Notes from Keyo

I have been team teaching with Harriet for three days now. We are working with S2, which would be about 8th grade, although it seems as if most of the students are older, some as old as 17 or 18 years. On Monday, I observed her teaching relative clauses. Since teaching English over here is teaching grammar, it is a very dry and boring class filled with many rules. After observing, I told Harriet that I had a warm up exercise that we could try on Tuesday; she was enthusiastic and willing to let me try different activities. I enjoy having the students work in pairs or groups, but the students are not used to that, so it takes a little time to prepare them. I feel we are working together well. She is not afraid to offer comments to me. She told me that the students remarked that my “check mark” was too small on their papers and that I needed to write comments when they do well. My assumption is that they rarely get feedback, so when they do they really want it.
They have a hard time with my southern American English. I find myself speaking so slowly and yet still having to repeat myself. The students laugh, but it is a polite laugh, and they also like to repeat what I say and the way I say it. I think they are also a little caught off guard with how loud I speak; Harriet and the other teachers speak so softly and then I come in with my loud American teacher voice. I often see the students who are not in the class peeking in to see what is going on.
Being at Keyo SS is so much fun. The faculty is really great, and we have great conversations. I had to monitor the lunch line today, which was interesting. The students line up outside of the “kitchen” in front of four openings (similar to windows). They jam into the line and shove up on each other. It looks like dominoes. When they get close to the opening, a prefect marks their food card to make sure they do not get food two times. One of the teachers with whom I was monitoring said it is not a foolproof system because the cards get ratty, become difficult to read, and fall apart. All I did was stand near the students as I was not about to get in between teenage boys and their posho and beans. I told the teacher that I was not too helpful, and he replied that I was a big help as the kids were more interested in looking at me than pushing to get food. I think they were waiting for my “muno” (white) skin to burn in the African sun.