Author: granellen

I am feeling pretty good about Term 2. I am far from being a seasoned teacher, but I keep learning and steadily improving. I am trying some different techniques that we learned in our training. I implemented daily “Do Now!” for my 8^th and 9^th grade classes in hopes that they transition into my classroom quicker, with less talking, and with their mind more focused on the current subject. For all you non-teachers, Do Now is a technique where the teacher writes a question or activity in the same place every day. The learners know to check the Do Now and start working on it immediately, without waiting for everyone to be seated. It is short, so it can be finished quickly, and the teacher can use it to start the day’s lesson. This is working well but they still need practice on starting it quietly, independently, and without any reminder from me. Practice, practice, practice!

Another new technique I am trying is instead of giving a transgression for talking or other misbehavior (3 transgressions=detention), I am making them write a 100-word essay with topics such as “Why is the teacher upset with me and what can I do about it?” or “Why is talking without permission disrespectful to my teacher, to my classmates, and to myself?”. Apparently, this was lost in translation because the first offenders simply wrote the topic question ten times, so it exceeded the 100-word requirement. They did not understand that they were supposed to actually answer the question and use their own words!

All for now with all my love  

PS – I recently discovered a path through a veld, a small field, from town to the location. It looks pretty rural but it’s not. There are garbage piles, old tires, and all kinds of debris. I still like it.

My week had a rocky start since I was sick and missed the first day of school on Monday. They say it’s just a matter of time before you have an intestinal infection in Namibia. After 9 months in country, I finally had my turn and it was not fun. Fortunately, it was short lived, and I was back in school on Tuesday with no further issues. I think it helped by maintaining a BRAT (banana, rice, apple, toast) diet for three days so my stomach could really rest.

During PST (pre-service training), they prepared us for the roller-coaster of emotions we would experience during our service and how it is normal to have highs and lows. They even gave us timelines based on previous Peace Corps volunteers’ experiences of when to expect the highs and lows and to prepare ourselves for these times. At 9 months some people may feel extreme highs and others extreme lows. We’ve been here long enough to either feel like things are going great and we are soaring or just the opposite.

I wouldn’t say I am soaring, but I have more good days than bad. A better description may be that I have more good moments than bad because my days are filled with a range of emotions. I am committed to completing my service but there are times when I remind myself of the reasons and think about the vow I made. My doubts, if that is the right term, are never based on what is going on here, they are based on what is going on with my large, loving family. What wedding am I missing, what Baptism will I miss, what baseball games, music recitals, and all the other events of my children, grandchildren, siblings, and friends? These moments will be gone without me in them and it makes me sad.

However, I am serving where I was sent. I may not be changing the world, but my housemate told me and the other PCVs who stayed with me this weekend that she loves Americans. She said we do things and we have fun. One of my learners said she loved me because I came to her netball game. I am fulfilling a lifelong dream, I am teaching, and it feels right to be here.

All for now with all my love  

Teachers reported to school on Thursday and Friday and the learners report tomorrow. Vacation is over and it’s back to what I am here for, teaching. I’ve done some preparation but not near as much as I hoped to do. All the experienced teachers tell me this is normal, and I will be fine. I can do this! I will take charge of my classes, I will be prepared for the days lesson plans, I will do my best to help my learners learn. In other words, I will fake it ‘til I make it.

Instead of lesson planning, reviewing and learning classroom management techniques, I was learning, planning, and creating a perma-garden. Peace Corps has adopted this method of gardening for individual households and/or community gardens. The techniques use locally resourced materials, shared manual labor, and “maximize the minimum”, and “minimize the maximum” which means the techniques maximize the use of minimal water and minimize the damage that can be caused by extreme rainfall or other natural hazards.

I just have a small double-dig plot about 1m x 4m with single-dig protective berms and holes and swales for collecting and directing water. We amended the soil with egg shells, coffee grounds, manure, ash, and charcoal. “We” includes me, my housemate Martha (Blessing’s nanny), Hermine (the matrone), and Uncle (the hostel handyman). They all helped by supplying materials, tools, or labor.

As of today, it is ready for planting. I will divide it into four 1m sections with green beans, beets, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. I will plant perennials such as herbs and other local plants on the berms.

All for now with all my love  

Four of the five promotional classes I teach ‘wrote’ their exams this week and I needed to mark them and have them moderated by Friday. For every exam, the class teacher marks the exam and then another teacher moderates it, which means another teacher checks the marking. Once the exam is moderated then the Head of Department (HOD) or a delegate will check 10% of the exams. At each iteration, if issues are found then we resolve them and sometimes we have to revise the marks. I don’t know if all schools in the U.S. do this, it takes extra time, but I think it is a great idea. Since the HOD sees a sampling of all the marks they ensure that the marks are consistent within the subject. Once all the exams were finished then I had to compile the final grades which were also checked and signed off by the HOD or delegate. Mine are all done, yay!

Friday afternoon we had an end of term braii, we call it a BBQ in Georgia. Thursday was the learners last day, so this was a teacher and staff celebration. It was nice to unwind and socialize with each other.

