Teachers are striking here. I have not been able to discern precisely which teachers are striking and which are not. Some teachers, primary school teachers, are definitely striking. Secondary school teachers may or may not be striking. All week I have been at school teaching, and some of the other teachers have been too. This week the school may close completely, or it may not. Either way, it is a peaceful strike and I will continue to be present for my students.
On the 20th I had the pleasure of announcing to the students that Obama was being inaugurated today. I imagined myself sitting around a radio with 100 students at 8pm (noon in Washington, DC) listening to the event. In preparation I ran to my fellow teachers house across town, borrowed her radio, and upon returning called all interested students to the flag pole to listen with me. I imagined that even if students were not interested in hearing Obama speak that they would at least be interested in finding a reason to not study. I know that my students are excited about Obama, but still only 6 or 7 joined me. The reason was that they were all too concerned about their studies to leave for an hour. It also turned out that all of the commentary was in Kiswahili. I am learning Kiswahili, but in my excitement I wanted to hear all of the details. The school cook has a friend in Athiru with a hotel that has a generator and a TV. Him and two students rushed me off, or maybe I was rushing them, to the hotel and arrived in time to see the opening prayer of the inauguration. The room was packed by about 60 Kenyans and one American. I wanted my students to absorb and appreciate it all. They said that Obama's speech was very clear and that they understood it, but I wanted to push them to the front of the crowd and let my excitement overwhelm them. I think that even though I refrained from this course of action that they appreciated the experience very much. The TV showed a split screen between the crowd in Washington, DC and the students at Nairobi University. My students said that the crowd in Nairobi looked more excited, but I think that the people were excited in different ways. In Nairobi they had pop music artists playing and the crowds were active. In Washington the people felt how I felt, and we showed it by feeling as though we would cry. It wasn't quite the night that I imagined, I wish that I could have been with all of my students to let them all have the experience with me, but I think that the night would have meant more to me anyways.
At school, two days later, I had the privilege of attending the prefect and administration meeting. This is the analog of student counsel in the States, except that the student prefects do a lot more than I did when I was on student counsel. They do everything from helping the teachers ensure that games happen, to coordinating cleaning efforts around the school, to helping the teachers discipline students. It amazes me that you can expect a student to help enforce the discipline of the other students, but in Kenya it seems to work.
At the meeting we mostly discussed the discipline of the school, and I received confirmation that indeed to the students being discipline with their studying was more important than listening to Obama. The students asked us to enforce discipline more strictly, they asked us to change the schedule to require the boarding students to be in their classrooms every morning at 5am, and they asked us to punish them for speaking Kiswahili instead of English. I am continually amazed and impressed by the students. They really want to be the early bird and to do well. The goal of most of the students is to make it to America. I've been reading the book, The Bottom Billion, which has been making me think about issues like this one. I recommend the book for anyone who is interested in globalization or the giving of Aid to developing countries. It is a big problem for the development of Kenya that the most educated citizens want to leave. I try to tell them that it would be better for Kenya if they focused their energy not on leaving, but on trying to change and build the country. This doesn't work though, I need to think about how to get them to believe the words that I am saying. I wonder if the most educated will always want to leave as long as they see life as being better abroad, or if there are other motivations make them want to remain. Maybe the key to make them appreciate Kenya is to focus on helping them to think about what makes a life good. I have tried this a little by saying that I think the best life that you can lead is the one where you affect the most positive change, but how sure am I of this? Being here in Kenya I have come to believe it, but there was a time when I thought that maybe the best life was the most simple life. Maybe if I open up this dialog with my students they will be able to help teach me what is best. This last sentence was inspired by the movie, Conan, where someone says to Conan, "Conan, what is best in life?" And Conan responds something about crushing your enemies and see them driven before you. I think I can say with confidence that I do not agree with Conan.
I am going to start a debate club in the next couple of weeks, and maybe this can be a topic.
24 January 2009
17 January 2009
I Am Here
I have arrived and all is well.
I am now a teacher at a new secondary school just outside of Athiru. I have a modest house (about 10x20 ft), which is located on the school grounds between the women's dorm and the men's dorm. The students here are amazingly disciplined. They wake up at 5am, study for an hour, take porridge for breakfast, do a little religious ceremony, and are in their classrooms at 8am when the teachers arrive. They are in class, with the exception of a few breaks from 8am to 4:10 pm. Then they play sports or do clubs until maybe 6pm. By 7pm they are huddled together around a single kerosene lantern to study. They study until 9:30pm, then are in bed by 9. Furthermore, they do this 6 days a week! On Saturdays there is rarely a teacher around, but they do the chores of the school and spend the rest of the day in the classrooms studying.
