More resource room!

Math!

Counters to practice regrouping

A gem I found in the cabinet.

Science corner. 

What comes from beef cattle?

Look, very closely.  See that there?  Snake skin.
I probably should have saved it for the nature
table, but in a fit of disgust, I threw it outside.

Music!  They had the whole collection of music books
that I used when I was in elementary school!  :)

Dead rats, Resource room and more Obama

This is my sink.  :) 

My neighbor kiddos.  L-R, Precious, Shafik, Lulu, and Shakira in front. 

Bling

Obama: everywhere you want to go

Side of my house and....

...graffiti.  I washed it off so random thieves wouldn't easily identify my home.

Satchi (formerly known as Eeyore) wandered into my house one day.  Too cute.

"Resource room" before....

...before...

....during...ew ew ew....

My Health and PIASCY corner, after!

More Health and an English story writing area.  :) 
That is Peter, a year one student.  He helped a lot, and is
the only student on campus right now.  Webele emiri moo Peter!

What meetings may bring

     One thing you'll never hear in Uganda is, "Boy, I'm looking forward to that staff meeting today!"  I decided to make pancakes before going to the meeting, so if I had a pancake mess in my kitchen, at least it would give me an excuse to be late.  Nope, I was on time.  The meeting wasn't, but it wasn't severely late either, only one hour behind.  While waiting, I made an origami fortune teller, which I introduced to my ICT counterpart, Immaculate.  (She loved it, and made a note in her phone to see if her fortune comes true by next week!)  The meeting targeting burning issues, like the fact that the students had been sent home due to lack of funds.  Although the students are gone, it is expected that the staff be around and working.  This is somewhat problematic at my college; no teacher housing means that the tutors commute.  Some even commute from Kampala.  For this reason, we were figuring out who could commit to being there certain days of next week.  I volunteered to be there everyday, since I live so close.  I had volunteered to do this so quickly, I didn't even think what in the world I would be doing while at the college.  Whoops.  The meeting went on, discussion about construction of new dormitories and staff housing.  Then, the principal mentioned something that perked my ears.  Blah, blah, blah resource room...something about there used to be a resource room but isn't now, but may be after construction.  Or at least that's what I gathered.
    "Excuse me Principal, did you say that we will have space for a resource room after shifting?" (Re: moving).
     "Yes, well actually we already have the space."
     And nothing more was said or explained about that.
    After the meeting, I didn't want to go home, since it was emphasized that we staff stay around during the school day.  I decided to poke around the room that's stuffed with books that don't yet fit in the library.  I found some treasures!  Wooden puzzles, alphabet posters, oversized agriculture books (about 35 of them) and children's books!  I kept thinking, boy I could throw a resource room together with just this stuff!  It was so heavy on my mind, I had to do something.  On my way out, I went to look for the principal.  He was gone, as was the deputy.  However, the DOS was still there, working away (as she always is!)  I inquired about the resource room area that the principal mentioned in the meeting.
    "Oh yes, I can show you now.  I even have a copy of the key for you."
      ORLY?!
     She showed me the FANTASTICALLY EMPTY room, with one desk and one cabinet chock full of posters and other things other teachers had made.  I was so excited that I almost started setting up then and there.  In my contemplative state of imagining what the room could be, I turned my energy towards sweeping like a maniac.  It was almost five o'clock and finally time to go, so I decided to save the most exciting project at the college thus far until next week, when I'll have time to properly clean it.  Thank goodness I didn't have a pancake mishap...

Mid-term break

The secret is out.  It was not a rumor.  At least four PTCs that I know of around Uganda sent students home yesterday due to the lack of promised funds needed to run the schools.  Some students at the Jinja PTC were, understandably, excited to have at least a one-week break.  Other students were frustrated and sad, because a week away from school means no discussion groups or sports and getting behind on the syllabus.  I was surprised not to see any word of it in the Ugandan paper today (The New Vision, Daily Monitor).  This means that I, as well, get a week break.  During this week I plan to figure out how I'm going to catch up on the syllabus for year twos, and how to compensate as well for the Year Ones.  The Y1s just came back on Friday, and were sent home yesterday.  I taught one class, and if they miss two weeks, we'll have maybe five weeks left in the term to cover the whole syllabus.  This is the biggest news for my past week.  Nothing else has happened that is blog-worthy.  Perhaps something will happen during my week off that is exciting enough to add.  I have added a very interesting piece to my blog--a WISHLIST! :)  I also added a very concise autobiography.  While I'm waiting on excitement to hit me in the face, check those pages out!       

