Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Jan 31
So, what is going on? I’m way behind in putting together a Scheme of Work for this year’s chemistry course. I blame it on not being able to find out what the school year IS. Word has it that Form IV will end in October this year instead of the usual December. But then, stories differ as to whether the mid-year break will be shortened to make up for the shorter year. If the Form IV year really is over in October, than that raises the interesting possibility that my service with the Peace Corps may also end early, as my teaching duties will be over. Well, time will tell. But it would be nice to know how to plan my coursework.
I am getting more and more pissed off by the kids who come late to the morning classes, the kids who are late to class because they are held after the morning parade so they can be whipped, and my inability to get the school to provide me with class rosters. Tanzania.
On the other hand, it felt great at Parade this morning to announce to the students that there will be an Essay Contest, with an award of ½ the annual school fee to each class winner, as determined by the Young African-American Achievers in Yorktown, VA. The essay topic will be “What Education Means For Me,” and must be written in class (to prevent students from having parents or older students write the essay for them), and completed by a week from Friday (Feb 11). It is Shari who got this ball rolling, with the YAAA Group, and it is such a tremendous idea!
Some students are really disruptive. I’ve sent kids out of class, moved seats, yelled... Sometimes it helps. I thought that this year, instead of taking the time to call the roll, I would pass around the attendance sheet and let the kids sign themselves in. It seemed to be working. But the attendance sheet after Class D today indicated that EVERY student was there. Patently and obviously wrong – only about half the class was in attendance. And, moreover, many marks had been placed in the columns from previous dates too, so the whole damn attendance record is worthless. Live and learn. Guess I should have expected it, but...
The really exciting news is that the Peace Corps, through its Small Project Awards, is going to fund my program to teach seniors (Form VI) how to be entrepreneurs, and how to start and run a small business. Now the manager of TechnoServe, who will be providing the workbooks and instructor training, wants to come out to Mwanza next week to meet with the school headmasters and the instructors, and see what is happening. This will be great, but it is hard to put an itinerary together for him. All the headmasters are in Morogoro for a workshop all this week, so arrangements will have to be made next week, pretty much on the fly. I’m not exactly sure how to mesh my teaching responsibilities with sheparding Atiba around, but I guess that part will work out somehow.
The problem is, TechnoServe wants to give the Trainer Training course in Mbeya. That is about as far from Mwanza here as you can get and still be in Tanzania. The best travel arrangements I can come up with are a 28hr bus ride to Dar es Salaam plus another 14hr bus ride from there to Mbeya. Not something my group of instructors is going to want to hear about. I’ve appealed to Atiba to move the training to some place closer – I hope he can do it.
So, there is a bunch of stuff in motion. Hopefully they will all have their own momentum, so that the hard work on initiating something is over. Guess we shall see.
Banteze came over last night and we had my first Kiswahili lesson of the year. Spent most of the time actually conversing, after a fashion, in Kiswahili. It is tough, though.
I went back to the Seikh Temple again last Sunday, and again enjoyed the period of meditation. It feels like it is time to learn something about this religion I have been sharing, and several people suggested that I may like to read a book about it. There is a library as part of the temple, and I do expect to visit it sometime this week. Also, they told me that every Seikh Temple maintains a guest facility, and anyone is welcome to make use of it for a few days just for the asking. They suggested that I certainly would want to make use of this, especially if (when) I visit India after completing my service in Africa. Sure thing!
So, what is going on? I’m way behind in putting together a Scheme of Work for this year’s chemistry course. I blame it on not being able to find out what the school year IS. Word has it that Form IV will end in October this year instead of the usual December. But then, stories differ as to whether the mid-year break will be shortened to make up for the shorter year. If the Form IV year really is over in October, than that raises the interesting possibility that my service with the Peace Corps may also end early, as my teaching duties will be over. Well, time will tell. But it would be nice to know how to plan my coursework.
I am getting more and more pissed off by the kids who come late to the morning classes, the kids who are late to class because they are held after the morning parade so they can be whipped, and my inability to get the school to provide me with class rosters. Tanzania.
On the other hand, it felt great at Parade this morning to announce to the students that there will be an Essay Contest, with an award of ½ the annual school fee to each class winner, as determined by the Young African-American Achievers in Yorktown, VA. The essay topic will be “What Education Means For Me,” and must be written in class (to prevent students from having parents or older students write the essay for them), and completed by a week from Friday (Feb 11). It is Shari who got this ball rolling, with the YAAA Group, and it is such a tremendous idea!
Some students are really disruptive. I’ve sent kids out of class, moved seats, yelled... Sometimes it helps. I thought that this year, instead of taking the time to call the roll, I would pass around the attendance sheet and let the kids sign themselves in. It seemed to be working. But the attendance sheet after Class D today indicated that EVERY student was there. Patently and obviously wrong – only about half the class was in attendance. And, moreover, many marks had been placed in the columns from previous dates too, so the whole damn attendance record is worthless. Live and learn. Guess I should have expected it, but...
The really exciting news is that the Peace Corps, through its Small Project Awards, is going to fund my program to teach seniors (Form VI) how to be entrepreneurs, and how to start and run a small business. Now the manager of TechnoServe, who will be providing the workbooks and instructor training, wants to come out to Mwanza next week to meet with the school headmasters and the instructors, and see what is happening. This will be great, but it is hard to put an itinerary together for him. All the headmasters are in Morogoro for a workshop all this week, so arrangements will have to be made next week, pretty much on the fly. I’m not exactly sure how to mesh my teaching responsibilities with sheparding Atiba around, but I guess that part will work out somehow.
The problem is, TechnoServe wants to give the Trainer Training course in Mbeya. That is about as far from Mwanza here as you can get and still be in Tanzania. The best travel arrangements I can come up with are a 28hr bus ride to Dar es Salaam plus another 14hr bus ride from there to Mbeya. Not something my group of instructors is going to want to hear about. I’ve appealed to Atiba to move the training to some place closer – I hope he can do it.
So, there is a bunch of stuff in motion. Hopefully they will all have their own momentum, so that the hard work on initiating something is over. Guess we shall see.
Banteze came over last night and we had my first Kiswahili lesson of the year. Spent most of the time actually conversing, after a fashion, in Kiswahili. It is tough, though.
I went back to the Seikh Temple again last Sunday, and again enjoyed the period of meditation. It feels like it is time to learn something about this religion I have been sharing, and several people suggested that I may like to read a book about it. There is a library as part of the temple, and I do expect to visit it sometime this week. Also, they told me that every Seikh Temple maintains a guest facility, and anyone is welcome to make use of it for a few days just for the asking. They suggested that I certainly would want to make use of this, especially if (when) I visit India after completing my service in Africa. Sure thing!
