Things have been a little busy around here lately, but here's the latest newsletter update I've just sent out.
School Life
So I'm now into week 4 of the Christmas Term here at ARMS. I think I'm starting to get into a routine. Here are some things I find interesting about school.
Every day, the bell rings and the students line up at 8:45 outside the main academic building. They are not allowed to enter the building before class starts. Just outside the building there's a covered pavilion area, with a podium and two speakers. A microphone is hooked up and any announcements are made. Announcements can range from encouraging the students not to litter, informing them of assemblies later in the day, club meeting time reminders etc. The national pledge and school prayer are recited by all students. The students, who are lined up by their base (homeroom) classes, then proceed into the building in what is supposed to be an orderly fashion. It's certainly more organized than the chaos I remember following the bell in high school. The teachers are expected to inspect the students during the walk in and base class time to make sure their uniforms are appropriate. Every student has to have a monogrammed badge with the school logo on it. The boys often get in trouble for having belt buckles that are too big or leaving the second button of their shirt undone (top button undone is ok). Common offenses for girls involve improper styling of hair (braids or ponytails are expected for the most part) or too much jewelery. Once in base class, attendance is taken. All this is supposed to take place in 15 minutes, though it rarely does. When this happens, first period is just shorter. Irregular scheduling will be a recurring theme of “School Life.”
As far as class itself goes, the students stay in their base classes while the teachers rotate around. This has its advantages and downsides. One positive is that there is no hustle and bustle during class changes, as only 45 or so teachers are moving about instead of 1,000+ students. It also means that the kids in their classes get to know each other very well. For the most part, they spend the first 3 years in the same base class, then get split up into tracks where they spend 2 more years together. So I think it helps greatly as far as student bonding goes. On the other hand, it's not very useful to spend a lot of time putting a lot of instructional material up in your classroom, since for the most part you won't be teaching in there. Class changes are governed by an electric school bell out in the covered pavilion. Someone has to throw a switch to ring it, so sometimes the bell is late, sometimes early and sometimes it doesn't ring at all. The bell is also outside the school building so sometimes it can be hard to hear, adding to the intrigue. Students get a 30 minute break in the morning, and an hour break at lunch. After lunch the lineup and march into the school is repeated, giving way to afternoon classes.
Almost all the administrative work that classroom teachers go through to make a school work anywhere in the world (department meetings, club meetings, paperwork etc) happens during the day. So that means for clubs and meetings, you can meet during break or lunch, or just whenever you want during the day. Inevitably, when these meetings run over, teachers have to stick around and wrap up. While this is going on, the students in whatever class you're supposed to be in are just left unsupervised. The same thing happens when teachers who are organizing things like sports and have things they have to attend to, their students are left unsupervised. There are no substitute teachers in Guyana, so if a teacher is sick or takes leave, the students are left unsupervised. Sometimes the bell will ring for staff meetings in the middle of class. When this happens, all the teachers leave their students, you guessed it, unsupervised. If this sounds like a recipe for disaster, you'll be pleased to hear that for the most part, things stay pretty orderly. I haven't heard about any school fights, and only occasionally have I had to stick my head in a next door classroom because the noise was disturbing my class. I have in general been very impressed with the students discipline and behavior.
As far as coursework goes, I'm just beginning to start asking for some graded assignments in my classes. The official school policy is to have at least 3 graded assignments per term, one of which should be a test. This excludes final exams, which happen during the second-to-last week of school, so most students are given 4 assessments per term. I plan to do a lot more because that's what I'm used to and it helps me ensure my students are learning, but I think it will also mean that I have a lot of grading to do. The school has a photocopier, but it is currently not working and I have been warned not to hold my breath for its repair, so all assignments must be written on a chalkboard and copied down by students. The school has a library with some books and I believe all students have received textbooks for maths and english classes, but for other courses, books are scarce. From what I have heard from teachers at other schools, I am very fortunate to have a library of any sort! Book scarcity means that teachers have a certain responsibility to provide content in note form, so the students have something to study for their exams. This results in a lot of writing notes on the board to be copied down, which is not the most stimulating practice for teachers or students, but that is the reality facing these students. On top of that they have been doing this for a long time, so they're pretty good at taking notes from a chalkboard. The chalkboards, by the way, are all plywood painted black. Some of them are nicely finished and are a pleasure to write on, but some are very rough and just devour chalk. Also, they're magnets for graffiti. Sometimes I'm impressed with the students ability to read what I'm writing through the accumulated chalk dust and the gouges in the board, but I guess they have a lot of experience in that regard. In general, I've found the students to be pretty delightful. They generally behave themselves, are a little quiet but are willing to answer questions after some prodding and have a surprising love for learning and attending school. I'm not sure if its just a fuzzy memory or the reality, but I have been pleasantly surprised with the students versus my expectations based on my own time in high school. So despite all the things that certainly seemed chaotic during my first few days of school, I have settled into as much of a routine as I can manage, am thoroughly enjoying teaching and am now working on improving my teaching techniques.
