First Two Weeks at School!

To start with, the good news:
I feel incredibly lucky to have the co-workers I have. There are only six of them and we’re all women; already there’s an easy camaraderie between us. They’re also good teachers overall, and I get the feeling that they really like what they do. My co-teachers in grades four, five and six are also very open to co-teaching (not very common in Lesotho) and are open to constructive criticism, which I’ve gathered from two weeks of observing. You see, I haven’t actually begun fully teaching yet. I’ve been observing and figuring out time-tables and doing some marking and trying my hardest to remember the student’s names.

And also organizing books for our new library! Thanks to a donation from Australia.

Here they are

Books are so exciting. 

 So, I’m learning a lot from the other teachers and gaging what kinds of practices I think should shift a bit. But even when I had a conversation that I was a little nervous about with the grade 6 teacher about why I don’t think it’s the best practice, as far as long-term English comprehension goes, to translate every English word into Sesotho, she was super open to the idea of doing things new and actually thanked me for my presence. It also helped when she saw me do an exhaustive break down of how to correctly use the word “put” the next day (“You cannot just put a book. You must put it in a place”) and saw that with a lot of repetition and checking to make sure that they understand numerous times, they can learn without using much Sesotho. The teachers are also excited and interested about me teaching life skills (self-esteem, identity, sex ed. etc.), which officially is supposed to be taught to every student grade 4 in above but often doesn’t happen. In general, I feel very supported and liked by them.
Also, my class sizes are very manageable, ranging from 20 to 35 students. Some of the other volunteers have classes in the 70-90 student range, and I’m very grateful for my situation. Not just because it makes for easier classroom management and an easier learning environment, but also it means that it will take me weeks instead of months to remember all of their names!
The other good news is that I genuinely enjoy teaching.  I know that it is possible to make the process of helping these kids understand English fun, and nearly every day they make me laugh. I gave a small writing assessment to each class I’ll be teaching just to see where they are and one of the fourth grade papers (where the assignment was to write down their favorite food, its’ color and why they like it) said, “I like KFC. It is brown. I like it because it KFC.”
My time with those crazy kids at GJC and with the ESL students at NSC certainly prepared me for the vast reserves of patience that are required when day after day the majority of the students respond with “yes madam” to the question “do you understand” (when they definitely don’t) and to questions that are not yes or no. It’s all about repetition and figuring out exactly how to reframe a concept in a different way in the moment. It’s a process for sure, but the Peace Corps is nothing if not process oriented.
Okay, the bad. These students’ understanding of English is extremely limited. Most of the students in grade six can’t form a simple present tense sentence, let alone grades 4 and 5. In terms of true understanding, I don’t think most of them really understand much beyond simple commands and requests. There are quite a few students with undiagnosed but definitely present learning disabilities, and there is hardly any support for disabilities in the country, let alone at my school. This explains why there are 16 year olds in grade six. There are also a whole lot of students who are single and double parent orphans, whose parents died of HIV/AIDS. I haven’t yet seen kids getting beat at school, but I probably will.
But, the Peace Corps and the volunteers who came to training did a good job of breaking down the big, structural reasons for these things. Providing the “why”, so to speak. Officially, beginning in Grade 4, teachers are supposed to teach in English only. This is obviously a jarring policy for a student that is used to hearing primarily Sesotho in their life both in and out of school. So, to help bridge the gap of understanding, English teachers teach in Sesotho. This makes the process of understanding shorter and easier for both the students and the teachers, but the problem is that students must have a solid understanding of English to pass the exam to get into high school (Thanks, British colonialism!). And if they don’t pass the first time, which close to fifty percent of students don’t, they repeat and repeat or drop out entirely, particularly the boys. So I understand why the situation is as it is. My job is to work with the other teachers to create a culture of learning that facilitates genuine understanding of English.

So yeah, that’s the deal. I’m pushing boulders for sure for the next two years, but as with any similar job, the only way to go about it is the small, day-to-day tasks. It helps that I’m a process-oriented person by nature, so I don’t get caught up in thinking about all of these gigantic issues. I’m just here, right now. Two years is short in the span of a lifetime but it’s long enough to see progress (or not), and that’s why I’m here. My only job is to work with my co-teachers to figure out how to be the best teachers we can be. Oh, and to show them the importance of high self-esteem and safe sex. That’s it.

I’m kind of surprised at myself that I’m not more freaked out about what I’m up against, but I’m not. I’m just excited about the process.

On Monday, I’ll start really teaching. Wish me luck!

Khotso and much love.

Also...

check out this dope cow jaw bone I found. 

This is my host brother Tsepong, borrowing a donkey to carry his load. 

Liperekisi! (Peaches!) Ripe for the picking, at my school. I eat like 7 a day. 

This is the path from my village down to the main road.