Today is the last day of the second quarter and the first term of the 2006 school year here at St. Rodrigue. It's been an eventful 2 months. Soccer, netball and volleyball trained and competed in regional competitions for a coveted place in the national sports competitions to be held in Maseru next quarter. A new bus line, Leduma, began operating out of neighboring Mpatane, giving us four options for transportation between St. Rods and Maseru. The road from the Mphatlalatsane bus stop to the mission was repaired. I learned how to spell Mphatlalatsane. The magazine club produced the very first issue of the new school literary magazine, The Rainbow Nation in a Kingdom in a Sky. We celebrated Sesotho Day, an annual celebration of Basotho culture in which students performed traditional songs and dances and one act plays. A 2002 fellow, John Aerni '01, returned to Lesotho and was Molly's and my guest for 2 weeks before beginning study at the National University of Lesotho in Roma. On a sadder note, we returned from Easter holiday to news of the death of one of our Form B students, who drowned while trying to cross a river which had flooded the road near her home. It was the first funeral I've ever attended and the youngest I ever hope to. Our headmistress, Sister Armelina, fell and suffered a leg fracture, putting her more or less out of commission for most of the second quarter, though she still managed to teach some classes and prepare her students for June examinations. The June examinations were completed, though not with out a hitch, as our copy machine naturally broke down in the days before the examination period began. Fortunately Molly, Sr. Amelia and I managed to get the copies done in time. Exams were written and marked. Reports were filled, and we're now on holiday for the next 6 weeks or so. We said a fond farewell and tsela tsoeu (wide way/good luck) to 'M'e Molly and celebrated a semester of work completed complete with music and a fantastic Basotho meal and braii.
There's been a definite chill in the air for the last few weeks, especially in the mornings and at night. We can frequently see our breath indoors. If I step outside at night I can smell winter. I sleep inside a sleeping bag covered in blankets and clutching a hot water bottle. In mid-May snow blanketed the mountains near our village. We in St. Rodrigue were spared. Despite the winter chill days are actually quite comfortable, almost warm. Even so I'm frequently scolded by students and teachers alike for my seemingly foolish clothing choices. "Why can't you put something on?!" a teacher once shouted at me from across the staffroom. Even when I agree with them that it is cold and show off my 4-5 layers of shirts and sweaters they are not wholly satisfied. "They are too light," one teacher lamented. "You will get a Common Cold." Generally common cold is said as though it is anything but common; to be stricken with the common cold is highly noteworthy. I appreciate their concern. Talk of the weather is popular.
"It is cold in America," the teachers say sometimes.
"Yes," I agree.
"Is it as cold as here?!" they often ask.
"Colder!" I reply, but I admit that it is easier to escape the cold back home.
"Oh, you have Central Heating," they say. We have heaters at St. Rodrigue but they are only moderately effective and they reek of gas when used.
However, as I said before, we've been blessed with warm weather during the day. The students took to group study on the grass because it was warmer outside than in. I was proud to see them working so hard. They worked with the knowledge that their upcoming exams would be their only mark of progress this quarter and a major factor in determining their end of the year promotions. I must say I don't envy the students in this regard. I hate testing, both being a tester and a testee. I can only imagine the stress they've felt in the past few weeks as they prepared for their exams. I regret that all of their hard work (and mine) comes down to a single examination, but accept now that this is the way things are. Though these tests are their only official assessment of learning I hope they view the past 4 months as meaningful also. I hope our time together has felt as much like a process for them as it has for me. This semester I watched my students grow from shy girls who wore a "deer in the headlights" expression when I asked what kind of noun "teacher" was to more confident English speakers who could correct the mistake in the sentence ''M'e Molly like to run.' almost as quickly as I could write it on the board.
In English we began work on a biography project in which students worked in pairs. They wrote questions and conducted interview with their partners about their lives in order to practice using verbs correctly. They had to write properly phrased questions, say them aloud to their partner, listen to their partner's response and record a properly phrased answer. For example, a student could have written and asked the question "Where did you attend primary school?" Her partner would then reply, "I attended Sebelekoane Primary School," and the first student would write "She attended Sebelekoane Primary School." I was proud to see the students learning how to use language in this way and discouraged when we were forced to put the project on hold due to time constraints. The impending June examinations meant that we had to cover material more quickly than the project would allow, but I look forward to continuing work on their biographies next term.
