blog post

Monday, January 11, 2010
Briefly about my first day of class. We had an assembly outside near
the flag pole. All of the pupils were gathered around the flag pole.
Five girls began the ceremony by unfolding the Kenyan flag from atop
the flag pole. It was planned to start at 7:30 but did not start till
close to 7:50. One of the staff members gave announcements then the
deputy head teacher (assistant principal) said a few words then he
introduced me. I went and signed a few words. Hello, Good morning. I
am excited to be here and look forward to teaching here for 2 years.
The Deputy tells the students to go to their class. For 40 minutes
they wait in the classroom while the teachers meet in the staff room
and plan the day. That is normal for the students to go to the class
and wait for the teachers. Kenya school system and how they do
things is so different than the U.S. A lot of the teachers did not
have text books or anything so we just sat around all day. And yes i
mean all day. It is a good thing my house is on the school grounds.
Deputy said we would get the books tomorrow and can thus making scheme
of works and lesson plans. Maybe will can start teaching on Wednesday.
One reason for the slow start is that my school has 400 students and
roughly right now just 200 are here, thus the quandary.

I have met some great teachers. I am really grateful that some of the
teachers are deaf. The school provides free lunch on Monday; Tuesday
through Friday is very inexpensive, but alot of the same food.

This afternoon I went into town to buy some more supplies. I am
excited about my radio that I bought. It can pick up african, british
(BBC world service) and german stations.

I went to the bank to exchange american dollars for shillings and
waited in line. Yes it is normal for you to wait in line for a long
time. Even though there were plenty of windows for some reason it
takes a long time. Because I have slowly adjusted to the way of life I
am ok with that. Several times the power went out. Nobody panicked; it
was life as normal. This power outage was due to the heavy
thunderstorm that was passing through. While I waited on the storm to
pass I sat next to the arm guards. We had small talk which included
the english premier league. I found another fan of Chelsea. Also the
poor performance from the Kenya national soccer team. They attributed
it to politics. It seems no matter where you go politics finds a way
into every facet of life.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Once again I spent the majority of my day in the staff room. I did
plan a little for my first day teaching tomorrow. My plan is to cover
the rules of the classroom. I will make it into a full class period. I
intend on doing that with each of my classes. Today I also found out
my teaching schedule for my first term. There is a possible 40 half
hour teaching blocks per week and I am teaching 18. I think that is a
good number to start with. I will probably increase the number next
term or maybe just change around my subjects. That was my first
thought, but after asking fellow teachers this is not possible. I
teach the same classes all year. I do want to co-teach with some of
the teachers so to get expereince teaching different subjects and
watching how other teachers plan and teach.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Well me first day teaching what can I say, not as bad as I thought.
Well really I did not think it would be that difficult. My plan was
very simple to give my rules for my class. Arrive on time, respect
others, focus on the teacher and have materials ready. With any rules
there has to be consequences and or rewards for following. I provided
them with the negative. If you break one rule your name goes on the
board as a warning. If you break two rules you get a check mark beside
your name and 15 minute detention during play time at end of day. If
you get two check marks you receive 30 minute detention. The second
time I gave the information I had the pupils come up to the front of
the room and act out good and bad behavior. I think it went over well.

The next thing is writing my scheme of work and lesson plans for all
of my classes. As I began to ask and watch my fellow teachers writing
the scheme of work and lessons plans it is realy a formality. It is
done so that the head teacher can give his literal stamp of approval.
What separates the good teachers from the rest is how you teach. It is
not how neat or well done the SW or LP is compiled. The SW and LP help
a great deal in forming thoughts and ways of presenting material so
that the students understand.

Tomorrow I will start teaching my subjects. I like math a lot and so
teaching it will be fun.

I am also teaching life skills and PE, both of which I have no book or
syllabus. I am not sure what I am supposed to do.

After class today I visited and introduced myself to the area chief,
George B (with the assistance of a fellow teacher). He offered us
ground nuts and a soda. He was very welcoming. My colleague told me
that when ever there is a dispute with in the community people come to
him to solve the issue. I think that is so interesting how that works.
We chatted for a few minutes before we departed. It was definitely
difficult to communicate b/c of my lack of conversation Kiswahili
skills.

Thursday, January 14, 2010
We had a staff meeting which was scheduled during our tea break which
last 15 minutes. I personally did not know about the staff meeting
until I came back from my class and noticed all of my colleagues were
there. The purpose of the meeting was to assign extracurricular
activitiy leaders from among the techers. These ranged from sports/
games, guiding and counseling, cleaning, boarding, dancing, etc. There
was an interpretor who started before I got there. After nearly 10-15
minutes the interpretor asked if I would like to come up and relieve
her when she gets done. I said ok, I don't mind. Soon thereafter she
was done and it was my turn to interpret. Bear in mind that this was
my first expereince infront of a large group of people. I have done it
briefly for a few minutes for another deaf friend, but nothing like
this. I begin and for the next 1 ½ hours I was interpreting. It
certainly does get tiring, both my hands and my face because of the
constant changing facial expressions. I felt like I did an adequate
job, but had a great struggle with the sign names of the other
teachers. I would fall behind very quickly because of the that. Of
course there were signs I did not know and also the occasional
speaking in Kiswahili did not help either. When the speaker would
speak in kiswahili; I would sign, "speaking in kiswahili." I noticed
later on that there was another lady that was interpreting for two
deaf teachers sitting near her. This is not the same lady that started
the meeting interpreting. I on the other hand was sitted at the front
of the room in a chair. So roughtly 1 hour into signing the gentlemen
that was watching me was getting confused on what was going on and
turned to watch the other interpreter.

All in all I I feel like I will have many more opportunities to
improve in interpreting. A lot of the teachers use SEE (signed exact
english). This means they sign every single word. This method is very
inefficient and not the intention of sign language. The goal is to
sign concepts and not word for word.

This weekend I am taking a personal day to go to Kisumu to get some
needed supplies for my house.