September 2nd - Finding My Teaching Style

We were down in numbers today and so there was no luxury of two teachers in one classroom – I was on my own at Olives. I decided that I would try a more structured approach - the date went up on the board and the paper and pencils were handed out and we were off ... We started with math – I asked them all to do the same 4 questions to get a feel for where they were individually. It worked well – I had one boy in Standard 5 who was clearly good and so I got him a book and he set out doing questions on his own while I worked with the others. It also proves challenging to figure out who actually knows the answer and who is good at copying down or listening to someone else give the answer. We then spent time on the concept of carrying numbers in addition and subtraction but they eventually got bored with math and wanted English ... for which I was not prepared …

I started with rhyming words and opposites but they knew the easy ones and my brain wasn't coming up with the tougher ones so that didn't last long. I was feeling more than a little 'stuck' – and also getting tired and frustrated – kids were running in and out, it was hard to control – just chaos at times. Kenyan culture and language is very blunt – and one of the girls all of a sudden said 'I want more paper' in a very demanding voice. Inspiration struck ... we'll conjugate the verb 'to want'. Well that evolved into 'what did I want' (e.g. bananas, chocolate, pencils) which then evolved into their filling in the blank of did they want 'some bananas' or 'a banana' and the difference between singular and plural – and all of a sudden it was fun and was working.

So while theoretically I would like to be better prepared for English tomorrow, it was reassuring to see that from frustration, inspiration can strike – and sometimes it is good to just go with the flow! I'm coming to realize that the real key is just being honest with myself ... who am I kidding, I will never be a highly structured, fully prepared in advance teacher ... or traveler for that matter ... that is just not who I am. But it is finding a balance of being prepared enough, having enough tools in my kit, to balance and manage the energy of the kids, the room and most importantly the teacher!

I hit my limit teaching after only 1.5 hrs today - not helped by my lack of voice – my cold moved to my throat and is rapidly turning into laryngitis ... so we headed outside. I discovered that one of the girls had a softball so myself and 3 of the girls from class started playing catch - they were good, one in particular. We were doing pop flies, one handed catches, ground balls – it was very cool. I like using sports and have done it at both Precious and Olives – it's a great way to engage with the kids, have fun and feel like I'm teaching something – either how to turn to your side to get a ground ball (versus having it go through your legs) or catch a fly ball. There is lots of informal football around for the boys but I have a feeling much less sports for the girls – something I'd love to see the school do something with especially when I see how much some of them enjoy it and have natural abilities – but one thing at a time I imagine ...

We were coming to the end of two weeks and would be losing 3 of the volunteers on Friday – so we decided to have a party with a theme and everything ... we all found our most Tacky Tourist appropriate outfits and had a wicked punch, glasses with the tacky umbrella straws and games I haven't played in years ... musical chairs, freeze to the music, bump ... it was a good night as per the evidence on Facebook :-)