Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Sunday Morning. Jan 16
The school opens tomorrow, and I feel quite unprepared. I’ve looked over the syllabus, decided the order in which I want to cover the topics and all, but have not actually thought through what material I will cover in class tomorrow, or what information I want them to absorb.
I am teaching the next higher grade this year, so I will be teaching the same students I had last year. But this year it counts! The year ends with the National Exams (NECTA) that really determine the future of these kids. So my task is not only to teach chemistry and – hopefully – make it interesting and topical, but to prepare them for the exams, which is a very different thing. On top of that, the guts of this year’s syllabus is deadly dull. It proceeds from How are Metals Extracted to Reactions of Metals, Reactions of Metal Compounds, Reactions of Non-Metals and Reactions of Non-Metal Compounds. Yawn. Then at the end they throw in the topics of Soil Chemistry, Pollution, and a substantial introduction to Organic Chemistry.
From what they told me at the end of last year is that they want more demonstrations and laboratory time, more exercises in class and interim quizzes, better identification of what they should take notes on, and Tanzanian-style test formats. That last means they want Definitions, Matching, and Multiple Choice. They still won’t get much of that from me – Sorry, kids.
So – I plan to spend a quarter of the year on Soil and Pollution (throwing in Toxicity to boot), a quarter of the year on Organic Chemistry, another quarter on the Dull Stuff that they will just memorize, and then the last quarter going over all the questions from all the previous National Exams that we can find. I guess that sounds like a plan.
But now, for my classes tomorrow after the introductory discussions and stuff? ??? Well, I do plan to demonstrate a siphon, using a tube and two water bottles. Try to get them to tell me how it works.
Hodie is a nice companion. Wants to be near me all the time, but not obsessively. Just wants her ears scratched now and then. When I leave or go for a walk, she comes along – staying about ten feet from me. That is nice, but kind-of a problem when I don’t want her along. But she doesn’t seem to object too much to being penned into the courtyard, so it seems workable.
She ignores everybody we meet when we are out walking. But she is territorial about our home turf. She growls at visitors if they are Tanzanian, and chases people away if they get too close to the house. She runs at them, and then chases them if they run. If they don’t run, she ferociously charges up to them, stops, trots back to the house, then wheels around and gives them as second run. If they still don’t run, she comes trotting back and gives me this look of “Well, at least I TRIED, OK?”
She curls up on the rug while I am reading or doing stuff in the evening. Then at bedtime she wants to go outside. If I don’t put her out, she comes to my bed and starts pawing at me. She stays out all night and in the morning she is sitting or standing right in front of the door, ready to come back in.
The school opens tomorrow, and I feel quite unprepared. I’ve looked over the syllabus, decided the order in which I want to cover the topics and all, but have not actually thought through what material I will cover in class tomorrow, or what information I want them to absorb.
I am teaching the next higher grade this year, so I will be teaching the same students I had last year. But this year it counts! The year ends with the National Exams (NECTA) that really determine the future of these kids. So my task is not only to teach chemistry and – hopefully – make it interesting and topical, but to prepare them for the exams, which is a very different thing. On top of that, the guts of this year’s syllabus is deadly dull. It proceeds from How are Metals Extracted to Reactions of Metals, Reactions of Metal Compounds, Reactions of Non-Metals and Reactions of Non-Metal Compounds. Yawn. Then at the end they throw in the topics of Soil Chemistry, Pollution, and a substantial introduction to Organic Chemistry.
From what they told me at the end of last year is that they want more demonstrations and laboratory time, more exercises in class and interim quizzes, better identification of what they should take notes on, and Tanzanian-style test formats. That last means they want Definitions, Matching, and Multiple Choice. They still won’t get much of that from me – Sorry, kids.
So – I plan to spend a quarter of the year on Soil and Pollution (throwing in Toxicity to boot), a quarter of the year on Organic Chemistry, another quarter on the Dull Stuff that they will just memorize, and then the last quarter going over all the questions from all the previous National Exams that we can find. I guess that sounds like a plan.
But now, for my classes tomorrow after the introductory discussions and stuff? ??? Well, I do plan to demonstrate a siphon, using a tube and two water bottles. Try to get them to tell me how it works.
Hodie is a nice companion. Wants to be near me all the time, but not obsessively. Just wants her ears scratched now and then. When I leave or go for a walk, she comes along – staying about ten feet from me. That is nice, but kind-of a problem when I don’t want her along. But she doesn’t seem to object too much to being penned into the courtyard, so it seems workable.
She ignores everybody we meet when we are out walking. But she is territorial about our home turf. She growls at visitors if they are Tanzanian, and chases people away if they get too close to the house. She runs at them, and then chases them if they run. If they don’t run, she ferociously charges up to them, stops, trots back to the house, then wheels around and gives them as second run. If they still don’t run, she comes trotting back and gives me this look of “Well, at least I TRIED, OK?”
She curls up on the rug while I am reading or doing stuff in the evening. Then at bedtime she wants to go outside. If I don’t put her out, she comes to my bed and starts pawing at me. She stays out all night and in the morning she is sitting or standing right in front of the door, ready to come back in.
