I gave my 8th graders their first ACS today. It was easy, but it brought out some incredible cheating strategies. In order to subvert cheating, I give two variants so that students next to each other don't have the same text. I write all of the questions on the board, except for certain key words, then explain the questions, one by one, as I fill them in. Students are not allowed to speak from this point forward, nor are they allowed to look anywhere but at the board and their papers. If they have a question, they must raise their hand and specify the number of the question. They must use only one sheet of paper, and when they're done must place the sheet face down on the desk and leave in silence.
Given these strict guidelines, you'd think they wouldn't even try anything. Two students had their notebooks tucked under their butts, about four had cheat sheets in various places, I kicked two out for cheating with each other by sharing answers very obviously, and two more because they had written information on their test sheet beforehand in pencil, hoping to erase it during the test. All these students received zeroes, just in one turma, which totaled 20% of the class.
One of the girls I took a notebook from asked for it back directly after the test, without remorse.
Little by little, they'll learn how I do tests, and that will trickle down to behaving differently during the lessons, as it has with my current 10th graders.
For instance, a repeat student in a 10th grade class asked me today a question about what was dominant and recessive in an exercise I had given. I asked her to write a combination of letters, to which she responded, "No, I asked..." and I had to tell her three times to follow my instructions. When she finally did, she arrived at the answer to her originaly question more or less on her own. I told her to trust me next time, and she smiled and nodded.
Little by little.
Peace
John
Monday, March 29, 2004
03/01/2004
This weekend we received visitors from other sites fairly close to us, and had a good time hanging out, cooking and letting Dinho entertain us. We also statred having a palhota (hut) built for us in our backyard, right outside the door. It's going to be about 8 x 12', perfect for relaxing, doing work, talking or giving small lessons. The only problem is getting it built.
We put our neighbor Chico in charge of the whole thing as he is very motivated and well-versed in these types of things. He found someone, let's call him The Dude, to be in charge of the actual construction. With Chico and The Dude, we all sat down and eventually figured out the total material cost and labor costs. Nanosh did this, really, so I use "we" loosely.
The Dude seemed to forget exactly how much he was getting paid and disrespected Chico right in front of us (as The Dude is older, he deserves to, of course) while asking us for an advance of 200MT. He gave us his entire family history (My father is Indigo Montoya...) and didn't let us get a word in edgewise, so we stuffed some bills in his hand to get him moving along.
The entire time he was building - which is to say, the couple of hours - he was fairly disrespectful towards Nanosh and me, treating us like colonizers who couldn't give a rat's ass about Mozambicans, and also toward the younger (but still our age) Chico. We had promised some extra money for finishing on time, but as that clearly was not going to happen today, The Dude basically pawned the project off on Chico and some guy, let's call him The Dude Lite, to finish up. He said he had to travel or something. But the price stays the same, so we're still cool with it.
The Dude Lite hasn't been disrespectful to us, but it seems he doesn't speak Portuguese and though my Changana is getting better, I can't pick up on respect quite yet. Chico is working his ass off and really coming through for us for no anticipated payment. Needless to say, he'll get some money and a couple beers in the new palhota. In the meantime, we've got cement bags and large sticks sitting in our hallway.
I had what has turned out to be a disturbing dream a few days ago. In the dream, I'm back in the States, in a house, alone. It feels like I'm back in Connecticut, but hard to say. I walk to the bathroom and pour myself a (normal) bath. Getting in, I look out the window at a dark, lonely street with a few plain houses and no signs of life. I'm filled with incredible ease, but at the same time, disappointment. I begin to wonder when I can go back to Mozambique, then I remember that I had more school responsibilities and that my stay in the States was limited in any case. But that didn't ease the feeling of loneliness.
Everyone talks about how hard it is to go back and how they didn't see it coming, but I do. I totally see it and feel it. It's not going to be right away, but after a couple weeks, the novelty will wear right away and I'll want to be back, pushing myself to the limit.
I think what I'm most afraid of is being too comfortable. I don't think I'll ever be happy in a routine life, and that's all I see in going back. By the same token, I know I can make a big difference in many places not too far from home or from my friends and family.
Peace
John
We put our neighbor Chico in charge of the whole thing as he is very motivated and well-versed in these types of things. He found someone, let's call him The Dude, to be in charge of the actual construction. With Chico and The Dude, we all sat down and eventually figured out the total material cost and labor costs. Nanosh did this, really, so I use "we" loosely.
