There is a girl in my class who has proven herself to be quite a bully. I feel like I am always having to tell her to knock it off......
I should have known I was trying far too hard......it turns out she is actually they. Identical class clowns. Superific.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Weekend Adventure
This weekend I am off to Mt. Kilimanjaro! My family has four houses, one of which is in the town of Moshi with a beautiful view of the highest mountain in Africa. The whole family is going, including the older sister from Arusha who has a baby boy and is also 8 months pregnant. I am very excited to go, except for the 5 hour drive after school tomorrow….
I’m leaving my computer at home, but I’ll be sure to take a lot of pictures and upload them next week!
(Don’t Forget: The pictures I’m uploading are added to the end of the slideshow….so make sure to scroll all the way through to see the newest updates!)
I’m leaving my computer at home, but I’ll be sure to take a lot of pictures and upload them next week!
(Don’t Forget: The pictures I’m uploading are added to the end of the slideshow….so make sure to scroll all the way through to see the newest updates!)
School Projects
I am about to post a picture of the new Kindergarten classroom that is under construction. It still needs a roof, which will cost about 600,000 TZ shillings at a current conversion rate of about $1: 1,300 TZ sh. They are also looking into building a fence, hiring a night guard, and setting up more programs to help the orphan children attending the school (of which there are about 120). The Sommers Park school in England is involved with a lot of these projects…..My understanding is that they are paying for a breakfast program for the orphans, are sponsoring some of their educations, and are interested in funding the new fence. While I am always surprised at how inexpensive some of these projects seem, it is humbling to remember that many families struggle to meet the school fees of less than $10 each year.
Progress
Now that my youngest host brother is home, my Kiswahili is improving significantly. He and his cousin take me out on various adventures and we practice words in Kiswahili. Then when I come home I pull out my notebook and draw a picture of whatever we learned. They then help me fill in the words…and voila!
We have created quite the artbook so far…and have really established quite a base. I can talk about eating in a reasonable capacity, name various plants, fruits, and animals as well as tell the date and time. I have also spent a few hours after school working with two teachers on congugating various verbs. I understand the basic framework of the present tense now, and am starting to grasp the past tense.
Besides these lessons, I’ve also been teaching myself with my small dictionary and phrasebook. Who/What/Where/When/Why have become my best friends….as well as I do or don’t understand.
We have created quite the artbook so far…and have really established quite a base. I can talk about eating in a reasonable capacity, name various plants, fruits, and animals as well as tell the date and time. I have also spent a few hours after school working with two teachers on congugating various verbs. I understand the basic framework of the present tense now, and am starting to grasp the past tense.
Besides these lessons, I’ve also been teaching myself with my small dictionary and phrasebook. Who/What/Where/When/Why have become my best friends….as well as I do or don’t understand.
Mah-kah Pens
aka Stamper Pens in English. These have become an absolute highlight for the kids in my classes. I take a pen with a different stamp on it every day (heart, star, sun, butterfly etc.) and mark the answers in their workbook as correct with the stamp. The kids absolutely love it….and sometimes even make up their own exercises to do so that they can can extra stamps.
More Fun in Tanga
Dear Blog,
I am having the time of my life here in Tanga. Yesterday I went to school and taught “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” and then substitute taught for 1st graders in Kiswahili. I was literally thrown in with 63 first graders and told to have them all recite “ba / be / be / bo / bu ; cha / che / chi / cho / chu etc….,” have them write it in their notebooks, and then correct it. Luckily I have enough vocabulary now to say “be quiet,” “sit down,” “this is correc,t” “this is wrong,” “repeat,” and “tell me what this says.”
After an exhausting school day I came home and had lunch with my host brother and sister (Gilbert and Susan) who are now in the picture slideshow above. We then went to play soccer with the locals at the beach and go swimming in the Indian Ocean. It was amazing.
While I have been fairly outgoing and willing to try and eat/do/see almost anything, my stomach has unfortunately been less adventurous….After 3 days of upset stomach and far too much time in the bathroom instead of in the classroom, I finally have given in and started taking Imodium. I did make the mistake of telling my host mom about it, and now the entire town knows that I’m sick. Excellent.
~Chelsea
I am having the time of my life here in Tanga. Yesterday I went to school and taught “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” and then substitute taught for 1st graders in Kiswahili. I was literally thrown in with 63 first graders and told to have them all recite “ba / be / be / bo / bu ; cha / che / chi / cho / chu etc….,” have them write it in their notebooks, and then correct it. Luckily I have enough vocabulary now to say “be quiet,” “sit down,” “this is correc,t” “this is wrong,” “repeat,” and “tell me what this says.”
After an exhausting school day I came home and had lunch with my host brother and sister (Gilbert and Susan) who are now in the picture slideshow above. We then went to play soccer with the locals at the beach and go swimming in the Indian Ocean. It was amazing.
