More about Alex

I haven't been writing much about my teaching lately, so those of you who are interested, here you go.

I'm now teaching all 4 classes: the two grade 8's, the grade 10 math literacy, and grade 11. My grade 8's are still my favorite. Of course, this is the age level that I want to teach, and some days I even think I would like to teach younger kids: 5th or 6th grade. The kids are sweet, they're still scared when you yell at them, and the subject material can actually be fun.

Cute story: They have Cadbury chocolate bars that can be broken down the middle: one side says yes, the other says no. On the wrapper, there's a question, like "Do you forgive me?" The idea is that you get the chocolate bar for someone that you want to ask that question to, they read it, unwrap, break the chocolate in half, and then (hopefully) hand you the side that says "yes." Anyway, one of the teachers yelled at her grade 8 class one day. The next day, they presented her with the "Do you forgive me?" chocolate bar, with "me" crossed out and "us" written in its place. The best part was that she couldn't even remember what had made her so mad at them.

So yeah, I really enjoy the grade 8's. They give me energy in class. I can talk to the class sometimes, and joke around with them in class and they don't get too out of hand.

The grade 11's are okay. I just started teaching them and we've only really done review work, a test, and more review. They're a standard grade class (they have standard grade vs. higher grade classes: higher grade are harder). However, every time I try to go over and mark a worksheet in class, they look at me like they didn't even do it. This class really drags me down and makes me tired, because they just plain don't talk. I really have to work to myself animated and excited, so that I don't fall asleep! When I mark a worksheet, I don't just say the answers, or work through them myself: I ask students leading questions, and they fill in the blanks for me to work through the problem as a class. But this class takes a LOT of encouragement. It's as if they haven't done the homework, because they have nothing to say to me, and as I write on the overhead, I can see everyone copying down what I'm writing. I know that they have done the homework, because I've checked. But obviously they got every answer wrong since they're scribbling everything down. We were doing a review sheet on the nature of roots of quadratics. We ended up with one value for x, and we had to tell whether the roots were equal or unequal, rational or irrational, and so on. They had no idea whether the roots were equal or unequal. It's so very frustrating. Next term we're doing circle geometry and proofs. I'm a little nervous, because I've never taught this or anything like it. Mrs. Roberts is going to sit down with me and show me all the papers she uses and how she teaches the class, which will help a lot. The textbook for the grade 11's is absolutely horrendous. As a class, they're pretty good though: not incredibly chatty, and when I put them into partners to work, they actually WORK.

My grade 10's: that's another story. Math literacy is really an interesting subject and idea: that you learn the math needed in everyday life. For me, that would mean projects, investigations, and so on. For them (at least right now), it's a lot of busy work (I guess algebra is also an important life skill, but they don't like it). The discipline in the class is horrible: they're bouncing off the walls. I can never get them to be quiet, even after moving their seats. It's very frustrating trying to teach sometimes. The first week that I taught them, I was in a completely miserable mood after every class. Finally, though, I found a strategy that kind of works: I go through the material fast, to keep them busy. I call out the students who are talking in class. I change the seats if someone's talking a lot. And I finally changed the entire seating chart. I found that if I can be in a kinda mad, sarcastic mood, they're much better for me. It seems to kind of shock them back into silence if I have a snappy comeback for them when they blurt out in class. And actually, I kind of enjoy it as well. Some days of course, I still dislike teaching the class, but at least they don't completely wear me out anymore. It's hard not being able to smile in class, but at least most days I don't mind them, and even the days that they're horrible, I sometimes kind of enjoy them.

It's funny how the schools seems so disciplined on the outside, but are really out of control underneath. During assembly, the students are absolutely silent. They all have their uniforms on, they line up outside of class (girls on one side, boys on the other), they stand and greet the teacher at the beginning of the period. However, inside class, they speak out of turn constantly, they talk, and they're generally out of control a lot of the time. I honestly can't remember ever having to yell at my classes this much in the US. Now, I only did teach for 5 weeks in Ohio, but my classes were so much more behaved. I'm glad that I'm experiencing this, though. Before, I had trouble discipling students and I'd never given one of those "teacher speeches." Now, I feel like I'm a master of the teacher speaches. I know many different lines to use when a student is talking or not paying attention. I can easily slide on my "mad face" and look at them sternly. It's all really an act, and I'm learning it well. I feel like if I can survive my classes here, particularly the grade 10's, I can handle anything.

I've found that I sometimes teach things differently than how they've learned things. It makes it a little awkward for me, and it's usually little things. But I realize that I'm going to have to deal with this all the time as a teacher: their teacher the year before may have taught things differently, and once I get used to it, maybe there will be a different teacher. Just a fact of the teaching life, I suppose.

I've also been learning that you have to make split second decisions about everything: "how many decimal places do I round to?" "will I have to do this on the test?" and so on. Some of them are classroom policy, like the decimal places (and I don't know what Mrs. Roberts' policy is for everything, so I give my own: 2 places), and others I can't answer because I don't know. I don't make up the tests, and the teacher who does sometimes doesn't have them ready until that day, so I don't know what is on them. It makes teaching very hard sometimes. I also know that you must have a reason for everything you do. Students will pick up on things that are unfair. "But you moved me up here because I was talking, why aren't you moving them when they talk?" You have to have a reason. I made up a new seating chart for my grade 10's, who just couldn't understand why I would do that.

