I'm only half planned and here I am, writing my little heart out the day before first form orientation. (I don't know if I've clarified it before, but 1st form is to freshman year as 4th form is to sophomore year. The grades below secondary school (primary school) are called standards. You have classes called Infant 1 and Infant 2 (1st and 2nd grade). Then Standards 1-8 correspond with 3rd through 8th grade.)
Well after doing somersaults and jumping through about 15 hoops, I finally received my permanent teaching schedule for the year. Before changing it around, I was teaching 1st, 2nd and 3rd form math. Here at Mount Carmel, classes are split by ability (tracking) into remedial, basic and genral, and 1st and 2nd form are also split by gender. Whoever created the scheduled time tables made it very difficult for our department by giving splitting up each form between 3 or 4 teachers instead of giving it to 1 or 2 teachers. By splitting up the forms, there is a great inconsistency between teaching styles and pacing of curriculum. Another volunteer in the math department, Lucia, and I did a bit of reorganization of the department to make it more efficient and consistent for teachers and students. This is what I have been working on for the past week. As a product of our hard work, I will now be teaching only 1st and 2nd form math. 1 class of 1st basic math and 2 classes of 2nd general math. Confusing, I know.
I have fully planned week one for my 1st formers, but my 2nd form lesson plans are virtually blank. Good thing it's only a 4 day week with 1st form orientation occupying all of Monday. At our last orientation meeting, we teachers asked the administration what the format and schedule of orientation would be and we never got a straight answer. I don't think anyone knows what their doing for tomorrow. Can't wait to see what the homeroom teachers pull out of their bag of tricks! I'm not worried. I love spontenaety! Also, I'm not in charge of a homeroom, so I have no reason to be worried.
Gosh, just this week has shown me how different the education systems of Belize and the U.S. are! In orientation, one of the speakers asked which of us teacher had heard of differentiation in the classroom. There were maybe 2 or 3 of us who raised our hands....out of more than 30! Some of the teachers here think I am the most creative person in the world because of the activities and games I have suggested they use in the classroom. I'm not! It's just basic planning for classes that they aren't comfortabe or knowledgeable about. It's actually very interesting how differently the school is run here. I can tell that they are trying to get more closely in line with American education and it's very exciting to see how they go about doing it. I'm sure I'll learn a lot from their systems as well.
We volunteers have been playing basketball with some of the students outside of school. It's pretty embarassing, I won't lie. To sum it up, we have been getting SCHOOLED! I hope that with a bit of practice I can get good enough to keep up with these guys! Now we've been playing volleyball too, and I feel much better about myself after. There are quite a few of us volunteers and staff members who like to play, so I can't wait for more! I also decided that I really just do not enjoy playing futbol (soccer). That's all.
Well, it's the 'rainy season' here. They weren't joking when they chose the name. We haven't gone a day without a downpour- usually at night. I only hope that my wimpy umbrella will hold up until I can get a better one over Christmas break. The other day, we were walking to the rectory for dinner and had to walk through a street that had turned into a river within 5 minutes. By the time we were done with our dinner, though, much of the ground was dry. How bizarre!!
Okay, I'll go plan now. Pray for me, please. I'm praying for you all.
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