Teaching

So I am officially an English teacher. We started classes last week and so far they are going pretty well. One fabulous thing about Mozambique is that most everything is saved to be done at the last minute. I received my class schedule and the grades that I was going to teach the day before school started. A bit stressful, to say the least. I could not even look at my curriculum until two hours before I taught.

I was given the 8^th and 9^th grades to teach, but I have thus since been relieved of my 9^th grade classes. I am quite happy because I went from having 8 classes to 5. 8 was a lot… I was teaching 5 or 6 classes in a row every day of the week. Having five is completely manageable. It gives me a lot more time to plan, and also to do other projects. I was stressed out about the 9^th grade too because the curriculum is all centered on Mozambican culture, of which I am no expert. The material that is supposed to be covered is also really advanced in comparison to the students’ actual skill level. I would have figured it out, but it is nice that I don’t have to.

I am also Director of Turma. This means that I am kind of like a home room teacher. I am in charge of about 60 kids, making sure to keep them organized, help them with problems, and take care of behavior issues when they come up. It is more work but it will give me a chance to get to know these students better, so that will be nice. What else? The set up here is different. The students are all organized into groups called turmas. Each turma is assigned to one classroom, and the students stay in that class together for the duration of the school day. The teachers move around between the turmas that we teach. The students also get no choice in what subjects they take. For 8^th, 9^th and 10^th grade the students have Biology, Chemistry and Physics classes. A lot of science, if you ask me… I am not surprised that so many of the students do poorly. They also theoretically take history, Portuguese, English and Physical Education. Theoretically because there are not enough teachers to teach all these subjects

The first week was a bit crazy. There were no set class lists so students were leaving school early and by the end of the day we would only have 10 students in each class. Because there is a shortage of teachers, students have a lot of free periods. At these times there is no one keeping control, so the students are allowed to go wild. It has been really loud outside the classrooms where students congregate, making it hard to teach with all of the noise echoing inside the classroom. The rules are starting to be laid out, so this week is better, but it is still not great. I of course have to play mean teacher so that the students don’t mess with me. I actually think I do pretty well with the classroom management though, so I don’t have students doing anything really out of line.

I have a couple of projects that I am already starting at the school. I only teach in the afternoons, so I am going to organize the library and play librarian in the mornings. There are a great deal of text books at the school, but the students have had no access to them because there is no one in charge of the checkout. Students usually do not have their own text books because the books are too expensive. At this point the library is completely disorganized. I have to go through and catalog all the books, then come up with a system for borrowing, and some rules to keep everyone under tabs. I love books and libraries, so it is not too far out of my range and I think it could be fun and really helpful to the students.

I have also been asked to help take care of some of the female students that board at the school. There are about 200 students that live at the school, and one teacher was asked last minute to be in charge of them all. He asked me if I could help him with the girls, because he thinks there should be a female teacher for them, so I said that I would. I’m not exactly sure what my job entails, but probably just spending time with the students, taking care of issues that arise, and just trying to keep overall control. Not easy with such a large group, but I’ll figure it out.

On the personal side, things are going fine. I am busy, as you can see, which is good for me. At the moment I am sharing my house with another Mozambican teacher and her two daughters (11 and 14). She is from Maputo and was promised a house upon her arrival. Unfortunately, when she got here all the houses had been taken. It isn’t easy to live with a family, but I think things could be a lot worse. The girls are well behaved and they are all really nice. They put up with Gus and her antics as well. They moved in with me last week, and I am going to move out into one of the smaller houses when it is ready. They got one of the families to move out. Now, the only problem is, the house has no stove and no refrigerator (and we still don’t have electricity). The school is going to buy these things, and when they do, Gus (my dog) and I will move. The house will be smaller, but still new and nice, and since there is only one of me, it makes sense. Gus is doing well too. She is getting bigger, and despite the fact that she is a ton of work, she makes a good companion.

I will write again when there is more news. I can’t believe I have already been in Vilanculos for 2 months! Time is starting to fly. I hope everyone is well. Send me an email to let me know how you are. I still have limited internet access but I make it in about once a week.