I'm also starting to dislike groupwork: unless it is actually a big project, that everyone really has to do work for. They also need to be reminded of how to work in a group every single day, or they get off task. I gave the grade 8's guidelines for groupwork, and a peer and self evaluation form before we even started. They had to fill out the form at the end. Even then, they got off task. I think part of it was that they knew they weren't getting marks for the work. It didn't hurt their grade at all if they didn't do the work or didn't do it correctly. I wish I could give grades for what I wanted to do.

The teachers dress pretty much the same as teachers back home. They wear sandals a lot though, and maybe it's just a thing that I have, but I feel much more professional if I wear close toed shoes with a back.

It's starting to feel like home here, I'm very much settled in, but P.E. is definately not a place I would want to live: kind of like Athens. It's fine for a quick stay, but not to settle down in.

The little things still frustrate me the most. Shopping in the supermarket is the WORST because I don't know where anything is, if they even HAVE these things (powdered sugar and bags of chocolate chips don't exist; and I still swear they don't have sour cream), or what the different brands are. And (maybe it's just my imagination), but everyone seems so RUDE! People walk right in front of you, push past you with their shopping carts, block whole aisles, and so on. Again, maybe it's just my imagination and I'm already in a bitter mood from not being able to find anything, but it seems to me that shoppers in a grocery store have no consideration for others. Even something as simple as going to the movies is different here: first of all, you choose your seats when you purchase a ticket (if it's busy, I think they select the seats for you), and I guess you have to sit in those seats. It's kinda nice when it's a crowded theater, but still weird. Then everyone stands in long lines waiting for the theater to open up: they wait til the last minute, clean it quickly, and then let everyone file in. All the doors to theaters are right next to each other, as well: no long hallways to walk down searching for your theater (at least not at any of the 3 theaters I've been to). Speaking of movies, "V for Vendetta" is one of the most incredible movies I've seen in a long time (other than the blatent "Dell" product placement). So yeah, I still get frustrated by little things that make it obvious that I'm not at home.

Also, I've been uploading more pictures that I got from friends here, so check those out. I also tried to rename the animal pictures from Kragga Kamma, and I'm pretty sure that there were either wildebeast, or buffalo. Can't remember and can't tell anymore.

Only 3 1/2 more weeks til I come home! The countdown begins.

P.E. and Alex

By popular demand: information about my little town of P.E. (Port Elizabeth) and my school, Alex (Alexander Road High School).

One of the things I’m always struck by is how small this country is. I’m just so used to the vastness of the US that I sometimes forget that South Africa is only about as big as a few of our states pushed together. So, there are really only a few actual big cities here in S.A, with P.E. having the 5th largest population (1.1 million). It’s split into several different “areas” of town, including Walmer (where I live), Summerstrand (near the beach), Central (the old part of town, pretty dodgy at night), and a few others. It’s hard to find actual facts about P.E., since it’s marketed toward tourists. In my Lonely Planet travel guide, it says that there’s not much going on in P.E.: which is true, but it’s a nice enough place. Many people have said that they wouldn’t want to live in any town other than P.E.: cities like Jo’berg, Cape Town, and Durban are too big and cosmopolitan, while other towns are smaller and either more dangerous or there’s nothing to do. I’m also starting to feel like P.E. is home.

Alex is a very good school. I do not know how many students are at the school but I will guess about 1400. Out of hundreds of applicants to the school each year, they only admit half (there are probably about 250 in each grade). It’s very hard to get into a school if you aren’t accepted in grade 8. School fees are slightly over 8000 Rand for the year (about $1300). Grades 8 and 9 are the “juniors” and 10-12 are “seniors,” with grade 12s called Matrics. They spend the entire 4th term taking exams, but they are also treated slightly better than the other students: matrics are supposedly more responsible, plus they can wear the white sweater with their uniform instead of the brown one. Uniforms consist of: a white shirt, tie, brown sweater, brown blazer, brown skirt for girls and gray pants for boys. They also have to wear the school socks and shoes. Or, students can wear their white or red polo shirts, and a brown “skort” made out of windpant-type material for the girls or similar brown shorts for the boys. They also have brown windpants and a brown windbreaker. The uniform is extremely strict: everything is bought from the school, so it’s all the exact same. Students must wear the proper clothes together (for example, you can’t wear the white polo with the “smart” brown skirt from the first uniform). If students are in school, they’re allowed to take off the blazer and ties, but outside of school, they must be in “smart” dress at all times: with blazer and tie.

Each grade is then split into 7 groups: named after a letter (“J” “U” “N” “I” “O” “R” “S”, or “S” “E” “N” “I” “O” “R” “Z”). The juniors take all their classes with this one group of students. The seniors are split up, because they can now choose higher or lower grade classes, or opt not to take certain classes. The students are also split into 3 houses (yes, like Harry Potter!) which compete each other during athletics day, inter-house sports matches, and other things like the inter-house plays (where each house wrote, directed, and acted in their own plays). The teachers are all also assigned to a house. It’s really fun, actually.

The school building is a series of three hallways. Some of the hallways are partially outdoors. Each hallway is then connected by a walkway at each end, with grassy quads between. There are other miscellaneous buildings: the computer labs, the main hall (auditorium), and so on. Then there are the various sport fields for cricket, field hockey, rugby, tennis, netball, the swimming pool, and so on. Everything is fenced in. When I was in high school, I couldn’t understand why they called it the school “campus,” but here, I definitely can.

I’ve been here for a while now, and everything is starting to feel like second nature to me. So please, if you have any questions about the school or students or the town, ask!

