School Fee Blues

Monday started off a little bit shaky at school.  About 10 minutes after I arrived, King James the head teacher, came in and spoke briefly in Lukunzo.  As he was talking students began gathering their things at their desks and exiting the classroom.  I asked my cooperating teacher what was going on and she explained that students were being sent home because they had not paid their school fees.  One by one my class was shrinking.  By the end of it, I had 8 of my 20 students left.  It was really sad and frustrating seeing those kids sent home, and it definitely complicated my teaching.  I didn’t want to begin with new lessons that day as I had planned, because otherwise I would need to re-teach all the students that were sent home.  But this is what is expected, that teaching resumes as normal because it is the fault of the parents that the fees were not paid.     

I should also note that although it is disheartening seeing the students be sent home, to a degree I can understand the reasoning.  If the students do not pay their fees, the teachers do not get paid.  In fact, last term there was an economic crisis which caused parents to not be able to pay fees and in return resulted in the teachers not being paid.  Pamela explained to me that the teachers are supposed to be paid at the end of every month, but that is not always the case.  I asked Pamela why the teachers would continue to teach if they weren't being paid and she said it was in hopes that someday they will be paid.  It makes So no teaching strikes over here!

So with my 8 students, I abandoned my original plans for English and I did a writing activity with my students where I asked them to tell me about themselves.  This was still very structured as they do not have the tools to form their own ideas and sentences (sadly), but it was a great way for me to learn more about my students as individuals, and for them to practice at least a different structured sentence form. 

In math, I had planned to begin teaching shapes today.  Although I didn’t teach the lesson I had planned, I still introduced shapes.  I found a really good book in my classroom that was about shapes and finding them in our surroundings, so I took the kids outside and read it to them and discussed it with them.  We then did a walk around the schoolyard looking for different shapes.  The kids did a really good job with this, and I really enjoyed just taking the kids outside and enjoying the beautiful day. 

Evan and I hanging out

Despite the ups and downs of the day, it ended up being a good day with the students and…..I got to hang out with baby Evan A LOT today which is always a plus.  I’m not sure if I have mentioned Evan yet, but it is long overdue.  Evan is Pamela’s (the P2 teacher) son.  He is 7 months old and is a little chunky, with big and beautiful brown eyes.  He and I have become quite pals, as have he and Katie.  Pamela actually teaches in my classroom more while I am there than the P1 teacher Zippora does.  Katie and I have actually found it really nice that we are both able to get to know and work with each others’ teachers as well as our own.  Anyways, back to Evan.  Teachers here teach with their babies present.  There are currently two teachers with babies.  Most times the teacher has the baby tied to her back, or playing on the floor while she teaches.  This has worked out quite well for me, because whenever I am not teaching I get to hang out with Evan.  And whenever Pamela is in my room at the beginning of the day, as soon as I arrive Evan is crawling across the room to greet me with a big smile!

Evan joining in on the learning

Evan hanging out in the middle of a lesson