I survived my first day of teaching in an African school!I had to be at the school by 7:10am and I get out of school at 13:15 or 1:15pm.Much shorter school day. They have no time in between classes, but they do have two 15 minute breaks.During the first break, it is still pretty chilly so they stay inside or in a sunny spot.By the second break, everyone is outside talking, listening to music or playing a unique game of soccer.I will explain in a minute.Peter Omura was there to introduce me this morning.Peter is an American teacher that has been here since 2004.He first worked with World Teach further north and moved to Windhoek in 2006.He has been teaching at Combretum since I think.His wife had their first born son on July 4th so I have taken over his classes while he is on paternity leave for the next two weeks.He will visit on Wednesdays to pick up homework and see his classes and on Friday afternoon to pick up homework…apparently I do not have to grade!! JThis might turn out to be the best teaching job ever!

It is cold at 7 in the morning and the school again does not have heat so everyone stays in their coats for awhile.Peter taught most of the 8th grade class in the morning because he got so far into the lesson he forgot what time it was. They were learning about lines of symmetry in regular polygons.He had them cut out different regular polygons and fold them to find their lines of symmetry.Most of them wanted to stop at two…they would hold it up for my examination and laugh when I kept saying, "There are more." It was a fun group of kids.I have never seen so many ways to cut paper before though.Some of them used their compass to cut the paper, some of them had scissors, some of them used the edge of a ruler and tore along the line, and others folded several times and then ripped.There are some Angolan students in the 8th grade.Angola is the country to the east of Namibia.If they weren't speaking to me, they spoke to each other in Portuguese.Actually, when I first walked in I hadn't said anything yet and a few of the students asked Peter if I was Angolan.

I then taught the 9th grade how to find the area of a trapezium (trapezoid) and kite.They were a louder group of kids, but very smart.This particular group of students did more mental math than I've seen in my classes at home.There is a wide range of ability though with a few students not writing anything down, but being able to solve the formula in their heads while others write everything down and need more explanation to work through the steps.Both 8th and 9th grade had a double period this morning which is about 70 minutes total.After 4th period I realized I had completely covered my black jacket with yellow chalk. J I am not used to chalk and it gets everywhere.

I had a break after that and sat in the teacher's lounge for awhile drinking tea to keep warm.The other teachers found it very funny that I do not drink sugar or milk in my tea.Most Namibians put at least three spoonfuls of sugar and a lot of milk in their tea to make it sweet…it's one of their only sweet foods.You don't stay in your classroom if you aren't teaching because other classes use it.I then taught the entire 11th grade maths extra class.Maths extra is basically an extra 35 minutes where they try to do fun math activities.The teacher can really do whatever they want, which is amazing.However, the entire 11th grade (about 30 students) in one classroom is cramped and loud.They all wanted to ask me questions about America, Obama, celebrities, sports, and everything else at once.Plus I had to have them repeat a few times just to understand their accent.Unfortunately, maths extra was not that fun today since I had nothing planned.Instead, Peter had given me a worksheet on factoring and binomials.For normal maths class, the 11th grade is split into two groups: core and accelerated.However, since I have all of them for maths extra, some of them were done in 15 minutes and others took the whole 35 minutes and only finished the first 8 problems at most.

I then had my second break and plan period where I almost got beamed with a soccer ball because I walked into the middle of a court without realizing on the way to the teacher's lounge.Fortunately, I have good hand eye coordination.Their soccer game has about 4 players sometimes 5 with four goals (plants, poles, rocks, bricks, anything they can move to designate a goal).The goal is basically to get it into any of the other 3 goals and guard their own.It is a very fast game and they use walls to ricochet the soccer ball.Looks like fun. JThey also play ping pong or table tennis during their breaks.

The students are for the most part extremely polite.They answer or ask every question with a sir, mam, or mademoiselle.But you can also tell they're not quite sure if they should ask.There were two 8th grade students that sat pretending to write for 45 minutes until Peter and I both realized they weren't holding anything.They were too scared to ask for a pencil.Also, as with Namibian culture, you cannot walk by them without them saying hello and asking how your day has been.It takes me awhile to get to my classroom from the lounge.

My 10th grade class was the most fun to me.I only have 8 tenth graders, but they are very clever and fun to teach.Two of them are Austrian exchange students, who were very excited to hear that it was summer in America because they are missing their summer in Austria.Since there are only 8 of them, we cram into possibly the smallest classroom in the world.Literally one desk stays out of the room until the other students are in and then the last student carries it inside.I have a tiny white board on an easel in the front of the classroom. Lol It is very interesting to teach there.They again asked a ton of questions about America and joked around very well with each other and me.It was a fun environment.They were a bit bitter that Obama is not coming to Namibia until someone joked that Namibia does not need help like Obama will provide to the South Africans.They wanted to know about the Steelers as well.One of them said that he prefers the New Orleans Saints, which is funny because one thing they all want is to be able to watch at least one game of American football.I taught circle geometry today and talked about the different angle properties.They were very interested in solving problems with the different properties.That was my last class of the day, but I still had to wait 35 minutes before the end of the school day so I went back to the teacher's lounge with all of my newly acquired books and plans.

I walked in on the oddest conversation.At first I thought they were talking about a student until they saw me and clarified that they were catching their friend up on a "soapie" or soap opera.They can watch dubbed Mexican soap operas here and they love them.Lol Teachers' lounges never change.I also learned that the Namibian schools start at the end of January and go to April.They get a month off and then they're back in school until early July when they get a one or two week break and then continue until the end of August.They get all of September off and then they go until the end of November.When I described the American school day and year, a lot of them wished that we could switch to our longer day and year schedule.Kenyan schools are apparently a lot like ours.

As I taught the different grade levels, I asked them the average age of the class.There was about a 4 year difference in ages in each grade. For example, 8th grade had 13-17 year olds.The oldest student was a 22 year old in 10th grade…I did not mention that I am only 23. lol There was also a 16 year old in 11th grade and they called her the "baby of the class."I only have 3 white students and 2 of them are the exchange students from Austria.

As I was waiting for Hopson to pick me up, some of my students came over to talk.I noticed then that each grade has a head girl and head boy…like Hogwarts. LolOne of my 9th graders wanted to know why she could understand me better than Peter.She and another student started imitating Peter's New York accent.It was pretty funny.She was also asking more specific questions about where I lived and I think clarifying so that she could tell her family when she got home. JSo far, they are a good group of kids and today was a lot of fun.They are extremely hard workers.

We then went and met my mom at Trip Travel, which is a travel agency, to figure out when we should go to Victoria Falls.I left her there and went to get something to eat at a café in Zoopark.My mom doesn't finish work until 5 or 6.Hopson's sister is coming over for dinner. I think we will grill chicken. Until later.

Shannon