Adventures in Namibia: Another day at AI Steenkamp

     So today was a great day! After the amazing thunderstorm last night, I was slightly tired as the thunder that shook us and the lightning that lit up our room kept me up until late and woke me up frequently. That being said, I downed some coffee at breakfast, packed my bags and supplies, and we headed off to school.
I had my normal morning crew of learners hang out with me before school. The group has slowly started to grow, and I had 8 learners of various ages attached at my hip until I had to go to our morning staff meeting. At the staff meeting, I briefly saw my teacher whom returned with me to start class only to take attendance. Once it was taken, he was gone until lunch break.

     This morning started off with a double period of math with my 5D group. I had started to grade their homework the day before after school and had found that 90% of the class did not do their homework in either math or english. That being said, I had already planned on giving a homework speech. After discussing that teachers do not give homework to take the fun out of our learner's lives, I let them know that if their homework for the week was not done by Monday, then they would stay in at break and finish. They seemed appreciative for the time extension to finish, but we shall see if they do. After that conversation they were pretty good the whole period. We practiced our various forms--standard, expanded, word--by allowing the learners to create their own number on a notecard. They then swapped it with someone at their table and wrote the number in expanded and word form. After completion, they traded back and corrected the number they created. This went pretty well, but it was slightly chaotic as some still struggled. I took a step back about 5 minutes in and, although we had already done one together as a class, did the whole process a second time together. This helped, and they all did pretty well overall. The second round of this went much smoother.

     During this double period, I had a few learner-created distractions, but not nearly as many as yesterday or the day before. One learner was dismissed to the bathroom then decided it was a great idea to yell in through the window. Apparently, he had forgotten I had legs and could go tell him to come back to class. I did so and had him stand outside the door until my directions to the whole class were completed. As I went out there, I could already tell he was embarrassed. I squatted down next to him and asked him why he had done that. He said he didn't know, and just stared at his feet. I then began talking to him about what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he said a lawyer. I asked him if he thought lawyers studied hard and if they tried their best in school. He said yes, of course. We had a great conversation about how smart he was and about his family, goals and what he was going to do to become a lawyer. By the time I sent him away to the bathroom, he was slightly teary-eyed, but also smiling a nice, huge smile. After taking two steps away to go to the bathroom, he quickly whipped back around, gave me a quick hug, then ran away. My heart melted.

     I then had my 5A group for math. We once again discussed homework (it actually ended up being a conversation with each class), however, this talk was done outside in line as I made them exit my classroom and try again. I have a feeling that all of these speeches will be given to each group at some point over my time here. Having learned from the last class that more than one example was needed, we went over changing numbers from standard into word and expanded form together a few times after they created their own numbers. Jan and Paula then came in as we were doing so. The pictures below are from that period as we practicded together. Afterwards, the lesson went great though! They were all excited to swap notecards and correct each others' work. I would call them Mr. Thomas or Ms. Tia as they were correcting, which made them all giggle.

     5D then returned to me for English. I finished Wheedle on the Needle, as they had not got to the day prior due to misbehavior. Afterwards, I gave them the 4 square assignment that the other classes had been given the day before, and they began working on it. At the end of the period, many of them wanted to stay in with me for break, however, one of the University of Namibia student teachers (the one who is taking my 5A math class) wanted to speak with me. I kicked all of the learners out for a bit, and we sat down together. At first, she wanted my advice on how to introduce approximation next week. She said that she had heard that I was great at getting the learners to enjoy what I am teaching about and keeping their attention. We discussed the next week and the lessons and went through the book together. I told her that I really just use the book as a guideline as to what topic to discuss, and she seemed surprise. She wanted to know where I get my ideas then, and I told her I just make it up or have seen other people teach. She just laughed. I then helped her with her math homework. She has an exam tomorrow and didn't know how to solve a few of the problems.

     Once she left, my room once again flooded with learners and we played several rounds of hangman before they went to their next class. I had English for the rest of the day, and as both of these groups had 'finished' the 4 square assignment (aka they had it assigned for homework, didn't do it, so got the same homework speech), I decided to go over some of the vocabulary they didn't understand from the book. We made a chart with three columns: word, meaning, picture. They then wrote down the words, came up with definitions as a group, then drew a picture for each one as to remember it easier. This went great in both classes, and they really enjoyed having so much drawing intertwined with their learning.

     I had a planning period in between my two 5E classes and my last 5C class. Magically, my teacher showed up during this time. He sat down and asked me what I would like him to do with my kids tomorrow. This made me laugh on the inside, as he called them MY kids. I told him what I had done today and what would be good tomorrow. He went with both ideas, for Math and English, but threw in a spelling quiz on the vocabulary words I had given them in English. Being that I thought it was unfair to 5E to not know a quiz was coming their way, I stood outside their classes door at the end of that period to make sure they knew. My last class also went well, other than one learner who decided hiding under his desk every 2 mintues was funny. We had a great chat. :)

     This afternoon has been full of some chill time, pool time and now soon-to-be packing. We are heading out to the dunes tomorrow, and need to pack for a couple days. The learners were not too excited to hear I was gone tomorrow, but were excited I would be back Monday...little do most of them know, I will not be their teacher. :/ I didn't have it in me to tell them.

     Change of subject--Steve sadly left our group this last Sunday. We were all very sad to see him go, and it honestly isn't the same without him here. After a random comment he made to Uanee in the car about us all wearing black for his departure the next day, I quickly jumped on it and we all decided to actually do it. We had a great photo shoot with him that day, and as Jan let me borrow her memory card to get her pics of me in school today, I took the ones below as well :)