The Dude seemed to forget exactly how much he was getting paid and disrespected Chico right in front of us (as The Dude is older, he deserves to, of course) while asking us for an advance of 200MT. He gave us his entire family history (My father is Indigo Montoya...) and didn't let us get a word in edgewise, so we stuffed some bills in his hand to get him moving along.
The entire time he was building - which is to say, the couple of hours - he was fairly disrespectful towards Nanosh and me, treating us like colonizers who couldn't give a rat's ass about Mozambicans, and also toward the younger (but still our age) Chico. We had promised some extra money for finishing on time, but as that clearly was not going to happen today, The Dude basically pawned the project off on Chico and some guy, let's call him The Dude Lite, to finish up. He said he had to travel or something. But the price stays the same, so we're still cool with it.
The Dude Lite hasn't been disrespectful to us, but it seems he doesn't speak Portuguese and though my Changana is getting better, I can't pick up on respect quite yet. Chico is working his ass off and really coming through for us for no anticipated payment. Needless to say, he'll get some money and a couple beers in the new palhota. In the meantime, we've got cement bags and large sticks sitting in our hallway.
I had what has turned out to be a disturbing dream a few days ago. In the dream, I'm back in the States, in a house, alone. It feels like I'm back in Connecticut, but hard to say. I walk to the bathroom and pour myself a (normal) bath. Getting in, I look out the window at a dark, lonely street with a few plain houses and no signs of life. I'm filled with incredible ease, but at the same time, disappointment. I begin to wonder when I can go back to Mozambique, then I remember that I had more school responsibilities and that my stay in the States was limited in any case. But that didn't ease the feeling of loneliness.
Everyone talks about how hard it is to go back and how they didn't see it coming, but I do. I totally see it and feel it. It's not going to be right away, but after a couple weeks, the novelty will wear right away and I'll want to be back, pushing myself to the limit.
I think what I'm most afraid of is being too comfortable. I don't think I'll ever be happy in a routine life, and that's all I see in going back. By the same token, I know I can make a big difference in many places not too far from home or from my friends and family.
Peace
John
02/27/2004
The last two days I've had wonderful successes in my turma. I've walked in, started to give a lesson on a difficult concept, gotten stuck to where I've tried to explain it 5 different ways without the students understanding, then magically with only a few minutes left I find a way that makes sense and I see faces light up. That is the most wonderful feeling in the world - and the students love it, too.
One student, after I successfully (and finally) explained the "independent separation of characters" in Mendel's 3rd law, stood up and asked me - completely different than the plants I was talking about - if his leg comes from his father and his head from his mom. I screamed "Yes!", knowing full well that it's not like that in reality but that he applied the concept I was teaching about plants to a concrete example. He and the rest of the class lit up, as he held out his hand for me to shake it.
The class cheered as I did. Lessons like that make you feel like you're really making a difference. Then I went over to a student's home later to eat dinner and I started to really feel how much of a difference I'm making...conversation is a real good barometer.
Peace
John
One student, after I successfully (and finally) explained the "independent separation of characters" in Mendel's 3rd law, stood up and asked me - completely different than the plants I was talking about - if his leg comes from his father and his head from his mom. I screamed "Yes!", knowing full well that it's not like that in reality but that he applied the concept I was teaching about plants to a concrete example. He and the rest of the class lit up, as he held out his hand for me to shake it.
The class cheered as I did. Lessons like that make you feel like you're really making a difference. Then I went over to a student's home later to eat dinner and I started to really feel how much of a difference I'm making...conversation is a real good barometer.
Peace
John
02/25/2004
Ahh, Wednesdays. I now have a real day off from school, and I took complete advantage of it today. I got so much accomplished, including shopping, a bunch of questions answered from my pedagogical director, a life-size color-coded model skeleton (with joints made from buttons and string), and lesson plans for the rest of the week into next week, that I'm already optimistic about what I can accomplish this year. Time won't pass so quickly, so maybe I can get some stuff done that I really want to do.
I had a great English lesson today, covering anatomy. My lone student (who showed up in driving and flooding rain) is trained medically to some extent, but in Spanish because he studied in Cuba. This is actually quite common - many teachers studied in Cuba and three of the English students have studied there. So I'm teaching him the terms in English, and he's absorbing it like a sponge.
Good week so far.
Peace
John
I had a great English lesson today, covering anatomy. My lone student (who showed up in driving and flooding rain) is trained medically to some extent, but in Spanish because he studied in Cuba. This is actually quite common - many teachers studied in Cuba and three of the English students have studied there. So I'm teaching him the terms in English, and he's absorbing it like a sponge.
