My School

My school

So school “started on Monday, 7. January of this year.  I say “started” because we didn’t teach that first week.  The school is in the process of building a new classroom because we don’t have enough room for our new incoming class.  The students were helping the masons build, doing everything from carrying water, bags of cement, and bricks.  They also spent several days having to clean the school.  It was definitely a different use of student time here than in the US.  However, that meant that the first week there was no teaching on my part.  I planned a great deal, learned some Kisambaa from the mason, and tried to say hi to as many of my students as possible.  The second week, I was at school for 3 days (during which I hardly taught because we had meetings or students were still working and had to miss my class, which drove me crazy) before being sent to Lushoto for a conference about teaching basic English to the incoming students.

            In these pictures, you can see my students out in the schoolyard, cleaning, and what our classrooms look like.  Students are supposed to bring their own desks and chairs.  If they don’t have it, they’re supposed to stand, sit on the floor, or share with a friend.  It’s not unusual to see 3 kids sharing a single chair and desk.  They’re very good at sharing with others, as the communal culture definitely tries to support other people in the community.  We have chalkboards, but sometimes run out of chalk.  That’s the worst!  Besides that, I buy big flipchart paper (about 2ft by 4ft) and use permanent markers to write things down, like reading passages.  Those are the teaching materials I have available.  A bit different form the SmartBoard and classroom set of textbooks I had during student teaching.  Here, we don’t have enough books to let students use them, so they copy down stuff in their exercise books, which is filled with notes that they copy directly from the board, regardless of whether or not they understand it.

            There was one day that I brought some magazines that Peace Corps brought me.  I only had enough to give each of my 3 classes approximately 20 copies each.  I put the magazines on a desk and told them they could just come and get them.  The moment I left the room, I heard a wild and crazy mad rush for the books.  Chairs flying, students shoving each other, desperate for something to read.  Students crave reading or some other thing to distract themselves, as there is so little that they actually have.

            I know this is a bit of a superficial description of my school, but I’m running out of time before my bus leaves town and I wanted to get this posted before I leave internet for a few weeks.  I’ll try to be better next time I’m in town to write more blog posts.

The new classroom.  Still not finished, but it's getting there.

Some of my students stopped to let me snap a picture.  These are form 2 to form 4 students, with ages anywhere between 13 and 20.

The school yard where we have assemblies, also known as "parades."

Some students cleaning the surrounding area of the school.  They generally use pine tree branches to sweep the yard.  I personally don't understand why they have to sweep dirt, but it's what people do everywhere in Tanzania.

View from my school.  Yeah, it's awesome. 

Another view.

And again.  I love the view from my school. 

One of the classrooms.  The students were out cleaning and stuff.  There is nothing over the windows and the roof is tin (which makes it super loud when it's raining.)

Students hanging outside of the classrooms.

An inside view of one of the classrooms.  

Same room.

These are the new form 1 students.  These are all the desks in the room, cuz the students have just arrived and not all of them have brought their desks and chairs yet.

Some lollygaggers.