School started!

School officially started for teachers last Monday, January 7 and for learners the following day. However, there was no real teaching last week. Registration with the learners and their parents were completed the first couple days with many trying to get a place for their child. My school always has a long waiting list, but it is in demand even more this year due to major changes in the national curriculum. Without going into much detail schools that used to cater to grades 0-10, will cater only to grades 0-9, forcing 10th graders to find another school. The increased enrollments for grade 10, along with additional subject changes, is wreaking havoc on scheduling for all the secondary schools.

By the end of the week, we received our provisional timetables to get our classes started on Monday, January 14. My schedule had the expected Physical Science (PS) for grades 8C, 8D, and 9D, Mathematics for grade 11B, and Computer Studies (CS) for grade 8B. Art for grades 8A-D was an unexpected addition. When I went to verify the addition, my principal said it was a natural addition since I am so crafty. His wife had showed him the pictures of my homemade Christmas tree and decorations. I think it will be fun and I am looking forward to it even though my schedule is getting full. In addition to the scheduled classes, I will teach a remedial reading class starting in February and co-lead the Girls’ Club. Thankfully, they are on the verge of hiring another Physical Science teacher so some of those classes will shift to the new hire.

My next challenge was realizing that there were conflicts with my classrooms. I had the expectation to teach my PS, Math, and CS classes in my counterparts’ rooms. I knew I might have to find a ‘free’ room for one or two classes since the previous PCV had to do this when her class conflicted with her counterpart’s class. However, I was not expecting the responsibility of finding available rooms for all my classes. The HOD (head of department) for CS came to my rescue. I am now, temporarily, using the e-learning center for all my classes, including art. She has great influence at the school and when she explained how this could work for the time being, the principal agreed. It’s great for me since I can use a computer to show science videos, power point demonstrations, etc. The center is under-utilized because most teachers here are intimidated by the technology. I have offered to help teachers and I can move to their classroom if they want to schedule time in the center for their class.

I finally met my first learners yesterday. After going over a few procedures and brief introduction of the class and myself, I had them list at least 3 favorite things or things they like because I wanted to know more about them. This also allowed me to check how well they could follow instructions and assess their writing skills. I went on to explain that I would use this data to analyze the class. In all the classes I described how I am using concepts from the scientific process- identifying a question/problem, collecting data to investigate it, and then analyzing the data to hopefully answer the question. I connected the activity to the scientific process in all the classes because it relates to PS, as well as Math and CS. So far, so good but the learners don’t have textbooks yet, so it is still going slow. They should have them by the end of this week.

The Peace Corps director of Namibia, Kevin Fleming, did a listening tour of the Otjozondjupa Region last week. On Thursday, after visiting the 4 PCVs in Otjiwarongo (OTT) at our homes and work, he took us to dinner. The next day he went north visiting PCVs in the rural villages. He brought some of them back to OTT on Saturday for a bigger group discussion and dinner for eleven. It was great seeing PCVs from my group and meeting some new PCVs from earlier groups.

All for now with all my love