Classes and goats

     Hello world!  I'm falling into a routine here, now that school is in full swing.  I now see what the reality is when it comes to the teaching time table.  I'm scheduled for five lessons a week, seeing each of the five streams once.  When I slightly panicked and said that I wouldn't be able to cover everything in the time allotted, my counterpart said, "You can take classes of tutors who don't show.  You can even take my classes-it's easier for me to steal hours."  Maybe this doesn't sound super functional or fair, but I've noticed that taking advantage of tutors not showing, or compromising with a tutor so you get two hours instead of one, seems to work.  For now.  I don't believe I've seen anyone outright steal a class, but rather just step in when someone isn't around or negotiate with another tutor to trade or change classes.  Meanwhile, the students are always in the classroom, waiting for anyone to show up, and hopefully ready for any subject.  After giving a little exit slip at the end of the three streams, I asked, "What was one thing you learned?  What would you like to learn in health science class?  What is one suggestion you have for me?"  
     When it came to suggestions, several students wrote, "We love having you teach!  Just please give us some notice..."  Apparently the students have no copy of the time table, so they don't know which subjects to prepare for.  Others wrote, "Come every day!" "Teach us at least once a day!"  I was flattered, but it's unfortunately impossible.  These students have two years to thoroughly understand, to the point of being able to teach, math, physics, chemistry, natural science, agriculture, music, art, English, Local Language, Kiswahili, Religious Education and Professional Studies--as well as practice teaching!  Two years, six terms, bundling together content and practice.  
     Before I mentioned anything about how nearly impossible that is, one of the tutors at my college vented, saying, "These students need AT LEAST three years at a PTC," to which I wholeheartedly agreed.  
     As far as the survey/exit slip, there were some actual suggestions, like, "Improve on handwriting," and "Slow down your speed of speaking."  Ah...it's something I'll be working on constantly.  A fantastic thing that I took away from this assessment was that all students claimed to have learned about other parts of cells.  It seems that they have all learned and studied about only certain structures of plant and animal cells, so this week's lesson added on to their previous knowledge.  I was surprised-- I was really expecting someone to write, "I didn't learn anything."  Not one single student said that!  :)  
      And...the thing students want to learn about the most?  (These are 18-19 year olds...)  The REPRODUCTIVE system!  Including, but not limited to, "STD prevention," "Family planning," and, more plainly put, "Sex."  That'll be a fun class.  It was, across all three streams, the most popular answer.  Too bad the circulatory system isn't as appealing... 
     Apart from science teaching, I've been co-teaching with Immaculate, the computer teacher.  Immaculate went to University for computers, and knows a lot.  The college is lucky to have her!  We've planned that she'll teach mostly theory in the classroom while I pull out small groups to work on practical use of the computers (it seems a little unfair to her, but she likes the set up).  So, on Wednesday and Thursday, with groups of 9-13 on the 9 working computers, we practiced turning on, restarting, and shutting down the computer.  It's unbelievable the kinds of things that I wasn't ready for explaining, like how to move the mouse (some students were falling off the table with the mouse) and that, once the "system unit's" lights are off, it's off (students would be completely done, then turn the computer back on again).  I have faith that these students will do well, because they're all really excited to use the computers.    

Me and one of the baby goats--SO TINY!

      In other, non-school related news...I have little to report.  Just like teaching anywhere, I'm exhausted at the end of the day.  I get home, fetch water, bathe, eat, clean, review notes, maybe read, then pass out.  I'm up before the sun is, I'm actually cold when I bathe in the morning and I'm on my way to school at 7:50.  I did, however, find some time to chat with my neighbor Tagaba, who is the proud owner of three new baby goats (her goat gave birth to four, one died).  I also found time to meet with a family in my village who is going through some tough times.  This family's P7 boy is really bright, and studied at a private school until this year.  The father is a farmer, but it somehow supporting a son through university.  For this reason, the P7 boy couldn't afford to go to the private school anymore, and now studies at the public school near my PTC.  P7 is a critical year, because it culminates with the PLE (primary leaving exam) which is the gateway to move on to Secondary school.  After meeting the family, and having my neighbor Behna investigate as well, I decided that it would be worthwhile to help him out.  He'll now finish his P7 year without worry about school fees.  I never imagined I would do that, considering how not-sustainable it is and how it is in some ways favoritism, but I see a hard-working family, and a really hard working son, and (for right now) a small gap to fill.  I'm hoping that with this time I bought them, they'll be able to save for school fees for Secondary School (which I'm positive he'll be attending next year; he's in the top five of his class). 

BABY GOATS

This one is kind of neglected by it's momma.  I'm going to personally
name it Eeyore.

Me and Eeyore

Obama portrait anyone?

Random shopping day in Jinja--this is Erica, buying
some carrots.