School Starts Up Again

When I returned from Kampala Steve and I were supposed to start a regular and intensive teaching schedule at the primary school. However, the schedule the head mistress created had us teaching PAPE (Performing Arts and Physical Education) to Primary 1 through 4 for two hours every day and one hour of English or Math a week. This schedule was far from the eight hours of English or Math we were hoping to teach a week. In addition we felt as if we were being used. It seemed as if the head mistress wanted us to teach these subjects because she thought we could buy the supplies for them. In the end we came to a compromise. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we teach two periods of Phys. Ed. and then one period of English or Math to P.5 and P.6. Between 4:30 to 5:00 we do Primary Leave Exam (PLE) review with the P.7 Students.

This schedule has actually worked really well. At first I thought I would be a terrible gym teacher, but I have actually really enjoyed my time teaching gym. Gym classes are fun because I work with the female half of the class while Steve works with the male half of the class. This is good for two reasons, one while boys here play soccer girls here play net ball (sort of like basketball) this means that all those throwing exercises I learned while trying to play rugby are paying off. Two, it means I don’t have to try and control a bunch of teenage boys showing off with a soccer ball. Steve doesn’t seem to enjoy the gym classes half as much as I do. Now I must give a shout out to my friend Lindsey Koonz who has just graduated with her degree in Physical Education!!

I also enjoy teaching English and Math on a more regular schedule. For the past couple of weeks I have been working on writing letters to American students with my P.5 class. I will go into this more in depth later. It was a really good experience and I think the kids really enjoyed it. I have yet to teach a math class, however, I did get to help correct math quizzes with Mr. Mugerwa. This was really cool, red pen makes you feel really powerful!! Kathleen, I am envious!!! It made me feel very adult to be correcting someone else’s work. In addition, I finally felt like I was doing something productive at the school. It was productive because the teachers do not teach if they have stuff to grade. Unlike in the US where teachers have to bring home their papers, here they just don’t teach the class if they haven’t finished grading the work from that class. For example, until those math quizzes are graded Mr. Mugerwa will not teach another math class to P.5.