-----Teaching in Namibia-----: Day 2 of Teaching and Dolmans Children's Home

Today was the second day of teaching for us here in Namibia. As with yesterday, I went into today not knowing what I would be doing with my time, if I would be teaching or just observing. The day began with a double maths period (80 mins instead of just 40). The routine in place for these double periods is for the students to pass in their exercise books and for Mrs. Emma to go through and grade the most current assignments in all 44 of them. While she does this, the learners just sit or work on other things. I couldn't do something with the learners while Mrs. Emma did this because once she finished with a learner's book it would be passed back to them and they began working on the next set of exercises. So, for this first class of maths, I just observed the behaviors in the classroom and took notes. Toward the end of the double period, Mrs. Emma did some review of the day before and gave another homework assignment for the learners to work on. The next period (period 3 then) was Home Ecology. Because much of Home Ecology has to do with teaching learners about the culture, I don't know how much I will be able to teach, but I really enjoy listening and learning myself during these times.

Mrs. Emma got about 2 mins into the period when someone came to her door. This person was coming to report that the new shipment of maths textbooks had arrived and they needed some male learners to come help unload them. Mrs. Emma instructed the class to continue copying the notes on the board and then took 5 or 6 learners with her to help and never came back. This was at about 8:45 am. I did my best with the rest of the Home Ecology period and then dismissed the learners. I then had 44 maths students arrive at my classroom. I had them do the exercises Mrs. Emma had done with the morning group and then did some review with them. Once this period was over, it was time for break, so I headed to the teacher's lounge four our daily meeting where I found Mrs. Emma. I asked her where she had gone and she said she had been in the library sorting out the textbooks and that she would probably be there busy with that the rest of the day. (This is a totally different mindset from the US, but I am learning it and getting used to it works, I think. Basically Mrs. Emma knew I was in her classroom and trusted me to teach the learners something even though she had left me no tools or plans at all.)

After break I had my small class of 22 learners for a double period of maths. The students know the routine, so they were confused when I didn't have them pass in their exercise books for me to look over (one I didn't know how Mrs. Emma graded them and two I didn't want to waste learning time with that). Instead, I had the students correct the most current assignment individually, then I did some review, played a game with them, and finally assigned their next set of exercises.

I had 80 mins of maths learning about rounding numbers to fill and a deck of cards in my purse, so I quickly created a game to give the learners more practice with the skills, but not have them be just doing a list of problems at their desks. For lack of a better name I call this the Rounding Game and here's how it works:

Prep-seperate number cards from face cards in the deck (Aces go as the number 1)

-Have class in 2 teams, boys vs. girls works well (teams don't have to be even)

-Choose a representative from each team to go to the board with chalk

-Draw out 7 number cards and put them in a line

-Write the the number formed by the cards in the center of the chalkboard for the class to see

-Each representative then writes the number too while you have another student draw one card from the face cards

-Use this chart to announce what place value the representatives should round to

Red King= Million

Black King= Hundred Thousand

Red Queen= Ten Thousand

Black Queen= Thousand

Red Jack= Hundred

Black Jack=Ten

-Once announced they may begin, the first student with the correct answer gets a point for their team

-Students not currently being the representative can quietly help if the representative comes up with an incorrect answer (also if resources are available, students in their seats may solve the problem on a mini white board or scratch paper)

The learners loved the game and I had to stop them a few times to remind them not to yell because they were getting so into it. The rest of the school day proceeded well and my teacher brain was stretched once again.

After school I went to tutor/hang out with the kids at the Dolmans Children's Home (my roommate Katee is a global studies major, so she is here doing an internship of sorts at this home while we are teaching, but as teachers, 2 of us are going each day after school to help the children with their homework and spend time with them). My day of the week to do this is Tuesday, but today was my first day going since we were gone up north last week. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was just excited to get some more chill time with some kids here. I really enjoyed the afternoon there. One of the grade 6 learners from Steenkamp, Bianca, lives in the home and her hair was out of braids and going a bit crazy, so I asked her if I could try braiding it for her. She complied, but I think she was a bit skeptical of my ability to do so. It took me about an hour, but she ended with a pretty awesome set of corn rows that went into a small ponytail in the back (see pictures below). Once we were done with the braiding and their homework, I got out my cards again and taught a few girls some games. It was so fun to just be with them and see their faces light up as they were enjoying the time.

Bianca and I