Plettenburg Bay

This weekend I took a trip to the most beautiful place in the world (that I’ve seen, at least). The Sarahs (both American student teachers), myself, Dem, and Pete drove to Plettenburg Bay, a few hours west of P.E., along the coast. We got there late on Friday night, and there wasn’t much to do except check into our hostel, which I’ve heard is the best hostel along the Garden Route (the stretch of land between Capetown and P.E.), and it was really very nice. The owners are incredibly friendly and helpful. They have a beautiful backyard with hammocks and tables, and a firepit that they light nightly so you can braai.

We woke up early on Saturday to spend the morning hiking Robberg Peninsula. On the drive out there, we were finally able to see some of the gorgeous scenery. (Check out my pictures.) The people at the hostel said that we should be okay to hike in flip-flops (I brought my hiking shoes, but no one else had that much foresight!) but after a few minutes on the trail, we started to realize that maybe flip flops were not such a good idea. This was seriously a rustic trail: tiny dirt paths with a cliff right next to you, climbing up piles of rocks on one side while the other side is a nice drop down to the churning ocean, and so on. Sometimes I felt like I was rock climbing: stretching my hands out to hold on to rock while my feet searched for a new place to climb up. However, any aches and pains we may have ended up with were well worth it, if only for the views alone. At pretty much everywhere along the trail, you could look in any direction and see the most beautiful view. On one side, you could see the town and the beach. Slightly to the right were mountains on the land, with their bases shrouded in mist so they looked as if they were floating above the ocean. In front of us was a gorgeous, untouched beach to stroll across (my favorite parts of the path!). To the right: some craggy rocks, and behind us, beautiful rocky hills. Seriously, you need to check out the pictures to even get an IDEA of what it was like. Then imagine actually being there with these breathtaking views, climbing over these mountains, seeing and hearing and even tasting the ocean, and the sun shining on a lovely day. This is why I want to move to Plett.

About halfway down the Penninsula, we cut across to the other side (we took the short, 2-3 hour trail because apparently it gets dangerous at the end; after seeing the rocky cliffs we had to climb over, we were scared to see what they actually called dangerous). I saw a little log cabin near the beach, partway up one of the hills. I’m sure it’s just used as a ranger station or something, but it would be the absolute PERFECT beach house.

There was some wildlife: we saw the seal colonies, but we were so high up that they just looked like moving black specks in the water. Lots of little lizards scurried across our paths. And occasionally there was the odd rustling in the brush beside us. But the worst was the ants covering the path!

I really think South Africa has an ant problem. Every time I go hiking, there are ants everywhere. There are ants in the kitchen at home. There are ants in Sarah’s flat (and she doesn’t even have food there!) They seem like they’re taking over the country.

So anyway, after some lunch at this amazing pizza place in town (oh by the way, South Africa’s one huge food indulgence is PIZZA: they put crazy toppings on it like avocado and banana yet have never heard of pepperoni, and when you go out for pizza, each person orders their OWN whole pie!) we went down to the beach to relax. Unluckily for us, we got there just in time to enjoy about ½ hour of sunshine before the rains started. We got some meat at the Spar supermarket to braai on the fire, and spent the evening teaching the boys how to play Euchre.

The next morning we went craft shopping and headed back home, making a few stops along the way. First was Monkeyland. I’m sure it’s a really great place to visit, and the monkeys are pretty cute. However, as soon as our tour started, the rain also started. So there we were, in shorts and t-shirts, getting cold and damp, and the darn mosquitoes would not let up! Now normally I can handle a few minor mishaps, but 3 discomforts at a time (oh and I’d woken up with a head cold, so I was feeling a little foggy as well) and I’m just miserable. Plus, it was mid-day siesta time for the monkeys. So this place is really very pretty, lots of trees, and we walked through paths created by elephants years ago. Monkeys hop around overhead and you can hear them chattering far away. Monkeys are brought here to be rehabilitated into the wild, although some are too domesticated to ever become truly wild. They have monkeys who were in movies, monkeys who used to wear the vest and carry cymbals, and monkeys who were just plain pets. So some of them are very tame, really like people, and hang out by the gift shop and restaurant (although you still can’t touch or go near them). Pretty cool. At the end of the tour, you walk along a 120 meter rope bring strung up in the canopy (good for seeing monkeys, at least when it’s not raining).

We then stopped at a petrol station/restaurant/shops near Tsitsikamma, near a long, scary bridge that’s pretty famous but I can’t for the life of me remember the name of. The most important thing about this place, to me, is that they have GREAT biltong (like jerky) and I even got some ostrich “droewors” which is like a sausagey piece of jerkey. The kudu biltong = delicious, the ostrich droewors = not so good. Very tough, not very flavorful, just all around blah meat.

On Monday night, back in P.E., the new Sarah from America dragged us to see the Drakensburg Boys Choir. I initially just went along for something to do, and it was cheap, but my mind was positively blown. The boys at this school (grades 4 through 9) go here to basically refine their voices. They have 2 1-hour choir practices daily. You can tell that it’s a very good school: the boys were very well mannered, and their voices were incredible. Since many of them were so young, they could really hit the high notes. During the first half, they sang many traditional songs that I don’t know the names of but sounded beautiful. They also sang songs that I know, like “Long Hard Night” and “Yellow Submarine,” as well as “You Make Me Wanna Shout.” I definitely enjoyed those. After the intermission, however, was my favorite part. They sang traditional African songs, played traditional African instruments, and danced traditional African dances. The diversity amazed me: not only did they sing songs in English and Afrikaans earlier, but now they’re singing in Xhosa, Zulu, and even songs from other countries like Zimbabwe. I have videos I’m going to steal from Sarah’s camera and bring back home on my laptop, so if you want to see, let me know.