Dorm Life, Part 2
Keith and I are still being put up in the dorms. There are about 115 kids staying in the dorms. The building is 3 stories. The boys (and the two foreign teachers) are up on the third floor. The girls and two dorm mothers (normally they are one to a floor) are on the second floor. The first floor holds the cafeteria and kitchen. The kids have free time after school until 5pm, when dinner is served. They use this time to do laundry, play cricket, hang out outside, play table tennis and otherwise relax. After dinner, the kids have mandatory study time from 6-8pm in the cafeteria. At 8, the students go upstairs and have some more free time, until around 9pm. At 8pm, once all the kids are inside, the dorm mother locks the door. So Keith and I have been locked out a few times, but its not too hard to shout up or call someone with our cell phones to get let in. If we are on the ball, we can also ask the dorm mother to just leave the door closed but not locked for us, which also helps immensely. On the weekends the children have free time all day and then have game time from 6-8pm outside. There is a lot of cricket played. They also really love volleyball, but there is only one ball, which I have been placed in charge of. A few weekends ago I played some frisbee with the kids as well, which they enjoyed. Hopefully I'll have them playing proper ultimate frisbee by the end of the year. I did play a little cricket with them the other day as well. All those years of shunning softball and baseball have really come back to haunt me!! I whiffed on quite a few easy bowls (pitches). I think I just need a little bit more practice. While the swing is different, the bat is wider, so I think I might become soundly mediocre by the end of the year.
School Sports
Last week we had school sports. When someone first told me about school sports, I was assuming they were talking about a variety of teams that formed throughout the year and competed after school. You know, pretty much what I experienced in high school. Boy was I wrong. In the 7th grade, students entering the school are placed in a “house.” As far as I know, the only purpose of the house is to group the students into teams for sports. At ARMS there are 7 houses. For school sports, each house is assigned two teachers to serve as house master and mistress. Other teachers are also assigned to houses to support these teachers. I was assigned as house master of house 5. Each house is given a color and name, and the name is based on a lake somewhere in the Essequibo Coast region. House 5 was given Ikuraka and the color yellow. No one I talked to knew where Lake Ikuraka was.
So as house master, I had a variety of responsibilities that I knew nothing about. Fortunately I had an excellent, veteran house mistress so I was not completely fed to the wolves. Firstly, school sports only consists of track and field events. Nothing out of the ordinary (sprints, distance runs, jumping throwing etc). Each event was separated into age and gender categories (boys under 14 200M for example). Teacher duties for the house involved facilitating the election of students to house boy and girl positions, filling all the events, providing snacks for the first day of sports and lunch for the second day of sports, creating a banner and determining what the house uniform would be. Filling all the events proved tricky because when we would dismiss the students from their 6th and 7th periods at the end of the day for house meetings, the older students would scatter to the winds. So it took some effort to hunt them down and “encourage” them to sign up for events. Its a job I call House Truancy Officer. The banner and uniform were judged as part of a parade at the opening of the track events. Participants and winners for all the events score points for their houses. We fortunately had a student whose father paints signs for a living, and were able to arrange for him to paint our banner, so it looked very snazzy. We had yellow sashes and yellow posterboard hats for the march. I helped the house mistress cook some fried rice for lunch on the second day in the dorm kitchen (that's a tale for another day - I've never cooked in a wok the size of a Mini Cooper before!).
So after spending almost a full weeks worth of no 6th and 7th periods, we had two days of school sports. There was no class for anyone on either day. The field events came first. All the students theoretically watched their classmates compete in all sorts of events. Because all the teachers were either busy making sure things were going smoothly with their house or monitoring the events, there weren't any bodies available to keep an eye on students who decided to wander off. Also, the field events were held mostly between the dorms and main office building, so it was a bit cramped for all the students to fit in, so there was some allowable spillover. For the most part, I think this was tolerable and I didn't hear about any incidents. However, being in charge of a house means you're responsible for making sure the students that signed up for events actually participate in the event. While there were a few megaphones set up to make announcements, their range was pretty limited. So I had to embark on what I call House Truancy Officer 2: What Did That Kid Look Like? The events went pretty well and were quite enjoyable. I noticed that none of the students doing the high jump employed the Fosbury Flop. Then someone pointed out to me that the landing area consisted of a couple of old mattresses and some pads that looked older than I am. So it was hurdling all the way. ARMS has quite an impressive collection of jumpers and throwers. At the end of the day, the teachers all tried their hands at the throws. Having never thrown a javelin, discus or shot put before, I was pleased to say that I managed to throw them all properly and keep them in bounds. I did not set any school records however, and was surpassed by all the other teachers.