Good week so far.
Peace
John
02/24/2004
I've written this date on the board...hmmm...seven times today. For 6 different lessons - I only gave the same lesson once, and that was for my 8th graders. I'm writing during my first real break today - and it's 8:30 PM. Strangely, I have a whole day off tomorrow, although that's starting to fill up very quickly. It's nice to be busy, and I would feel guilty otherwise, but is it really all that healthy?
During the second of these 8th grade lessons, there was just too much talking and other noise, such that I decided it would work best to leave in the middle of the lesson. I know that the students need ot know where the limits are early on, so I hope they're seeing these limits. They complained that it wasn't all of them who were making things hard for me and that I should just kick out the troublemakers. But I feel that the troublemakers should feel guilty for making the others lose the lesson and thus be punished in whatever the Mozambican way is. That, and I have precedent, for the next time it happens, to make a threat.
What was exciting today was my successes. I had two major ones, neither of which can I claim ultimate responsibility for, but they still feel good. Firstly, I gave my first lesson to the Vukoxa workers today, and they were enthusiastic, having a great time, and seemed to recall a lot of information from last year. It should be a really fun time with them now that we're together in the afternoon (as opposed to early morning), after my classes, where I'm more likely to try different things because I was unable to do them during the day, and they're more like to show up. I already told them that they must provide some sort of summary of any lesson that they miss in order to continue studying. I don't know if I'll hold them to it or not.
My other success was in the 10th grade, third class. For some reason, this turma understands the information I've been explaining so much better than the others - a combination of age, behavior, lessons received and probably other factors. I complimented them today and they received it well.
On the other hand, one of the students in "my" turma today asked me to change turmas because she feels she will fail the year in the turma she's in. Strangely, she asked to switch to a turma I don't teach. Must get to the bottom of this one.
Peace
John
During the second of these 8th grade lessons, there was just too much talking and other noise, such that I decided it would work best to leave in the middle of the lesson. I know that the students need ot know where the limits are early on, so I hope they're seeing these limits. They complained that it wasn't all of them who were making things hard for me and that I should just kick out the troublemakers. But I feel that the troublemakers should feel guilty for making the others lose the lesson and thus be punished in whatever the Mozambican way is. That, and I have precedent, for the next time it happens, to make a threat.
What was exciting today was my successes. I had two major ones, neither of which can I claim ultimate responsibility for, but they still feel good. Firstly, I gave my first lesson to the Vukoxa workers today, and they were enthusiastic, having a great time, and seemed to recall a lot of information from last year. It should be a really fun time with them now that we're together in the afternoon (as opposed to early morning), after my classes, where I'm more likely to try different things because I was unable to do them during the day, and they're more like to show up. I already told them that they must provide some sort of summary of any lesson that they miss in order to continue studying. I don't know if I'll hold them to it or not.
My other success was in the 10th grade, third class. For some reason, this turma understands the information I've been explaining so much better than the others - a combination of age, behavior, lessons received and probably other factors. I complimented them today and they received it well.
On the other hand, one of the students in "my" turma today asked me to change turmas because she feels she will fail the year in the turma she's in. Strangely, she asked to switch to a turma I don't teach. Must get to the bottom of this one.
Peace
John
02/23/2004
I started teaching 8th grade today, and there were a few surprises. First off, the kids didn't react as harshly as I thought they would to their knowing I was their teacher. Second, they didn't go nuts when I said in Changana that I don't want them to speak Changana. Third, they were relatively mature and well-behaved, but understood me much less than my other new students.
They had received about 10-12 pages of notes that I summarized into two so I could actually give them a proper review of the material. This isn't surprising. The material was written in elevated Portuguese that assumes a level of previous knowledge impossible for these students. Their only choice is to memorize it and not even understand any of it. Thus, the weaning process begins.
Students for Nanosh's night English class made mud chess pieces that look really cool. I start my day English class at Vukoxa tomorrow and I'm constantly making mental notes from what he's done.
I thought today was busy - tomorrow's going to be a whole lot busier.
Peace
John
They had received about 10-12 pages of notes that I summarized into two so I could actually give them a proper review of the material. This isn't surprising. The material was written in elevated Portuguese that assumes a level of previous knowledge impossible for these students. Their only choice is to memorize it and not even understand any of it. Thus, the weaning process begins.
Students for Nanosh's night English class made mud chess pieces that look really cool. I start my day English class at Vukoxa tomorrow and I'm constantly making mental notes from what he's done.
