Week 3 of School

Week 3 of Aoga
School has been in session for 3 weeks now and I think I have begun to find my nitch in the building. I am going to visit every class in a week, spending more time with the students in the upper grades.
The year 8 teachers are very dedicated to their work, and come in early to teach their students and stay hours and hours after school is dismissed to continue teaching them. The year 8 test is the most important tests that students take in primary school. Although the exam is in the fall (well the northern hemisphere fall), they are preparing now for it. Since they are such hard workers I decided to join their effort and help teach a reading group in the morning. (I also have a reading group in the afternoon. It is all boys who struggle so much, but they are so impressive with how dedicated they are to learning. We have spend the week with the Jack and Jill poem creating summaries, sequencing, answering questions and practicing pronunciation. I never realized how many skills can come out of that little nursery rhyme!)
I teach the year 7 English class daily and my sister is in the class. It makes it a difficult work space because I know I push her buttons by not calling on her for everything, and not allowing her to break the rules, but I think it is starting to come along as she is realizing that I am not only her sister, but her teacher. The class is also beginning to realize my rules in the class (the biggest one is no hitting) and what time out and being separated from the rest of the class is about.
The year 6 class is very smart and I am flip flopping my time with them and other classes. Twice a week in the morning and twice a week in the afternoon. The teacher there is very accommodating and switches to English learning when I arrive. Today I read stories with dozens of kids. (We focused on the book components…I hope they all now know what an author is, and where to find the author on a book.)
The year 5 class I have only been to a handful of times and will only visit twice a week. Right now the teacher is finishing up her degree at University so I am having a good time helping her with whatever she needs. This afternoon we hung around school making games for her students. We are starting with memory, where they have to match the verb in the present tense with the verb in the past tense. I hope it will be a hit!
I will be going to the year 4 class 3 times a week as they are the youngest students to take the national exam. I think I need to work on my Samoan a little bit more to get the most out of working together.
The other classes (1, 2, and 3) I will visit for only half an hour a week. I think I am going to do a read aloud in some classes, sing songs in others, and introduce tpr (total physical response) activities. These little ones are so cute in their uniforms each day. I am excited to work with them.
There are between 30 and 40 kids in a class and although we often have to share resources, everyone seems to make due. I am happy that I am not teaching science, as it seems impossible to do the different experiments without the given materials. The teachers have the same problem with math. When I was with the new teacher, she was told to teach about angles and to have the kids practicing making and measuring angles. However, the only compass and protractor that the school had was the gigantic one made for the classroom chalkboard. I think we decided together to have the kids take turns coming up to the board to practice.
I set up the school computer and printer this week as well. When the computer turned on for the first time it had its message saying it was copyrighted in 1988. At least parts of the computer have been updated so it is not as bad as I first saw and thought. There is no printer software in the school, and there is no internet to find the software. So as of now the printer cannot be used for the school’s computer. I have been bringing in my laptop to print the different documents from that. (My laptop, like most newer computers is so seki’a that it doesn’t need the cd to install the program.)
Things are going well in school though. The difference between teaching in America and teaching in Samoa makes it challenging. But no matter what, you do not want to give up because when you look at your class of students, and you see how excited they are to learn, it makes you day. (Also today…I was staring out the window during lunch and it’s not every place that you can look out your window at work and see lush forests full of coconut trees. You walk to the front of your door and you see the blueness of the Pacific. It’s still hard to believe that I live in such a beautiful place.)
Seki’a Samoa