Astronomy, VSO visit, active teaching and Recorders

On Monday night I saw a pretty cool alignment of a couple of planets and The Moon. If you enlarge the photo (that should be here soon) by clicking, you’ll see the view I got. (The photo was taken on maximum zoom on my camera.) It shows Venus on the left, then The Moon, then Jupiter. As the night went on, it was like The Moon passed through the gap between the two planets. I checked out my Astronomy software and found that from my home in the UK, The Moon would actually pass in front of Venus.
On a pretty gross note, when I closed the window after taking the photos, I heard a kind of rustling noise by the window frame. It was dark as we were in the middle of a three hour power cut, but using the torch to see, I opened the window and a lizard tail plopped on to the floor and continued wiggling for quite a long time. I must’ve accidentally shut the lizard in the window! Yuck! At least lizards can grow their tails back!

Tuesday was very busy: Our programme manager from VSO visited and had meetings with us and our line manager. Also, I had to arrange a group of teachers to attend a discussion with someone else from VSO. I also taught two English lessons (to Grade 2 and 4) showing the teacher how you can teach using games and number fans to make the lesson more active. Then, in the afternoon, I taught more recorders, including the second session with “Group 2” which included the introduction of “G”. There are two boys and two girls in the group.

On Wednesday, I had some students in making number fans. During the small-talk I asked about one of the student’s hometowns and asked if he would be visiting his family for Christmas. He said no. Then my brain ticked for a bit… “You’re a Muslim aren’t you?” “Yes”!!!

Also, on Wednesday, I taught again in the local school. This time the teacher didn’t watch as she went to collect her salary – this is not in my plan. They are supposed to be observing to see the techniques I use. Still, it’s a crazy system here where the teachers have to go by bus about 15km once a month to collect their salary leaving the class unattended! One month I remember a whole school of over 1000 children being looked after by about three teachers as the rest had gone to get their salary. As it was, after I had done the hour in the grade 2 class, and was due to teach in grade 4, I just had to leave the grade 2 class unattended for the rest of the morning with no work or anything – it wouldn’t happen in the UK!

BTW the fish tank thing in a previous entry was to check if one of Göran’s friends was reading this blog! (It’s a pain typing Göran’s name, as when I get to the “ö” I have to press “Num Lock” then hold down “Alt” and press “0 2 4 6”!)