Ngwaga wo moswa wo monate! – Happy New Year!
To all of my family and friends, cheers to a happy, healthy, and ayoba 2012!! After hiking in the beautiful Drakensberg Mountains for Christmas with some of my closest Peace Corps friends and ringing in the New Year in style in Durban, I am back to site, ready to make 2012 a great year. My New Year’s resolutions? – 1. Save money/rand since vacation proved rather pricey (yay for canned beans, eggs, and yogurt until I get paid again!), 2. Run more (apparently “you’ve gained weight” is a compliment in South Africa…), and 3. Become fluent in Northern Sesotho. Can’t be too hard, right?
This week marked the first week back to school for all of the teachers and learners, as well as my first week of a full school year teaching in South Africa. I am happy to say that the week was a really good one! After getting my feet wet from September – December during our “observational period,” I was ready to get to work. When first arriving in South Africa in July I had very big plans and big ideas, but shoo did I have many. After taking everything in and trying to make order of it all, I’d like to think that my plans and ideas are just as good, but more realistic and more manageable.
If you know me at all, you know that I have a very Type A personality, very OCD with the need to have a schedule and to be organized. Annoying, I know. The lack of a schedule/time table during my first 3 months at site drove me a bit crazy (I really don’t like not knowing what I should be doing/where I should be), but I managed to do just fine without. I am happy to say that I finally have a schedule this time around, and I think that it will be quite successful (fingers crossed, or as they say here “holding thumbs!”).
Monday and Tuesday were the first days back at school for the teachers – the learners did not start back until Wednesday. These days were meant primarily for all of the parents to come and collect their child(ren)’s books and school supplies, and to set up the time table for the classes. The Department of Education puts together packs for each grade and for each learner; in the pack there are notebooks (the # increases exponentially with the grade), pens, pencils, glue sticks, colored pencils, scissors, erasers, and pencil sharpeners. It was a lot of fun seeing all of the parents and the learners who came along with their parents to collect their supplies. Let me tell you, covering all of those notebooks is quite the task! My host mom spent much of her afternoon/evening covering my youngest host brother’s books. My younger host brother and his friends also spent a lot of time covering theirs.
On Tuesday, at one of the Primary Schools where I am teaching, I held my first Teachers’ Workshop. I was thrilled because it went pretty smoothly. During this workshop I focused on things that the teachers should do during their first days of teaching (i.e. setting up classroom rules with their learners, creating a seating chart, developing a routine with the class/making lessons, creating things like bathroom passes, etc.). All of these activities act as preventative measures in which discipline should decrease in the classroom. At the end of the workshop I handed out an anti-bullying policy I came up with to the teachers, and asked them to go over it with the students. Violence seems to be a big problem in the schools here, unfortunately stemming from the learners’ home lives, and I truly think that a school should be a safe place for students – this is the only way that they will have a good learning experience. Prior to the teachers leaving, I also handed out the first “Teacher of the Month Award” to a teacher who I think displayed excellent teaching practices and a genuine care for the learners/school. A friend of mine/fellow PCV had mentioned the idea, and I think it is a very good one in order to motivate the teachers and encourage great teaching. Although I only gave a certificate of recognition and a bandana from the states, it was a big hit! Thanks Aunt Beth for the bandana idea – they loved it!
Getting back to school on Wednesday with the learners was so much fun! They were all very excited to be back for the New Year. At one of the schools I will be teaching 6th and 7th grade English as well as working with a program called SOUNS. At the other school I will be teaching 7th grade English, working on more teacher workshops, and working with SOUNS. SOUNS is a program that was brought to us by the rotary; it helps children to connect the sounds of letters to the letter itself, and it has proven to be very helpful with literacy. At both of the schools I am going to work with the Grade R (kindergarten) learners first, and then with grades 1 and 2. All of the teachers and I are really excited about this program and are very hopeful that it will benefit the learners. I am also very glad to be working with grades 6 and 7 again; the journals seemed to work really well in the first 3 months, so I will be sure to be doing that again. Also, the answers to the questions always make my day. My favorite this week was when I asked my learners “What do you want to learn in English class this year?” and I received the answer “This year in English class I want to learn what a hermaphrodite is.”
When I first learned back in late August that I would be working at 2 primary schools without any involvement with a high school, I must be honest by saying that I was a bit disappointed – I went to school to teach Secondary English Education… With that being said, I really do enjoy working in the primary schools. However, since I am at 2 schools (2 days at one, 2 days at the other), I have a fifth day that I need to fill. At first I was switching every other Friday between the two primary schools, but that does not allow for much of a schedule on that fifth day. Long story short, this is how I decided to go and talk to the Principal at my village’s high school. Starting next week I will be going to the high school and helping with English on Fridays (and on Saturdays when I am able). I’m really excited!
At both of the primary schools I have decided to do a “word of the week” in order to improve/increase the learners’ English vocabulary. Therefore, I will do a “word (or words) of the blog” for all of you, my wonderful readers. This week’s word for my learners is “write.” In Xitsonga, “write” is “tsala.” In Sepedi, “write” is “ngwala.” Next week’s word will be “think.” In Xitsonga, “think” is “ehleketa.” In Sepedi, “think” is “nagana.”
Thanks for reading!
Until next time,
Salang Gabotse!
Xoxo
Meg J
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