On the second day of school sports, we went out to the schools field, which was freshly mowed. Here we had all the banners presented and the parade. Each house marched around the track in their colors, carrying their banners and leading chants. It was pretty fun. They had two sheds set up to shelter us from the heat, which was nice. Finding athletes was again a challenge, but by now I had moved on to something I call House Truancy Officer 3: The Delegator. I'd just ask nearby students if they knew the child in question and when I found one that did, sent them off to find them. I found this method to be much more efficient. As far as the events went, the students were again impressive. Most students ran without shoes. There were a few teacher events, including the 100M dash (I finished 3rd out of 5 I think), and then at the end of the day, the lime and spoon (think egg and spoon race but without the danger of breaking your egg) and the balloon toss. My partner and I tied with another house for balloon toss champs. I think we were robbed though because the balloon developed a tiny hole which eventually led to our downfall while the other team went out by dropping their balloon.
On the balance, our house finished 3rd overall. Not bad for a first time house captain and makeshift rice cook, I think. The top athletes from the school will go on to compete in inter-school competition, which will take up 2 days next week (more missed class for everyone!). The best inter-school athletes will go on to inter-branch (I think within the entire region) and then the national championships. I think the school had quite a few (around 10 or so) national athletes last year, so I'm looking forward to cheering them on for the upcoming month or so. Getting out of school for a couple of days isn't the end of the world either.
There are a bunch of new photos up on Facebook. Here's the link again.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
A Day in the Life: 9-20-2010
September 20th, 2010
6:00 – Wake up, brush teeth using water bottle (no water pressure on the 3rd floor this morning)
6:30 – Go running. Make it almost a full 30 mins. Usually when I run the sea breeze is in my face on my way home, but today it was on my way out, which is less than ideal but I survived.
7:00 – Take dinner plates down to kitchen. Return library keys to the canteen for the librarian to pick up (the internet connection is in the library, so the librarian lets us use it over the weekend). Fill water bucket outside in event water pressure does not return before breakfast. Kill time camped in front of fan, listening to music and writing in journal waiting for water to be pumped up to the tanks so we will have water pressure. The students are all dressed and ready at this point.
7:50 – Water pressure returns. Wait for Keith to shower, then quickly shower.
8:15 – Hurry to ground floor of dorms to the cafeteria for breakfast. Peanut butter and white bread with some sort of rice/tapioca warm drink. As far as breakfast goes its not my favorite thing here (mmm fried plantains and scrambled eggs), but its not bad.
8:45 – Sign in at the office and pick up chalk for the day. Students line up by classroom in the common area outside the academic building. The national pledge and school prayer are recited. Any announcements are made. The students then orderly enter the building. Attendance is taken in homeroom and any business that needs to be attended to is addressed (books, classroom cleanliness, school sponsored savings programs etc). This should theoretically end at 9, but never does.
9:00 – Periods 1 and 2 (theoretically) start. Everyone has the same teacher for two periods, they call it a double. I have grade a 9 science class. We are doing ecology so we go outside to observe the various habitats surrounding trees in the school compound. For 9am, it's still pretty hot.
10:00 – Break. Today we have a student led assembly before break truly begins. An 11th grade class gives some food for thought, leads a prayer, and the students are encouraged not to litter on the school grounds.
10:30 – Period 3 and 4 begin. Some classes are doubles, some are singles. I have both periods free on Mondays, so I spend my time in the staff room preparing physics lab exercises. I also pick up some textbooks I can let students use for in-class work.
11:45 – Lunch break. I finish planning and head back to the dorm cafeteria. We have greens, chicken and rice.
12:45 – Students again line up in the common area for any other announcements and proceed into the building. More time for homeroom activities, and attendance is taken.
1:00 – Periods 5, 6 and 7 begin. I have another 9th grade science class for periods 5 and 6, so its back outside. Its really hot now. I hide in the shade while pretending to oversee. I have 11th grade physics for period 7. In between 6 and 7 I have to run back to the dorm to pick up some fabric and paint I left in my room, related to school sports which are coming up later this week (that's a topic that deserves its own post if there ever was one). For period 7 we go over some lab procedures we'll be doing next week. I only get to meet with my physics kids once this week because of all the sports disruptions, which will take half a day Wednesday and all day Thursday and Friday.
2:45 – Class ends. Kids line up in the common area again and proceed off campus. Some stick around for lessons or to play ping pong or cricket. I play ping pong with some kids for a while. They are better than me, but I manage to have a few moments that surprise them. I'm actually not too bad, just really rusty and inconsistent.
4:00 – Sign out of school. Head back to dorms to change out of my teacher clothes. Collect laundry from outside.
4:30 – Spend some time in my room lesson planning lab experiments for physics a bit.
