Week One, Done!

Hey Followers --

Holy moly, this week flew the heck by! Day 1, as I blogged was rough. Day 2 was incredible.

Day 3 (Wednesday) was probably one of the BEST days I've ever had teaching. Ever. I know I said something like this before but seriously. We got to the BNC around 10 am (keep in mind the students come after school and we don't teach until 2:30 pm) to plan out our day. Resources are limited. We rip paper. We sharpen pencils that are down to where the eraser was. I created my own deck of I Have, Who Has cards with the 9 & 8 times tables (taken from a grad class this semester). I also planned for the students to create Fact Families for these tables to begin to introduce division. Additionally, I had the students create and have a face-off on their own 3-digit multiplication problems. For ELA (that's English Language Arts for all you non-teacher folks) Cynthia and I planned to play Boggle with the students and have them use their words in as few sentences as possible to help develop their creative writing and their sentence writing abilities. All of these activities went amazingly - one of their spelling words this week. The kids ate up I Have, Who Has and made me make some for the 7 & 6 times tables. I'm going to make more this weekend for the rest of the 1-15 times tables for future teachers to use with these kids. Their biggest problem is conceptualizing just about everything they are learning since the Namibian curriculum focuses on memorization.

After teaching we went to Joe's Beerhouse, and I ordered the sampler platter which contained chicken, ostrich, crocodile, zebra and kudu (be proud, Ma & Dad!). The best was ostrich! One of the best meats I've ever tasted in my life.

Day 4 (Thursday) was exhausting. We got up extra early to go to 2 local schools here in Katutura. The first, Community Hope School, is run by a man we met on the plane. We observed some classrooms and I was immediately tackled to the ground, literally, by a bunch of students outside (see the picture on the right). I don't even know their names or grade, which shows just how loving and accepting these Namibian students are. Afterwards we went to A.I. Steemkamp, which is a primary school that feeds into the BNC. I got to observe a kindergarten classroom with Becca. The teacher was great and the kids were obviously adorable, but other aspects of the school were blah. They value their education but it's tough when schools lack the structure needed for great learning.

Back at the BNC, Mike, Kate, Becca and I combined our 3 classes (fifth, sixth and seventh grade) for centers. With 30+ kids in the room it seriously couldn't have gone smoother. We had 2 sets of 5 centers, which varied math and ELA games. A wicked fun afternoon after an exhausting morning. It was tough to say goodbye today knowing we won't be back until Monday and that we only have 2 days left next week. Two days is not nearly enough to get everything done. I may accidentally bring 9 fifth graders back to the States with me (make room back home!).

These kids are lovable and want to learn. They may not enjoy every aspect but they try their best. And I'm trying my best to reach them the best as I can. There's so little we can do in under two weeks. Hopefully we can make a difference for these students and the BNC. I'll do anything I can to get back here next summer, especially to see my fifth graders in the sixth grade.

Sadly, Cynthia and Liz leave us tomorrow and head back to New York. They've been here for 4 weeks and were great assets to the BNC and our trip (especially as resources) and we'll miss them! But they live nearby MC so hopefully we'll remain in touch. The people we are meeting here are incredible! We're getting pretty close with them and I hope our friendships continue back in America.

Well, off to pack for our final weekend in Africa! We're heading to Swakopmund at 2 am (like 2 hours from right now). Bring on the 5 hour drive, the Namib Desert with sand dunes, sand boarding, a cruise into the southern Atlantic and a great time with the best people ever!