Sunday, January 18, 2015

First School Week

Whew--getting totally adjusted back to Sakeji physically has been a bit of a challenge because of the lingering crud I picked up either right before or on my way back here and the expected readjusting to the altitude. That being said, the first few days of the 2015 school year have gone pretty well. This year I have 20 students; only 5 of them are boys! A particular challenge for me this term is that one of my 6th graders is Hungarian. While Z is a lovely, intelligent young man with better English than I had hoped, it does take some extra support as we go over concepts to make sure that he understood everything. These first few weeks of the school year always take more work because you are laying down so many routines, expectations, and standards with the new students and the new to your classroom students. Doing weekend dishes and tables takes longer because the new 5th graders have not paid much attention to how things work up to this point. However, I know that over the next few weeks, habits will be formed, tasks will become more streamlined, and the structure that takes a lot of effort to put in place will begin to do its job of keeping most things at the school running smoothly. The subsequent two terms will be a lot easier to start as the children will already know what is expected of them.

I've been getting a lot of use out of my rubber boots this week; the grass between my house and the school proper is quite long, and it has been pretty soggy ever since I arrived back. I'm amazed again at how green everything is; to come from the drabness of a Texas winter to the explosion of green that is Zambia right now is quite a change! I was also amazed at how much the Sakeji river has risen since the end of last term. Tubing for half-term! Sunny days are not only a welcome chance to get things dried out and to enjoy the sunshine, but also mean that there will be hot water from our solar heaters. Ah, the challenges of living in the bush!

How is this my 6th year at Sakeji already? Where did the time fly?

No comments:

Post a Comment