FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Read Aloud

The learners loved just looking through the books!

Coloring :)

Opening Ceremony Prayer

Break Time!

Ok so I forgot that I had not blogged about the first day of school yet, boy was it an adventure!

On Monday the 17th I experienced just what it is like on the first day of school in Katutura! It was so crazy! We started the day out late when our cab driver didn't show up, so Paula, Steve, and Jan drove all of us to our schools. I was dropped off at my school, AI Steenkamp at 7:15ish in the morning and shortly after the opening ceremony started. The opening ceremony consisted of singing worship songs, a word from a priest, which was in Afrikaans so I have no idea what he said, prayer and the raising of the Namibian flag while the national anthem was sang. It was so amazing! Its crazy to me that AI is a public school, yet so spiritual, which is very different from the U.S. You'd think that it would have been weird for me to be at a school where they worship and pray, yet it seemed so normal to me. I loved it so much.

After the opening ceremony, we went in with the principal to talk with her about placements. A few of us at AI still don't have placements, so we thought we would be placed or able to observe, but little did we know, the principal had other plans. The pre-primary teachers were away at a workshop all day and the rest of the week so Jessica, Janelle, Molly and I got the wonderful opportunity to teach the pre-primary class of 20 learners. Pre-primary is what we call kindergarten in the United States and it was the first year for AI to have kinders. It was crazy!

We picked up the learners from the outside pre-primary introduction and no one really knew where their class was. They just pointed down one of the buildings and said to look in the 3rd or 4th classroom. As we began to walk the parents followed as well as one other teacher. We finally found the room and the other teacher came in and introduced us to the parents and told them what was going on. Once the parents said good-bye to their learners they left with no hesitation and we began our day.

We started with names...did I mention that these learners knew VERY little English? Well they spoke VERY little English! So, the names...We tried to make it a game, by saying our name and then everyone reciting "Hello (name)". After we modeled this a few times they eventually caught on. They were very quiet though and so it was very hard to hear and understand them. After name we began teching what we could with what we had, which was....nothing. We all had to sit on the floor on blankets and we found some old bottle caps that were differnet colors. We used these to teach counting and colors. We did some small group work and large group work. We also sang and moved with them to keep their energy up. They all seemed to be having so much fun. We sang "head, shoulders, knees and toes" and "ring aroung the rosie". And believe me we sang them a lot! We sang them slow and fast. They loved the fast version and loved falling down!

After a while though, they needed to get out and run, so we took them out to the playground. This would be the time where we figured out they have no idea how to line up or walk in a line, so another learning opportunity was born. We had them walk in a train with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front, it was so cute! But then the playground came into sight and it was all over, they all ran and we had to work to get them all back in a line. Once the line formed again and we walked the rest of the way we finally released them to play. It was all good and dandy until within the next couple minutes the whole school (1400 learners) came out for break, that was when we lost all of our little learners and had to search and search to get them back in the room. We went back with 11 and eventually the remaining 9 found their way back as well. It was insane, lol. It's actually a miracle and once back in the room we found that we had more than our students in our room listening to a story, we had various grades. Obviously we had to kick them out once break was over, but it was so amazing that they were so eager to listen and sit for a story!

On top of the chaos and experiences with the pre-primary was the general impression of the first day of school. Teachers having their learners prepare and organize their rooms, learners never going back to class after break, teachers not showing up for some classes, learners just walking the streets and leaving during break, it was all so different from the U.S.

So at this point I still don't have a placement, but I would never change the opportunity that I was blessed to have with the pre-primary class! I am truly thankful for the passion that many teachers in the U.S. have for their jobs, where here it seems to be more of a job that a lot just do because its a job. I know their are teachers like this in the U.S. and I know there are passionate teachers here in Namibia, but the majority is very different. I am so excited to get placed and start learning and teaching!