The structure of the Kenyan curriculum is different than the US. Here, all students study physics in form 1 and 2, then some of them choose to continue on in physics for form 3 and 4. The last physics teacher is no longer at the school, so I have taken over all four forms. In forms 3 and 4 I have only about 6 and 8 students respectively, but in form 2 I have two classes of 45. We have not yet received out form 1 students, but I am told to expect either one class of 60 or two classes of 40. On top of the physics I may also teach form 1 math.
I want them all to learn so much physics, but what I need to step back and consider more thoroughly is how I will develop a pedagogy to teach them not only the syllabus but how to get them to think critically. So far I have been including this by asking them to try to figure out which equations to use, and to try themselves to apply them before I show them how to do the problem. I feel like there should be more though... I think that the answer may lie in taking a whole holistic approach. That is, maybe if I also spend time having conversations with them after school and on the weekends we will get a lot further in developing their general reasoning. Maybe just the exercise of challenging them to apply their knowledge to novel situations will do it. What did my teachers do?
I have such a respect for teachers. Being back in a school setting makes me think about and miss Reed College. Could I be a teacher all my life though? I don't know, but more importantly I don't think that I need to know at this point. Being a teacher for two years will be a good exercise regardless of whether or not I will be a school teacher later on. I already feel more comfortable expounding on topics in front of groups and teaching physics certainly forces me to think about my organization of topics.
I was going to upload pictures, but I could feel the voltage potential difference between the computer and my hand when I plugged the flashdrive into the computer. I freaked out a little bit and removed the flashdrive quickly. Maybe you will be fortunate enough to get pictures at a later date.
I am now a teacher at a new secondary school just outside of Athiru. I have a modest house (about 10x20 ft), which is located on the school grounds between the women's dorm and the men's dorm. The students here are amazingly disciplined. They wake up at 5am, study for an hour, take porridge for breakfast, do a little religious ceremony, and are in their classrooms at 8am when the teachers arrive. They are in class, with the exception of a few breaks from 8am to 4:10 pm. Then they play sports or do clubs until maybe 6pm. By 7pm they are huddled together around a single kerosene lantern to study. They study until 9:30pm, then are in bed by 9. Furthermore, they do this 6 days a week! On Saturdays there is rarely a teacher around, but they do the chores of the school and spend the rest of the day in the classrooms studying.
The structure of the Kenyan curriculum is different than the US. Here, all students study physics in form 1 and 2, then some of them choose to continue on in physics for form 3 and 4. The last physics teacher is no longer at the school, so I have taken over all four forms. In forms 3 and 4 I have only about 6 and 8 students respectively, but in form 2 I have two classes of 45. We have not yet received out form 1 students, but I am told to expect either one class of 60 or two classes of 40. On top of the physics I may also teach form 1 math.
I want them all to learn so much physics, but what I need to step back and consider more thoroughly is how I will develop a pedagogy to teach them not only the syllabus but how to get them to think critically. So far I have been including this by asking them to try to figure out which equations to use, and to try themselves to apply them before I show them how to do the problem. I feel like there should be more though... I think that the answer may lie in taking a whole holistic approach. That is, maybe if I also spend time having conversations with them after school and on the weekends we will get a lot further in developing their general reasoning. Maybe just the exercise of challenging them to apply their knowledge to novel situations will do it. What did my teachers do?
I have such a respect for teachers. Being back in a school setting makes me think about and miss Reed College. Could I be a teacher all my life though? I don't know, but more importantly I don't think that I need to know at this point. Being a teacher for two years will be a good exercise regardless of whether or not I will be a school teacher later on. I already feel more comfortable expounding on topics in front of groups and teaching physics certainly forces me to think about my organization of topics.
I was going to upload pictures, but I could feel the voltage potential difference between the computer and my hand when I plugged the flashdrive into the computer. I freaked out a little bit and removed the flashdrive quickly. Maybe you will be fortunate enough to get pictures at a later date.
08 January 2009
Site Placement
I am currently in Nairobi, Kenya. Staying at a lovely hostel. It is unlike any hostel I have ever imagined. It's really a jolly good hotel. Tea 4 times a day. This is the site that Peace Corps is putting us, the volunteers (today we were sworn in), and our supervisors. I met my supervisor yesterday morning and found out that I will be 5 km outside of a town called Maua, which in Kiswahili means "flower." The town is located between a national game reserve and Mount Kenya. Very beautiful sounding, and it also sounds like it is the coldest place in Kenya - the temperature is in the 70's every month of the year.
I am a secondary school teacher at a small school that was founded in 2004. The principal is the representative that came to meet me. My initial impression of him is that he is very hard working as he was responsible for the creation of the school. The story, as I have heard it, is that he was a career teacher who saw a need for a secondary school in the area. He talked to the chief, a former student of his, who was able to mobilize the community around the project and raise the initial building. From there the principal contacted former students of his that now work for the government and was able to get teachers and grants for a science building. The story is very inspiring, and I am excited to be a part of the community.
