Work
What have I been doing work-wise here! Well, initially I have made lots of teaching aids and sorted out the model classroom which we will open next week to let local teachers and teaching students at the college see what you can do to make a classroom more stimulating and interactive. I have also written an "action plan" (how I hate management jargon!) with about 10 main goals to achieve while I am here. These include: visiting and performing a needs assessment of the 10 schools in the cluster; purchasing resources for the schools to distribute and training on the use of teaching aids (at present there is a big focus on making a model classroom in a school, which then is not used as part of teaching). One goal, therefore, is to get some displays and teaching aids in all classrooms - ones that will actually be used. Later, I will develop a teaching programme on using active learning and child-centred learning and assessment for learning. There are problems with this, as many teachers know or are aware of the theories but can't or won't put them into practice in the huge classes.
A quick achievable thing I have carried out is building a good relationship with Gilgel Beles Elementary School. I have observed lessons, trained teachers in the use of simple teaching aids and re-visited to see if they are being used; organised a "making" session with a group of children to produce a class set (100!) of number fans and last week I also taught demonstration lessons in the large classes to show the teachers that it can work with large classes. Hopefully it will give them confidence to try using the teaching aids themselves. I have really missed actually teaching children.
On Friday I went in to school and helped a class of 80 write letters to my old schoo
l in England. It was quite difficult for the grade 4 class as English is, at best, the children's second language. It could be their third language after their own ethnic language and Amharic. Also the English alphabet is a second alphabet for the children as their first way of writing is using Amharic script. I showed them some English money I had, and a short video of the children in school in England they would be writing to. I also videoed some short clips of the children to send back to England.
The children in the class ranged in ages from about 10 to over 20. This is because some of them didn't get a chance to go to school when they were children (maybe because they were working in the home, or with farming) so they come when they are older, and join in with the children.
Life
Two nights ago as I was getting ready for bed I saw something scuttling in the corner of my room. It was a gint (scorpion) - my first seen over here. It was about 5cm long and had definite pincers and stinging tail. Apparently they are non-lethal here, but the sting can be very painful for a full 24 hours. I squashed it with my shoe, then I poked it with a stick and it got up and scuttled off, so I whacked it a few more times with my shoe. It was dead then! I put it on some card but a couple of days later it had disappeared from the card!!! (Who knows what took it and ate it - I think it was too big for ants to move!).
When I got home last night there was no power. It had been off for several hours before but it stayed off all night and was still off this morning. I had a cold tin of tuna, some crisps and biscuits for dinner! I used my head torch - which is very useful - and lit some candles. I had my "tub" wash, but without a kettleful of hot water to take the chill off and it was freezing!!
I watched a DVD and did some work on the computer until I had drained both batteries. Then I went to bed to read. (I'm reading "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson at the moment).
There is one advantage of no power - no loud distorted, droning "calls to prayer" from the local Orthodox church at one and five in the morning ....excellent!
There was no water this morning either. With no power I thought it was about time I got some kerosene for my (lethal-looking) kerosene stove which VSO had provided. I walked up to the fuel station at the far end of the village but there was no kerosene. I bought some candles and wondered if you can cook using multiple candle power! On the way back I went to the market to get some eggs and on the walk up and back I met another ferengi. He is Spanish and has lived in Gilgel Beles for two years in the Catholic mission at the other end of the village. Apparently he's been in Ethiopia for about 16 years. He was going to the prison to see if they'd let him in to do some missionary work. After the escape a few weeks ago, everything has been locked down. On the way back when I met him, he said everything's opened up again and he can continue his work.
Once I'd dropped off my purchases and sun-creamed up, I set off to another hill on the other side of the river. At one point, as I came through some trees a small (70cm) crocodile or alligator shot away and jumped into the river. I got to a fairly wide road that led into "Village 1". I think the "Villages" (there are about 100) were established by the Italians about 50 years ago. Anyway, there were many houses, mostly the round "Gumuz"-type.
Using my GPS, which I had marked with the summit of the hill, I followed the road and then turned at a track which seemed to be leading in the correct direction. At each fork in the track I followed the GPS direction. It was saying I was about 900m away from the summit and there was a shady overgrown patch ahead. I heard a rustling noise which sounded different from usual. Sometimes in undergrowth you hear something quick and small and it is usually a bird or a lizard, or sometimes it's larger and it turns out to be a goat or chicken. I was cautious and made a lot of noise to let whatever it was know that I was coming. Sure enough, about ten metres ahead I saw the tail of a snake slithering quite fast across my path. The tail section I saw was about one metre and I reckon the whole things must have been a good two to three metres long. A few seconds later I saw another one, or the same one which had turned around rapidly! Needless to say, I changed my plans and decided to head back.
According to my GPS I had walked 6.5km, as well as the march to the fuel station and market earlier and was exhausted. I had a sleep after a big bowl of porridge with honey, which I could make as the power had come back on.
While I was typing this blog I heard the water come on so broke off to quickly do my washing, cleaning, cooking omlette and chips for tea and refill my bowl ready for my wash in the evening.
