Teaching

Monday, January 18, 2010
Today I visited the police station with the assistance of a fellow
teacher. I wanted to introduce myself to the local authorities here in
Mumias. Not only is it a requirement for me to meet the important
people in town it also is good for those people to be aware of my
presence. I introduced my self to the Officer Commanding Station (OCS)
and the Deputy OCS. This would be the equivalent of the police chief
and the assistant police chief of the town. They were very hospitable
and appreciative that I stopped by and introduced myself.
This evening I went to help a few of the students in my math class who
were struggling. It is a wonderful feeling when the light bulb goes
off in their heads. Of course the struggle will continue to be that
some kids are very smart and appear to be bored with the work being
given.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Teaching. It is still hard to believe I am doing it in Kenya. There
are definite struggles. One large one is teaching. My teaching
experience before I came to the peace corps was minimal at best. For
some reason I don't feel intimidated with teaching which is a good
thing. I want to do the best that I can but struggle with how to
present the information so that the pupils understand. Teaching deaf
students is a lot different than hearing.
I feel comfortable with teaching math. I understand and like math so
teaching it is a joy. My greatest struggle now is teaching social
studies. There is so much material that needs to be covered and
explaining that to deaf students is very hard. The greatest obstacle
is the signing vocabulary. During Pre-Service Training we were not
given the vocab for teaching subjects. The emphasis was on
conversation. On that matter I feel very comfortable, but teaching is
very hard. Currently I am teaching and explaining maps to the pupils.
I am going over the mountain ranges, rivers, climate regions,
provinces, agriculture and so forth. It is important for the students
to understand where these things are located.
I have started teaching life skills. My first topic i have introduced
is how to address a letter to be mailed. Hopefully soon, I can have
them write a letter to some teacher friends back home. I am taking it
a day at time. Since i am only teaching one class a week to three
different classes; it might take a while, but am willing to wait.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
My birthday. I received a phone call from mom. It was nice to hear her
voice.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Where to begin. This past Monday I helped with the athletics training
at the school. In March a group of students will be selected to attend
regional competitions. Athletics consist of running short and long
distances. The school also has a futbol, netball for girls
(basketball) and dancing. Behind the school is a soccer field where we
met for practice. As I arrive numerous of the kids are already
running. I then noticed that either the kids are running barefoot or
in flip flops. Yes flip flops. I can hardly walk in them much less run
in them. They ran for 30 minutes. I was tired just watching them.
Every grade and every class has a prefect (lead student). During the
running they would carry sticks to hit the pupils that were not
running. As much as I am not used to seeing kids being hit with sticks
this method seem to work. After the 30 minutes the boys and girls were
separated and were led by a prefect in stretching. The coach then
selected out every age group to race. For the younger age it was 2
laps and for the upper age (class 8-8th grade) ran 5 laps. I was so
amazed at how well the kids ran. I did notice during the race they
took off their flip flops and ran barefoot.
Math class. Ohhh ya ya. This was harder than I thought. It is hard to
teach adding 3 digit numbers if they have a hard time adding 1 digit
numbers. Yesterday I made up a game that they seemed to enjoy. I put
19 addition problems on the board. These all involved carrying a
digit. Ex. 9+4. I had two teams and made them do it as fast as
possible. They do like competition. It is encouraging to see when the
kids know the right answer and are trying to help the other pupils. On
the other hand it is hard because they usually help the same students.
I gave my first test as a teacher, it was math class 4 (4th grade; 8
out of 19 got 80% or higher. I suppose that is really good. And
basically the rest need a lot of improvement. I told them the day
before there would be a test and we went over problems that would be
on the test. The day of the test for the first 10 minutes I went over
again problems that would be on the test. When the review was done, I
erased the answers and told them to do the work themselves. The goal
is for the kids to succeed. To easy, I have no idea. With such
disparity in the class it is hard.
I also gave my first test in Social Studies. I had the students fill
in the blanks of physical regions in kenya and label them on the map.
We had gone over this map for 3 class periods. As was the case in the
math class some kids got it, but most were way off. They do want to
succeed really bad, but something is not clicking. Social studies for
me is the hardest to teach. The material is so wordy in the text book.
When I try to explain it to the pupils I don't do a good job, because
the material is wordy, it requires a lot of signs of which I don't
know. I definitely can learn some, but this is the greatest challenge
I have right now.
It is good to be connected and included in the activities at the
school. It is nice that the teachers are very welcoming and willing to
teach me things about the kenya way of life. I have been invitied over
for lunch at a deaf teachers house and helped make a cake at another
colleagues house.Last Sunday when I was having Sunday lunch with a
deaf teacher another teacher came in and said that there was a group of people that was
going to being making a cake that evening. Of course I chimed in and
asked if I could join. They asked if I would buy some milk and bring
it over that evening. I later found out that the group of 4 people had
just started a cooking group. They would all pitch in a few shillings
for the ingredients and together they would make a big meal. It is
great to involved in a cooking group. I am eager to learn some new
things to cook and methods of cooking. I sounds like we are going to
get together once a week. If they slack off, i will persuade for at
least once a week.
Sunday evening we made a cake. I had not seen a jiko oven in action
but was eager to see how it worked. A jiko oven is basically a
charcoal basin with charcoal in the cavity. A pot is placed ontop of
the coals with sand/gravel in the pot. Another pot with whatever you
are cooking goes inside the sand/gravel pot. A lid is then placed
ontop and hot/burning charcoal is placed on top of the lid. With in 45
minutes our cake was done. It tasted wonderful. I look forward to
trying various cakes and desserts in the coming days and weeks.
On Saturday I am attending mumias youth deaf group. The essence of the
group is to equip the deaf youth in and around mumias about hiv/aids.
There are a great number of youth that are in hiding because not only
they are deaf, but also they have infected with hiv/aids. The group is
looking into finding different ways to reach the youth in areas that
they understand and is beneficial to them. The secretary of the group
is a deaf teacher at my school.
Of course those were my plans, but I found out Friday morning that
there was a funeral for a relative of one of the teachers at the
school and I joined all of the other teachers in attending. Half of
the teachers left Friday night and the other half left that morning. I
had heard that funerals are a celebration with lots of dancing and
eating. I was looking forward to both. I thought there would be
dancing and eating both days, but just Friday night. I left Saturday
morning and arrived well into the program. The event was outside under
numerous tents. The ceremony on saturday lasted several hours and had
numerous speakers. what was interested was the first born son of the
diseased gave a detailed explanation of how the person died. A "play
by play" certainly not normal for america, but nice to be apart of
something different here in kenya.
January 31, 2010
i went to bugoma, it is a small town about 1 hour away via a matatu on
a uneven dirt road. I am looking for a blender. The lady that I had
lunch with a few days ago served avocado juice. She informed me the
only ingredients were avocado, sugar and water mixed in a blender. I
can't wait to make my own.
On my way back from bugoma with K ann we ran into some kids that
looked like they were on the wrong continent. They were wearing
basketball shoes, jordan shorts, and college basketball jerseys. When
I saw a N.C. State jersey I said wait a minute. I might have to break
out the orange and white. I could not pass up the opportunity to ask
where they play and when. Next Saturday and Sunday I am heading to the
hardwood to play some ball. I am curious to see how different or
similar it is to playing on the playground back home.
Also on Friday I was asked if I would be the sign language interpreter
for mass on Wednesday morning for the deaf at the school at the local
catholic church. I had one stipulation, the priest must speak english.
I would be of no use if it was in Kiswahili. We will see how this
goes. I am not nervous, but maybe that will change when I get up on
stage at 6:30 am.

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.