About half of the students board and the other half are day students. I will be living on campus in a house that was formerly occupied by the principal. I will write more about that once I see it. I have learned that I do not have an adequate intuition for connecting Kenyan descriptions with the real object yet. For instance, I could tell you that Loitokitok has a supermarket and you would think of Safeway. I have come to associate the term supermarket to mean "corner store" - a store that is big enough to walk into but maybe only 15 ft by 30 ft. I can tell you about the traffic jams in Nairobi, but you don't imagine a city the size of Seattle during rush hour, with only a few traffic lights and with no lines painted on the roads in many places. Imagine that 1/4 of the vehicles in this traffic jam are vans called "matatus," about the size of an aerostar with 12 people crammed inside. The music is blaring, some have TV's with music videos and the drivers are young and aggressive, picking up as many people as they can as quickly as they can to make some money. Remember, no lines on the roads, its amazing.
Tomorrow morning I am leaving for the school. I've heard that the road is paved and is decent condition the whole way. I'll be in a station wagon with 5 people, three of whom are trainees meaning that we have 3 big pieces of luggage each. It will be a great opportunity to get to know more about my supervisor and become closer to the other two trainees that will be within 70 km of me. I just realized that I have been using trainee, as I mentioned before we are now real live volunteers. My principal was actually taught by a Peace Corps volunteer back in 1971 -2 while he was a secondary school student. He told me about what an impact the volunteer made on his life and career path.
An aspect of the school that I particularly appreciate is that students are allowed to attend the school term even if they are not able to come up with all of the school fees. This cost is offset by raising the school fees for those who can afford it. It isn't perfect, but I think that it is a much better system than 99 percent of Kenyan school where students are sent home and not allowed to return if they cannot afford the fees. A consequence of this system is that the school is very tight monetarily, and there are not enough teachers. In forms 2 - 4 each class has close to 65 students.
It will be a new and thrilling experience living in such close quarters to so many students. It will be important to set up strict boundaries initially, but I am thrilled by the prospect of having a form 4 student tutor me in Kiswahili, playing football afterschool, and teaching the students about baking their own bread.
I am a secondary school teacher at a small school that was founded in 2004. The principal is the representative that came to meet me. My initial impression of him is that he is very hard working as he was responsible for the creation of the school. The story, as I have heard it, is that he was a career teacher who saw a need for a secondary school in the area. He talked to the chief, a former student of his, who was able to mobilize the community around the project and raise the initial building. From there the principal contacted former students of his that now work for the government and was able to get teachers and grants for a science building. The story is very inspiring, and I am excited to be a part of the community.
About half of the students board and the other half are day students. I will be living on campus in a house that was formerly occupied by the principal. I will write more about that once I see it. I have learned that I do not have an adequate intuition for connecting Kenyan descriptions with the real object yet. For instance, I could tell you that Loitokitok has a supermarket and you would think of Safeway. I have come to associate the term supermarket to mean "corner store" - a store that is big enough to walk into but maybe only 15 ft by 30 ft. I can tell you about the traffic jams in Nairobi, but you don't imagine a city the size of Seattle during rush hour, with only a few traffic lights and with no lines painted on the roads in many places. Imagine that 1/4 of the vehicles in this traffic jam are vans called "matatus," about the size of an aerostar with 12 people crammed inside. The music is blaring, some have TV's with music videos and the drivers are young and aggressive, picking up as many people as they can as quickly as they can to make some money. Remember, no lines on the roads, its amazing.
Tomorrow morning I am leaving for the school. I've heard that the road is paved and is decent condition the whole way. I'll be in a station wagon with 5 people, three of whom are trainees meaning that we have 3 big pieces of luggage each. It will be a great opportunity to get to know more about my supervisor and become closer to the other two trainees that will be within 70 km of me. I just realized that I have been using trainee, as I mentioned before we are now real live volunteers. My principal was actually taught by a Peace Corps volunteer back in 1971 -2 while he was a secondary school student. He told me about what an impact the volunteer made on his life and career path.
An aspect of the school that I particularly appreciate is that students are allowed to attend the school term even if they are not able to come up with all of the school fees. This cost is offset by raising the school fees for those who can afford it. It isn't perfect, but I think that it is a much better system than 99 percent of Kenyan school where students are sent home and not allowed to return if they cannot afford the fees. A consequence of this system is that the school is very tight monetarily, and there are not enough teachers. In forms 2 - 4 each class has close to 65 students.
It will be a new and thrilling experience living in such close quarters to so many students. It will be important to set up strict boundaries initially, but I am thrilled by the prospect of having a form 4 student tutor me in Kiswahili, playing football afterschool, and teaching the students about baking their own bread.
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