole lot, so she just chilled with me, which was really fun. I started out by giving an assessment. Last night I wrote out little index cards with different subtraction problems, borrowing an not borrowing. There were 9 problems and I considered 6/9 a pass. (67%) Out of 18 kids, 16 passed! It was so exciting to see that they learned what I had taught them! If there was ever a time I needed that encouragement, it was today. The rest of the day went by pretty quickly and then they let me leave early because I was wearing a skirt and Friday apparently is games. They told me that I can play games with them next week when I dress more sporty.

I guess that this is as good a time as any to talk about the discipline in the school. They beat the children, but not too badly. I was shocked the first time I saw a teacher smack a kid on the head. I was shocked when they called everyone in the school in from recess and hit each of their hands with a stick for speaking in Swahili not English. I was shocked the first time I saw the head teacher make a third grader lay down in her office and spank her with her cane. All of this being said, I believe that most of the time, the beatings are because the teachers want the students to learn. I talked to Jeff about this, and he said that is how it is in Africa. He thinks it has been made illegal, but for the most part it still happens. He said if it ever makes me uncomfortable or I think it is inappropriate to tell him and he will do something about it. I really do think that it is usually ok, and from what I have seen it isn’t anything that the kids can’t handle or don’t expect.

As well as the kids know they will get a beating if they don’t behave, they also know that I will not hit them. This makes classroom management just a tad difficult. There is no way to offer rewards, because anything I give my students, I have to give to the whole school. There is no way that they will care about flipping cards, because that has no effect on them. There is no way of contacting their parents, because most parents try not to be in contact with the school because they owe their children’s fees. I think the students understand that I just want to love them, but they still like to cause trouble. One time, I said I was going to get the head teacher, and that sure shaped them up. I don’t want to always be making threats, and I think that once they see that I am pretty laid back they will behave better. Their bad behavior is mostly just talking when they are finished, which I am really ok with, as long as they are not distracting other students. If they had something else to be doing, I truly believe that they would want to read, or draw, or do anything, but since they are so limited in the supplies, they talk and push each other around. I will definitely have to keep praying about how to handle this, and I hope they will see that I want them to learn without punishing them.

Well, it was an exhausting week, but a good one. I feel like I am more in the swing of things, and feel much more confident that my students may even be learning something. This weekend we are headed up to a tribe in Northern Kenya on a 13 seater plane. I am so excited, and only a little nervous. One thing I have definitely learned, is to make enough time to rest. Weekends are good for catching up on sleep, but when in Kenya, there is simply too many adventures to be had! I hope to be able to hang out more with college students next week, but we shall see what happens!