Form One

January 4^th I start back to school, this time as the “real” teacher for Form One English and Social Studies. There is an initial fracas whereby two student teachers have arrived to complete their practicum and I’m informed that they will be taking my courses. I’m actually crushed. In the two weeks of observing at the school, I came to really like the teachers and the other kids and for the first few hours of the day, thinking I’ll have to start over at a new school, I realize just how much I want to stay at this one. Luckily, a few things are jiggered around and my classes are restored, just in time for the first session sixth period.

Under the guise of getting their names for my mark book (there’s no formal roster, as far as I can tell), I have my students also write down their ages. My “freshmen” range from 12-18 with a wide array of English language abilities, commitment to learning and maturity to go along. A daunting challenge, to say the least.

In the first two weeks, I struggle to establish new routines – being on time and prepared for class, turning in homework, taking quizzes seriously – that currently don’t exist for structural reasons. The bell is an old fire extinguisher canister that a student in Form Two rings according to his own watch, but that may be rung late or early depending on his whim and / or whether the Form Two teachers are running on time. And the fact that the only grade for the entire term comes from the exam papers written in the last two weeks doesn’t help with encouraging attendance or completing homework and in-class assignments. Added to this, it’s been a challenge to come up with creative ways to assign homework that can be done without referencing the text book, which can’t be sent home given that I only have one book for every four students.

Despite all of this, I feel like my classes have thus far been successful and that we’re making progress. In only three assignments, homework quality has markedly improved. And although my student don't bother to study for, and thus bomb, their Thursday vocabulary quiz, I feel confidant that they will study harder the next time. Truthfully, I’m not fully in the zone yet either. I’m still trying to come up with creative ways to work with limited resources, learning to gauge how much we can get done in a class period, getting in the flow of planning and marking so that everything gets done in good time and the right order.

What I love most is the relative innocence of Malawian children. I’m sure in some ways, they are incredibly more mature – it’s not unusual to see six year old girls taking care of their infant siblings, ten year old boys working in the fields, and thirteen year olds routinely get married here. But in other ways, they’re ready to play and laugh and joke and wonder in a way that jaded American freshmen would be hard pressed to get into. I entertain them endlessly by acting out the vocabulary words they don’t know in stories – creeping, howling, reaching, tip-toeing, menacing. I bring in my computer to show them pictures of historical events and they are crammed against each other and the desk in their eagerness to see. I can't even get them stay still to pose for pictures of the blog – check these out and you’ll see the exuberance I’m talking about.  

  

And teaching here, especially Social Studies, has already helped me to feel – even more than I already knew – the western-centric knowledge I have of history. Nathaniel’s been laughing as I’ve dug out some big history tomes from a box of donated books and started reading up on colonialism and the world wars. Now I just need to find a history text book actually written by a Malawian!