School Daze

My first full week of school has gone pretty well with some minor mishaps. I realized that it is not that the school is disorganized (well, maybe a little by American standards) but that no one tells me anything. Rwandan’s schools are set up different from American in that the children do not switch rooms, the teachers do. The classes are separated into MCB and PCM but I don’t know what those mean. And none of the doors are marked. So basically, I was asking people where to go all last week and this week I tried to be independent. Big Mistake. I went to the wrong class once, and the teacher who was there (and was right) left the class and let me teach it. Then he told everyone else I was retarded.  So yesterday, this big group of male teachers comes over and says “Jaaan, we heard that you are lost, tee hee” They clearly all I am a total simpleton.

My kids are pretty well behaved compared to the teachers. They at least wait until my back is turned to laugh.  Because I have no curriculum or way to find out what they know, I spent the week reviewing verb tenses to gauge their knowledge. There are a few challenges in my classes. The classes are 40-50 kids, all different abilities and (it seems) ages. Also, paper is a bit scare, so I can’t have them do daily assignments and hand in. If I ask questions of the whole class, those who don't know tend to slip under the radar. So, I have been having them jot down answers on a scrap piece of paper and going around and looking at as many as I can.  Doing this, I found some interesting gaps in knowledge. They know the definitions of past perfect and present progressive but 99.9% could not complete the following question correctly.

Fill in the missing Past Irregular Verbs

Maria walked to school. Grace _______________ her car. Janet ______ the bus.

I don’t have any money. I _____ it all yesterday at the shops.

My hypothesis is that this comes from learning English from non-native speakers who are more comfortable teaching from a book than using practical language. They were also very concerned about the use of will or shall in the future tense and had trouble believing me when I said they were both correct but shall was a more British dialect.

Discipline hasn’t been a real problem. The biggest (and only) issues are talking in class and sleeping. Sleeping is easy. I walk over, tap the desk and ask them “Are we boring you?” Kids usually laugh and sit up or say they are sick.  Talking in class is actually harder to police than one might imagine. Sometimes, it is clear a student is asking for clarification from a neighbor. Sometimes, they are just chatting.  In the first case, I want them to make sure they understand, and a neighbor can explain it in a language they understand, but I also have to keep the noise level and rule following under control. I tend to single kids out when its egregious or they have been doing it all class. I have thrown chalk twice (hit the wrong person both times) and sent 5 kids outside-2 in one class period and 3 in another. But, in general the music reward/bribe seems to be working pretty well and only one class has had it taken away this week.

Here are some pictures of my gang in their uniforms or half of their uniforms(haven't taken camera to school yet and probably won’t for awhile)

 

These two aren’t in school but I love them