Teaching breakthrough

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Valentines Day in Kenya. There was chatter amongst the staff at school about the importance and the big thing that is valentines day. Well the day came and went and it definitely did not live up to the hype. Of course there were plenty of comments on the local radio stations. On one station the host was taking calls about relationship troubles and what should be done. I could only think of Delilah. The more love stories that are shared; sometimes I wonder if the caller actually listens to what they are saying. Sometimes it is humorous.

My sitting room

I mentioned earlier that I was going to interpret for a catholic mass on Wednesday morning. Baptism by fire. I guess it is nice to be humbled. For starters I arrived 15 minutes ahead of when I was told to be there, but the service was a good 10 minutes underway. After a few minutes I go up on stage and start to interpret. I notice very quickly that the Father is speaking much faster than he did for the other interpreter that interpreted before I came up. It was very hard. On a personal note, I wrestled with interpreting for information that I don’t believe is true. Interpreting for a church service is very difficult. A lot of the words must be explained either before or after the service for the information to be fully grasped.

These past two weeks have been hard. Teaching is hard profession and I have total respect and admiration for those who teach. My main struggle is teaching social studies. Unlike many of the other subjects, this one requires knowledge of a lot of signs. I have some, but near not enough. The other teachers continually say that bringing visual aids is very helpful for this subject. I totally agree. It is hard when I go to teach, the students look tired and in no way interested. The class is right after lunch or right before. I can somewhat understand. When I walk into the class and the pupils ask is it P.E. time, I am not sure what to think. I guess it Is nice that they enjoy P.E. but that does not give me any confidence for teaching social studies.

Well Monday arrived and it felt like it was going to be just another day, but how in just moments everything changed. While I am sitting in the staff room planning my lessons for the day, I see teachers running out of the room; screaming and pointing. I then noticed pupils running also. My first thought was that their was a fight. I ran outside to see what was going on. Fire! Rooms behind the kitchen had caught fire and it was spreading quickly. The fire department was called, 20 minutes away. All of the staff and teachers pitched in by dousing water on the fire from buckets and large sufrias (cooking pots). While people were doing that, others (including myself) were removing furniture and everything that was important in the adjacent rooms out. It may have looked like a chaotic situation, but things seemed to flow nicely. We are are able to put the fire out and then we see the fire truck arrive. They begin to unload, then they notice the fire is out. They pack up and leave. St. Angelias Secondary School (over the fence) came to assist in putting out the fire. It was remarkable to see so many people working together.

What makes this even worse is the rooms that were affected was a man’s living quarters. In addition to that, he is planning on getting married 28, February 2010. All of the money for the dowry, clothes and food that he was planning on using for the wedding was destroyed. I can’t imagine what is going through his head right now.

The teachers put together some funds and brought whatever clothes or household goods that we thought would be helpful for the man and the family from our own homes.

Needless to say, there was little teaching that happened that day.

Seven weeks. I am mentioning the time frame for one reason. It has taken me this long to have one good class of Social Studies. I have tried several methods of teaching the material, but nothings seemed to work. Everyday the pupils look bored. I am not sure whether they are bored or whether they are not understanding the information. I dread teaching this class. I have no idea what to do. Some days I want to just skip the class and do something else. The majority of the time I draw maps on the black board and have the pupils to copy and label the appropriate places. I have done the provinces, climate regions and cities for roughly 4-5 weeks straight. I have tried on several occasions to try and teach with out the maps, but with little success. Today I tried something new. I wrote a paragraph on the board from the text and then signed it to them. After I finished; I asked a pupil to come up and sign it as well. The rest of the class was paying attention and seemed to understand the material. They copied the paragraph while I wrote the questions on the other side. I did the same thing with the questions. I signed it first, then had a pupil come up also and sign it. It definitely made my day.

I have mentioned before that I m teaching life skills. Currently I am teaching them how to write a letter. I have some elementary school teachers back in the states who are having their class also write letters to my 3 life skills classes. I am looking forward to receiving the letters and have the pupils read it. Every child should get a letter, which will make their day.

Of course having favorites is highly discouraged, but I have some. So sue me. I have one class I thoroughly enjoy teaching. The pupils greet me with a big smile and deaf applause. Last week the class started standing up when I walked into the room. They would then sign: welcome, how are you? we are fine. What an honor.

Buying a rocking chair in Kakamega on Saturday.