Week 6

Not too much is going on at school. I changed my schedule so that I am only in 1 classroom, with 1 teacher’s classes: switching around was nice when I was only observing, but it’s horrible being a travelling teacher. I now teach 3 of my classes, which is a full 3 hours a day of what I call a “performance.” This is why teaching is such a demanding job (at least for newbies like me): you spend the entire classtime “acting”: you must have prepared your day in advance, you go into the classroom, put on your “teacher face,” and then make sure you always act like you’re in control (even when you’re going crazy in your mind). Plus, the grade 10 class alone is enough to give me a headache for a week. I am again realizing why it was that I decided I want to teach middle school.

My grade 8’s are wonderful. They listen well, they don’t talk out of turn, and I actually have FUN teaching them: they give me a lot of energy in class, and I know I can make jokes and do fun things with them. One of the grade 8 classes got ahead of the other class (due to the math fair, more on that later), so we had a fun day where I put the students into groups and put some problems on the board (the Frecklehammer puzzle and the Locker problem were my 2 favorites). The groups competed to see who could solve each puzzle first, and I had candy for the winning teams. It was a great time. I love being able to try out new activities with them.

We don’t take any grades other than their tests and a few assignments set up by the grade head. So, sometimes it’s hard to see where the students are and how much they’re REALLY “getting it.” I tried an idea I heard somewhere: I gave a short, 5-question quiz, made sure the students did NOT write their names on the paper, collected the papers and then redistributed them for grading. I went over each problem on the overhead and the students marked the papers. Then I asked for scores (“raise your hand if the paper got 10 of 10 marks” and so on). It was a nice, easy way to quickly evaluate how much of the class really understands this subject. Then, after I set the students to work on an assignment, I sat down with the test papers and looked over the mistakes students made. By the end of the class period, I was able to go over a few major misconceptions on the board, for everyone to see. Not as nice as working individually with every student, but a lot more realistic.

I should also mention the math fair the school held on Tuesday. Students from each class (in pairs or alone) prepared a booth with a math puzzle, brainteaser, or critical thinking activity. They then sat at their booth in the Heart (the cafeteria) for 4 hours on Tuesday. Each hour, one of the grades would come in and try to solve as many puzzles as they could, winning a piece of candy if they answered correctly. I absolutely loved it (you all know how much I love math puzzles!), not only because I had all these cool activities to keep my mind working, and not only because I was able to talk to my students and interact with them outside of the classroom, but mostly because the kids had a great time. I think it’s the most beautiful thing when you can just watch a roomful of kids having FUN with math. We rarely, if ever, have the classtime to devote to critical thinking exercises, and so our students really miss out on one of the most important skills you learn in math. Anyway, the math fair was such a success, I’m going to keep the idea in mind, and maybe in a few years I can plan one at my school. Any math teachers reading this: I recommend you do the same!

I took a trip to one of the smaller game parks with some friends on Sunday. You pay a small fee per person (this place, Kragga Kamma, was only 30 Rand, which is about $5), drive through the gate, and you’re pretty much on your own. It was absolutely amazing to see these incredibly tall giraffes standing right next to the road, crossing directly in front of your car. It’s such a weird feeling. We saw several different kinds of antlered animals, rhino, monkeys, giraffes, zebra, and warthogs. However, there was one small problem: About 5 minutes after we drove through the gate, the low fuel light came on in Dem’s car. There we were, alone in the wilderness, holding our pamphlet with instructions such as, “do not get out of the car!” and “do not make loud noises.” I was absolutely terrified, but we rolled on down the dirt road at a nice slow pace. We got to the cheetah section, where you have to go through not one, but TWO gates to ensure the cheetahs don’t escape and attack the zebras, I assume. I just KNEW we were going to run out petrol (their name for gas here) and be stuck in the cheetah pen, with the big cats stalking around our car and clawing at our windows as we waited helplessly to be rescued. Also at around that time, everyone lost their cell phone signals. Fortunately, the cheetahs were in a connected pen that day (maybe they were about to be fed?) and we didn’t run out of petrol: not in the cheetah pen, not anywhere in the next 2 hours we spent at the game park, and not even on the way home. I was very impressed with the car’s ability to run on fumes. So anyway, the views from the game park were absolutely breathtaking. The weather helped with that: the slight mist we could see in the distance at one point turned into rain when we drove into it, and then suddenly the sun was shining around the next hill. Amazing. The weather changes several times a day here in P.E. I took a ton of pictures, so definitely check them out. At the time that I posted them, I didn’t have my book naming the animals; so some of the antlered beasts don’t have names yet (I think labelled them all springbok, but they’re definitely not). So I will be sure to change those to the correct names soon.

Now, onto the cultural things I feel like mentioning this week, mostly revolving around food:

Cream soda is lime green.

Also, I haven’t mentioned it already; their lemonade here is actually just like sprite.

They have no idea what Dr. Pepper or Root Beer tastes like. And they’re REALLY hard to describe.

Phrases like “is it?” instead of “really?” and “hectic,” which seems to describe everything. Then there’s “shame!” and “oh my word!” which I really like as well.

I STILL can’t get over the no-refills thing. It’s so weird to go somewhere and buy a couple rounds of Coke. I relish every drop of my soda and I feel bad wasting any of it.

