Interesting how 2 weeks can change a person. Summer school is in full swing and it's interesting to hear the tone of the staff room from jaded teachers, as in, we Peace Corps teachers.
Summer school is a great experience for a sneak peek of what you'll be dealing with in the next two years. I had a mini breakdown on Thursday and cried in front of a Salone2 Resource after he had given me some constructive criticism in my class. He said that he could tell that I was still trying to meet a schedule and that I needed to slow down. I got a little frustrated b/c I had been covering the same content for 2 weeks and only introduced very few concepts but they still weren't getting it. I already put my standards to the very bottom of the barrel, going at a snail's pace and I'm still hitting brick walls. I want them to come out of summer school learning at least one new thing! It's hard, logically I understand the situation, but it's when I get up in that classroom and teach and teach and teach and they're still spying and/or failing my tests, the perfectionist in me takes it personally.
Today was Exam2 day. I gave out TestA & TestB to prevent spying. And some still spied from their neighbor. Really?!?! Seriously?!?! They're different tests!!!! I hate how I took it way too personally and was paranoid about how these kids were out to get me thinking that I was some fool. What the fuck happened here?!?! I guess I just feel like the spying kinda robs me of that gratifying feeling of teaching children. "A de try......A de try, smol smol." I am trying to understand a little at a time.
I originally felt a bit guilty about making Hassan kneel during class the other day, but I started hearing other stories. Everything from wall-sits, to press-ups (push-ups), to dusting the eraser on the kids head. My one friend told his kids about baseball and the "three strikes you're out" rule where he marks their heads with chalk and on the 3rd one they get kicked out of class, lol. The class next to me got out of control. They had 70kids and they tried every trick in the book to discipline them. My friend even made a kid in all white Africana roll on the ground b/c he was blatantly spying.
Today was crazy, we were exhausted and all had this need to drink heavily......the kids seriously suck the life force out of you. Note to self: write thank you letters to all my teachers.
I couldn't handle Temne class today, I needed beer. I begged Thullah in Temne to please let us out early so we could go into town and have a beer, lol. He humored us and let us out a bit early b/c I kept saying it in Temne.....how could he not, lol.
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