Back to Work

Back to Work

Wow this feels strange….after a month and a half of just looking for things to do, here I am back to work feeling overwhelmed! 

I just started at my new job at Samoan Victims Support Group and I can already see how challenging of a year it is going to be.  My job title is the Home School Coordinator.  I knew it would be a lot of work, but after one day, I feel like I jumped into the deep end and I hope I can tread water long enough to survive!

The school is basically for foster children who live in a shelter behind my house.  Last year was the first year of the school, and it struggled, but it made it by.  Like most schools in Samoa, sometimes there were teachers, but more often than not the older students watched the younger students.  There was no curriculum and volunteer teachers came in to teach whatever they felt like.  Often the entire school was placed together for lessons.  Primary through College level learning the same thing….

There is one full time teacher under me, and I have put her to work to help me try and devise a curriculum.  I am going to piece together a curriculum for math(s), English, Social Science, Basic Science, Art, Physical Education, Technology and Library Education.  The other teacher will do Christian Education and Samoan.  After spending waaaaaaaay too much time on the internet, I have a guide on how I plan to do some of the curriculum and am just hoping that I can get the first week (or few) planned out before the start of school on Monday! 

I wasn’t thrown into the wild completely….we did receive a “curriculum” of some math worksheet, English tests and biblical stories.

It is Tuesday and we decided to give a test to place the students into the multilevel, multi-ability classes.    I have finished my sections of the English and Math for the two primary classes, and have a math test for the college level, and now I am just waiting for the other teacher the Samoan section of her tests.  In addition by Friday, I was told to interview each student to help guide their placement.

Yesterday we decided on a school schedule, as we are adding two additional hours to the school day from previous years. 

We are making progress…slowly but surely….I am just hoping I can keep my head above water long enough to pull it off!