Getting into the swing of being a real teacher

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10/12/08
Let me think… There isn’t really anything too exciting to mention about this week. Classes went well for the most part. The students are having some difficulty with simplifying indices, but I’m not surprised. Indices, or exponents for those of you that aren’t mathematically inclined, are difficult. My biggest difficulty is coping with the inconsistency of the schedule and classes. There is a set schedule, but it is used more like a rough guide as to what classes are when. I often head to a class and there is a teacher in the middle of a lecture that is unaware that I am scheduled to have class at that time. Sometimes I arrive at a class to find that all but one or two students are out weeding (cutting the grass with machetes) because they were late for school. I guess that’s why the Peace Corps really drives home how important it is to be flexible. So far the worst part about teaching has been using subpar chalk and chalkboards. Using chalk is bad enough because you get chalk dust all over your hands, but when the boards are warped plywood it is even worse. Whoever invented whiteboards is a genius. Next week should be my last week with the form 2s since the form 1s should start arriving on the 16th. When the form 1s get here my schedule is going to be packed.
Since I am the new House 1 Master, I met all of the students in my House and introduced myself. If you are a Harry Potter fan then you’ll understand right away. I am basically Professor Snape for Slytheryn. All the students are broken into four houses, but our houses don’t have names, they are just numbered. Throughout the year, the houses compete against each other in a number of events. There are football (soccer), volleyball, table tennis, and quiz competitions. I’m not sure if there is a house champion at the end of the year or not. As the master of House 1 I am in charge of organizing practices and coaching for the competitions.
I played soccer with some of the students this week. Most of them have pretty good foot skills, but the team shape and organization wasn’t very good. They just made tons of short passes with no purpose that passed on the pressure. It was pretty frustrating trying to play their style of soccer. With some coaching, organization, and discipline they could have a really good team. I’m excited to get some more touches on the ball though. I’ve been having withdrawals listening to the EPL on the BBC and getting UPS results off the internet. I miss playing meaningful soccer. Enjoy it while you can boys.
I did have another idiot moment this week, so naturally I’m going to share it with all of you. I write all of my blog entries on my laptop at my house and then save them on a pen drive so I can just copy the entry and post it at an internet café quickly. Last week when I was posting my blog entry at the internet café, I left my pen drive in the computer like an idiot. I didn’t realize that I had forgotten my pen drive until I had gotten back to my house, and by that time it was too late to travel all the way back into Obuasi to see if it was still there. The next day after school I went back to the internet café to see if it was still there. I was hoping that maybe it had just gone unnoticed and was still plugged into the computer. Well, it didn’t go unnoticed. As soon as I entered the internet café, the attendant recognized me and reached into a drawer and pulled out my pen drive. He gave me a hard time and said that next time he was going to sell it. One week I’m getting my ipod stolen out of the mail, and a couple weeks later someone held onto my pen drive when I left it in a computer. I really lucked out, and am extremely grateful that I still have my pen drive.
Last week was a busy week for birthdays. Happy Birthday Melissa and Malai, and welcome to the world Eva Monroe Conti. On October 9, Jenny’s brother and sister-in-law had their second child. I now know three people with birthdays on October 9th, which should make it pretty easy for me to remember them all. Happy Birthday to you too, Liz. I hope I didn’t miss anyone. Bye-bye for now.

10/19/08
There is nothing major to report about classes this week. I continued teaching the forms 2s and covered exponential equations. The biggest news is that the form 1s were supposed to report to school and pay their school fees by Thursday the 16th. Many of the boarders showed up this week, but no where near all 200 of the form 1 students came to school. Next week is orientation for the form 1s. I’m not sure what the orientation entails, but I’ll let you know in my next blog. Since the form 1s are supposed to be here now I assumed that this would be my last week teaching the form 2s. As it turns out, classes for the form 1s aren’t likely to start until after the mid-term break at the end of October, so I’ll be teaching the form 2s for another 2 weeks. This coming week I’ll start reviewing with the students for a mid-term test that I will give the following week. I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to give the mid-term either. I think I’ll probably just write the questions on the blackboard and have the students write the answers in their exercise books and turn them in for me to grade. We’ll see how things go.
The weather is starting to get a little bit hotter as it transitions from the rainy season into the dry season. On Friday the temperature had to be well into the 90s, but no one here knows Fahrenheit here and my familiarity of Celsius is limited. Akrokerri is up in the hills and as a result, the dry season is not as harsh here as it is in the North for example. On occasion we will still get storms that roll through. Supposedly all the grass dies though. I’ll get a better understanding of the “dry season” over the next couple of months. As far as I’ve seen, I’d describe the weather as a never-ending summer with periods that rain more than others, but then again I am from Washington State where there are 4 distinct seasons.
I’m getting along great with all of the students. This week a group of form 3 boys asked me a bunch of questions about America. I had to try and explain the difference between Washington State and Washington D.C. It is not easy explaining that D.C. is a city that isn’t in any of the 50 states. They were also shocked to find out that Obama supports abortion. I also had to tell them that the way rappers talk is not socially acceptable, and that girls in America will slap you if you call them impolite names. I’m discovering that music and the media are not giving accurate representations to the rest of the world of what America is like, and it’s my job to correct all those misconceptions. Thanks a lot MTV.
I decided to walk down to the Akrokerri Teacher Training College to check out the campus, and investigate the rumor that I heard they have Mass in English. Like most things in Ghana, the Mass schedule isn’t set in stone, but they do have a priest that comes every now and then to say Mass in English, which would be nice for a change. I got a little tour of the campus and I was impressed with the facilities. The enrollment is around 1000 and the government pays for tuition, food, and room and board, but there are some other fees students have to pay like registration and books. I wouldn’t compare the campus to any in America, but it is really nice for Ghana.
I played soccer a couple of times with the students. It is still frustrating to try and play or understand the style of soccer they play so I have decided to just sit back and play defense and get my satisfaction by shutting out the other team. I forgot how fulfilling it is to leave the opposing team with a big fat goose egg on the board.
On the topic of soccer, yesterday I went to the sub office in Kumasi to use the internet to listen to the audio broadcast of the UPS soccer games. Shortly after I got to KSO the power went out and didn’t come back on for 6 hours. Luckily there is a generator at KSO so I still had the internet. Right before kickoff, the internet decided to work slower than dial-up. Every now and then I caught a couple seconds of audio before the connection needed to rebuffer. I was able to watch the box score though so at least I could read how the games were going. Thanks to the internet the audio broadcast was pretty much a bust, but the Loggers did get a couple of wins and I was pleasantly surprised to find a package from Sarah and a couple letters from Jenny waiting for me at KSO so the trip was well worth it.

10/20/08
Alright, it’s time for a funny story. As I mention earlier, I got my veranda screened to keep out the mosquitoes. For the most part the screening does a good job of keeping the bugs out of the veranda, but it isn’t impenetrable. An occasional fly follows me through the door and some knats find a way through the cracks or screening, but they don’t bother me. There is a lizard that found his way under the door and into the veranda, and I don’t think he knows how to get out now. The lizard itself doesn’t even bother me. He keeps to himself and runs away anytime I’m in sight. The problem is that this particular lizard likes to leave me presents on the top of my water barrel by taking craps on the lid. I assume he likes lying on the lid at night because it’s black and probably retains some heat from the sun. The lizard isn’t very big so his dumps aren’t very big, but it is starting to get annoying having to wake up to a new load almost every morning when I open my water barrel. I thought you might enjoy hearing about my lizard poop problems. I figure I could have much worse poop problems considering I’m in Ghana so I’m looking on the bright side of things.

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