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Madame Rachelle came to visit with Doug

Thursday October 15, 2009

School has officially started! The first day for the administration (Proviseur=Principal, Censeur= Vice Principal, Intendant=School bursar, and Surveillant General (goes by ‘le general’=discipline) was September 15^th. The Provisuer showed up in Tougouri on the 14^th and I was basically sitting on his doorstep waiting for him, as I was desperate to get my teaching schedule to begin lesson planning. So I met Mr. Proviseur September 14^th and we had an initial meeting about classes- I requesting 20 hours of less/week and Fridays off so I can travel easily/save students from my end of the week wrath. He didn’t sound all that happy about my requests, but said he would let me know. I then asked about the rentree d’administration (initial school meeting) and Mr. Provi said it was following day at 8am, which I took to mean that I should come. So, still being used to American timing, I was at the school before 8am and nobody was there. The Provi strolls in at almost 10 (although he lives on the premises) and tells me that I don’t need to be there and can go home. Ok…at least I got some sitting done. But I did find out that the conseil d’rentree (school staff meeting) was the 28^th, at which I would get my teaching schedule. So much for lesson planning during September!

So I basically killed time until September 28^th, went to Ouaga, visited people, read A LOT. My homologue arrived the week of the 28^th so I had someone else to talk to! The 28^th rolled around and I was at school again before 8am, only to find that the meeting had been moved to the next day to give teachers more time to arrive in Tougouri. Thanks for letting me know…not that I really had anywhere to be/anything to do, but still it would have been nice, especially because I live right next door to the Censeur and he could have said a quick word to me. However, this is Burkina and I have to get used to this sort of thing.

I again show up at 8am on the 29^th for the conseil, as I was told it starts at 8, however not everyone shows up until 10 and even then many teachers are not there, despite the conseil de rentree being a compulsory meeting for all teachers. The teachers here take their vacations to the very last second. However, I was very very fortunate because my conseil only lasted about an hour, while other volunteers’ conseils spanned 2-6.5 hours! During the meeting, the head teachers, or Professor Principals, who are responsible for a given class, calculates ranks and averages, and supervises students’ progess, were chosen. I am not one of them, which I am glad of, because it is a lot of work and I frankly do not know enough yet to be one. Also, we were given out schedules and I was only given 9hours/week! I was a little shocked and worried about it being so few- I didn’t want to spend a whole year in boredom! At the meeting, everyone also discussed school rules, of which 20 minutes was spent talking about students having cell phones are a problem, but never really coming to a decision about disciplinary action to be taken if a cell phone goes off. So I guess it’s to my discretion…

So I was finally able to begin lesson planning, but was then told that there was already a change in the schedule and to come by the school the following Saturday for my new schedule. Saturday comes and I show up at 8:30, but the Censeur is in a meeting. Two other teachers show up and I asked why they were there too, and it turns out that there is a meeting for us. Good thing I came/waited around! This meeting was the conseil d’enseignment (teacher meeting, organized by subject) where we went over by class books teachers are using. I also find out that I’m still only teaching 9 hours (with Fridays off-yay!), but I’m teaching 3 levels of SVT: 6eme (flowering plants and vertebrates), 5eme (non-flowering plants and invertebrates), and 4eme (geology-rocks and formations). So that means that although I only have three classes, I still have to lesson plan for three different classes. It really wouldn’t be much more work to take on a few more classes of the same levels, or even less work to teach only two levels, but have more classes of each level. However I guess the schedule did not work out that way. I also learned at this meeting that since I have only one of several of the classes for each level, I have to do the same progression (program) and give the same tests as the other teachers. This is good and bad at the same time, good because I get to collaborate with other teachers and get help writing tests, but bad because I feel as if my classes are not mine anymore because I have to stick to someone else’s plan. I’m sure it will turn out fine though.