5:45 – While dinner is served at 5pm, the cooks leave our food out for us if we come down late. Today I went down just before 6. Chopped cooked okra with a few bits of chicken and rice. I've never really eaten okra that wasn't fried or in a soup before, but its pretty good.
6:30 – Spend about an hour working on grading spreadsheets. The teachers here make elaborate tables by hand, but I think that if I attempted this they would be so full of errors that it would take 4 or 5 attempts to get it right. So instead I'll print them out so I have a hard copy but keep the main records on my computer. I can still approximate the format relatively well, which will hopefully keep me out of trouble come grading time.
7:30 – Shower. Water is running, for now. The dorm kids have study time from 6-8, so after study time the water can go pretty quick. The shower head in my bathroom doesn't work, so I shower in Keith's bathroom. His light doesn't work, but the light in his hallway lets enough in to be manageable. I hand wash today's boxers as well, to cut down on my laundry accumulation.
8:00 – After brushing my teeth, its time to hunker down in the mosquito net for a little entertainment. I have been able to get a wifi signal in my top bunk on some nights, but not tonight. So instead I watch a couple episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's clearly a Nickelodeon show, but it's pretty good, and I was able to pick up the whole first season for about $5 in Georgetown. I've been rationing out my movies and books so that I don't burn through them all at once. I'll listen to music for a little while and then try to be asleep by 10, as 6am comes pretty early.
6:00 – Wake up, brush teeth using water bottle (no water pressure on the 3rd floor this morning)
6:30 – Go running. Make it almost a full 30 mins. Usually when I run the sea breeze is in my face on my way home, but today it was on my way out, which is less than ideal but I survived.
7:00 – Take dinner plates down to kitchen. Return library keys to the canteen for the librarian to pick up (the internet connection is in the library, so the librarian lets us use it over the weekend). Fill water bucket outside in event water pressure does not return before breakfast. Kill time camped in front of fan, listening to music and writing in journal waiting for water to be pumped up to the tanks so we will have water pressure. The students are all dressed and ready at this point.
7:50 – Water pressure returns. Wait for Keith to shower, then quickly shower.
8:15 – Hurry to ground floor of dorms to the cafeteria for breakfast. Peanut butter and white bread with some sort of rice/tapioca warm drink. As far as breakfast goes its not my favorite thing here (mmm fried plantains and scrambled eggs), but its not bad.
8:45 – Sign in at the office and pick up chalk for the day. Students line up by classroom in the common area outside the academic building. The national pledge and school prayer are recited. Any announcements are made. The students then orderly enter the building. Attendance is taken in homeroom and any business that needs to be attended to is addressed (books, classroom cleanliness, school sponsored savings programs etc). This should theoretically end at 9, but never does.
9:00 – Periods 1 and 2 (theoretically) start. Everyone has the same teacher for two periods, they call it a double. I have grade a 9 science class. We are doing ecology so we go outside to observe the various habitats surrounding trees in the school compound. For 9am, it's still pretty hot.
10:00 – Break. Today we have a student led assembly before break truly begins. An 11th grade class gives some food for thought, leads a prayer, and the students are encouraged not to litter on the school grounds.
10:30 – Period 3 and 4 begin. Some classes are doubles, some are singles. I have both periods free on Mondays, so I spend my time in the staff room preparing physics lab exercises. I also pick up some textbooks I can let students use for in-class work.
11:45 – Lunch break. I finish planning and head back to the dorm cafeteria. We have greens, chicken and rice.
12:45 – Students again line up in the common area for any other announcements and proceed into the building. More time for homeroom activities, and attendance is taken.
1:00 – Periods 5, 6 and 7 begin. I have another 9th grade science class for periods 5 and 6, so its back outside. Its really hot now. I hide in the shade while pretending to oversee. I have 11th grade physics for period 7. In between 6 and 7 I have to run back to the dorm to pick up some fabric and paint I left in my room, related to school sports which are coming up later this week (that's a topic that deserves its own post if there ever was one). For period 7 we go over some lab procedures we'll be doing next week. I only get to meet with my physics kids once this week because of all the sports disruptions, which will take half a day Wednesday and all day Thursday and Friday.
2:45 – Class ends. Kids line up in the common area again and proceed off campus. Some stick around for lessons or to play ping pong or cricket. I play ping pong with some kids for a while. They are better than me, but I manage to have a few moments that surprise them. I'm actually not too bad, just really rusty and inconsistent.
4:00 – Sign out of school. Head back to dorms to change out of my teacher clothes. Collect laundry from outside.
4:30 – Spend some time in my room lesson planning lab experiments for physics a bit.
5:45 – While dinner is served at 5pm, the cooks leave our food out for us if we come down late. Today I went down just before 6. Chopped cooked okra with a few bits of chicken and rice. I've never really eaten okra that wasn't fried or in a soup before, but its pretty good.