And I’ve had lots of questions about wine/beer, so here we go: They don’t have “light beer” here, it’s mostly dark lager. The only brands I recognize are MGD, and imports like Corona, Heineken, and so on. They don’t have anything like Bud Light, Busch Light, etc (sorry, mom and dad!). The wine that you get here is made here, so it’s all incredibly cheap. A lot of the wine is very very sweet, which I don’t like, but in general, the wine is pretty good. They serve alcohol EVERYWHERE, every restaurant and even COFFEE SHOPS. It’s very weird to see a cocktail list after the coffee and sandwich list.

The most important blog post you'll ever read

Today was one of the worst days of my life, but also one of the most influential.

Linda arranged for me to go to school today with one of her friends, Gail, who happens to teach math in Uitenhage township: at an all black school. This friend happens to be white woman in her mid forties with a very nice house in a very nice area of town, so on the drive to school, I asked her what made her want to teach in one of the township schools. Basically, she began teaching there 20 years ago because teachers were not required to coach sports (the only team the school has is rugby, which apparently they’re very good at: they’re the only black school that can give the white schools darn good competition) and she wanted to be able to go home early and spend time with her children and her family.

The townships are areas on the outskirts of the cities that the government forced people to live in. The townships around P.E. were designated for members of the Xhosa tribe (pronounced “Cosa” with kind of a click at the beginning; or not, if you can’t do the click). People were not allowed to leave the township unless they had permission from the government. Even though they’re trying to rebuild parts of the townships, they’re still all black and very poor. As soon as we entered the township, I could instantly see that this used to be a city on it’s own. It was bustling with life; people were streaming down the sides of the road, on their way to school or work. There were little shops along the side of the road, with paint peeling off their signs; and people sitting at the side of the road to sell food they grew or made.

The school can fit a little over 1000 students, and currently they have 1,600 students. With only about 45 teachers, this means most classes have over 60 students. In addition to this, 7 teachers are about to be fired by the government, because they have an excess of “commerce” teachers and not enough to meet the technology demands. The teachers sat in meetings last week trying to decide who among them would be let go. Finally, their union stepped in and told them to boycott the meetings: it’s not fair for this kind of pressure to be placed on them. However, even though the government is firing 7 teachers, they will not pay for more math or science teachers to be hired. Instead, they hire helpers (people who can’t find another job) for about 500 Rand a month (that’s less than $100, folks) to cover the extra classes. The principal only comes to school once a week, if that, and he is leaving at the end of the term (there are 4 terms in a year, and this is the first term right now). They doubt that they will find a replacement.

We walk into the school and I am introduced to several of the black teachers. I hold out my hand to shake hands with the first one I meet, but she pulls me in for a hug. The other teachers also greet me with a hug.

The windows to classrooms are broken, and some of the ground floor windows don’t have bars over them. Many of the locks on classroom doors are also broken: thus, it’s easy for community members and students to hop over the gate at night and hang out in the classrooms. Teachers can’t leave ANYTHING in their classrooms, not even chalk or erasers.

I was immediately struck by the trash, everywhere. Students sweep up the classrooms, the hallway, and the stairs every day, but it just continues to accumulate. Wrappers, cans, newspapers, and other trash is just dropped by the students wherever they go. The little grassy courtyard between two of the buildings is littered with trash.

I quickly realized that the school doesn’t run on a schedule. There were no morning meetings or coffee made for us, luxuries I’ve grown accustomed to at Alex. School is supposed to start at 8 AM, but the bell didn’t ring until 8:15, and even then, the teachers took a long time getting to their classrooms. Many teachers didn’t show up, and the students just sat in the classrooms or outside, talking. I went with another white teacher, Theo, to his classroom around this time. Students were still wandering in at 8:30. The teacher left to track down his students, and I looked around the classroom. It was bare, with the exception of a few desks. Student came in carrying chairs or broken parts of chairs. There is a chalkboard at the front of the room, and a bulletin board filled with graffiti at the back. Actually, there is graffiti on every surface in the room. Most of it is names, but there are some messages like “I hate you” scrawled over the walls. There is a gaping hole in the ceiling. In addition to the trash littering the floor, there is dust everywhere: you can feel it floating through the air. There is shortage of desks and chairs, so students move them from room to room. This classroom only accumulated a few chairs, so students share them, sit on the floor and the desks, or just lean against the wall.

Theo comes back and introduces me to the 40 some students who have showed up to class today. He says that I am from the US and they all hoot and clap. They’re so excited to meet me just because of where I am from. Students in the back are taking pictures of me with their camera-phones. I feel like a celebrity. I tell them a little about where I’m from and ask if they have any questions. The classroom is hot, you can hear students outside talking (either their teacher didn’t show up or they don’t feel like going to class), and everyone inside the class is talking as well, so it’s hard for students to focus and hard for me to hear the questions. I pull out my pictures to show the class and it’s chaos. All 40 students crowd around me, so I hold out my 3 separate photo albums and let them pass them around. One girl told me she wants to marry my brother. I pull out my camera to take pictures and it’s more chaos. Everyone wants a picture taken of them. The students sing a few Xhosa songs for me, and I record a video with my camera. They love it: dancing and jumping in front of the camera, shouting the song at the top of their lungs. When the bell rings, I don’t hear it. I almost doubt that it even rang.

