It's been a whhile since I last wrote a blog. Things have been going pretty good with me thus far. I gave two tests this trimester to my classes. That was interesting because I wrote the tests to be very easy. The first one was just labeling multiple choice and labeling pictures that I had given them during class then completely reviewed the class before the test. I had some kids that did really well, but there were some who earned a 20% or so. My second test I made quite a bit harder because to continue my class you needed to get a passing average, and 500+ students is a little much for me to handle. The students didn't let me down and continued to be idiots. I wrote 4 versions of the same test and mixed them, so that when they tried cheating the questions were different. The made grading them harder but my entertaining cause I could definitely see who was cheating by their answers. My classes otherwise have been very hit of miss. My younger students tend to not pay attention, and follow the shiny objects. They piss me off cause everyone tries to come to the lab for every lesson. I have 23 computers and 90 students in most of my classes. That doesn't work. I made lab groups for them and they completely ignored those and tried to fight their way in. One of the classes was actually fight so much that they broke the door handle. I was not amused.
The house is coming along great. Becky finished the mural and it looks awesome. That was a lot more work than we had planned it to be. The garden was coming along well then Surreal decided to dig it up. We are going to try again by planting in basins and putting them up on tables. Hopefully that will keep her out of them. Plus we built a fence around where we want the garden to go next time.
Surreal is getting huge now. She loves playing with the neighbor dogs and ends up running off quite a bit. Not a big deal though, we just leave the door open enough for her to come back in and eventually she does. She loves playing tug of war but hasn't quite got the tug part down yet. We are teaching her to fetch and she likes chasing the balls and bringing them back.
Story time with Tim and why he's not allowed to come to Ouaga alone anymore. I came to Ouaga in December to watch some football with a couple of the other guys and to relax at the end of the trimester. Getting to Ouaga was no big deal and I relaxed at the Transit House for most of the day. I put my stuff on a bed knowing that I had reserved a spot a couple of weeks earlier. Fast forward to getting to Rec center where we can watch the games. We cram 7 people into a taxi about the size of my Saturn. Along the way we nearly caused a moto accident cause a lady was staring at us instead of the road. We arrive and get good food, good games, and find some other good people working in BF. Afterward our group is now 10 people and we are trying to find a couple of cabs to take us home. the search isn't going to well, when a plain white panel vans pulls over and offers us a ride. He tells us that white people shouldn't be walking at night. I'm not hte one talking to the guy and can't see him at all and I'm that if I look closely enough at this van I can find FREE CANDY written somewhere on the side. We climb in anyway and there are no seats, just the empty rear. Come to find out, the guys is from Canada helping out here and knows exactly where our house is cause we're kinda a big deal. I get to relax at the TH until midnight when the guard calls me over to ask some people to leave and then tells me that I need to leave too. Not Cool its midnight, I don't have another room and I know that I reserved a spot and that I was at the house way before some others who are getting to stay. Doesn't matter, I still have to leave with 4 other people. One of the other volunteers takes pity on us to try and find a place to sleep for the night. The first place we try is already full and the second option we are told is the same way. After wandering about a mile is find a hotel with a couple of rooms open at 1am. So much for a good nights sleep.
The next morning, I decide to stop off at the office to check my mail and use the internet. Walking down the main road, I have to dodge a rampaging donkey cart. Then on the side street, I'm nearly trampled by a horse that got lose and was trying to make a break for it. Later in the day I applied to my visa to Ghana for the trip with my parents. That went surprisingly well and they told me to come back the next day to pick it up. When I went back to pick it up the next day, there was a small group of us who were picking up visas and one guy who was applying. The visa cost 15000 cfa, but he only had 10000 with him. Not a big thing and one of the other people of going to let him borrow another 10000, but the embassy somehow doesn't keep change of any kind. We check around and I see that I have exactly 5000 in my wallet between small bills and change. I give him that and we head off. We were having a hard time getting a single cab for all of us, so when a taxi with a couple of spots open appeared the other guy and I jumped in. After 10 seconds I asked if he had any money cause I didn't. After 20 seconds we jumped back out cause neither of us had and I'm sure the driver thought that we were insane.
The rest of the trip goes pretty smoothly. On transport back to sight we nearly hit a donkey on three different occasions. Avoiding a donkey involves slamming the brakes a hard as you can on a bus with no seat belts or shocks. Not the greatest time. And this is why I don't get to come to Ouaga alone anymore.
Sorry no pics but we'll put a bunch up the next time we come to Ouaga.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
We're Back!
Hi everyone
No Tim and I are not dead. We have just been busy with the end of the first trimester and Tim's family coming over to see us. Well we have also been I suppose a little lazy too. Have no fear though, you are in for a very long update. What have we been up to for the last two months?