If I could have one wish for my students it would be more academic time. Classes are frequently cancelled or cut short and when you get right down to it study time is practically non-existent. In each of the first four weeks of the second quarter we had at least one day of school cancelled. I had high hopes for our final week of classes until I was on my way to school for my afternoon double with the A1's and noticed my students walking in the other direction.
"Where are you going?!" I cried.
"We are going home," came their matter of fact response.
"But...why?!"
"School is finished."
"Says who," I inquired.
"...We don't know."
At which point I was completely baffled and had little else to say. I called them back to class and tried to get information from the other teachers. No one really seemed to know what was going on, but there was a rumor that students were going to be required to help carry stones for the building of a reservoir on the school grounds. I get discouraged when we lose class and study time, because I think it is a major hindrance to the students' learning. On sports days (officially Tuesday but more likely every day, especially if there are competitions at the end of the week) the entire student body is required to report to the sports pitch for practice, though at any given time only about a quarter of the students play a sport. I've asked about allowing the non-athletes to use that time for study, rather than requiring them to sit outside and watch the practices but the general consensus is that allowing them that study time would put the athletes at an unfair disadvantage. "Is it fair to waste the time of all these other girls?" I mustered the courage to say one day. My pursuit of more study time in lieu of daily sports practice hasn't been particularly popular. It isn't that I am against a strong athletics program at St. Rodrigue; in fact I helped this term to coach both track and soccer. But when Sister Armelina says she wishes our girls could be as strong in academics as they are in athletics and yet the students aren't given every opportunity to improve academically it makes me wonder if there isn't a necessary change to be made at St. Rodrigue. Whether I have the power or the right to make that change is not clear, though all signs thus far suggest that I do not. Even so, I feel that I must be an advocate for my students who struggle with their academics. I feel that if they just had more time they could be more successful. The time delegated for morning study is not sufficient or well-utilized. The students frequently arrive late, particularly those who walk from neighboring villages - some for as long as 1-2 hours each way. They leave home in the cold and the dark and return home in the same conditions. Personal and household responsibilities demand their time leaving very little time for homework or extra study time outside of school hours. Even those who do arrive at school by 6:45 have less than an hour of study time, as morning prayers are said by 7:40 after which the students take a break before classes begin. And the time they do have is constantly interrupted by the influx of latecomers.
With such limited class and study time I also have to consider whether I'm being effective with the time I do have. I reflect constantly on my approach. Will my lesson plans be effective? Are they challenging enough? Are they too challenging? Should I be worried about writing creative and (hopefully) authentic lesson plans even if they take longer to implement or should I be more focused on covering as much material as possible for the sake of tests? Am I being patient enough? Are my expectations clear and if they are not, how do I make them clear?
Communication is a major challenge. Related to that, classroom management is testing my teaching abilities. I'm not surprised to realize that these two issues are my most prominent challenges but I sometimes feel frustrated by them nonetheless. I want to be a good teacher. I want my classroom to be an active, safe learning environment. I want everyone in my classroom, myself included, to be excited about the simple past tense and object pronouns. I worry about what I'm doing wrong when students don't pay attention, can't answer my questions, or talk through class. I often have to stop teaching and stare silently at the students until they quiet down and are ready to pay attention and wonder why it is that I don't have greater command of my classroom. I imagine cultural and language barriers play a part in my difficulties. I feel that if I could just be more charismatic, more commanding, if I could just connect more easily with my students I would feel vastly more successful.
It's not that I fear my students are not learning - a majority of them passed English this term. But I do worry that I'm not always the teacher that I want to be. I know what I value as a teacher, but don't always know how to balance my values and ideals with the educational demands placed on students and teachers in Lesotho. I cannot justify pursuing a project that eats up loads of class time when we have a syllabus to complete in time for June tests, but I still want to take the time to make my students engage one another in English conversation. I can mark all the homework assignments I want and yet the students' final marks will still be based on tests and tests alone. I can write all the glowing comments I want on a student's report about her hard work and improvement, but if her final test mark is a 49% she fails. Period. I cannot change the system and so I have to find ways to help my students to be successful writing it. I can fight in staff meetings for more study time. I can demand that students turn in homework twice a week and mark it up with corrections and notes, encouraging students afterward to read my comments. I can conduct review sessions and emphasize the importance of studying and re-reading notes and asking questions. I do these things and I will continue to do so. I love teaching and I love my students. It's not been easy, but together we are learning. Teaching at St. Rodrigue has offered me tremendous opportunity for growth and reflection in what will likely be a long career in education, and for all the frustrations I have experienced I'll be better for it. Hopefully my students will be too.