The first official day of school was Thursday October 1^st. I arrive early for my one class that day, introduce myself and give rules, taking all of 20 minutes as I was told to not begin teaching yet and not even all the teachers were even in Tougouri yet. Not teaching worked out well though, because due to a schedule change, I am not even teaching that class anymore. That weekend Kait, David, Mike, and Evan, my closest volunteer neighbors visited me and we went to the marche and ate really good chicken and beer for dinner. Who knew Tougouri could make such good chicken- nothing like in the U.S.-too gamey to even be sold there, but really good for here). After my visitors left I almost felt lonelier than before they came, but now I have school the next week to look forward to/plan for!

School schedules are very interesting here, as students have each class for different numbers of hours per week. For example, 6eme and 5eme students have 3hrs SVT, 5hrs math, 3hrs English, 2hrs EPS (PE- Tougouri is fortunate to have an actual gym teacher, although no gymnasium or other resources so students go running in the dirt around the soccer field), 5hrs French, and 3hrs hist/geography. In 4eme, students have an additional 4hrs of physics/chemistry. Since these hours are so odd and teachers are teaching multiple levels and subjects, scheduling is a nightmare! However, since it’s not my job, I’m not worried and just refer to my own schedule. So I have 2hour and 1hour blocks of teaching at different times on different days. I wonder if they could set up a system of rotating days (A,B,C,etc) similar to what I had in middle school, but maybe that’s just as difficult to set up. I don’t know.

I’ve been teaching for 2 full weeks and am already ahead of the program I set up with other teachers. Maybe I am just going way too fast, but students have been able to correctly answer my revision questions and if I go any slower, I would just be stalling and killing time. I’m going to observe a Burkinabe teacher tomorrow, so hopefully I will gain some insight. Despite only teaching 9hrs/week, I have been very busy with lesson planning- it takes A LOT of time! It gets frustrating translating to English, then not being happy with the translation, so changing what I actually give to students, and then translating back to French. Also, since I know students don’t always understand my accent, I have to plan out what exactly I am going to write on the blackboard-sometimes I feel as if I am writing a textbook-which I kind of am as students do not have them (or at least don’t have them yet). I was under the impression that students do get books, so I’m guessing that they have not been distributed yet. However, the students’ textbooks are not good; they are very wordy and almost 20 years old, and are even worse than the documents I use to teach out of. I do have a copy of the textbook, which I have brought to class to show pictures. The document that I teach out of (having never studied the material I’m teaching in depth) is satisfactory for the most part, but sometimes baffling in its explanations (eg. “the nucleus of a cell is a brightly colored sphere swimming in the cytoplasm”- no mention whatsoever of the nucleus being the control center for the cell). So, needless to say, I often supplement with my own examples and definitions if I can think of something. Also, the textbook and my teaching document were written in Burkina by Burkinabe teachers for Burkinabe students yet they both contain many examples and demonstrations that would never be feasible in a classroom with 100+ students and definitely no laboratory. Yet these demonstrations and experiments are part of the ‘official program’! I just don’t understand why they were ever included if they would very very rarely (except in private schools in Ouaga) be performed. It doesn’t make any sense to me and almost makes me a little angry because they are good ideas, but cannot be done here. Are the writers and publishers of these books so clueless to the conditions in the majority of Burkina schools that they didn’t think not to include these things? Burkina just makes me wonder sometimes…

I’ve also been having problems, or I wouldn’t even say problems, maybe difficulties, with being a ‘mean’ teacher. Ok, ‘mean’ is not quite the right word to use, maybe I should say ‘strict.’ Anyway, classroom management here is very different than in the U.S (then again hardly any middle school classroom in the U.S. has over 100 students crammed in a tiny room). There is absolutely no talking while the teacher is tealking and teachers mainly lecture while students take notes. I try to engage my students in class by asking questions and generally have to prod them to get a response. Also, students are not taught to think critically, so it’s a struggle to get students to think ‘outside the box’ or even in the box really. When I ask “what do you think” questions, I am met with blank stares. It’s definitely something to work on. Also, I am comfortable with more chatter than the Burkinabe teachers and I caught one teacher starring at my class through a window when the students were talking and he did not look happy, but I heard nothing about it, so I’m not worried!