School for Becky:
Ok so school for me has been pretty interesting. Last blog, we wrote about my first exam. Well as most of you already know, it was rather brutal. One class had 29 students pass the exam and 20 in the other. Lets just say that I went through quite a few pens while I was correcting there tests. Most of you can imagine how I felt, having 49 kids out of 180 pass is not stellar. My opinion is that the kids just didn't study. I had a nice chat with each class and I told them that I have no idea how they all didn't pass the exam. I explained that every question on the exam was a homework problem with different numbers. Some of the questions I didn't even change the numbers. Sigh...
After the first exam, I started our first section of geometry. I was hoping that the kids would be really good at geometry since algebra really isn't their thing. Teaching geometry is very interesting here. I teach straight out of the book, but I do not always agree with how the book presents certain concepts. I usually only teach what is in the book, but there are some concepts that are extremely difficult for the kids to understand, so I have started incorporating my own way of explaining different concepts. I will admit that the kids think I am exceptionally bizarre. One of my favorite sections this time was trying to explain the different types of symmetry. Most of you can probably recall your teachers doing the whole manipulation of you hands to see the different types of symmetry. I did that same activity with my kids and wow, they went nuts. I have never experienced anything like it. First the kids look at you like you are some alien creature and then one of the kids finally sees what you are showing them and get all excited and explain it to their neighbor. After that, the race is on, all the kids are manipulating their hands and their neighbors to get all the types of symmetry.
I gave my second exam at the beginning of December. I had a lot of fun creating the exam. I got to draw a few images and I used African animals on the name the type of symmetry section. The kids laughed when they saw the animals on the test. I was informed however that my lion was sick because he had spots. I laughed to myself and thought poor cheetah, he is going to have a complex with some of the kids thinking he is a lion. Well grading the second test was a treat. One class, I had 24 pass and the other class I had 48 pass. This did not make me extremely happy. I do not understand the differences in the classes. The class that only had 24 pass is the class that I teach second. Thus in theory, they should get better scores because I have worked out all the rough spots in my teaching. Oh what to do, what to do. I am so proud of my 5eme C, having half of the kids pass is amazing. Now I just need to keep those kids motivated and get the others motivated as well. Wish me luck :)
One thing I have learned in my three months of teaching is that pattern recognition is something that these kids can not do. This has certainly made teaching math very challenging. I am hoping to finish the book early this year. I have already gotten through seven chapters and there are 19 in the book. I want to have a few weeks at the end of the year were the kids do nothing by puzzles and brain teasers. I really think that if I can get them to develop even a little pattern recognition, their life will be a hundred times easier.
Oh I almost forgot! I now have a peanut gallery in my room. Ok let me explain. I have trouble with kids not paying attention to the lecture. They will just start staring off into space and I can't get them back. I also have the kids who put their heads down on top of the desk. That is a very dangerous thing for them to do since they love to sleep. I also have the kids who will fall asleep while sitting up. Thus I have three different types of offenders that I just didn't know how to deal with. I really didn't want to kick them out of my class. That only hurts them more; the kids are devastated by getting minus five points on the test every time they are kicked out. I was getting rather frustrated with the kids too. One day while teaching and about 15 kids were not paying attention in one way or another, I had a stroke of genius: the peanut gallery. I explained to the kids what the peanut gallery was in America. They laughed and I told then that if they didn't pay attention to the class they were a peanut and would have to sit in the peanut gallery. The kids were not to sure about this. They new it wasn't a good thing to be in the peanut gallery, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing either. When I tell a kid to sit in the peanut gallery, they have to sit in the front of the room on the floor and take all their notes there too. This helps me to know that they are taking notes and I can make them pay attention by asking all sorts of questions to them. There are some rules to the peanut gallery. The peanuts can only talk with other peanuts and not to the other students. Their name is changed to peanut for the entire day as well.
I have had to add a few other things to the peanut gallery game too. I have had a peanut try to run away to its seat and so I told him he was a mouse. A mouse certainly couldn't sit with peanuts, so he got his own spot on the other side of the room. That same day, I had a peanut who could not stay awake, so she became a mouse too. Well, I could very well watch those two kids while I taught, so I made another student a tiger to guard the mice. If the mice misbehaved again the tiger was to inform me and I would kick them out of class. Oh yeah :) Well this game has gotten quite fun some days. I have had a monkey and an ostrich in the game too. Now the whole school knows about the game and when kids are walking outside and see the peanuts they will yell “Peanut! Peanut!”
Slightly unorthodox....possibly. Highly entertaining....definitely.
