School on Saturdays
My whole professional life so far I have been able to say "I am a teacher at such-and-such High School," and know that most people recognise - at least kind of recognise - what I'm talking about. While I am most certainly still a teacher, it's not that simple any more (if school teaching can ever be called simple). So over the next few weeks I will be trying to give a brief peek into some of the extremely varied work that we are doing at the moment.
I decided to start with Saturday mornings, because this is probably the context most similar to the one we've come from - albeit with a chalkboard instead of a tablet computer!
At 8:15 on Saturday mornings, we head up to the office to load the van with the rest of the Saturday morning squad of about six teachers. We start with boxes of files, chalk, dusters, worksheets and dictionaries, followed by a precious projector, extension cables, calculators and textbooks to lend out - carefully recorded - to learners who are motivated to study but lack the physical resources to do so. This is more or less every child in our programme - resource days at the start of the year were hectically busy. Once a month, we take the big boxes of library books. We're also careful not to forget the bottles of virulent juice mix, bags of small ginger or coconut biscuits, box of plastic cups and of course the essential soccer and rugby balls.
Then we drive up the road to the taxi stop, where we fill whatever space is left in the van with kids coming from our particular village. There are usually a couple who can't fit in, so they are given the first installment of taxi money for the day - again, carefully recorded. They'll catch the next minibus taxi to come past, and should get to the school in time, or only a little late.
The drive to the school we teach at takes about 25 minutes, through breathtaking views and terrifying twists in the road. Fortunately, this is one of the best pieces of road in our immediate vicinity - there are only two or three big potholes to avoid!
By 9:10, we are ready to start the first lesson. We've managed to rearrange the desks in the three classrooms we're allowed to borrow, chase away the horde of dogs that lives at the school, and turn on the electricity, when it is working. The seventy or eighty children who attend on average have mostly trickled in, though they will continue to arrive steadily until about 10 - the journeys from their homes are long and complicated, not to mention expensive. They also have many responsibilities at home, which must be seen to before they can set out for Saturday school. Sometimes we are also in friendly competition with the local school's own Saturday school, and the students have to negotiate which parts of which programme they will attend.
Each classroom has its own switchboard and one plug point. We have to negotiate to make sure our equipment can be plugged in because the single charging station is very highly sought after amongst the students! If they can't charge their phones here, most of them will have to pay to get them charged - approximately R5 a time: a significant sum in this context. Needless to say, any lesson requiring electricity has to have a back-up lesson!
I teach grade 12 Maths, and divide the rest of my time between observing and supporting grade 10 and 11 Maths, as well as grade 10 to 12 English First Additional Language lessons. Adam teaches grade 12 Physical Sciences and observes grade 10 and 11. The timetable varies, but most days we have about an hour and 15 minutes per grade.
The lessons themselves are the most interesting part of the day - at least, for education nerds like us! There is very little trouble with getting the students to focus on their work, but a real challenge to produce truly learner-centred teaching - confidence is low, and the students are extremely reluctant to risk asking a question. Some confident students are willing to try a isiXhosa explanation for the class, but even this takes a lot of coaxing. Tricks like multiple choice voting booklets, mini-whiteboards and pair work are essential to keep tabs on how much the group understands. English is a problem - but one which has to be overcome, at least in part, as they will be writing their final exams in English. We both spend a significant amount of class time working on names while the students do their work - we are pretty much sorted with the grade 12s, but the other grades have a long way to go!
There is also time scheduled every week for a different slot - careers guidance talks by local professionals, assistance with application forms for various bursaries and tertiary institutions, fun team building activities or agency activities. There are so many barriers to access for our students, not all of which are academic, and the team is still trying to figure out ways in which we can help with these less tangible barriers. Activities which develop leadership, self-discipline and confidence are important, but difficult to design, especially across cultural divides. Discouragement, disappointment and despair are constant spectres in this community, despite the beautiful surroundings, as you can see by the above heartfelt student graffiti in one of our classrooms.
We have biscuits during one of the lessons before lunch, and everyone perks up considerably. My guess is quite a few of the students haven't had breakfast - but I am as eager for a snack as they are.
We break up for half an hour of lunch at around 12:30. One of the team has managed to drive the extra 15 minutes to the biggest local store for a staggering number of loaves of bread, buckets of peanut butter, and rolls of polony. Lunch ladies from the local school have made an even more staggering number of sandwhiches, which are laid out on two school desks. The students file past - they are allowed one peanut butter and one polony sandwhich, and can also dip a plastic cup into a bucket of juice - or rain water, if we're out of juice mix. We have to be vigilant to make sure no-one takes seconds before everyone has eaten: although the students are generally pretty good, it is clear that some of the boys in particular are far hungrier than two sandwhiches really covers. The leftovers are cut in half, so that more children can have seconds, and disappear quickly.
As always, the lesson after lunch is challenging - everyone is sleepy, and has been concentrating for a long time. Recalling the boys from games of soccer in the quad is as much of a problem as in any school. However, discipline issues are minimal - these are highly motivated and (genearally) self-disciplined students.
At 2:25, we wrap up for the day, with reminders about the afternoon study groups at various local schools in the coming week. The students gather in the groups that will travel in various directions - their leaders perform careful calculations and come to collect the precious taxi money which will allow them all to attend again next week. Each child needs between R30 and R50 to get here - a prohibitive cost, given most family situations. Student leaders from each school are also given R10 for airtime and charging each month, so that they can stay in touch with the team as school schedules are subject to unplanned changes which affect our programmes. So all in all the cash box and alarmingly complicated cash book are probably the most essential items of equipment that we have here.
By 3:00, we are about ready to come home, dropping various students en route. The van has an ancient music mix plugged into its sturdy sound system: we all enjoy it, though most members of the van know all the lyrics off by heart, having travelled many, many kilometres in its company.
Until next time!
Joanna and Adam