Our first meeting was this week. We started with the third though fifth graders which is a much easier group than first and second graders (= I am teaching music to the older group and I haven't taught elementary kids here yet so I was quite curious about how it would all go down.
Layla's school is a British Curriculum International school with about 90% local kids and 10% from elsewhere in the middle east and the rest of the world. I remember meeting one family straight from Iran and no one in the family spoke Arabic. Can you imagine? Thankfully there was some staff member around to translate for them.
The school has been open for three years and is adding a grade every year. The principal and core of the staff are all from South Africa and they are top-notch. The prinicpal says he prefers not to hire american or european teachers because their expectations are too high. They are not prepared to teach with limited materials, or to teach children with families with very very low education levels. Most of the 40 year olds in this country did not group with electricity, paved roads, hospitals or elementary education. Those of you who have been in developing countries know that a country without a long history of education has a whole host of issues that will be worked through as it creates its own educational foundation amongst its people. The principal believes that most South African teachers are more familiar with this dynamic than their American or European counterparts. I think it is a very valid observation.
So anyway - a friend and I decided to start the after school program because we were both hankering to do a little something more in the community and we both had kids at the school. The leadership is very grateful and supportive of us running their after school club because it means that they do not have to do it themselves (= So it is a win-win. We do charge for it for many reasons but MOSTLY to make sure kids actually attend regularly! We have about 7 "classes" offered at any one time and from 50-75 students involved depending on the semester. We are in our third cycle of doing this.
The music class that I taught was pretty basic. We are just doing some rhythm things and will do some basic theory along with having some guest performers. The strangest moment was when I asked a girl her last name and she didn't know what to say. It is similar here to what you read in the bible: layla, the daughter of so and so the daughter of so and so the daughter of so and so etc etc. So she wasn't sure how far to go back and then her friends told her to give her tribe's name but she didn't seem to clear on that (= So we just settled for her first name and then a few more back from that (= So interesting.
I'll post more as we have more going on....the biggest news this week, actually, is that it has been raining off and on for DAYS! this is so amazing. It also means our roof is leaking water. But hey, we love rain out here!
Layla's school is a British Curriculum International school with about 90% local kids and 10% from elsewhere in the middle east and the rest of the world. I remember meeting one family straight from Iran and no one in the family spoke Arabic. Can you imagine? Thankfully there was some staff member around to translate for them.
The school has been open for three years and is adding a grade every year. The principal and core of the staff are all from South Africa and they are top-notch. The prinicpal says he prefers not to hire american or european teachers because their expectations are too high. They are not prepared to teach with limited materials, or to teach children with families with very very low education levels. Most of the 40 year olds in this country did not group with electricity, paved roads, hospitals or elementary education. Those of you who have been in developing countries know that a country without a long history of education has a whole host of issues that will be worked through as it creates its own educational foundation amongst its people. The principal believes that most South African teachers are more familiar with this dynamic than their American or European counterparts. I think it is a very valid observation.
So anyway - a friend and I decided to start the after school program because we were both hankering to do a little something more in the community and we both had kids at the school. The leadership is very grateful and supportive of us running their after school club because it means that they do not have to do it themselves (= So it is a win-win. We do charge for it for many reasons but MOSTLY to make sure kids actually attend regularly! We have about 7 "classes" offered at any one time and from 50-75 students involved depending on the semester. We are in our third cycle of doing this.
The music class that I taught was pretty basic. We are just doing some rhythm things and will do some basic theory along with having some guest performers. The strangest moment was when I asked a girl her last name and she didn't know what to say. It is similar here to what you read in the bible: layla, the daughter of so and so the daughter of so and so the daughter of so and so etc etc. So she wasn't sure how far to go back and then her friends told her to give her tribe's name but she didn't seem to clear on that (= So we just settled for her first name and then a few more back from that (= So interesting.
I'll post more as we have more going on....the biggest news this week, actually, is that it has been raining off and on for DAYS! this is so amazing. It also means our roof is leaking water. But hey, we love rain out here!
