Teacher

So teaching has been going better. Things got super wild with behavior issues for a few weeks in late April/early May...and I mean wild. The kiddos were definitely seeing how far they could push the branca before things got messy. One day there were 3 fights (one in my classroom), a seizure, and all the chaos that ensued, but I'm happy to say that we have since recovered. Things are going really quite well the past 3 weeks. We actually caught up on the materials (a miracle straight from Deus himself, considering the disaster of a first trimester we had) and are moving at a pretty steady pace! Tudo bem!


Sometimes I forget that people back home don't know the small details about this whole teaching in Moz thing...cause everything here starts to normalize for me and I forget to share the quirks. So here are some fun facts for you:
I have an average of 4 Assane's, 5 Ali's, 4 Fatimas, and a plethora of Amina's in everyone of my turmas.
Mozambicans alphabetize by first name (which makes half of my gradbook A's).
Handing back papers always tickles them to death with my attempts at prounoucing names like Hortencia da Paz Muitela Jamal, Muquissirima Assane Ussene, and Osvaldo Antonio Boaventura.
I still have about 140 kids per turma and no official list of their names from the school.
An average of 20 kids have to sit on the floor every class (depending on who shows up).
My boss tells me that every single one of the kids is a untrustworthy bandit (I'm thinkin maybe she should have retired).
Kids cheer uncontrolably sometimes when I bring a diagram to show them.
Paper is too expensive here for posters, so I use rice sacs and permanent markers to make posters.
Ages in my 8th grade classrooms range from 13 to 19.
Some of my kids can't read or write Portuguese yet and others are so bored from the material that they sleep in class.
My biggest classroom management problem is a lack of a door.
An average of 2 of the 140 kids per room actually owns a text book.
It takes me about 20 to 30 minutes to walk to school from my house.
There are no bathrooms...but there is a nice field with tall grass...but I can never quite slip away unnoticed or followed since I'm usually the only white person for miles:-)
When kids have a free classperiod, or want to skip out, or a teacher doesn't show up to teach, they are free to roam around everywhere and do pretty much whatever they want without supervision.
Alrighty...hope you liked the Mozambican educational system trivia.

Almost forgot! Something else in the works: first ever science fair coming soon to Angoche! I invited six 8th graders and six 12th graders to participate in the fair (either kids with excellent grades or kids who are always on top of things and participating during class). I couldn't believe how incredibly excited the kids were to be invited to do something like this. One lil guy who is usually a lippy little trouble maker (feisty, but smart) was in tears, he was so happy.
I taught the 8th graders the scientific method just this morning...first time they've ever heard it, so it will be intersting to see how this goes. The science fair itself will be an experiment. Hahaha science jokes. And speaking of science jokes...look at this funny skeleton one kid drew and turned in. LOL! Good stuff.

To be fair...this is what one of the BEAUtiful ones looked like. She drew this free hand. Ugh. wow


So to mix things up a little bit and make the kids REALLY roudy right before I leave the classroom, I decided to start teaching them a Coisinha Americana (lil american tidbit) at the close of every class. They go wild. I either give them a fun fact or teach them English slang. This is the first "Coisinha": Whazuuuuuuup!?!?