6:30 – Spend about an hour working on grading spreadsheets. The teachers here make elaborate tables by hand, but I think that if I attempted this they would be so full of errors that it would take 4 or 5 attempts to get it right. So instead I'll print them out so I have a hard copy but keep the main records on my computer. I can still approximate the format relatively well, which will hopefully keep me out of trouble come grading time.
7:30 – Shower. Water is running, for now. The dorm kids have study time from 6-8, so after study time the water can go pretty quick. The shower head in my bathroom doesn't work, so I shower in Keith's bathroom. His light doesn't work, but the light in his hallway lets enough in to be manageable. I hand wash today's boxers as well, to cut down on my laundry accumulation.
8:00 – After brushing my teeth, its time to hunker down in the mosquito net for a little entertainment. I have been able to get a wifi signal in my top bunk on some nights, but not tonight. So instead I watch a couple episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It's clearly a Nickelodeon show, but it's pretty good, and I was able to pick up the whole first season for about $5 in Georgetown. I've been rationing out my movies and books so that I don't burn through them all at once. I'll listen to music for a little while and then try to be asleep by 10, as 6am comes pretty early.
Monday, September 13, 2010
5 Sentence Movie Reviews
Because I have a lot of free time and DVDs are, umm, easily acquired here in Guyana, I've been watching a fair share of movies. So while you'll probably find this the least interesting part of my blog, I'm going to throw up some quick reviews.
Princess and the Frog ****
A great throwback. Reminded me of the Little Mermaid a bit, what with the magic voodoo-ey stuff and all, but in a good way. I find it strange that I find bad Southern accents totally acceptable and inoffensive, even as I'm noting that they are bad. I think I should listen to more big band jazz type stuff. Also I should visit New Orleans more often.
Dinner for Schmucks **
Looks great on paper, lacking in execution. The inclusion of Jeff Dunham and his comedy herpes might be the stealth culprit. Steve Carrell is neither unlikeable nor likable enough, mostly just meh. Paul Rudd does Paul Rudd things. The guy filming my version of the movie should invest in better audio capture equipment.
Coming to America ****
If anyone ever says to you, “I don't get why Eddie Murphy was so popular in the 80s*,” tell them to watch Raw, and then Trading Places or Coming to America. He was the clear top dog of his time. Funny to see Samuel L. Jackson basically playing himself, as usual. Haven't seen this movie in its entirety probably ever until now, which was my loss. Whatever happened to Arsenio Hall?
*No one has ever said this.
Greenberg ***
Pretty typical Noah Baumbach fare. Some good dialogue, but I think that sometimes his films lose some direction in their attempt to not beat you over the head with plot/character development. Ben Stiller is clearly more talented than other efforts might indicate, so good for him. Definitely took some of the romance out of “doing nothing,” for me, which is probably good. Who keeps only one Corona in their fridge?
Hot Tub Time Machine ***
Sometimes a movie does exactly what you're expecting, and you love it for that. This is one of those movies. It's weird to see John Cusack in a movie like this, but he's a pretty good lead character. I hope Clark Duke gets more work, I think he's pretty funny. I wonder if the styles of the 00s will look as dated as those of the 80s do less than 30 years later.
Princess and the Frog ****
A great throwback. Reminded me of the Little Mermaid a bit, what with the magic voodoo-ey stuff and all, but in a good way. I find it strange that I find bad Southern accents totally acceptable and inoffensive, even as I'm noting that they are bad. I think I should listen to more big band jazz type stuff. Also I should visit New Orleans more often.
Dinner for Schmucks **
Looks great on paper, lacking in execution. The inclusion of Jeff Dunham and his comedy herpes might be the stealth culprit. Steve Carrell is neither unlikeable nor likable enough, mostly just meh. Paul Rudd does Paul Rudd things. The guy filming my version of the movie should invest in better audio capture equipment.
Coming to America ****
If anyone ever says to you, “I don't get why Eddie Murphy was so popular in the 80s*,” tell them to watch Raw, and then Trading Places or Coming to America. He was the clear top dog of his time. Funny to see Samuel L. Jackson basically playing himself, as usual. Haven't seen this movie in its entirety probably ever until now, which was my loss. Whatever happened to Arsenio Hall?
*No one has ever said this.
Greenberg ***
Pretty typical Noah Baumbach fare. Some good dialogue, but I think that sometimes his films lose some direction in their attempt to not beat you over the head with plot/character development. Ben Stiller is clearly more talented than other efforts might indicate, so good for him. Definitely took some of the romance out of “doing nothing,” for me, which is probably good. Who keeps only one Corona in their fridge?