While I have been fairly outgoing and willing to try and eat/do/see almost anything, my stomach has unfortunately been less adventurous….After 3 days of upset stomach and far too much time in the bathroom instead of in the classroom, I finally have given in and started taking Imodium. I did make the mistake of telling my host mom about it, and now the entire town knows that I’m sick. Excellent.
~Chelsea
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Some Tidbits...
Apologies for the long delay. I have been very busy teaching, meeting people, learning Swahili, and talking with my host family. I also couldn’t figure out how to charge my computer for awhile or get on the internet.
This weekend I finally had some free time – so my host father took me to the Vodacom show where I bought a modem for my computer. I now have a USB device that gives me internet anywhere that they have cellphone towers. Pretty neat! Theoretically, I could bring the computer into my classroom and get the students on Skype, but unfortunately there’s not overlap in the school schedule. But I have time in my schedule….after 3pm and after 9pm every day….which for you guys means either early in the morning or in the afternoon (7am or 1pm). This changes from day to day….but at least Skype is an option! So far I’ve gotten to say hello to my dogs and see the crazy snow that everyone got at home….I hope you all got to keep your power, although it sounded like a lot of people have lost it.
I kept telling myself I’d go back and blog about this past week, but it will take me forever to play catchup…so I’ll just continue from here and make some thematic references back….
- My name. I figured it might be difficult for the Tanzanians to pronounce my name. For example, when Pilar visited the school they found it easier to call her “Pila.” As it turns out, there’s absolutely no problems. Thanks to some ingenious foresight on my parents’ part, introductions usually go something like this…..what is your name? chelsea? Like the football team? That is so great! Were you named that because of the football team? (to which I always say yes….no way I’m going to try and explain Joni Mitchell’s song, and saying yes makes everyone very excited….so I’ve just been going with it :-) Learning their names, however, is a completely different issue….
- Language barriers. I am apparently outnumbered here. Since many Tanzanians have learned English in secondary school, they have the majority on me when we have pronunciation differences. As such, I am relearning how to speak and pronounce English – quite an interesting process. For example, I was teaching the Kindergarten class about colors the other day, and I pointed to my skirt, which was purple. The teacher said no, that’s papo. I said what? She said, that’s papo. Ok fine. Papo. There about a million pronunciation differences…which I finally figured out is due to the British colonial influence in this country. Everyone speaks British English, which when learned as a second language by Swahili speakers comes out completely differently than I would expect. As such, both parties have trouble understanding each other. I have picked up on how to adjust my speech in order to be more understandable…..for example, turning –er into –a (like sholda instead of shoulder.) At first I thought it might be insulting or mocking to do so, but it seems to facilitate conversation and hasn’t come across poorly at all.
- Class size. Enormous. 50 – 70 students per class. There are a lot of differences in classroom management as well, which seem to be necessitated by the large class size. Individual attention is hard to come by, and rote memorization seems to be the norm as far as I can gather. Class size also becomes interesting as far as getting my attention. As you can see in the pictures above, students love to stand at the windows of my kindergarten class, and as soon as the camera comes out at recess – the crowds come running!
- High-fives. I introduced this practice whenever a kid gets a problem correct or does something right…..it took awhile for it to catch on, but they’ve gotten the hang of it. I couldn’t quite figure out why it took so long to catch on, or why they didn’t already do this…….UNTIL……I went to give one of my students a high-five….and she winced. Hitting a child is not uncommon in this culture, and when I figured out that that was the reaction to raising a hand, I felt horrible that I had ever introduced the practice.
- What am I doing here? They’ve placed me in a kindergarten class. They gave me a big desk at the back (bigger than the teacher, Jacqueline’s) and a chair. Kindergarten comes in the morning from 8am to 10am…and then from 11am to 1pm 1st grade and Kindergarten students come in for remedial education. In the morning I teach English and play games with the students…and learn Swahili! In the afternoon I do math with the first graders. This is awesome because in the mornings I have learned how to count. I now know enough to do addition with the kids. (E.g. 9 + 3 = 12……tisa na tatu sawasawa kumi na mbili!) I can tell them if it is right or wrong, so I am now correcting all of the math homework….which I love! They get so excited when I give them a stamp of a star on the top of their page when they get the problems right!
- Thinking on my toes. My first day….I was thrown into a 3rd grade class of 65 students and 1 soccer ball and told to teach them how to play the sport. They don’t speak English very well, and I speak practically no Swahili as of yet. I somehow managed to get them all to move their desks to the edges, make a circle, and play a game of head-catch with me. I didn’t teach them soccer, but they were entertained for a good 45 minutes. Some of the students tried to cheat by rejoining the game after they were out…and all of the children would yell and push them out of the circle….They would also laugh and squeal with glee whenever someone got out.
