Pictures:
1) Kids from grade 10B, sporting fancy pants calculators. Left to right: Tjupa Petrus, Nairenge John, Kayongo Joseph, Katti Jason and Namwira Klementine.
2) May in Cape Town. Camp's Bay to the lower right, some biker and the 12 Apostles, name of the range, behind him.
3) Last weekend visit to Sitopogo by my closest fellow volunteer friends. Here, at a fire we made by the river after my 10A kid, Maliti Cecelia, brought me firewood. Left to right: Kyle, Tina, Kristen, Jena, Me and Wes kneeling.
This week, I taught trigonometry to grade 10. Despite having to exhume the topic from underneath the crap in my brain piled up over the last ten years, I surprised myself by presenting one of the clearest lessons to date. And my kids agreed. “Sir, I thought this was much more difficult!” said Kiliki. So did I.
So naturally, for topic closure, I planned a test on Friday, which would allow us to proceed to algebra (fun!) on Monday. Unfortunately, my announcement in 10B of a test Friday was met with rare groans. “Sir, we have five tests on Friday – English, Rukwangali, Agriculture, Physical Science and Geography.” Damn, I thought. I’ve tried the Monday test thing and, well, never again. A student’s brain retention on Monday of topics covered the previous week is like the barely visible writing on our dirty, 20-year-old chalk boards after you ‘erase’ it with an eraser full of chalk dust. “Fine, let’s review Thursday during class and take a test during afternoon study.” “Yes, sir, thank you!”, they responded in unison, which happens creepily too often.
I arrived today at afternoon study with my trigonometry test in hand. 10A finished quickly, so I walked across the sand ‘yard’ to 10B. “This will be difficult,” I said, “but just follow what we did Monday through today and you’ll be fine!” “Udegoo (pronounced oo-day-goo)” they said. “That’s ‘difficult’ in Rukwangali”. “Oh, so then this is udegoo,” I replied, at which they roared with laughter.
Then suddenly, the afternoon study bell rang – 30 minutes early. They groaned. “Guys, we talked about this and you had me move the test to this time slot. Why is the bell early?” I asked, though I wasn’t surprised because I’m rarely informed about things like early dismissal. “It’s soccer, Sir; they’re letting us out early because of the soccer game.” (Sitopogo’s team, comprised of teachers and students, was playing nearby Tondoro’s squad, which has a similar makeup).
So they sat there writing my tests as the rest of the school poured out of the gate toward the field. I felt like a jerk, out of touch with events and, more importantly, a mean teacher. To me, I saw a series of poorly planned and articulated events unfolding. To them, I held them in when everyone went to watch soccer.
Why didn’t my grade 10 kids tell me about this when we rescheduled the test? Because that sort of thing doesn’t happen. Roll with it, baby.
