Eighth week teaching

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Eighth week teaching
Monday I went to M’bang’ombe school to deliver the wordcards I'd promised them. Then into the CBCC to take in some things I'd made. Passing the ball round and saying names, animals and food went very well, as did a little song. We tried out the animal puzzles I'd made and they were far too difficult: in fact one of the helpers couldn't do them, so I took them away to make them easier. I felt
Ike Oscar Wilde, who'd spent a busy day on his poem; he spent the morning putting in a comma, and the afternoon taking it out. I spent yesterday afternoon cutting pictures into four pieces, and this afternoon, sticking them back together to make two-piece puzzles.
Earlier I took the Standard 6 learners in groups. I only managed to take two groups,then they'd all disappeared and the teacher seemed to be with Standard 8 practising harmonies of the national anthem. There weren't many children in anyway, the school is having a blitz on wearing uniforms, and sent home those who weren't wearing them. I want to ask what happens to those children who can't afford a uniform.
The first group coloured in the alphabet charts, and the second group had a go at the Three Billy Goats Gruff play. I told the basic story, translating the important words into Chichewa, then we read it through together. Then in pairs, they took a part each. A couple of them were really good, spoke out well, almost with expression, and came in at the right time.
I told them about the art club I'm going to hold on the next two Saturdays, doing patterns in Take Your Pencil for a Walk, and sticking pictures for collage. I've brought a load of pictures with me that I haven't used, and I've talked with Chikondi about him having the felt pens and running a drawing club, copying from books, so I thought I'd start off an art club, before I leave.

Shelby still had Justin here until Tuesday, which was great as he is a pretty good cook. They seem to be very well matched, and I'm hoping for a wedding invite. I was away on Friday night, but mostly they need me there as a visible chaperone.

I did ask the Head about children who can't afford uniform, and he said the parents agreed that they wouldn't come to school unless they had uniforms. I said what about if they couldn't afford to feed their children, surely that should come before uniforms. He just shrugged and said, ‘The parents agreed’. I thought the deputy Head looked as if he agreed with me. The Head is moving to another school in a few weeks, maybe the staff will let the poorer kids have an education. According to the book about Malawi, it is a basic child’s right to have an education, it's not a responsibility to wear a uniform. I've spent most of the money I brought with me or I'd buy them uniforms.
At least they can go in the library whatever they’re wearing. I asked the Standard 6 teacher (a new one as Mr Chadza now takes Standard 1) if he would tell any child who doesn't have a uniform to come to the library.

I took two groups from Standard 7 to practise reading out sections of the Sam's Village booklet. I want them to read it to the other standards so that everyone in the school, (or at least those with uniforms) will know what Sam's Village is about. They are all keen to do it, and I sent them to different areas to practise, but we've had to shelve it until after the weekend because they are practising athletics for Saturday’s big event at M'bang'ombe school when ten schools compete. We may not get many children to the art club in the library on Saturday, because of the athletics.We also looked at the Char Char Trust dictionaries; they love using them. I wrote some English words that I wanted to be sure they understood, and they had to write the Chichewa for them, or we look them up in the dictionaries. Once I knew they understood ‘read, loudly, slowly, quiet, voice, two, together, read, practise'; I could tell them that when reading to a class, they had to read slowly and loudly, and if they had a quiet voice they had to read together in pairs. And they had to practise to do it. They worked well in pairs or groups choosing how they would do it, but at the end of the session I discovered that they thought they had to learn it off by heart, rather than read it. I told the boy who was proudly reciting his bit to me that he didn't need to remember it, he only needed to read it and asked him to tell the others. He said he would, but Malawians are very good at agreeing with you when they haven't understood what you are asking. I'm amazed that they were still keen to do it when they thought they had to learn it.
Thursday I took some board books into the CBCC, showed the helper and the children, then let them loose with the books. It was lovely to see them show each other the pictures, count things, name things and feel the feely parts. When it was time for them to go outside and I collected the books up to take back to the library, they looked so disappointed, but when I said,’Mawa’, (tomorrow), they looked excited and repeated it.
Thursday I went into town to finish the laminating and to buy my plane ticket from here to Livingstone where I'll pick up the Okavango delta trip. I've been reading up about Botswana and the book says that the San bushmen have a permanent erecting or semi-erection. It also said that the different tribes are fairly widely spread now. It'll be hard (if you'll pardon the pun) to keep from looking to see who is descended from the San.

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