Two Days Gone By

Hey Tina the Ballerina, Dad, Chris and all other followers (Ma, send this blog to Nana & Nanu and Needham Crawfords? Post the link on Facebook? Please and thank you!). And thanks for following and commenting. If only Amy would comment (we miss you too much Amy!).

The past two days, our first days teaching at the BNC, have been completely night and day, yet completely incredible. Yesterday we arrived for an orientation-like meeting in the morning where I got chosen to work in the fifth grade classroom at the centre. Cynthia, a housemate at the Wadadee House who went to Etosha with us this weekend, is my co-teacher and has been with these students for the past few weeks. We have ten students on the roster, not too bad considering how my fellow Jaspers have into the high teens and twenties in their classrooms.

Monday - The students arrived and it was a joy to play with them on the playground. After playing on the swings and having one boy ask me why my nose was so big I read a few stories to some children and they read to me. Right then and there the entire trip fell into place. After the students ate lunch we began our afternoon teaching! It went, well, kinda rough. Behavior wise the students are very similiar to the students I've worked with in New York, however, the biggest problem is stopping them from speaking local languages, because many students claim that some students say innapropriate things in these languages but we teachers can't understand. Anyways, Cynthia and I needed to adapt the curriculum to the students to help reach the basic needs of fifth grade math (times tables, two and three digit multiplication) and and ELA (writing complete sentences with details, text-to-self connections) as well as self confidence in their work and reading aloud. At the end of the day I was satisified that I got a basic assessment of their skills and levels and I realized that most cannot grasp concepts in both content areas.

Tuesday - This day went smoothly and I felt like it couldn't be better. Seriously. Cynthia and I gave the students assigned seats to help with management. We lost our Minute Math and I implemented Around the World with 8 and 9 times tables orally. Afterwards I asked the ten students present what they had to do while participating to make sure they understand the concept of this exercise as well as the math skills needed. Instead of drills and excercises we had the students compete against each other doing 3 digit multiplication problems at the board while the rest of the class did it in their notebooks. The class was silent. Silent! This set the best mood and tone for the rest of the day. The lesson went swimmingly after that. During ELA we did played Boggle with a twist - the students had to made 3 sentences using their words. This helped them gain the foundations sentence writing as they had to combine their words to fit them into sentences rather than just make a basic sentence per word. I hope to develop these sentences and skills further tomorrow.

We're meeting our halfway mark of the trip tomorrow. I wish I had money to stay out here. They really need as much help as they can get, and I feel like 2 weeks isn't enough. Most volunteers stay for 1 to 3 months. I'll have to make the best of my week left with these students. Today was probably the best day I've ever had as a teacher (including subbing, student teaching and interning). These children are incredible. They value their education and themselves. They all knew my name in a matter of seconds. They genuinely care about themselves, myself and their education. They are truly the Best Namibian Children.

Dinner time. That means I don't have time to proofread, sorry! But dinner, yeah! Yes Ma, I've been eating fun things. Lamb. Beef stew. Vegtables. Things I can't even pronounce. You'd be proud of me (and yes, Kate is basically being a mom making sure I eat and remain an unpicky eater). And I've been cooking better than ever! Tonight we're eating burgers made by Becca and Laura.


I leave you with a picture of Mike and me with some students on the playground this afternoon.