Hot Tub Time Machine ***
Sometimes a movie does exactly what you're expecting, and you love it for that. This is one of those movies. It's weird to see John Cusack in a movie like this, but he's a pretty good lead character. I hope Clark Duke gets more work, I think he's pretty funny. I wonder if the styles of the 00s will look as dated as those of the 80s do less than 30 years later.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
The Saga of Washing Clothes
So in Guyana, teachers are given a great deal of respect. With that respect naturally comes responsibility. One area of responsibility is in the way you dress. So, in most schools, male teachers are expected to wear khakis or slacks and some sort of button-down shirt. Due to a misinterpretation of the rules before I left, I only brought 3 button down shirts.* This means I don't have many options for school clothes, especially since one of the shirts tends to get pretty wrinkled when hand washed, and I hate ironing**. After school yesterday I realized that I was out of clean dress shirts, meaning it was time to do laundry. Laundry consists of filling a bucket with soapy water, hand-washing the clothes and then hanging your clothes on a line outside to dry. While I was horrible when I started, I'm now getting a little better and washing clothes is not an obscene chore, especially if I break it up so the loads are manageable.
I get my washing done after class, hang it up in the afternoon sun, under the dormitory building where I'm living. All is well, the clothes, especially my thin dress shirts, should be dry by morning. Then of course, the rain came. I'm talking biblical rainstorms. It started raining at about 9pm and rained off and on all night. Now Guyana has a rainy season, but we have been told that it has just recently passed, though we can expect short showers and the like. I've been in the country over 4 weeks now, and this is by far the most intense rain I've seen. So there I am, lying in bed, listening to my clothes get soaked. All I could think about was how everyone would be talking about how the US teacher is so sloppy and unprofessional in his jersey (t-shirt with a collar, or polo) at school.
Fortunately, when I got up this morning, one of my shirts was mostly dry. I put it next to a fan while I had breakfast and got ready for class, and by the time I was heading out, it was only slightly damp. So I wore it. I guess the overhang of the dorm protected it from the worst, and like I said, it is a pretty thin shirt. Disaster averted, but now I know I have to be a little more conscious of the perils of line drying all your school clothes at once...
*We discovered today that at my school, teachers can wear polo shirts, so my wardrobe has expanded a little. However, I haven't noticed any of the Guyanese teachers wearing polo shirts, so I'm going to tread cautiously. It would have saved me some strife today, though.
**Really this whole situation could be avoided if I'd just bothered to pick up some dress shirts down here as well as an iron, but naturally I haven't gotten around to it yet. Some things never change.
I get my washing done after class, hang it up in the afternoon sun, under the dormitory building where I'm living. All is well, the clothes, especially my thin dress shirts, should be dry by morning. Then of course, the rain came. I'm talking biblical rainstorms. It started raining at about 9pm and rained off and on all night. Now Guyana has a rainy season, but we have been told that it has just recently passed, though we can expect short showers and the like. I've been in the country over 4 weeks now, and this is by far the most intense rain I've seen. So there I am, lying in bed, listening to my clothes get soaked. All I could think about was how everyone would be talking about how the US teacher is so sloppy and unprofessional in his jersey (t-shirt with a collar, or polo) at school.
Fortunately, when I got up this morning, one of my shirts was mostly dry. I put it next to a fan while I had breakfast and got ready for class, and by the time I was heading out, it was only slightly damp. So I wore it. I guess the overhang of the dorm protected it from the worst, and like I said, it is a pretty thin shirt. Disaster averted, but now I know I have to be a little more conscious of the perils of line drying all your school clothes at once...
*We discovered today that at my school, teachers can wear polo shirts, so my wardrobe has expanded a little. However, I haven't noticed any of the Guyanese teachers wearing polo shirts, so I'm going to tread cautiously. It would have saved me some strife today, though.
**Really this whole situation could be avoided if I'd just bothered to pick up some dress shirts down here as well as an iron, but naturally I haven't gotten around to it yet. Some things never change.
September Newsletter #1
Odds and Ends From Anna Regina
I wrote this on Monday, September 6th but am just getting around to posting it. Some new photos are up on facebook as well.
Getting to Anna Regina
So last weekend, we were met at CPCE by Gary. He's a gym teacher at the school and also is responsible for the lab. He was really good friends with last year's volunteer. Anyway, he guided us through the eventful process of getting to Anna Regina. From Georgetown, you can take a taxi or minibus across the Demerara River. The river is crossed by some sort of floating bridge that somehow comes apart to accommodate ship traffic. From looking at it, its clearly not a drawbridge, so my guess that it swings open, though it could somehow retract on top of itself. Once across, the bridge, the main road runs along the coast to Parkia, on the mouth of the Essequibo River. This is about an hour drive, depending on how often the minibus stops or how many tractors, horse-drawn carts and puttering mo-peds you get stuck behind. From Parika, a speedboat is used to cross the Essequibo River. The river is pretty wide; it takes about 45 minutes to cross. The scenery is beautiful though. Lots of primarily or completely undeveloped islands with dense foliage and protruding palm trees. The speedboat drops you off in Supenaam on the Essequibo Coast. From here another minibus or taxi is used for transport to Anna Regina, about 40km up the only road, which again, runs along the coast. The Essequibo Coast is one of the areas where rice is grown in Guyana. So along the road you're flanked on one side by the Atlantic Ocean and miles and miles of rice fields on the other.
