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
