Classes: Creatively Controlling Chaos

Main points of this blog update:

• I survived my first week of teaching at Loyola High School
• My first English lesson:

Hello, my name is Mr. Patrick. I am from America. I am 23 years old. I stay in Mabibo, Dar es Salaam. I go to Loyola High School and I am in HDP.

• I am teaching 25ish lessons a week with about 40 students in each.
• Student profile
• 12-15 years old (except for 4 nuns in their mid-twenties)
• Three sections or classes of Pre-Form One (middle school age) and one section of Form One (like freshman year of HS).
• Pre-Form One is called “The Human Development Program” (HDP). This is a year to prepare students for High School. Mainly to learning English because government run primary schools are taught in Kiswahili and all Secondary/High Schools are English speaking.
• Differences between Loyola HS and my HS experience:
• Good differences: mandatory tea and snack break at 10am, AWESOME outdoor assemblies twice a week, free lunch and much more.
• Challenging differences: corporal punishment, learning/teaching students in their second or third language, exam based evaluation over performance/competence, knowing no one, being an OBVIOUS minority and SO much more.

Rather than boring both you and me with a class by class, day by day reflection, here are a few insights into this week that will hopefully paint a picture of what I saw, heard, felt and attempted to teach:

1. Babysitting or Classroom Support? I am a class teacher for HDP “C” which is the equivalent to being a homeroom teacher where I take attendance, check uniforms, answer questions and support the class in whatever they need. On Tuesday I was teaching English to HDP “A” when two girls from my HDP “C’ walked right in and stated explaining how someone had stolen money out of one girl’s back pack totally interrupting my class and fully expecting me to drop everything and conduct a thorough investigation to find the thief. Barely able to hide my laughter at the ‘seriousness’ that was in front of me, I asked them to come to my office at break time to figure it out. When they came to speak to me later that day, we were unable to find the culprit and unfortunately he or she is still at large.
2. Game Face. Wednesdays the students have two periods where they split up into Catholics, Muslims or Protestants and go to Religion Classes. I was told to teach Form One Catholic Religion. On Wednesday at 9am I was given a syllabus with five bullet points and then at 10am I went to teach the first lesson. I walked into the classroom (which seats 45 students) as it began to fill up. About fifteen minutes later, there were almost 90 students in this classroom. At this time the head of the department walked in and said, “you may need a bigger classroom… or another teacher to help you…” I thought: REALLY!?! Someone is playing a trick on me. This is my first week. I have no idea what I am doing AND there are 90 students staring at me. Thanks.
3. Let’s Make a Deal. On Thursday a student walked up to me and said:

“I heard a rumor that people from your country only stay for two years”

“Well, the people that come with my program stay for two years, that is true”

“This is not fair” She responded, looking angry and very offended.

“Why not?” I said.

“Because, I will be at Loyola High School for the next 6 years and you have to stay” She was getting rather heated at this point.

I then tried to explain that I would want to see my family and friends after two years and she gave me a very frustrated look then said:

“Let’s make a deal, you can go see your family in two years BUT then you have to come right back and stay until I graduate!”

Feeling trapped, I told her: “I will think about it”.

Of course I could continue on with stories from the week about mispronouncing names, students staring blankly at me, my inability to understand the student’s accents and their inability to understand mine, administrators/fellow teachers informing me or introducing me to ANY Caucasian visitor to Loyola (and referring to or asking if we are related, colleagues or from the same place), sexism in the work place, homophobia in the classroom, an amazing sense of school pride, an inspiring tradition of work by Jesuits and Jesuit Volunteers, the start of new friendship with staff and students alike and on and on and on…

In the classes, amongst the chaos and with a little bit of creativity on my end, Loyola High School has welcomed, shocked, challenged, shaken and inspired, yours truly, Mr. Patrick.