In surprising contrast to the condition of the school, the students all seem well groomed. Everyone wears the required uniform, and although they don’t look as sharp as the Alex students, they still look very nice and clean. Theo is a rugby coach, and some of the boys come to him in the morning to receive a little packet of meal; they mix it up with water and it’s probably the only food they will eat that day.

School is only compulsory until grade 9, but most students choose to continue. It’s very rare for a student to leave school until Grade 12, when they either pass or fail. It’s common for students to fail here, because some of them cannot speak a word of English. But, this is an English-instructed school, and the students were expected to have been taught in English at primary school (where many of the Xhosa teachers cannot speak English themselves). Their parents want them to go here because: 1. It’s the best school in the area, and 2. they realize that English is language of business. And so students are being taught math, science, and literature in a language they don’t understand. These students will get pushed along until they fail matric in grade 12.

Theo teaches History: he showed me the curriculum and topics they have to cover: There were headings such as race, human rights, the UN, American Civil Rights Movement, Apartheid.

The next class period, I went with Gail to her math class. The students don’t even have textbooks: she has to photocopy pages for them, using her own paper or scraps of paper she can find. The school has a copy machine, but doesn’t provide paper for them. In class, only about 10-15 minutes are actually used for real instruction time. There are interruptions constantly. Gail gives me time at the end of class to talk to the students. This is a grade 10 class, which can have students from age 14-20. I got many of the typical questions: Do you know any celebrities? What kind of food do you eat? (Apparently they eat “smilies,” which is a goat’s head cut in half: they asked if I eat things like that in America.) They asked questions about America, and what the schools and kids are like. They also asked me personal questions, like my age, why I’m here, what I think of South Africa, if I’m married or have children. This class is where I started to feel the negative effects of my newfound celebrity as the American. The students wanted to get pictures with me, and as soon as I agreed and they saw the camera, they all came running to that side of the room and jumped into the picture. Everyone wanted to stand by me and touch me and hold my hand and give me hugs. I was okay with the pictures and hugs when there was just one or two students, but with a huge crowd pushing at me, I finally told them no. I know their intentions were good, but I almost felt violated: I am the only American they’ve probably ever met, and they all wanted to be near me and take a piece of me. Then boys would wink and smile at me, flirting from the back of the class. Being a young, white, American female in a chaotic school where the students have never met an American and some students are the same age as me, I started to feel a little scared. The feeling continued when I was walking between buildings and could feel all the students staring at me and taking pictures with their phones, and I even heard some whistles. Most of the students would just politely smile and wave at me, but I couldn’t shake the creepy “celebrity” feeling of being stalked. It’s the only time I’ve ever felt scared at a school. I’ve also heard horror stories recently: for example, on a bus going into a township, everyone attacked the only white man on the bus, beat him, killed him, and burned him. I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s scary to be a minority in a place where you’re clearly an outsider, you don’t understand the language, and you don’t know the culture.

Part of the scared feeling I had at school might have to do with the discipline: there is none. The teachers can’t do anything. They used to have detention, after school and on weekends, but without a principal and no organization, they no longer have that. Also, students just wouldn’t show up. According to the teachers, since corporal punishment was outlawed, teachers have no control over their classes. There’s no violence; I didn’t see any fights or weapons, but there’s just plain chaos.

One of the worst things I was told today was that this is one of the best schools in the township. I was told by the white teachers how lazy the black teachers are: since they grew up in schools where academics weren’t a major concern and teachers were lazy, they think that’s how school is and they’re now perpetuating the cycle. I don’t know if this is true or if it’s a touch of racism coming out (although before making these comments, both Gail and Theo assured me that they were not being racist).

Again, people made the comment that things were better under Apartheid: something you would only hear from white people! The school was functioning and clean, and teachers and students came to school. At this time, the majority of teachers were white, and although the children wanted the teachers to come to school, in the late 80’s the community did not want white teachers. They had to have police escorts take them into school, and snipers on the roofs to keep them safe while school was in session.

At lunch, several teachers left to go to a memorial service for the grandmother of a student. At the end of break, they still hadn’t returned, so the bell didn’t ring until ½ hour later. That class period only lasted 20 minutes, and since the teachers never did return, many students were stuck without teachers. Around this time, the steady stream of students leaving the school grounds started. I actually didn’t blame them: if the teachers don’t even think it’s worth it, why should they stay?

The worst part is that the teachers hate it there. Everyone complained and complained: it was a horrible environment. By 10 AM, the teachers and the students had already worn me down so much that I could barely stand it. Thankfully, Gail and I left early, since none of her students showed up for her last class.

When I got home, I felt covered in dust and grime. You know the feeling you have on your hands after shopping at Goodwill? I had that feeling all over. I had to shower, brush my teeth, and change my clothes before I began to feel a little better. The problem is that I can clean the dust from my clothes and hair; but I can’t shake the feelings that I got from being in this environment. Sitting in on 5 classes throughout the day, I only saw about 45 minutes of actual teaching. (Admittedly, some of this was due to teachers giving me the floor to talk to the students and so on, but I was appalled by the amount of time wasted and not spent in class). How can students learn like this?

Week 4 down

First of all, anyone watch the Oscars? South Africa was representing with a Best Foreign Language Film win for “Tsotsi.” And now, my observations for the week:

The insects are huge here! There are these giant beetles that you can see scurrying through the house sometimes. I found one in my bedroom one night, and I tried to capture it so I could throw it out the window or something. But as I tried to catch this huge beetle, I realized that it was more scared of me than I was of it. I let it stay in my room and found it laying on its back, feet in the air, dead, outside my bedroom door in the morning. Then there are the rain spiders: they’re not too bad because they only come out when it rains, and since it’s still summer, that’s not often. But when they do come out, you see them hiding in corners of the house. The one that I saw was maybe only half the size of my hand, but I’ve heard they can get as big as your hand. Not looking forward to it.

