Adventures in Namibia: Oh, what a week!

     What a week so far! The craziness of student teaching, planning and helping at the orphanage has left me tired each night, and wanting to go to bed earlier and earlier. That being said, a lot has happened since the last time I blogged, so I will try to recall it all as best as I can.

     The biggest, and I think only, dilemma of my trip here so far has been my student teaching placement. Up until this week, I have played this game of traveling from room to room, grade to grade, and being placed then having classes taken away. Monday I received a 2nd placement in another english classroom where I was left alone to teach on the spot. Having done this several times already, I had come prepared with a book and supplies on hand. The day went great, but come to find out that teacher was receiving another student teacher as well. This lead me to getting a 3rd placement on Tuesday...well, at least I tried to. What actually happened was a crazy day full of me moving from room to room, class to class and subject to subject. In one day I taught 5th grade math, 5th grade english, 4th grade math, 4th grade Afrikaans (yes...AFRIKAANS!), 4th grade Environmental studies, 6th grade English and 7th grade English. Out of all of these classes, I was preppred for 3. Awesome. With my 5th grade classes acting up even more so than usual, I left the day feeling pretty defeated. I had no real placement and had been teaching routines and procedures over and over again. Not only that, but I was having to give the same teacher talk over and over to different classes. I was exhausted.

     All of that being said, today was a brand new day and it was a GREAT one! I finally got official placements, thanks to a little talk Paula and Jan had with our principal. She was not aware that I had taught Afrikaans the day before and took care of the placement craziness immediately, as Paula had made it clear to her that i was an urgent issue. On top of my random placements, the time table had changed for a 3rd and final time yesterday afternoon. Thanks to now having a final time table, I was able to figure out what classes I could keep and the new ones I could have. My 5D group changed math teachers, and so I transferred with them to her for math. I will also have them part of the time in English, but not everyday as their periods conflict with other classes I am teaching. I also get to keep my 6A English class. And finally, I have two grade 7 english courses, too. Although I do not have a 'full schedule', I have opted to embrace the fact that I have at least 1 or 2 free periods a day and take the time to go observe my peers teach, read to lower primary classes, and sometimes take the time to plan.

     Overall, I must say that I am glad that I am now 'settled' in a placement...well, 3 placements. There are some hiccups in all of this, but like I said, I have opted to embrace the road bumps that are in my way and let them stay there. For example, I do not get the same classroom each period. Being that there is no 'passing period' time, this causes a little bit of chaos in my life every 40 minutes when classes change. However, it is definitely making me stay organized and planned. Also, on Wednesday's I teach 2 periods at the same time--5D math and 6A english. I have my grade 6 learners for a double period, so I have come up with the following plan. During break I am going to write directions for my grade 6 class on the board. As there is an Art student teacher who just sits in the room during this period, he can supervise as they do the activity or task at hand. We discussed the expectations during this time and the benefits of doing them. I will therefore teach my lesson to my 5D math group, then give them an activity or assignment before leaving. The main teacher stays in that room while I teach, reading the paper, etc, so she can supervise. I also told them that if they get out of control during the activity, Ms. Nafuka, the actual teacher of this class, can choose to make them do individual work.

     All of that being said, let me tell you some of the other ups and downs of the week thus far. Let me start with school...

     My 5D classes were turkeys the first day, terds the second, and fabulous little angels today. Yesterday was definitely the roughest day, but being that I had them 3 periods in a row, I somewhat expected it. They got through almost all of math basketball before having a complete melt down of control (and when I say melt down...I mean MELT DOWN). It took them 15 minutes for their heads to be quiet on their desks. To be completely honest with you, I do not think I have ever been more frustrated in my life. The sound effects, random hitting and throwing of objects, stabbing of pens, etc, lead me to being so overwhelmed that I almost started to cry. However, after many learners being sent out of the room, many objects being taken from them, and the realization that I was so upset, the room was calm.

     Quietly I began discussing with them how much they had hurt my feelings, how much I loved each and every one of them, and how I knew they were all smart and could become anything they wanted to be, a majority of the class was in tears. I explained how disrespected I felt as a person, not just a teacher, and that I did not have to teach this class if they didn't like me. A ton of "No, Miss" and gasps were the response. As I dismissed them from the room, they each had to tell me what they were going to do to be the best learners possible in my classroom. Because of all of this, I received today many apology notes, a lot of hugs, and huge smiles when I told them I asked to keep this class for math despite them changing teachers.

     I began teaching 6A English on Monday. I started monday just reading them Wheedle on the Needle and talking about my home and letting them ask me questions. Yesterday, we made a bubble map of what Environment was and what was in the environment, followed by a great activity Bri and I co-planned. I am lucky enough that Bri and I are both teaching 5th and 6th grade English, so we have the opportunity to plan together. So far, this has resulted in some great lessons. I also introduced group points to them yesterday and let them choose group names. They LOVE it. Because of the great results class wide, I also introduced 'Top Secret' class points to them. This had the entire class listening for the remainder of the period, and I am hoping the incentive will keep them focused during the half-period I am away once a week. For homework yesterday, I had them make nametags and had them write school goals on the inside. I also told them they could write me anything about themselves. That being said, I have 43 nametags on the bed in front of my waiting to be read.