I thought today was busy - tomorrow's going to be a whole lot busier.
Peace
John
02/22/2004
A few days back, I was talking to some ladies in the market and they were referring to Maputo and the United States, pointing their heads in different directions for each of the two. I worked out the directions in my head as I was leaving and they had instantaneously known exactly where these places were, relative to their position at the moment. This ability, clearly, I do not possess. I found it really quite incredible how automatically they knew where anything was - a little insight into how the Mozambican mind works.
Yesterday, I woke up at 6 to go get my picture taken at 7, but the photographer didn't show up, so I went to a parent-teacher meeting with the parents from my turma, at 7:30, but nobody showed up and then I went back to the school and waited 2 hours to get my picture taken, then an hour for a meeting to start, then waited an hour and a half for a special lunch to be served which took three hours to eat.
I rarely give a second thought to days like these.
I've got a new schedule now, and though I've added two turmas of 8th grade and dropped one of tenth, it'll be a slightly better schedule as I have one whole day off. However, my goodbye to that turma of 10th grade was anything but encouraging. When I announced I was no longer to be their teacher, they cheered wildly. I know exactly why - it's because my lessons are hard to get through, the new students don't understand me too well, and my tests are hard and controlled well. Plus, the new pedagogical director essentially told me she "rethought" some plans when she dropped one of my 10th grade turmas, saying that there might be some problems "understanding" me.
I feel hurt by this because I've worked so hard on exactly that - and if I received a fraction of the effort on the part of the students to understand me that I put in to be understood, they would be fine. I may not speak perfect Portuguese, but I know that they don't speak it all that well, and that it's heavily influenced by their native tongue. I've been mistaken for Portuguese, even by Europeans. So it's because I still don't think like a Mozambican (and never will). I feel hurt because they don't accept any of that responsibility or understanding. I admit, it's only fair, but I still don't like it.
The goodbye lunch was nice and quite a few people showed up and had some brief and sentimental words for the teachers leaving. I got up and said something along the lines of, these teachers will be missed and we hope that the new teachers will be able to fill their shoes. But I regretted afterward not trying it in Changana, as I think it would have meant so much more. I am resolved to give my next "speech" in Changana.
Peace
John
Yesterday, I woke up at 6 to go get my picture taken at 7, but the photographer didn't show up, so I went to a parent-teacher meeting with the parents from my turma, at 7:30, but nobody showed up and then I went back to the school and waited 2 hours to get my picture taken, then an hour for a meeting to start, then waited an hour and a half for a special lunch to be served which took three hours to eat.
I rarely give a second thought to days like these.
I've got a new schedule now, and though I've added two turmas of 8th grade and dropped one of tenth, it'll be a slightly better schedule as I have one whole day off. However, my goodbye to that turma of 10th grade was anything but encouraging. When I announced I was no longer to be their teacher, they cheered wildly. I know exactly why - it's because my lessons are hard to get through, the new students don't understand me too well, and my tests are hard and controlled well. Plus, the new pedagogical director essentially told me she "rethought" some plans when she dropped one of my 10th grade turmas, saying that there might be some problems "understanding" me.
I feel hurt by this because I've worked so hard on exactly that - and if I received a fraction of the effort on the part of the students to understand me that I put in to be understood, they would be fine. I may not speak perfect Portuguese, but I know that they don't speak it all that well, and that it's heavily influenced by their native tongue. I've been mistaken for Portuguese, even by Europeans. So it's because I still don't think like a Mozambican (and never will). I feel hurt because they don't accept any of that responsibility or understanding. I admit, it's only fair, but I still don't like it.
The goodbye lunch was nice and quite a few people showed up and had some brief and sentimental words for the teachers leaving. I got up and said something along the lines of, these teachers will be missed and we hope that the new teachers will be able to fill their shoes. But I regretted afterward not trying it in Changana, as I think it would have meant so much more. I am resolved to give my next "speech" in Changana.
Peace
John
02/19/2004
I had another struggle with Vincent today - all of it was fairly predictable. I don't think he reacted well to my list of suggestions on how he can change his way of grading homework.
I've got a lot on my plate right now, between English lessons, Biology tutoring, an English school, all sorts of little projects, normal school and LIFE - well, I'm busy like always. Good thing my empregada comes tomorrow, though I feel strange having someone cook for me. I guess I should learn to just deal with the whole class-difference issue, but it's not easy. Money going to someone who needs it more than I do.