Anna Regina
Anna Regina is the capital of Region 2. I was told recently that it is the newest village in Guyana to reach town status (the 7th town overall), so it is still pretty small. However, the basic amenities are provided, as they are in most places on the coast. Supermarkets, hardware stores and an internet cafe are all within walking distance of the school. So far (knock on wood) we have not had any electrical blackouts, and the school dorms have excellent water pressure. The water pressure has dropped a little now that the students have moved in to the dorms, but no one can complain about running water on the 3rd floor of a building in Guyana. The town has a handful of restaurants, bars and there is a lake resort nearby (the beach is very flat and muddy), so Keith and myself have the means to entertain ourselves. Everyone I have met in the town has been very friendly and talkative. I think it is going to be a great place to live.
Anna Regina Multilateral School
The school is about 4 blocks off the main road. There is a main academic building, a computer lab and bike park building, administrative offices and shop area, auditorium/gym and dormitory. The main academic building is 3 stories tall. Only one classroom wide, to maximize breeze effects. The rooms are simple but nice. Students either sit in chairs at clustered desks or at 2 person benches in front of rectangular desks. Chalkboards are painted plywood. Classes are separated by walls, in contrast to some schools, where a mobile chalkboard is the only separator. The school has a fully stocked chemistry lab, though some of the chemicals look much older than me. There is also a physics lab, though it is not so fully stocked.
The Class Schedule
At Anna Regina, there are about 25 classes worth of students. The students do not move around, instead teachers come to them. The day is broken up into 7 45 minute periods. To make the schedule, the deputy head teacher (assistant principal) makes the schedule out by hand. So he's working with what amounts to a 35x25 grid (period-day vs class), on paper. So he sorts out who's teaching what, where for the term. There is no daily schedule, each day is different. For the most part, a teacher will teach a given course 3-4 times over the week. So those are the constraints. It's like a bad brain teaser, and I can only imagine the massive headache it would be to solve this logic puzzle even with the help of a computer, which the DHT did not use. The end result is a massive chalkboard in the staff room with the class schedule written in (photo here). Naturally, there are a lot of conflicts (everyone here calls them “clashes”) when teachers find they are scheduled to be in 2 (or even 3) places at once. So naturally the schedule is still in flux, but here are the classes I'm currently scheduled to teach:
Year 8 Integrated Science (1 class)
Year 9 Integrated Science (5 classes, the entire 9th grade)
Year 10 Physics (1 class)
Year 11 Physics (1 class)
Beginning in year 10, students are split into streams, based on their professional/personal interests. Among the choices are Agriculture, Science, Arts and Technical. Only the science stream students take subject-specific science courses instead of the general integrated science (physics, chemistry and biology).
Dorm Life
Due to some mix-ups, Keith and I are living in the dorm. We have been told this is a temporary situation, as we are waiting for the region officials to find a suitable house/apartment for us. While its a little frustrating to be able to completely settle in, life in the dorms has been nice. Last week was quiet before the students arrived (and the aforementioned water pressure!), but now there is a lot going on. Some of the dorm children are beginning year 7, so this is likely the first time they've been away from home. There haven't been any incidents yet, though.
The First Day
Today was the first day of school. Because you can never be sure who all will exactly show up and especially for year 10 when the students are redistributed into streams, there is a lot of paperwork and administrative work that has to be done on the first day. I'm sharing a base (homeroom) class with Reshii, a maths teacher who's taught at the school for about 5 years. I'm glad to have someone to show me the ropes. We have the year 10 Tech stream class. So today Reshii went off with the other year 10 base class teachers, and I hung with the 10 Tech kids. We did a few math games, chatted a little, and the students caught up after their summer break. Unfortunately I won't be teaching any courses to these students beyond the 15 minutes of base class every morning. It was a pretty casual first day. Tomorrow I think we will be able to begin school in earnest. I'm eager to start meeting my students now that I'm beginning to learn my way around the school.
I wrote this on Monday, September 6th but am just getting around to posting it. Some new photos are up on facebook as well.
