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Musanze, Ruhengeri, Rwanda
It was a pretty good day today. I closed my bedroom door last night which slightly buffered the sound of the hammering and pounding this morning. On the downside, I had a harder time getting up and I hit my snooze button several times. Still, I felt nice and rested when I got up at 9:00 am.
My 9:40 class was Senior 6, and I got to continue working on the letter from British Emma to Tanzanian Koku. I read the letter again aloud to the class and asked if they had vocabulary questions. It’s so strange – they seem so advanced in so many ways, yet some of their questions are so basic. For example, they didn’t know the words warm, cloudy or nervous. I also taught them “farewell” and the expressions “keep in touch” and “in spite of.” I think we could have spent the entire period on vocabulary, so I finally pushed them on to reading the letter to each other in pairs. Since everyone was reading at once, there was a dull roar in the classroom. I strolled up and down the aisles, watching to them intently focus on their papers and wrap their tongues around English. It was pretty great. At the end of class I told them that next week we’d focus on grammar around Would, Could and Should. It’s in this unit of the textbook that I’m sort of supposed to be using. As I walked out I said, “I won’t say goodbye, I’ll say….” and they all chimed in “Farewell!!!” I love Senior 6.
In the teacher’s lounge Philip told me that they might know Would, Could and Should. He told me for about the third time that they really need to know clauses of purpose, which are in the ratty green book that I thought I could retire…? I’m so damned confused about what I’m supposed to teach. *sigh* Since he’s mentioned it several times, I’ll teach clauses-of-effing-purpose next. What are they, you ask? Good question. They are clauses that express WHY we do something, such as: to + infinitive; so that; in order to; so as to; etc. And by the way, the students may be very familiar with Would, Could and Should after having memorized them at some point, but I’ll bet you my shower bucket they can’t apply them with ease. So we’ll just see about that!
After tea break I went to 50 minutes of torture with Senior 4. I quickly wrapped up the exercise we were doing last week on the verb “to be” since it was clear they knew it. Then I split them into groups and had them brainstorm all the verbs they know in English. In the process, I explained the concept of brainstorming. First of all, they didn’t know the word “brain.” I told them it’s what’s in their head and they think with it (on a good day). Second of all, they didn’t know the word “storm.” I surprised them by saying, “A storm is rain, inkuba and umurabyo!” (thunder and lightning in Kinyarwanda). After they brainstormed all the verbs they know, a representative from each of the nine groups went up to the board and listed them all. They know a TON of verbs! I was impressed and tried to tell them they should be impressed. They weren’t.
It’s stupid that my two periods with Senior 4 are on Thursday and Friday as opposed to being spread out more. It’s a much less effective way of learning a language…however, it’s better for me. It’s like ripping a band-aid off and then I don’t have to deal with them again for almost a week. Snots.
After class I hung out in the teachers’ lounge for a while, looking at textbooks and answering a few teachers’ questions about pronunciation. Sister brought in some visitors, I think from the Ministry of Education? I’m not really sure, but as usual she proudly introduced Jenn and me as new teachers “From AMERICA!” She loves saying, “AMERICA is HERE!” Anyway, after loitering a while I went back to my room and commiserated with Jenn on having to teach clauses-of-effing-purpose to Senior 6. However, after reading up on them I suppose it won’t be so bad. I’ll try to find some fun activities and maybe some songs that include lyrics with “in order to….la la la….so as to….la la la…” Haha.
I made some lunch, did a little laundry and got ready for my District office students tonight. At 5:20 I went to our normal classroom and found it was locked which is really weird. I walked down to the administrative offices and no one was around other than a few teachers. I walked back to the classroom and asked my adult students to bear with me while I looked for someone to unlock the door. Then I went back to the offices, and still no one with a key was there. I started walking back to the classroom and a few (St. Vincent’s) students started asking questions like “Where are you going? Why are you walking again?” They were all doing work on the schoolyard this afternoon, weeding and sorting stones and digging, and they had been watching me walk back and forth. When I stopped to talk to one of them, I was immediately surrounded by about 20 students! They asked me the usual questions: “Where are you coming from? How many children do you have? Are you married or single?” I asked them if they are my students – I have so many, I’d have no idea! They said they are in Senior 5 and they begged me to come to their class. I told them maybe I can visit sometime, we’ll see.
Finally I gave up on unlocking the classroom and I herded the District office staff into another classroom. I quickly introduced the verb “to be” and their contractions, then we did several listening exercises from the CDs that I used at Columbia University. It was a boy talking about his English classroom…how many students there are, where they’re from, the maps on the walls, their teachers’ name, etc. I felt like it was too easy, but in hindsight I think it was just right. They understood most of the passage but only after playing it 4 times. The one dude who is very fluent in English and stated that the last class was “just OK” looked bored and I decided to ignore him. The class isn’t for him, it’s for the rest of the staff who answered every question on the diagnostic exam WRONG! It’s still a very multi-level class, but he really throws off the curve. I can’t worry about him.
After the listening exercises, I only had about 15 minutes remaining. It wasn’t enough time for the other activities I had tentatively planned, but too early to end class. So I used one of Anne’s suggestions for a time-filler: 20 Questions. I told them this game was a great way to practice forming questions, using the verb “to be” and overall speaking practice. That’s how I passed it off as part of my well-calculated lesson plan rather than a time-filler! Thanks, Anne!
But what a process. First I explained how it works and we tried to start, but they were asking me ridiculous questions like “Do you think about teaching? Do you think about a husband in this classroom?” Umm, what? I realized it had been a mistake not to give an example, so I told them if I was thinking about a zebra, their questions might be “Are you thinking about a person? An animal? An animal in the United States? An animal in Africa? A brown animal in Africa? A striped animal in Africa? A ZEBRA?” Ooooh, they exclaimed they understood now!
We started again. The questions were “Are you thinking about teaching? Are you thinking about me? Are you thinking about this class?” Oh dear. I helped them along and *finally* got them to guess Barack Obama. Then they really seemed to understand the game, although a few people kept asking questions! I promised them we would play this game again. And again. And yet again. Because not only do they not understand what I’m saying, they need a lot of help in forming questions. Good to know!
After class I had a long conversation with my contact who is so very advanced and so very bored. I told him the class will be very low for him but I must cater to the others. He completely understood that and assured me he is not bored. Then he tried to tell me how to teach (which I smiled and ignored) and that I must require the students to come to class, and if they miss a class I must force them to explain their absence to me and everyone else. To this I smiled and disagreed. I said that unless the District Office is requiring their employees to come, I will do no such monitoring. He laughed and said of course they aren’t really required to come, but if I pose it like that they’ll take it much more seriously. Then he started explaining to me how adults are different than younger students.
That is where I ended the conversation. I said point-blank, “I have a master’s degree in Adult Education. I know that adult students are different than younger students. I have experience, and my experience tells me that adults have very busy lives. They have full-time jobs, families, and many other obligations. If I tell them they must come to this class and explain their absences, they will simply not come. If you and Fidel require that they come to class, I will honor that and track their attendance. But if not, I won’t do it.” Then I shook his hand, beamed and thanked him profusely for making photocopies, and said muramuke (good night).
From that little incident I slowly crept my way in the dark back to my room, past throngs of students lingering outside the dining hall. In the process I slipped through food waste dripping out of a pipe, then got to my room and found a huge spider hanging out on the back of my door. Luckily Emma was on the way and she happily tried to pick it up before it scrambled outside on its own. Biologists!
In spite of all of this, I feel like it was a good day. Not sure why, but I’ll take it.
from: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/gypsygirlri/2/1265912027/tpod.html
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