...in a little pond

Not to say that I'm a big fish, by any means... but Tses is a tiny village. Living in a small place like Tses, and living on the school grounds, reminds me in a lot of ways of living in Grinnell. It definitely is not a big city where you can get lost in the crowd- in fact, it's pretty apparent that anything I do is noticed by at least someone.

I know most of the secondary school students (from my school) by sight, and for sure all of the students from my school and our sister primary school, Nowak, know me. And while I know our teachers and some of the Nowak teachers, there aren’t so many other adults in the community who I’ve really gotten to know yet. So walking around the village here feels a little like walking around the town of Grinnell – you know and recognize everyone from the college, while you might recognize but don’t really know those who are actually from town.

For instance, yesterday I walked down to the shops to get an apple and just to move around a little. (more the latter, since buying fresh fruit in Tses is a little iffy.) A handful of primary school learners came sprinting out of a field to say hi and accompany on my walk, screaming “Ms. Sachi! Ms. Sachi, good afternoon!” They can be pretty cute when they try.

Since this was a group I hadn’t met before, I was peppered with the normal series of questions: am I a China? am I an India? am I a Germany? (those seem to be the only 3 other cultures learners here know, and conveniently apparently I look like I could potentially belong to any of them?) how old am I, am I married, do I have children yet, why do I not have children yet, why would I leave America to live in Tses?

Answering these questions has become a part of my daily routine, even at my school where hypothetically the learners should all know me by now. I think it’s just so unusual for them to have someone new come in that they’re really intrigued by nearly anything I have to say about… well, anything. Simultaneously really nice (when's the last time you had a dozen children sprint up to you just to walk a few steps and touch your skin?) and a little worrisome, since I have to watch everything I say because someone is always listening!

Philadelphia has the population of Namibia

…I think this comparison is the closest I’ve come to getting my learners excited about numbers. I realize that statistic is not totally accurate, but it's close enough. 

…And yes, I did just say MY learners! Barbara (the previous PC volunteer) officially ended her PC service and left Tses this weekend. Which means that now I’m a real teacher here at St. Therese!

Since I haven’t done so before, here’s a rough sketch of what my days generally look like:

6:45 staff meeting or morning assembly (once a week with all of the learners)

7:15-1:05 teach! For the remainder of this term, I’m just covering Barbara’s classes, which consist of 2 grade 9 math classes each day, plus some combination of BIS (library) and Arts for grades 8-10. Peace Corps suggests we don’t teach more than 70%, so I have a few free periods every day.

10:10-10:50 Afrikaans class at our sister primary school: my principal arranged for me to join the grade 7 learners in their Afrikaans class. The primary school is literally just across the schoolyard, so it’s easy to get to! It’s a great way to make sure I’m practicing my Afrikaans every day (plus I’m meeting some of my future grade 8 learners)! Technically my school only has tea break from 10-10:30, but I don’t really have any classes period 5 anyway…

After this, my schedule is kind of hazy. After school activities (afternoon study, club meetings, sports, staff meetings) all take place from 3-5 in the afternoon, so many days I’ll be back at school. Yesterday I officially ran my first meeting of our Let’s Speak Out! Club, which is similar to a GLOW club for anyone familiar with that. It’s basically a leadership club for learners interested in combating social problems like bullying, teen sex/pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, litter, etc. It basically covers everything. I have a group of pretty motivated learners though who are really interested in it, and we’re planning a community trash pick up day this Saturday! Whenever I don’t have actual commitments after school though, it means extra time to relax, plan lessons, or wander around Tses on my own.

At night, I’ve been doing some combination of running/working out, studying, planning lessons, reading, etc. And bedtime happens pretty early around here, since 6am wakeups are kinda rough if you stay up late...

Teaching has been going better than I anticipated at this point, honestly! Today for the first time I felt like I really had my classes under control, and the learners have been pretty focused about reviewing for their exams. Impressive since the exams are 3 weeks away and I think mine is the first class they've begun to study in. Teaching math is fun so far though, and the fact that at least SOME of the learners really wanted to learn today is pretty exciting!

what's that green stuff?

Oh right, grass. It's easy to forget the vibrant green of grass and trees and really most plants we're used to, since I don't think they exist in my part of Namibia. 

BUT they do exist in the north, where I went to shadow Dylan last week! He's a volunteer who's been here for a year already and is teaching math at a secondary school in the Tsumeb. Peace Corps is trying really hard to give us lots of experience and resources before we’re thrown into teaching on our own, which is really nice! So we were all instructed to go shadow someone teaching the same subject for a week.

Tsumeb was great. There was green grass, grocery stores, and other volunteers to hang out with and talk to! I especially enjoyed getting to hang out with Dylan, since he’s also from a small liberal arts Midwest college, and is an xc runner, and is a math nerd. Seeing him conduct classes was great, it was nice to see someone experienced present my subject.

I do still have a few reservations about how relevant this experience will actually be. Learners in the north are stereotypically much quieter, and more attentive during lessons, than learners in the south. That meant more time asking and getting responses to questions, and actually engaging with the material, rather than trying to keep the class under control and focused like we do at my school. Still, it was nice to see some of Dylan’s techniques for keeping them interested, making sure they were retaining knowledge so they can pass their exams, etc. I'm learning!

my first days of school

 I’ve been going to school for a week now, and I think I’m starting to get the swing of things. For now, I’ve just been shadowing other teachers and learning how things work.

Classes here are… well, kind of what you might expect from a school that asks for a Peace Corps Volunteer. Classes are large, learners are not always prepared for class, and they really need to work on critical thinking skills instead of rote memorization.

On the other hand, the kids are really cute! They don’t always want to be in school/care about school, but they’re just kids, you know? They like to talk to me and ask questions about America (finding out that Ms. Barbara and I did not, in fact, know each other in America—she’s from Texas—blows their minds). It’s crazy how everything I do is noticed by someone here, because I’m new/American/etc.

There are some really good teachers at my school, though! The teachers are, obviously, all different and come in with different skills. A lot of them seem to not know a whole lot more than their learners. But some of them are incorporating really good techniques for teaching to a variety of learning styles, using manipulatives in class, and other really encouraging things that I’m super excited to see here!

One of the biggest problems in our classrooms is discipline. Even though it’s technically illegal, corporal punishment is still really common in this region of Namibia. It’s culturally the norm, both at home and in school, and many people maintain that corporal punishment is the only kind of discipline that the kids will respond to. Volunteers get kind of laughed at for our noisy classrooms and lack of discipline among students, so I foresee that being a major problem next year.

On the other hand (I’m starting to feel like Tevye with all of these hands), there are SOME learners who really do care about their education, and try hard, and care about school! Those ones are awesome. For instance, on Saturday we had a mandatory study for all grade 10 learners, since they are just starting to take their exams (you need to pass national exams to move on to grade 11 at an upper secondary school). The classroom was pretty loud, most students had notebooks out but most of them were really just talking to friends. Then I had an optional study that night, so that if they had more questions about the physical science exam they are taking today, they could come in and ask me. A handful of really dedicated grade 10 learners came in and spent 2 hours asking me questions and going through examples. It was wonderful to see how much they cared! (It was also really nice for me to get to hang out with a small group of learners.)

Any of you who are reading this – I would love to hear any advice you have for classroom management, nonviolent discipline, dealing with rambunctious learners, running a classroom with learners at very different levels of understanding, etc. Thanks for your help!