Restaurants are so different here. Not even fast food is fast. They do have McDonalds and KFC, but I refuse to eat there while I’m here, so that may be actual fast food. Every single restaurant is sit-down. There are very very few that allow you to order at the counter and then sit down and wait for your food to be brought to do. The two big fast food chains here are Steers and Wimpy (isn’t that the worst name for a burger joint EVER? No one ever says, “man, I’m so hungry for a wimpy burger!”) and even these two places are sit-down, with a waitress and everything. So as you can see, meals tend to last a long time. If you go to a nice restaurant, you can be guaranteed to have time to thoroughly look through the menu, and you will definitely finish your appetizer or salad before your entrée arrives. Usually you have to flag down the server and ask for the check, because they leave you there for a while. You can count on dinner lasting about 2 hours. It’s actually really nice and relaxing. Then, my favorite part: everywhere you go, even if you just get coffee, brings you mints with the check. They also hate splitting the check, and sometimes they really can’t, so you have to make sure you have cash on you (and small bills!) In addition to the “no free refills,” which still weirds me out, they don’t have “diet” coke or sprite: they have “coke light” and “sprite light.”

I went to see a movie with friends the other day: “North Country,” with Charlize Theron. By now you should know (I’ve told almost everyone) that she is from South Africa. She is Afrikaans, which means she naturally has a thick accent. When she went to Hollywood, she locked herself in a room for months listening to TV and the radio and practicing an American accent (she’s good, isn’t she?). Also, she changed her name, or at least the pronunciation of it: in Afrikaans, Theron is pronounced “te-rone.” South Africans aren’t very happy about her “Americanizing” her name to get acting jobs.

Although it’s not safe to park in certain areas at night, there are parking attendants who patrol the parking lots for you. At the beach during the day, or in large parking lots at night, they see you get out of your car and they yell to you, “I watch your car!” Then when you come back to your car to leave, you have to tip them. I guess it’s cheaper than paying a parking meter, and much safer.

One thing I promised myself before I came here was that I would make the time to get out and do things that I didn’t have time to do in the US. So, I have not turned down a single opportunity or invitation to go out. I have joined up with two of the sports teams (road running, we do about 3 km’s twice a week, and dancesport on Thursday evenings) and an adult ballroom dance class. Also, I’m apparently very good at bowling here (a talent that never appeared when I bowled in the US). Either that, or the people I went with were REALLY bad. The school had BEAT (Be Entertained by Alex Talent) one evening, which was an open stage for students to share their poetry, music, dancing, and so on. It was great to see all the different cultures represented, and hear the African drumming, chanting, and dancing. On Saturday, there was a band spit-braai: a braai is like a barbeque, and they made lamb (so good!). This was kind of like their band concert, only the band played as kind of background music between dinner courses. There are 3 bands at the school, for different age/ability levels, and they are all incredibly talented.

Now about my teaching….

I’ve been teaching my 2 grade 8 classes for about a week now, and I love the students. They are very polite, part of which has to do with the rules of the school. They must line up outside your classroom door, boys on one side, girls on the other, and wait to be invited in. They then stand at their desks, wait for you to say good morning, they say good morning back and sit. It’s very nice. Of course, they’re not perfect: you often have to wait for them to quiet down to say good morning, but usually the students who see you waiting say “shh!” to the rest of the class. They also tend to speak out during class a lot: at least the 2 classes I have are absolutely horrible about raising their hands.

Since there was a public holiday on Wednesday (municipal elections), I only taught Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. On Tuesday, we marked a review sheet and I passed out another one. I had the first class get into pairs with the person sitting beside them to work. In the second class, they had only had to do half of the review sheet for homework, but some had already finished. Since the students were all at different places, I passed out the homework assignment at the beginning and had everyone work individually. We slowly went over each question on the review sheet (4 or 5 at a time, as students finished) until the end of the class. It’s amazing how much more work was completed in the second class (the class that was “behind”) as opposed to the first one (who worked in groups). I think a lot of talking was happening, but not necessarily about math. I like groupwork and I think it can really help students who are struggling, but we might need to practice this or set a timeline for them to have a certain number of problems done by a certain time. Thursday, we went over the homework and the students had a short, 4-question class test. The grades were very disappointing.

The students are just not getting order of operations, or as they call it here, order of working. I think it’s a confusing concept anyway, but they don’t really teach it the same here. They have students circle each term, simplify inside terms, and then combine like terms. There is a saying to help you remember what to do: BODMAS (brackets, of, division, multiplication, addition, subtraction) which is like our PEMDAS, but they don’t use it to teach order of working in grade 8: they use terms. I think part of the reason my classes are having such a hard time is that they don’t actually get much direct instruction about what the order of working is and how they need to think through each problem. They get a lot of practice time in class, and many many examples written on the board, but I could see this being a waste of time if they really have no clue what the correct order is. On Friday/Monday (one class meets Monday, the other meets Friday), instead of going over the test like teachers usually do, I just gave them the correct answers. I went over on the board the concepts that were being consistently missed, and reminded them what order they must do certain operations. Then, I put the students in groups of 2 (just with the person sitting beside them, to save time moving around) and had them work together to figure out how to do each problem. I also had them write one sentence for each mark missed, explaining what they did and why they missed it. I am having them finish this for homework and then turn in their corrections and sentences with the test on Tuesday. On Tuesday they also have a grade wide (control) test over order of working and some concepts covered earlier. They had a review sheet to do on Thursday for homework, which we also went over on Friday/Monday. Hopefully the review and the test corrections will help.