I have to go to bed now so that I can get up early for school tomorrow. Lots more to share! Please let me know if there’s something specific you want to know about. I’ve had many conversations about food, pop culture, government, sports, education etc…..I’ll get around to writing about all of it eventually….but let me know if you have specific interests! Good night!
This weekend I finally had some free time – so my host father took me to the Vodacom show where I bought a modem for my computer. I now have a USB device that gives me internet anywhere that they have cellphone towers. Pretty neat! Theoretically, I could bring the computer into my classroom and get the students on Skype, but unfortunately there’s not overlap in the school schedule. But I have time in my schedule….after 3pm and after 9pm every day….which for you guys means either early in the morning or in the afternoon (7am or 1pm). This changes from day to day….but at least Skype is an option! So far I’ve gotten to say hello to my dogs and see the crazy snow that everyone got at home….I hope you all got to keep your power, although it sounded like a lot of people have lost it.
I kept telling myself I’d go back and blog about this past week, but it will take me forever to play catchup…so I’ll just continue from here and make some thematic references back….
- My name. I figured it might be difficult for the Tanzanians to pronounce my name. For example, when Pilar visited the school they found it easier to call her “Pila.” As it turns out, there’s absolutely no problems. Thanks to some ingenious foresight on my parents’ part, introductions usually go something like this…..what is your name? chelsea? Like the football team? That is so great! Were you named that because of the football team? (to which I always say yes….no way I’m going to try and explain Joni Mitchell’s song, and saying yes makes everyone very excited….so I’ve just been going with it :-) Learning their names, however, is a completely different issue….
- Language barriers. I am apparently outnumbered here. Since many Tanzanians have learned English in secondary school, they have the majority on me when we have pronunciation differences. As such, I am relearning how to speak and pronounce English – quite an interesting process. For example, I was teaching the Kindergarten class about colors the other day, and I pointed to my skirt, which was purple. The teacher said no, that’s papo. I said what? She said, that’s papo. Ok fine. Papo. There about a million pronunciation differences…which I finally figured out is due to the British colonial influence in this country. Everyone speaks British English, which when learned as a second language by Swahili speakers comes out completely differently than I would expect. As such, both parties have trouble understanding each other. I have picked up on how to adjust my speech in order to be more understandable…..for example, turning –er into –a (like sholda instead of shoulder.) At first I thought it might be insulting or mocking to do so, but it seems to facilitate conversation and hasn’t come across poorly at all.
- Class size. Enormous. 50 – 70 students per class. There are a lot of differences in classroom management as well, which seem to be necessitated by the large class size. Individual attention is hard to come by, and rote memorization seems to be the norm as far as I can gather. Class size also becomes interesting as far as getting my attention. As you can see in the pictures above, students love to stand at the windows of my kindergarten class, and as soon as the camera comes out at recess – the crowds come running!
- High-fives. I introduced this practice whenever a kid gets a problem correct or does something right…..it took awhile for it to catch on, but they’ve gotten the hang of it. I couldn’t quite figure out why it took so long to catch on, or why they didn’t already do this…….UNTIL……I went to give one of my students a high-five….and she winced. Hitting a child is not uncommon in this culture, and when I figured out that that was the reaction to raising a hand, I felt horrible that I had ever introduced the practice.
- What am I doing here? They’ve placed me in a kindergarten class. They gave me a big desk at the back (bigger than the teacher, Jacqueline’s) and a chair. Kindergarten comes in the morning from 8am to 10am…and then from 11am to 1pm 1st grade and Kindergarten students come in for remedial education. In the morning I teach English and play games with the students…and learn Swahili! In the afternoon I do math with the first graders. This is awesome because in the mornings I have learned how to count. I now know enough to do addition with the kids. (E.g. 9 + 3 = 12……tisa na tatu sawasawa kumi na mbili!) I can tell them if it is right or wrong, so I am now correcting all of the math homework….which I love! They get so excited when I give them a stamp of a star on the top of their page when they get the problems right!
- Thinking on my toes. My first day….I was thrown into a 3rd grade class of 65 students and 1 soccer ball and told to teach them how to play the sport. They don’t speak English very well, and I speak practically no Swahili as of yet. I somehow managed to get them all to move their desks to the edges, make a circle, and play a game of head-catch with me. I didn’t teach them soccer, but they were entertained for a good 45 minutes. Some of the students tried to cheat by rejoining the game after they were out…and all of the children would yell and push them out of the circle….They would also laugh and squeal with glee whenever someone got out.
I have to go to bed now so that I can get up early for school tomorrow. Lots more to share! Please let me know if there’s something specific you want to know about. I’ve had many conversations about food, pop culture, government, sports, education etc…..I’ll get around to writing about all of it eventually….but let me know if you have specific interests! Good night!
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