What have I been doing work-wise here! Well, initially I have made lots of teaching aids and sorted out the model classroom which we will open next week to let local teachers and teaching students at the college see what you can do to make a classroom more stimulating and interactive. I have also written an "action plan" (how I hate management jargon!) with about 10 main goals to achieve while I am here. These include: visiting and performing a needs assessment of the 10 schools in the cluster; purchasing resources for the schools to distribute and training on the use of teaching aids (at present there is a big focus on making a model classroom in a school, which then is not used as part of teaching). One goal, therefore, is to get some displays and teaching aids in all classrooms - ones that will actually be used. Later, I will develop a teaching programme on using active learning and child-centred learning and assessment for learning. There are problems with this, as many teachers know or are aware of the theories but can't or won't put them into practice in the huge classes.
A quick achievable thing I have carried out is building a good relationship with Gilgel Beles Elementary School. I have observed lessons, trained teachers in the use of simple teaching aids and re-visited to see if they are being used; organised a "making" session with a group of children to produce a class set (100!) of number fans and last week I also taught demonstration lessons in the large classes to show the teachers that it can work with large classes. Hopefully it will give them confidence to try using the teaching aids themselves. I have really missed actually teaching children.
On Friday I went in to school and helped a class of 80 write letters to my old schoo
l in England. It was quite difficult for the grade 4 class as English is, at best, the children's second language. It could be their third language after their own ethnic language and Amharic. Also the English alphabet is a second alphabet for the children as their first way of writing is using Amharic script. I showed them some English money I had, and a short video of the children in school in England they would be writing to. I also videoed some short clips of the children to send back to England.The children in the class ranged in ages from about 10 to over 20. This is because some of them didn't get a chance to go to school when they were children (maybe because they were working in the home, or with farming) so they come when they are older, and join in with the children.
Life
Two nights ago as I was getting ready for bed I saw something scuttling in the corner of my room. It was a gint (scorpion) - my first seen over here. It was about 5cm long and had definite pincers and stinging tail. Apparently they are non-lethal here, but the sting can be very painful for a full 24 hours. I squashed it with my shoe, then I poked it with a stick and it got up and scuttled off, so I whacked it a few more times with my shoe. It was dead then! I put it on some card but a couple of days later it had disappeared from the card!!! (Who knows what took it and ate it - I think it was too big for ants to move!).
When I got home last night there was no power. It had been off for several hours before but it stayed off all night and was still off this morning. I had a cold tin of tuna, some crisps and biscuits for dinner! I used my head torch - which is very useful - and lit some candles. I had my "tub" wash, but without a kettleful of hot water to take the chill off and it was freezing!!
I watched a DVD and did some work on the computer until I had drained both batteries. Then I went to bed to read. (I'm reading "Red Mars" by Kim Stanley Robinson at the moment).
There is one advantage of no power - no loud distorted, droning "calls to prayer" from the local Orthodox church at one and five in the morning ....excellent!
There was no water this morning either. With no power I thought it was about time I got some kerosene for my (lethal-looking) kerosene stove which VSO had provided. I walked up to the fuel station at the far end of the village but there was no kerosene. I bought some candles and wondered if you can cook using multiple candle power! On the way back I went to the market to get some eggs and on the walk up and back I met another ferengi. He is Spanish and has lived in Gilgel Beles for two years in the Catholic mission at the other end of the village. Apparently he's been in Ethiopia for about 16 years. He was going to the prison to see if they'd let him in to do some missionary work. After the escape a few weeks ago, everything has been locked down. On the way back when I met him, he said everything's opened up again and he can continue his work.
Once I'd dropped off my purchases and sun-creamed up, I set off to another hill on the other side of the river. At one point, as I came through some trees a small (70cm) crocodile or alligator shot away and jumped into the river. I got to a fairly wide road that led into "Village 1". I think the "Villages" (there are about 100) were established by the Italians about 50 years ago. Anyway, there were many houses, mostly the round "Gumuz"-type.
Using my GPS, which I had marked with the summit of the hill, I followed the road and then turned at a track which seemed to be leading in the correct direction. At each fork in the track I followed the GPS direction. It was saying I was about 900m away from the summit and there was a shady overgrown patch ahead. I heard a rustling noise which sounded different from usual. Sometimes in undergrowth you hear something quick and small and it is usually a bird or a lizard, or sometimes it's larger and it turns out to be a goat or chicken. I was cautious and made a lot of noise to let whatever it was know that I was coming. Sure enough, about ten metres ahead I saw the tail of a snake slithering quite fast across my path. The tail section I saw was about one metre and I reckon the whole things must have been a good two to three metres long. A few seconds later I saw another one, or the same one which had turned around rapidly! Needless to say, I changed my plans and decided to head back.
According to my GPS I had walked 6.5km, as well as the march to the fuel station and market earlier and was exhausted. I had a sleep after a big bowl of porridge with honey, which I could make as the power had come back on.
While I was typing this blog I heard the water come on so broke off to quickly do my washing, cleaning, cooking omlette and chips for tea and refill my bowl ready for my wash in the evening.
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