Sometimes I feel limited in the fact that I cannot create my own projects or assignments for grades; but then I realize that students will do the assignments even if they aren’t graded on it. They have to, or they will get an academic default and detention. It’s really nice, but it’s so different from what I’m used to that it’s hard to wrap my mind around.

I’m still working on pronouncing my students’ names: I have a seating chart, but about half the names are something I’ve never seen before. It disrupts the class if I say a name wrong, because the kids all laugh. 8th graders will laugh at ANYTHING.

I like one thing that Mrs. Emery does with her classes (Grade 10 and 12): she will have the students put all pens and pencils down, then will go through one of the exercises (maybe 10 or 15 problems) outloud, asking students for the answers. When they’ve finished, she will assign that exercise for homework. She says that this way, they get practice doing each problem 2 or 3 times. I think it’s a good idea for things like trigonometry proofs, where students have a hard time knowing where to start, or for the introduction of a lesson, but I don’t think the process should be abused. It’s definitely something that I will try, though.

They pray in the schools, which at first caught me off guard; I thought, “What are they doing? You can’t do this at a school assembly!” until I realized I was in another country with other laws. It’s funny how you consciously KNOW that the laws are different, but you’re still surprised when you come across one. They read bible verses, sing hymns, and pray at school assemblies, even though many of the students and teachers are Muslim or Hindu.

I do enjoy this experience better than my student teaching in the US. I’m meeting more teachers and seeing different methods of teaching, and the environment is really much happier. It seems that the teachers in the US can be beaten down and disgruntled, whereas here, they seem more content. You can feel the atmosphere in the staff room: instead of whining about the students and teaching like in the US, we discuss things outside of school. It’s a refreshing break during the day. Now, I know that not every school and teacher in the US is like that, but from the schools I have seen in Athens County, many of them are.

Top 5

Top 5 things I dislike about P.E.:

1. No brewed coffee. Okay, occasionally Rob will make a pot of coffee, and if you go out to a restaurant, they usually have brewed coffee. But everywhere else (school, home) everyone drinks this instant coffee called "Nescafe." It's not bad, but I just love the taste of good, brewed coffee.

2. Words and phrases like "zed" (for Z) and "not" (i'm not sure how it's spelled but it sounds a lot like "node") for zero. In math class the kids look at me funny when I say Z and zero. I am trying to adapt to the culture and learn some of the words that they use here, but I just can't make myself give up zero and z. Also, I hate the phrase "I'll see you just now" or "I'm leaving just now." It's so ambiguous. It can mean soon, later, in a while, in a few minutes, and so on.

3. The crime. There isn't much violent crime, but a lot of theft. It seems that everyone I meet can tell you how many times their car has been broken into or attempted to be broken into (and usually its more than 5). I know that things like this happen in the US, but here it seems that theft and muggings are almost a fact of life.

4. Being a pedestrian or a passenger in a car. For the first week, I felt like I was going to die every time I got into a car. I admit that part of it was driving on the left hand side of the road. But still, driving here is horrible. Even my host family, who are very good drivers, roll through stop signs, occasionally run a red light when no one's coming and it takes forever.... It can be scary. Also, pedestrians NEVER have the right of way. Cars never slow down if they see someone at the side of the road or crossing in front of them. They also rarely let you cross one of the side streets if they want to turn down that street. You really have to be aware of the traffic all around you.

5. Horrible public transportation. They do have some taxis that you can call to pick you up, but they are expensive. The "taxis" that you usually see are not something you want to take. They're basically big white vans that fit 16 people, but often they pack more into them. The vehicles are not fit to be on the road: I've heard that some don't have steering wheels, just a stick they swing back and forth. They also do not obey traffic laws. On Saturday a taxi ran a light and crashed into a big truck, killing almost everyone inside the taxi (there were 25 people crammed into the vehicle). Very tragic.


And now, just so that my mother doesn't worry TOO much about me (I'm sure I gave her a heart attack from those last 5)... 5 things I LOVE about P.E.:

1. The accents!!! They're so uniquely South African, and the accents in this province, the Eastern Cape, are even different. I love walking through stores hearing people talk because you hear such a variety of languages: theres the Xhosa, the Afrikaans, then a lot of people are British, and then my favorite is what I call the South African accent. When I hear Americans talk, our voices just sound so weak.

2. People here are so amazingly friendly. And once they hear the American accent, they love to talk to you and ask all kinds of questions. Everyone is willing to help you out and give advice and take you places and show you things and tell you all about South Africa. Also, the guys are super polite: every time I go out with my guy friends here, they give me the front seat in the car and then buy me all my drinks. It's very nice.

3. Rugby. It's on TV all the time, and you always see people playing at the beach. It's such an exciting sport. My favorite part on TV is when you see a huge pile up of people, and the action stops for a few seconds... then suddenly you see the ball come flying out of the pack of people and someone grabs it and starts running and the action is back on.

4. The gorgeous beaches and warm Indian Ocean. Also, the craft/flea market at the beach on Sundays. My favorite place to go on the weekends.

5. "Big City Life." One of the popular songs that I hear every time I go out. I didn't like it at first, but it starts to grow on you. It's a good dance song.