Sarah Goes to Namibia: First Days of School

We have now had 8 full days of school (I have been a little bit behind) and boy has it been a whirlwind. Each day has brought its own challenges, but today, the feeling is frustration.

Dani and I are getting into a routine now, just in time for her to leave on tomorrow. We teach Monday-Thursday full time and Fridays we are not in school for traveling and exploring the city where we are living. We have 4 different classes that rotate throughout the day together. We have 3 classes of grade 5 (5A, 5B and 5D) and one class of grade 7. Each day there are 8 periods; the learners rotate through all their subjects during that time and they stay as one class. It’s quite an interesting set up actually—a mix between middle school (rotating periods) and elementary (the same class).

Each subject has a different requirement for the amount of instructional time the learners receive each week. In math, learners have to have eight 40 minute blocks of instruction. Well, since there are only 5 days in a week, that means each class gets a “double period” three times/week. And, to top it off, we never see the classes in the same order. Today, three of our four classes had double periods and one class had a 40 minute period. Tomorrow, we will see each class for a different amount of time and one will have a double period. If you’re lost, don’t feel so bad…I am too! Every day we see over 130 learners for 40 or 80 minutes. Every class is at a different spot in the material, all of the classes have different homework assignments and I cannot keep it all straight!

Things had been going well. Last week, Dani and I finally felt like we were getting the hang of it. Students were getting used to our routines, they saw us as authority figures and even told us they would miss us when we said we weren’t going to be there on Friday. Then Monday happened. I had finally gotten a good night’s sleep, our lessons were planned and I was feeling ready for the day. During our first class, we talked about bar graphs (our unit is data handling), the kids were answering questions and weren’t having many side conversations. It went okay, but we knew, as always, the second class would be an improvement. The next class came in and it was a complete disaster. I hate teachers who stand up in front of the class and spoon-feed their students every ounce of information they need. They are basically doing the work for them. Well today, I was one of those teachers. I would give the learners instructions and they would look at me like I was crazy. I taught them the routine of turning and talking to their partner about a question, and all I got were blank stares. Pretty much anything I said went in one ear and out the other. I have learners who sit at the front of the room and raise their hand every time I ask a question. Then, there are learners who sit in the back of the room and do nothing but talk, sleep, or stare into space. They couldn’t care less about what I am saying. And then there are the few who speak hardly any English at all. How in the world can we teach a math concept to learners who don’t even understand the language we are teaching in? It’s a challenge to say the least.

Our learners sit in table groups, our teacher preaches about how she loves group work, and yet they stare at us like we are speaking Greek when we ask them to tell their partner something. I am dying to get them working in groups, to make them independent learners who enjoy coming to school, who make sense of concepts on their own, who have ah-ha moments. I am longing to provide support for learners who struggle and enrichment for learners who are getting bored, but with 130+ learners walking into my classroom for sometimes only 40 minutes at a time (and no passing period), I don’t know what to do. Not to mention, I am still learning their names and don’t have any sort of class list to keep track of progress or monitor learning.

I am fighting feelings of frustration and defeat. We spend all this time taking classes to help us prepare for this. In the states, we are used to getting instant feedback, students who listen to us, and most who want to be at school. We are used to knowing students’ names and seeing them all day long as primary teachers. We are used to building relationships with our students. And now that we don’t have that, we feel completely defeated. Almost every night I have gotten home I have had to talk myself out of the idea that I am a bad teacher, that I can’t do it and that I will never be able to be a good teacher. I feel like I can’t give my students what they need and that they will never succeed.

I knew this experience would challenge me, and so far, it absolutely has. We have been plucked from everything we know, into a culture that has a completely different educational system. I struggle to pronounce names of my learners. The norms are different, the way of life is different and the resources are different. I am learning how to teach without a projector, without a copy machine and with much fewer resources than I learned with. I am learning to become stronger and more resourceful. I am having the absolute best time here and I am so thankful for this experience, but I’m sure it will only continue to be a wild ride. Each day it has gotten better, and by today I am truly starting to feel like I am growing my “teacher legs” as Paula says. But it continues to be a learning experience.

Swarming Miss Dani with goodbye hugs!

This week, 9 of the 10 of us have gotten head colds with coughs, fevers and the works. Many people stayed home from school (Paula told us we were crazy for going when we hardly had voices and felt terrible). I couldn’t miss school today, though, knowing it was Dani’s last day. We have been so lucky to have the opportunity to teach together these last few weeks and I will miss her dearly! We have spent every waking moment together over these past weeks, and I am so proud of how well she has adapted to the life of a teacher. It’s a lot harder than it looks, but man is it rewarding. Today, we said goodbyes and took pictures with our learners and even turned them into 12’s. We brought Nick’s Seahawks flag into class and told them all about our team. Here are a few pictures from our goodbyes and to prove that we have actually been teaching amid our fun