Sorry about the delay, i've been in the thick of teaching.
Sunday, August 9th
Visited Soweto with with friends we met in Melville. Kagiso showed me around some of the major landmarks in Soweto, and took me to his house, where I met his mother. Her face upon seeing a white person was possibly the most shocked and confused I have ever seen. She said that I was the first white person to come and visit her in almost 23 years. We then went to a club where several prominent DJ's were playing Deep House.
Monday, August 10th
No class on account of Women's day, so we slept most of the day.
Tuesday, August 11th
Met with Tshontsho in the morning to discuss a lesson plan for the grade 11's. The students had not done well on an essay that he had assigned the on the impact of Computers on society, so I helped him to come up with a group project, and to break that project down into several smaller portions, so that the students are not so lost.
Wednesday, August 12th
Completely blanking on what I did this day, but it probably had something to do with computers and teaching. We did a workshop on teaching strategies that involved multi-subject learning. We actually got one of the Realogile teachers to come in and participate in the session, as well as several of the students.
Thursday, August 13thf
More teaching CAT and accounting.
Friday, August 14th
Gave tests to both the Grade 10 and Grade 11 CAT students. I proctored a class for half of each of the classes. It was interesting to watch the students take the test, particularly because a fair number of the Grade 10 students finished the test before the hour was up, while a number of the Grade 11s didn't finish the test at all. After talking to the students at a later point, I found out that it was because they had to spend a great deal of the time drawing the diagrams, while the Grade 10s were able to write directly on the test. This was frustrating for me, because I had planned out a test with diagrams with Tshontsho, but he decided not to use that test. When I questioned him about it, he was non-commital as to why. I think he is finally beginning to warm up to clearer tests, but it is taking awhile. Also, it was interesting to see in the test results that students here have trouble answering multiple-part questions, because they don't read the question in its entirety.
Saturday, August 15th
Went over the test results with some of the students, and let other groups continue with their digital story books. Some of the students are working on stories that mainly focus on celebrities, but others are putting quite a lot of effort into topics that they feel very strongly about. Pheladi and her partner are doing a presentation on the importance of “the Artistic Life,” which is a very eloquent talk on their passion for art and dance. Some of the Grade 10 boys are doing a short retelling of Lord of the Flies, and go straight to work without even being told that the class has started. Saturday night we went to a party in Soweto with some of our friends.
Sunday, August 16th
Having a day off on the day I would be normally spending with my dad at Laguna Seca was rather bittersweet, in hindsight.
Monday, August 17th
Taught some more CAT classes for both grades, as well as some Accounting classes.
Tuesday, August 18th
Got an email from Merry about some changes going on with my position within EA. This made me nervous, so we set up a time to talk about it on skype.
Wednesday, August 19th
Worked with Tshontsho to plan out an accounting test for grade 11. Taught his Accounting class for grade 11, where a lot of the students have had conflicts both with him, and with his teaching methods. He is incredibly didactic, which is frustrating for students who feel like they are not being listened to. I did see him ignore students' request for help in the CAT class, and I felt like they were be unfairly ignored. It was very difficult for me to not interfere on their behalf, but I kept reminding myself that they need to be advocates for themselves, and that if I do things like that for them, I am actually hampering them more than helping them. Karly outlined this for me a couple of weeks back, and I've tried to keep it in mind ever since. Tried to skype with Merry, but due to technological problems we had to reschedule for the next day.
Thursday, August 20th
Went on a tour of the student social responsibility sites around Alexandra Township with Sydney, Tilly and Patience. The first site was a kitchen for kids and orphans. Spoke with the second in command, Thabo, who explained the function of the site, and what troubles they had. I find it interesting when we meet people who apologize up front for their lack of English, but go on to speak so eloquently despite the barriers. It makes me a bit jealous to meet people who are so fluently multi-lingual. I constantly have to remind myself that the students here are not perfectly fluent in English, and that I have to moderate the words that I use when talking about technology. The second site was an old-age facility, which serviced about 90 people. Though they were initially rather opposed to giving us a tour, once they opened up, we got a great insight into the ways that the elderly are cared for in Alex. The third place was Benekekelane (I think I got that right), which we visited earlier, for Mandela day. We spoke with the patients at the facility, as well as the caregivers again. The fourth site was a care center for disabled children and adults. The woman who gave us a tour was blind, and gave us an amazing overview of the ways that they care for their patients. All of these facilities were even more amazing, considering that they operate with basically no budget, and are staffed by volunteers. Following the tour, the students took us to a small restaurant in Alex, where we had “Banchow” (guessing on the spelling), also called “Sly”, shorted from “Slice”, which is a sliced Vienna (a hot dog), polony (baloney), chips (fries), cheese and some sauces, all between two slices of bread. Needless to say, it was delicious. Back at school, I helped Mr. Nyalugwe and Mr Dube put together a graph for their mechanics (physics) test. I also helped Mr. Nyalugwe graph some equations for his maths class. After school, I finally got in touch with Merry at EA, which was quite a relief to know what I could expect when I go back to the States. Finally, I sat in on a bit of the Steering committee meeting, and got to reflect a bit on the time that I have spent here. It's kind of sad to be leaving, considering how attached I have grown to the students and all of the people here. John criticized me (jokingly, but rightly so) for not updating my blog. The constant craziness of life here, coupled with the long hours has made me value sleep more than this blog. It's crazy for this to be drawing to a close.