No Tim and I are not dead. We have just been busy with the end of the first trimester and Tim's family coming over to see us. Well we have also been I suppose a little lazy too. Have no fear though, you are in for a very long update. What have we been up to for the last two months?
School for Becky:
Ok so school for me has been pretty interesting. Last blog, we wrote about my first exam. Well as most of you already know, it was rather brutal. One class had 29 students pass the exam and 20 in the other. Lets just say that I went through quite a few pens while I was correcting there tests. Most of you can imagine how I felt, having 49 kids out of 180 pass is not stellar. My opinion is that the kids just didn't study. I had a nice chat with each class and I told them that I have no idea how they all didn't pass the exam. I explained that every question on the exam was a homework problem with different numbers. Some of the questions I didn't even change the numbers. Sigh...
After the first exam, I started our first section of geometry. I was hoping that the kids would be really good at geometry since algebra really isn't their thing. Teaching geometry is very interesting here. I teach straight out of the book, but I do not always agree with how the book presents certain concepts. I usually only teach what is in the book, but there are some concepts that are extremely difficult for the kids to understand, so I have started incorporating my own way of explaining different concepts. I will admit that the kids think I am exceptionally bizarre. One of my favorite sections this time was trying to explain the different types of symmetry. Most of you can probably recall your teachers doing the whole manipulation of you hands to see the different types of symmetry. I did that same activity with my kids and wow, they went nuts. I have never experienced anything like it. First the kids look at you like you are some alien creature and then one of the kids finally sees what you are showing them and get all excited and explain it to their neighbor. After that, the race is on, all the kids are manipulating their hands and their neighbors to get all the types of symmetry.
I gave my second exam at the beginning of December. I had a lot of fun creating the exam. I got to draw a few images and I used African animals on the name the type of symmetry section. The kids laughed when they saw the animals on the test. I was informed however that my lion was sick because he had spots. I laughed to myself and thought poor cheetah, he is going to have a complex with some of the kids thinking he is a lion. Well grading the second test was a treat. One class, I had 24 pass and the other class I had 48 pass. This did not make me extremely happy. I do not understand the differences in the classes. The class that only had 24 pass is the class that I teach second. Thus in theory, they should get better scores because I have worked out all the rough spots in my teaching. Oh what to do, what to do. I am so proud of my 5eme C, having half of the kids pass is amazing. Now I just need to keep those kids motivated and get the others motivated as well. Wish me luck :)
One thing I have learned in my three months of teaching is that pattern recognition is something that these kids can not do. This has certainly made teaching math very challenging. I am hoping to finish the book early this year. I have already gotten through seven chapters and there are 19 in the book. I want to have a few weeks at the end of the year were the kids do nothing by puzzles and brain teasers. I really think that if I can get them to develop even a little pattern recognition, their life will be a hundred times easier.
Oh I almost forgot! I now have a peanut gallery in my room. Ok let me explain. I have trouble with kids not paying attention to the lecture. They will just start staring off into space and I can't get them back. I also have the kids who put their heads down on top of the desk. That is a very dangerous thing for them to do since they love to sleep. I also have the kids who will fall asleep while sitting up. Thus I have three different types of offenders that I just didn't know how to deal with. I really didn't want to kick them out of my class. That only hurts them more; the kids are devastated by getting minus five points on the test every time they are kicked out. I was getting rather frustrated with the kids too. One day while teaching and about 15 kids were not paying attention in one way or another, I had a stroke of genius: the peanut gallery. I explained to the kids what the peanut gallery was in America. They laughed and I told then that if they didn't pay attention to the class they were a peanut and would have to sit in the peanut gallery. The kids were not to sure about this. They new it wasn't a good thing to be in the peanut gallery, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing either. When I tell a kid to sit in the peanut gallery, they have to sit in the front of the room on the floor and take all their notes there too. This helps me to know that they are taking notes and I can make them pay attention by asking all sorts of questions to them. There are some rules to the peanut gallery. The peanuts can only talk with other peanuts and not to the other students. Their name is changed to peanut for the entire day as well.
I have had to add a few other things to the peanut gallery game too. I have had a peanut try to run away to its seat and so I told him he was a mouse. A mouse certainly couldn't sit with peanuts, so he got his own spot on the other side of the room. That same day, I had a peanut who could not stay awake, so she became a mouse too. Well, I could very well watch those two kids while I taught, so I made another student a tiger to guard the mice. If the mice misbehaved again the tiger was to inform me and I would kick them out of class. Oh yeah :) Well this game has gotten quite fun some days. I have had a monkey and an ostrich in the game too. Now the whole school knows about the game and when kids are walking outside and see the peanuts they will yell “Peanut! Peanut!”
Slightly unorthodox....possibly. Highly entertaining....definitely.
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