Friday night I joined several colleagues for an end of term and girls’ night out celebration. We went to a wine tasting which included live entertainment. The wine and food were good, but the most fun was dancing to the live music. One of the women from our little group got the dancing started and before long the dance floor was full. It was so much fun!

At one point a young black man was trying to get everyone to do what he called a “family dance”. It looked like line dancing to me and I started following him. I would mess up and do it again until I was getting it, all with his encouragement. As I was following along, he said, “look granny is doing it, so come on, you can too!” We laughed and kept dancing.

I was invited to lunch on Saturday with two of the same young colleagues and one of their friends for kapana in the location. As a reminder, the location is where black people were forced to live during apartheid. They are free to live anywhere now, but often economic circumstances prevent their moving. However, some people prefer to stay in the location because it is their home and their history. It is still a majority black community. Anyway, one of the school’s staff, Eina, lives in the location and she was taking us for Kapana, beef with special spices, grilled outdoors. Plans changed and what started as a simple lunch engagement turned into lunch at Eina’s, which she calls the day care. She has 5 children ranging in age from about 8-18 and many nieces, nephews. We played card games, an African stone game, helped with cooking, and just hanging out. We went for kapana around 7pm. We had no other plans, the location is full of life, and we were on African time.

All for now with all my love

Exams at Otjiwarongo Secondary School started on March 29 (a week ago Friday) and end on April 11 (Thursday of this week). There is no teaching during the exam period. The learners are assigned classrooms for the exam period by their grade class and they do not rotate classes. The learners are expected to either be studying independently for their upcoming exams or ‘writing’ an exam. “Writing” is the term used for answering a test or exam. When a learner asks, “Are we writing today?”, they are asking if I am giving them a test.

The day’s schedule during the exam period consists of “Before Break” (BB) and After Break” (AB). Most exams are written BB but due to the number of subjects or an exam having 2 parts, some learners also write AB. The teachers are assigned daily to either ‘invigilate’ or monitor in an exam classroom BB or AB. “Invigilate” is proctoring the learners as they write their exam. Monitoring is just making sure the learners are studying quietly when they are not writing an exam.

The exam’s responsible teacher is explicitly not assigned to invigilate their subjects’ classes. I assume this is to ensure objectivity which does make sense. A teacher can be assigned to one of their subjects’ classes if the learners are not writing but you are not expected to teach, and most teachers don’t. Fortunately, I was able to trade with another teacher and use this time to teach a couple of the lessons that I didn’t cover due to all the schedule changes that took me by surprise this term.

Before Break is from 7:30-10:15, Break is 10:15-10:45, and After Break is 10:45-12:30. As an example, if an exam is BB and the learners have 1.5 hours to complete it, then the learners must study quietly from 7:30-8:40, then write from 8:40am until 10:10, which is 1.5 hours. This allows 5 minutes to collect the exam without missing any of the break.

Try as I might, I don’t think I will ever understand the reasoning behind these exam periods. As you can imagine, AB is not fun because the learners are drained from either ‘studying’ or ‘writing’ BB or both. It is difficult for them to be focused, to be quiet, to stay in their seats. We are instructed every day in our staff meeting to keep the learners quiet, to not let them walk around or lay their heads down, to make sure they study independently.  As a teacher, I walk around the classroom, I stretch, I talk to learners and colleagues. I don’t understand how we can expect learners to not need to do this. Added to this is the expectation of many parents that they also study when they get home.

It also seems like such wasted time. It’s basically 2 weeks that could be used to provide an organized and consistent review of the term with their teacher. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, we are expected to reserve judgement and to try to understand why things are the way they are. I have asked about the structure of the exam period with various colleagues. Some say it is mandated by the Ministry of Education, but I haven’t been able to verify this. Others don’t really like it, but it is just the way it is. Others say it is necessary. The learners must develop discipline, and this is part of the process. Also, it is a scheduling issue, they need the teachers to invigilate.

I don’t like it, but I will keep trying to understand.

All for now with all my love

Namibia celebrated 29 years of independence on March 21. Our school had a great celebration with music, dancing, and poems from the diverse cultures that make up our student body. The school choir is made up of learners from all groups and they also sang several selections including the national anthem. I included a couple short videos to get a taste of the celebration.

A PCV from my group rewrote one of the verses from “This Land is Your Land” (by Woody Guthrie) using sites from Namibia. I taught the American first verse to all the classes and then we sang it with the Namibia words. They all enjoyed this very much.

Since Thursday and Friday were school holidays, I went camping with 8 other PCVs at the Waterberg Plateau National Park. We hiked to the top of the plateau one day, we went on shorter hikes and swam in the pool (a real luxury in Namibia), and on Saturday we went on a 4-hour game drive. Cape Buffalo, Black and White Rhinos, and other endangered species have been transferred to the top of the plateau for protection and in hopes of increasing their numbers. It is working. We were in awe of seeing White Rhinos, Cape Buffalo, Eland, Roan Antelope and many other kinds of antelopes and birds. It was a wonderful excursion despite the light rain that kept many of the animals from coming to the water holes.

All for now with all my love