Getting to Anna Regina
So last weekend, we were met at CPCE by Gary. He's a gym teacher at the school and also is responsible for the lab. He was really good friends with last year's volunteer. Anyway, he guided us through the eventful process of getting to Anna Regina. From Georgetown, you can take a taxi or minibus across the Demerara River. The river is crossed by some sort of floating bridge that somehow comes apart to accommodate ship traffic. From looking at it, its clearly not a drawbridge, so my guess that it swings open, though it could somehow retract on top of itself. Once across, the bridge, the main road runs along the coast to Parkia, on the mouth of the Essequibo River. This is about an hour drive, depending on how often the minibus stops or how many tractors, horse-drawn carts and puttering mo-peds you get stuck behind. From Parika, a speedboat is used to cross the Essequibo River. The river is pretty wide; it takes about 45 minutes to cross. The scenery is beautiful though. Lots of primarily or completely undeveloped islands with dense foliage and protruding palm trees. The speedboat drops you off in Supenaam on the Essequibo Coast. From here another minibus or taxi is used for transport to Anna Regina, about 40km up the only road, which again, runs along the coast. The Essequibo Coast is one of the areas where rice is grown in Guyana. So along the road you're flanked on one side by the Atlantic Ocean and miles and miles of rice fields on the other.
Anna Regina
Anna Regina is the capital of Region 2. I was told recently that it is the newest village in Guyana to reach town status (the 7th town overall), so it is still pretty small. However, the basic amenities are provided, as they are in most places on the coast. Supermarkets, hardware stores and an internet cafe are all within walking distance of the school. So far (knock on wood) we have not had any electrical blackouts, and the school dorms have excellent water pressure. The water pressure has dropped a little now that the students have moved in to the dorms, but no one can complain about running water on the 3rd floor of a building in Guyana. The town has a handful of restaurants, bars and there is a lake resort nearby (the beach is very flat and muddy), so Keith and myself have the means to entertain ourselves. Everyone I have met in the town has been very friendly and talkative. I think it is going to be a great place to live.
Anna Regina Multilateral School
The school is about 4 blocks off the main road. There is a main academic building, a computer lab and bike park building, administrative offices and shop area, auditorium/gym and dormitory. The main academic building is 3 stories tall. Only one classroom wide, to maximize breeze effects. The rooms are simple but nice. Students either sit in chairs at clustered desks or at 2 person benches in front of rectangular desks. Chalkboards are painted plywood. Classes are separated by walls, in contrast to some schools, where a mobile chalkboard is the only separator. The school has a fully stocked chemistry lab, though some of the chemicals look much older than me. There is also a physics lab, though it is not so fully stocked.
The Class Schedule
At Anna Regina, there are about 25 classes worth of students. The students do not move around, instead teachers come to them. The day is broken up into 7 45 minute periods. To make the schedule, the deputy head teacher (assistant principal) makes the schedule out by hand. So he's working with what amounts to a 35x25 grid (period-day vs class), on paper. So he sorts out who's teaching what, where for the term. There is no daily schedule, each day is different. For the most part, a teacher will teach a given course 3-4 times over the week. So those are the constraints. It's like a bad brain teaser, and I can only imagine the massive headache it would be to solve this logic puzzle even with the help of a computer, which the DHT did not use. The end result is a massive chalkboard in the staff room with the class schedule written in (photo here). Naturally, there are a lot of conflicts (everyone here calls them “clashes”) when teachers find they are scheduled to be in 2 (or even 3) places at once. So naturally the schedule is still in flux, but here are the classes I'm currently scheduled to teach:
Year 8 Integrated Science (1 class)
Year 9 Integrated Science (5 classes, the entire 9th grade)
Year 10 Physics (1 class)
Year 11 Physics (1 class)
Beginning in year 10, students are split into streams, based on their professional/personal interests. Among the choices are Agriculture, Science, Arts and Technical. Only the science stream students take subject-specific science courses instead of the general integrated science (physics, chemistry and biology).
Dorm Life
Due to some mix-ups, Keith and I are living in the dorm. We have been told this is a temporary situation, as we are waiting for the region officials to find a suitable house/apartment for us. While its a little frustrating to be able to completely settle in, life in the dorms has been nice. Last week was quiet before the students arrived (and the aforementioned water pressure!), but now there is a lot going on. Some of the dorm children are beginning year 7, so this is likely the first time they've been away from home. There haven't been any incidents yet, though.
The First Day
Today was the first day of school. Because you can never be sure who all will exactly show up and especially for year 10 when the students are redistributed into streams, there is a lot of paperwork and administrative work that has to be done on the first day. I'm sharing a base (homeroom) class with Reshii, a maths teacher who's taught at the school for about 5 years. I'm glad to have someone to show me the ropes. We have the year 10 Tech stream class. So today Reshii went off with the other year 10 base class teachers, and I hung with the 10 Tech kids. We did a few math games, chatted a little, and the students caught up after their summer break. Unfortunately I won't be teaching any courses to these students beyond the 15 minutes of base class every morning. It was a pretty casual first day. Tomorrow I think we will be able to begin school in earnest. I'm eager to start meeting my students now that I'm beginning to learn my way around the school.
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