Class is in Session

Break is over. School is starting.

All through training, we had many seminars and personal experiences regarding the concept of time in Rwanda.
“It’s elastic,” they said.

“If something begins at 10, do not expect people until noon,” they warned.

“School will have a start date, but do not expect your students until at least a week later,” they continued.

Not at ES Kirinda!

I’m happy to report, the students were ready to go, most with pens in hand on day 1 of class. The teachers were not all there. The teachers are the ones who show up to their classes late. But, for the most part, the students were ready to roll! Luckily, after almost a month of R&R, so was I.

I jumped right into teaching. Well, I got to ease in a little: In Rwanda, senior 1 and senior 4 students wait until they have the results from the National Exams before returning to the next year and next level. Hold up, background: Students take these exams as primary 6 and senior 3 students- November and December are like summer break before going into the next grade, and they can’t go into the next grade without passing these exams. Exams will be a whole other blog entry, in and of themselves. Oye. Anyway, senior 1 and 4 students don’t arrive until February. My schedule, upon arrival of senior 1 and 4 would look like this, but would start without them:
Creative Performance; levels senior 1-3 (5 hours per week total split between 5 separate classes)
General Paper; levels senior 4 and 5 (4 hours a week to 2 classes)
English; levels senior 5 and 6 (4 hours a week to 2 classes)

I should say, ages are hard to determine in classes since parents seem to enter and take students out of classes whenever they feel necessary (reasons for both vary greatly), but the gist is that s1 is the equivalent of 7^th grade, on to senior 6 being equal to high school senior level. This is secondary school, there is also p1-6, being primary school. In secondary school, students easily range from 12-mid 20s in just about any class. It’s confusing, to say the least, but, we make it work.

So yes, 15 hours may not seem like much, but when you are writing lesson plans for all different classes at all different levels and you have never stepped foot in a classroom before, it’s work. It’s a lot of work. Also, classrooms here are not like classrooms in the states. There are lights in my classroom, but I don’t think they work. I don’t really care about them, lights are pretty much unnecessary during the day. There are old blackboards and there is chalk. There are no overheads, no projectors, no markers, no white paper, no scissors, no glue sticks, no crayons, no paints, no pencils, and no TVs. There are no bookshelves, no easels, no textbooks, no PA systems for announcements. There is chalk, and there are chalkboards. And classes are not a ridiculous size if they are pushing 30 students, not unless you are talking ridiculously small. My classes range from 40-60 students. Whoa. Holy intro to teaching, Batman. Although the classrooms are much different than the US, they aren’t all bad, think: No cell phones to deal with, no ipods distracting kids, no game systems. It’s just challenging in very ways and resources that are easily taken for granted- especially when it comes to classes like Creative Performance. My creativity is going to be tested, big-time. But, so far, so good!

Students’ abilities range even more drastically than their ages. There are s1 students who understand me just fine, and some who don’t catch a word. It’s the same way in all of the other levels, with (hopefully) a few more understanding English a little bit more in each level. I’m still figuring out if there’s a method of how a student passes into the next level, but for now, I’ll just keep teaching as best I can. Lots of group work, lots of peer-reviewing so that the students are able to help one another, and lots of just hoping that something I teach will stick. It’s challenging, no doubt, but I love it. I’ve realized I really, really like teaching- even the tough days. There are always a few students that get it, want to know more, and ask questions that make my day. There are also students that don’t give a shit and prefer naps over group work. It’s not that unlike high school in America! I’ll do what I can.

Now, it is February and I’ve just completed my first week of a full schedule. To sum it up, it’s busy.

I like being busy.