Day Two with the "Learners"

Hi all,

Today was another lovely day in South Africa! It's 4:20 right now and Michael, Rachael, and Kyle are playing frisbee in the pool at our B and B. Today was the second day of school for us with the children, and it has been really neat! April has gone for a well-deserved nap, and Jess is visiting with the Lockwood family. I have been grading some Botany papers here in the quietness of my room.

I have 2 classes--Grade 5 and Grade 6, for a total of about 57 kids-- a lot more than this home school mom/co-op teacher has had before--but I love them. The kids are so sweet! In the morning I come in and say good morning to them, and they are all sitting there very quietly. They answer in unison, "Good morning teacher Cindy, good morning Teacher Rachael!" Now, I'm not going to tell you that they aren't regular kids--I've had two 5th graders who were pulling some shenanigans with spit balls, and they all can get chatty at times, but the teachers reign them in pretty tight here. I have been teaching Botany to both classes--introductory stuff now, such as Taxonomy and what the four main Phyla of plants are. We did a fun exercise sorting a huge bag of buttons into various Phyla, Classes, orders, etc. We also sorted our own class into groups. Rae and I ended up being the People who had white skin and were female, but when we broke it down even more, the class decided to classify Rae as young and me as OLD. Hmmmph! I was happier with the student who suggested that Rae was tall and I was short. 

Teacher Cindy with the Grade 6 and Grade 7 learners

I had a bunch of cards with pictures of various plants--everything from strawberries and pine trees to ferns and mosses, and one by one the children figured out which phyla they belonged in. They did a great job! Today, when I took in a few things from home:a pine cone, an acorn, a mimosa pod, plus some things from here: a leechie (fruit) and a Gem Squash (similar sort of to acorn squash,) they figured out where each of those fruits belonged. We also had a cool demonstration using food-colored water that showed how mosses drink water. They were most impressed!

Teaching moves much slower than I am accustomed to, as the children are at various levels, depending on when they came to the school. Some of the newest kids who just started yesterday and who came from the government schools, are really behind. One thing they DO have that I don't see so much in the states, however, is careful, neat penmanship. Michael and my co-op kids would do well to take note! But sadly, there are so many basic things that they haven't learned, that I cannot take anything for granted. Also, education in South Africa is more about rote memorization, so when I ask them to think outside the box (just why DOES a dandelion make that puffy seed ball that you can blow away?) then they really have to stop and think. I guess their education is more like ours of old, when it was all about copying off the board, and not so much about critical thinking.

Rae has been an amazing helper in the classroom. She's an awesome co-teacher! Today she gathered all the names of the students in our 6/7 class (27 kids) and wrote their names in 54 different texts/workbooks. This may not sound like a big deal, but when you consider that they have names such as Itumeleng Mokoena, Neo Masekwameng, Sinethemba Yeko, and Ntombi Mbuyane, that was quite a feat!

Rae also took pictures of all of our kids today, with name tags on, so we can try to learn all their names. It's funny to see the range of children, from shy quiet ones to great big hams. They are all so dear!

Michael is with April in the Grade R, which is our Kindergarten grade. They really have their hands full! Many of those little ones do not speak English yet, or they pretend not to, and though they are adorable, they are NOT used to structure, especially considering the life that they hail from in the shanty towns. They are not used to being given any boundaries, so this is the first step of their learning process. April and Michael have teamed up to tame the savage beast, if you will, and today they all had construction paper squares with their names on them taped to the carpet floor so they'd have a spot to sit on. As the Grade R's don't have any desks or chairs in their class right now, it's hard to foster an atmosphere of instruction, but Michael and April are working out the kinks. They were both thankful that today one of their more challenging kids took a one-hour nap! But Michael is handling it in a manly way:  I'm told that yesterday he actually broke out in the "clean up, clean up, everybody clean up!" song. 

I'm not sure if they'll still be in the Grade R class next week--things this week were mostly upside down as the school sorts out new enrollees and determines who came back and who didn't. Even up to the last few hours before school began on Wednesday, parents were still coming in with birth certificates and documentation papers to enroll their kids, so no-one really knew how many students we'd all have. I have new students today that weren't there yesterday. 

Kyle and Jess have both been helping the teachers in the 2nd/3rd grade class and the 4th grade class, respectively. I trust they'll blog about their experiences in those classes soon.

Tomorrow afternoon the children will return to their homes for the weekend. I'm not sure what our weekend plans will be, but we may be helping our hosts, the Walkers, move to the home they purchased next to the school. And if they do, then we'll be moving there.as well. 

We have been taken good care of, with dinner brought to us every night at the B and B, and a lovely continental breakfast in the AM. There's even TV here--Rae watched Sesame Street in Africans this morning--and the commercials are a HOOT! Last night we had some face time with friends, too. We are all set up with internet, so we are able to get on every night--that's a blessing we didn't expect. We also have a local phone, so we've been able to chat with our hubbies every night, as well.

Cindy