So I just finished a (long) weekend in Ouaga, and I had
every intention of writing two or more blog posts and here we are, less than 12
hours before I’m going to leave with nothing written… :)
The school started at the beginning of October, and I
certainly hit the ground running this year.
I left for my vacation to Paris not knowing what classes I was teaching
or even how many hours. I got back to
village on a Monday, got my schedule Tuesday and was teaching Wednesday!! Definitely a big change from last year. I remember how stressed and nervous I was
last year, spending the whole month before school started just sitting and
worrying about what I was going to do.
I’m glad this year wasn’t that difficult.
I am teaching an additional class this year, and I actually
have none of the same classes as last year, which means that all the hours and
notes I made in my lesson plans were made in vain, haha. I’m teaching 5e Math (a friend recently asked
what the “e” means after the number, and it’s the French equivalent the “th” at
the end of 5th), 4e Physics/Chemistry and 3e Math. I had 4e and 3e last year (but the math and
p/c were switched) and I was a little nervous about teaching 5e because they
are younger. It turns out that 5e is my
favorite class: they are young enough to still crave teacher attention and
reinforcement that older grades pretend they don’t need. 5e is my largest class – 85 students crammed
onto about 30 benches in one large smelly room – but it doesn’t really feel
that different. I certainly notice the
difference when it comes to grading tests, but the day to day isn’t that
different. My 4e is only about 40 and my
3e is 29. That’s right, 29!! All my friends here are really jealous of
that one, and honestly I know some American teachers who would be too. Unfortunately, that small class size is due
to the fact that only about 11 out of 56 passed the previous class last year :(
The other students were recruited from other areas, which means that they
probably took 3e last year but didn’t pass the national test and now have to
repeat at a new school.
I just graded my first test from my 5e class, and I noticed
a HUGE difference between the scores of boys and girls. (Quick background on grading tests here:
Tests are always out of 20 pts.
Always. 10 out of 20 is passing,
and only about 50% of the students are expected to pass. Very different mindset from what we have in
the US. ) The class average for my test was almost exactly 10, pretty
standard. But when I averaged the scores
of boys and girls individually, I saw that girls only averaged 8.2 points and
boys averaged 11. That seemed to be a
huge difference to me, so I went back and compared them to my 4e math scores
from last year and the scores by gender never differed by more than 0.3. And here they differ by almost 3.0!! I know not everyone is a big math nerd out
there, but I assure you, that’s a big deal.
I’m not sure how I’m going to address this disparity just yet, but I’m
certainly going to do something. If you
have any ideas, let me know!
The first few weeks back in village were very mellow, just
getting back into the routine of the school year. Then all of a sudden, I was out of village
for four weekends in a row! I still don’t
know how that happened and traveling that much gets old really fast. I head back to site tomorrow, and I plan on
staying there for at least two weeks straight!
Cold season (aka temps in the 60s) is just starting and
nights are already getting nice and chilly.
I can sleep with a blanket! But
cold season also means dry season, so there is dust everywhere! I currently
have a sinus infection (not fun ever, less fun when in Africa) and I blame the
dust. The air is so dry that most Burkinabe
put shea butter up their nose to help with the dryness and dust, last year I privately
laughed at them; this year I’m doing the same thing.
Back at the beginning of September a new group of volunteers
started their service. I helped with
training so I’ve been talking to a few and answering questions as they figure
things out for the first time. It is so
crazy how much of a difference you feel between your first and second
year. I’m confident that I asked every question
they are asking and shared every concern they have right now, but after a year
of living here I’m pretty comfortable.
Every day isn’t the challenge it once was. With less than a year until I’m back in the
states, my new worries are the challenges I’m going to face readjusting… :P