Peace
John
I've got a lot on my plate right now, between English lessons, Biology tutoring, an English school, all sorts of little projects, normal school and LIFE - well, I'm busy like always. Good thing my empregada comes tomorrow, though I feel strange having someone cook for me. I guess I should learn to just deal with the whole class-difference issue, but it's not easy. Money going to someone who needs it more than I do.
Peace
John
02/18/2004
I get so frustrated when I grade papers. And it's not just that I get so into it that I don't want to be bothered (almost entirely NOT possible here); it's that 95% of my students show a complete lack of analytical thought.
(So here's where I back off my original cynical sounding statement and justify it using cultural differences and historical issues.)
The kids never learn analytical thought. You're taught by your parents and teachers that theonly opinion that matters is theirs. If you never have the right to an opinion, why bother even analyzing what they say? What they say must be true, after all. So I ask a Yes/No question and 95% of the responses will begin with "Sim" (yes) and after that, some students will essentially write a "no" explanation of their "yes" answer.
(Here's where I question my role as a development worker, teacher or random white guy.)
So do I try and promote even the slightest progress or go for broke, punishing students who give a "yes" where it should be "no"? It would be hypocritical to not look at it holistically. So I do.
But what really gets me more than anything else (and here's where I complain just for the sake of complaining) is the last turma I just corrected. It was the last quiz I gave in this round of quizzes, and it's clear that the students memorized all the previous questions and answers in hope of using them on this on this quiz. But I changed the questions around and they failed. I didn't make them any harder, just different. And so it's useless for them and for me, because I don't know what they understood and what they didn't understand.
I was sick Monday and Tuesday with a stomach thing. Let's just say I was reading the diagnosis for cholera VERY carefully. Not fun. I can tell I lost a few pounds so now it's time to pig out.
School changed the schedules. I'm not going to teach 8th grade as wel. I'm looking forward to it because it covers systems of the human body, or physiology. I liked physiology and I'm curious to review it and make neat visual aids.
Peace
John
(So here's where I back off my original cynical sounding statement and justify it using cultural differences and historical issues.)
The kids never learn analytical thought. You're taught by your parents and teachers that theonly opinion that matters is theirs. If you never have the right to an opinion, why bother even analyzing what they say? What they say must be true, after all. So I ask a Yes/No question and 95% of the responses will begin with "Sim" (yes) and after that, some students will essentially write a "no" explanation of their "yes" answer.
(Here's where I question my role as a development worker, teacher or random white guy.)
So do I try and promote even the slightest progress or go for broke, punishing students who give a "yes" where it should be "no"? It would be hypocritical to not look at it holistically. So I do.
But what really gets me more than anything else (and here's where I complain just for the sake of complaining) is the last turma I just corrected. It was the last quiz I gave in this round of quizzes, and it's clear that the students memorized all the previous questions and answers in hope of using them on this on this quiz. But I changed the questions around and they failed. I didn't make them any harder, just different. And so it's useless for them and for me, because I don't know what they understood and what they didn't understand.
I was sick Monday and Tuesday with a stomach thing. Let's just say I was reading the diagnosis for cholera VERY carefully. Not fun. I can tell I lost a few pounds so now it's time to pig out.
School changed the schedules. I'm not going to teach 8th grade as wel. I'm looking forward to it because it covers systems of the human body, or physiology. I liked physiology and I'm curious to review it and make neat visual aids.
Peace
John
Saturday, March 06, 2004
02/15/2004
I really feel like the main problem I have with my students is not that they're not motivated to learn - it's that they're only motivated to learn within their own system. This means memorizing everything, cheating whenever possible (even sometimes if it means more work) and accepting only one version of the truth. And so I teach to understand, only to be rebuffed by memorization. Even my best students, too.
Nanosh and I have been talking a lot about language lately. It's quite obvious, now, that our "dialect" English is so poor in terms of expressiveness and feeling. I see and hear people speaking in Changana and a normal conversation seems to have so much more depth to it than my English conversation does. It's clearly a reflection of culture- theater and poetry are not only valued, but are an integral part of daily life (however noticeably absent from most curricula). Maybe I'll be able to understand enough some day to make myself feel naive about this.
Peace
John
Nanosh and I have been talking a lot about language lately. It's quite obvious, now, that our "dialect" English is so poor in terms of expressiveness and feeling. I see and hear people speaking in Changana and a normal conversation seems to have so much more depth to it than my English conversation does. It's clearly a reflection of culture- theater and poetry are not only valued, but are an integral part of daily life (however noticeably absent from most curricula). Maybe I'll be able to understand enough some day to make myself feel naive about this.
Peace
John
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