We started teaching at Fasilides Secondary School. We are
teaching 9th grade students English and focusing on speaking and
listening. We coordinated a schedule and will be teaching 6 classes on Monday,
6 on Wednesday and 6 on Thursday. There are 18 sections. . Our first week of
classes went very well. As they are still working out the kinks of having less
class space, we taught sections that were combined and upwards of 70 students. The
sections they are placed in in the beginning of the year is the same class that
they remain in all year. Students stay in the classroom and teachers move from
class to class. This eliminates the opportunity to separate children by their
ability in a subject. Usually the classes have at least one student who is
confident in his English and pretty good at it, HE will ask most of the
questions and sometimes speaks for the class.
We had a whole lesson planned out but got to class only to
learn that the students have yet to receive their textbooks. We scrapped that
quickly and improvised with 40 minute introductions. We introduced ourselves,
called on a few students to introduce themselves and told them about
Washington, DC and America. Everyone knows and loves Obama. I think it is best
for us to speak so that they can hear our inflection and pronunciation. It is
hard for them to understand us and our English accent so we speak slowly and
usually repeat ourselves. Questions for us mostly revolved around the weather,
how we like Gondar and what we thought of Prime Minister Meles’ passing. We
were impressed by a few students who offered suggestions as to what they’d like
to learn throughout the year (speaking, American culture). When nobody offered
to stand up and introduce themselves, we quickly learned we had to call on
them. Some were incredibly shy and when other students laughed they sat down
immediately. Certain classes went very smoothly, people raised their hands and
asked questions and the class flew by. We were shocked to learn that most
everyone has a recited introduction; name, age, height, school… I asked one
student his age and he responded, “I am fine, thank you”. And when we asked what they wanted to
be in the future, most commons response was “doctor”, second was “engineer” but
we were happy to hear two students say journalists, something different! We
were curious to learn the age range of 9th graders. Typically from
14 to 18 years old. Students in public school learn their entire course load in
English starting in 9th grade. With this in mind, it is impressive
how many students speak and understand the language. The best at the language
say they learn from interacting with foreigners. I would like to suggest that
they do their morning announcements in English and Amharic. Currently, every
sign on the campus and every announcement is made in Amharic. If they are
fostering the understanding of the language I think they should use every
opportunity to speak it!
We met most of the English teachers who wanted to work with
us to take classes that were convenient for them so that they wouldn’t have to
show for the day. We were left to ourselves in these classrooms of 70 students,
some who were left without a place to sit. One teacher, Habtamu, has taken us
under his wing. We joined him after class on Wednesday to a tej bet. Tej is
their honey wine, it is very sweet and yellow. We tried it first in Addis and
were not impressed but it is delicious in Gondar, they say because their honey
is the best. This particular tej bet was in the Jewish community and an elder
man sat near us and spoke to us in Hebrew. He said he was leaving soon for
Israel. It was nice to hear Habtamu speak “off the record” about education and
government. He learned most of his English as a guide around Lake Tana and now
has his masters degree. While not pc for the blog, I found it very fascinating
to hear his points of view.
We are enjoying teaching and having our days filled with
meaningful work. The school day is very long. The students come for either the
morning or afternoon session. Class periods are 40 minutes long. 9th
grade English is taught every other period, therefore we have around 45-65
minutes between teaching and have been soaking up the amazing weather in the
courtyard or sipping tea in the teacher’s lounge. It’s nice when BBC is on
their tiny television but we bring our books to read or interact with other
teachers in the down time. Two women tend the lounge and make the best coffee
and a killer egg sandwich for a total 8 birr. We make a point to be outside for
the kids’ recess and towards the end of the week they felt more comfortable
coming up to us to chat.
The weather is wonderful. Cool in the morning, sunny all
afternoon with a cool breeze and usually cloudy later in the day but no rain!
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