Saturday, November 12, 2005

 

Site Visits and Teaching

Ok, so last week I was in Maputo and none of the huge amount of what I wrote got posted on the blog :-( To start with site visits, I went to a town in Inhambane province called Quissico, which one guide book I saw says ´may have the best view in the entire country.´ So that was a plus, it was a beautiful place. From the town you could look out on beautiful blue lagoons, behind those were some low hills, and behind that you could see the dark blue Indian Ocean- palm trees everywhere. I had a great time, and we stayed there for 2 days, swimming in the lagoons. Then we went north to Tofo (tofu) beach, which is right on the Indian Ocean. It´s really pretty. Our first night we bought 2 kg of fresh shrimp for about 6 dollars and cooked them ourselves. We stayed in a campground at the beach- I slept in a tent with a mat and a pillow provided- I brought my own sheets. The first morning I was there I went into the water with some other trainees... we were having some innocent fun in the surf. Well the waves were just huge, and after about 3 minutes of course they knocked my glasses off my face and they were just gone forever. So the rest of my time at the beautiful beach I couldn´t see squat. (On Monday when I returned peace corps drove me into maputo and took me to the eye doctor, I picked out new frames and they´re getting me new glasses- they look a lot like my old ones so its ok!). Anyways,

This last week has been micro-school, which eli said is 20 minutes classes. (next week is 45 minutes classes). Being bio I taught twice last week and every day next week, since I have to teach in portuguese! (personally I think my portuguese is really comming along, not as much as eli´s but....). My first lesson was on the excetory system, to 8th graders. I taught the very first 7:30am class of the day, and my class really wasn´t full. But I thought it went really well, I wasn´t nervous (while I was teaching, I´m not saying anything about before hand). The kids seemed to understand. The second day I taught the nefrons, a part of the kidney, and a lot more complicated.... this isn´t stuff from their 8th grade syllabus but I like it so I wanted to teach it. My host brother, who just finished 10th grade came to that class. I thought I did really well, my portuguese was good and I had a good lesson plan. Nobody understood anything. I think its because I was teaching 40 kids, most of whom were´nt at my last lesson, so they missed the basics. My host brother said he understood and that it was a good lesson.

Being a teacher in Mozambique is interesting- the people have a LOT more respect for teachers than in the US. When I walked into the classroom, faced the students and said good morning, everyone shut up and stood up, then they said good morning mr. professor. I said, how are you? and they said together, we´re fine, thank you, how are you? Then they were very well disciplined for the rest of the class, although getting answeres out of them can be hard, because they´re shy. When I call on kids to answer questions I can also make them stand up to give answers- they can be very formal in class. I´ve also heard that they will run all over you if you let them, but most teachers don´t have a big problem with discipline as far as I´ve heard. Anyways, I really enjoyed teaching and I´m looking forward to the next 3 weeks of model school. I got some pictures developed and hopefully can scan and email or just snail mail them soon. Bye!

Comments:
Hi Jim,
I'm on the wait list for GW, so I have until next fall to find out if I'm accepted or not.

Paul
 
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