     I have only been with the grade 7 classes a few times, and I am placed with the Head of the Language Department as my teacher. That being said, I have been able to observe and ask questions about how they format their English curriculum. The first day I observed her, I got a huge smile as she walked into the room. She had observed me for about 5 minutes the day before in my 5D math class and had asked me questions about why I use different colors of chalk, let them write on the board and called myself a learner. That being said, started off the lesson by saying that they were the teachers and she was the learner today. They brainstormed as a class the different punctuations they know and she wrote them on the board. Volunteers then came up to the board and wrote the punctuation next to the word in a different color. After, they all copied it down in their exercise books with each punctuation being a different color. She told the learners that this had to be done with various colors because it was a new method she had learned. Throughout the lesson, we exchanged smiles, and we had a great discussion afterwards about how the lesson went. I feel very blessed to be with her, even though it is only for a couple classes.

     Finally, I was thrown into several grade 4 classrooms yesterday. The first class went great as I taught math and how to use and find numbers on a number line. A teacher came into the room mid-way through my teaching, and I asked him if he was the teacher and had just come let. He shook his head and said he just wanted to observe because his class was doing work he had given him. That being said, I just continued on. I had the learners be the number line and other learners took turns using a ruler to point to where the different numbers were. It worked out great! I gave them several problems to do on the board, then had to leave to teach grade 5. That being said, I left them all alone. I hated it. The teacher who was observin me returned to his class as I left thanking me for the great teaching ideas, so I had to tell the teacher next door the class was left alone. He said he would 'supervise', and I was off.

     I then returned later to the same room but a different class. However, this time I got to teach Afrikaans and Environmental studies. This was not as great as the first class. This group of learners had several 'bundles of joy', if you know what I mean, and being that this was right after my 5D class, I was already worn out. However, I taught some routines and procedures and decided to teach them a few songs and some sign language. This went well the first half of my time, but then it was all over. I was tired, the learners knew it and I was pummeled...well, not literally. A couple teacher talks were given, some learners lost their chairs as not throwing them or breaking them was not managable for some of them, and there was a few minutes of having their heads on their desks. Despite this, I received a hug from almost every single learner from that class today and huge smiles.

     Today was also a day of yet another new and interesting realization of a difference in the way schools operate here and back home. The Minister of Education had given a speech on Monday, so the teachers received a copy of it last night. This morning at our staff meeting, the principal announced that she was going to go over the 18 page packet speech as a staff after school for an hour. Although I already had found this slightly surprising, I was not expecting the next sentence: "Because of this, school will be released at noon. Let your learners go at that time". Morning-of decision of an early release for a staff meeting...not expected.

     I believe that is at least the main events of my school-life here so far this week. I have 3 placements, I had some crazy days of discipline and behavior with my learners, and today was a great day of listening, participation and management.

     As for life outside of school, there has been a lot of planning taking place here at home (aka Casa Blanca). Grading, planning and prepping have now become the afternoon and evening activities. Despite all of this, we did make time for a dinner outing to a fabulous Italian restaurant on Monday night. Not only was it delicious and pretty cheap, but we also met up with some old friends: Paul and Shirley.

     Paul and Shirley had been managing Casa Blanca when we first arrived and then were suddenly gone. Being that they had been deemed Papa Paul and Mama Shirley, we were all pretty upset as we didn't even receive a goodbye. However, Jan and Paula ran into them Monday at a coffee shop and invited them to dinner to see us all. It was great catching up with them and getting advice on places to go visit and do for the time we have left here. They truly are amazing people and we all feel blessed to have met up with them again.

     Last night, we went on our last walk with Katee, as she leaves with Jan and Paula tomorrow. We are all going to miss Katee a ton, and have even been joking about ways that we could keep her for even another day or two. Because of their imminent departure tomorrow evening, we will be going out to Joe's this evening as our last supper with them. Joe's is where they serve various animal meats that are in Namibia, such as zebra, ostrich, etc. I am pretty excited to split a sampler plate with Bri and will definitely post pictures and descriptions later tonight or tomorrow.

     Below are a couple pictures from the orphanage Tuesday night. We helped with their homework, drew some pictures, let them 'catch' some pictures on our cameras and played some soccer. It was a great afternoon, but it left me exhausted by the time I returned home at 5:30 pm.

     I know there is more I could add, and I am probably forgetting something, but as the tests, homework and nametags are staring me in the face right now, I think it is best for me to stop here and begin the grading, planning and prepping process while I have time. Joe's is at 7, and we have a 'rap video' to shoot before then as well. (Jill is teaching Health Education so we, of course, wrote a fabulous rap song explaining the various reproductive organs and their functions. Being that this group consists of the people it does, we have opted to shoot an actual video of the rap this evening before Katee leaves us. It is going to be epic.)