Teaching at Annapurna Higher Secondary School

Well....

It has now been a week in Padampokhari, and a month in Nepal. 

Where to start for the past week? Have I already mentioned how hot it is? Yes? It is now hotter. In fact, today it is 40 degrees. It is incredible how much one can sweat. Even while teaching I literally have sweat dripping down my neck! 

Teaching at Annapurna Higher Secondary School
The first few days of teaching has been a mix of highs and lows. I did not spend days with a teacher learning what to do, or learning about how things work. I was shown to the classes and introduced before being left to it.

The first class? A class of 62 12-13 year old students from Grade 8 jammed into a small class with me there to teach. Luckily, on the first day I had Nina (volunteer from Chicago, USA) join me as my assistant teacher as she could not teach at her school yet. The entire day was us shown to large classes ranging from 30 - 60 students, and then chaos.

See I am teaching at a government school and the discipline of the students is an issue. And I had heard from other volunteers that in government schools violence is used to discipline the children. Something that I am not comfortable enforcing myself. I have not yet witnessed this at Annapurna HSS. 

But at the end of the day I am a substitute teacher to them. Why listen to me?

So the goal of the day (for me anyway) was simply to shut the kids up and let them know who I was and what I expected of them. I know it sounds bad 'shut the kids up' but have you tried to teach 60 kids in a tiny classroom? 

And they really did try everything. Half the class was doing work from other classes like Nepali or Mathematics, a lot of these books were collected and kept up front - around 15 books from most classes. 

They all tried to be excused to use the bathroom or refill their drink bottles. I was having none of that, they were told they could do that after my class. 

Students who were blatantly not listening or misbehaving would be asked to stand in front of the class and read a passage from their English textbooks. Usually the naughtiest of the children really struggled to read basic English so after being humiliated they would soon behave.

My name and 'Miss' or 'Madam' were being yelled all over the place. I am teaching them to put their hands up if they want my attention but they are still learning this. 

Having to be so tough on the children was something I knew I had to do to be able to teach them anything and not be walked all over. It is bloody hard work but after only 3 days teaching I am getting somewhere with many of the classes.

I have two favourite classes. The first is Grade 5 (9-10 year olds) who I have taught many times. When I want them to be quiet I fold my arms and they copy. If they do this quickly and quietly I then touch my head, clap my hands, etc and make a game out of it. Was hilarious when I was doing this and did 'spirit fingers' next to my ears and all the children copied then immediately started singing Baa Baa Black Sheep! 

They also love playing Pictionary on the whiteboard. They are super competitive! But again, we only play this if they have worked well during the lesson.

My other favourite class is one of the Grade 10 classes (16-17 year olds). They are very smart and I have not had any discipline issues with them at all. When I told them about myself and that I had a 16 year old sister Mikaela they wanted to know all about her. With just a few classes with me they are understanding me better, and we are able to have good class discussions. 

There is A LOT of help needing here in the Chitwan area. The students do a lot of copying of answers rather than creating their own answers. I will ask a student a question about a passage we have read and they will stand up and read the relevant paragraph word for word. They don't know how to think in English. My goal while I am here is to have an improvement in this. I only have a month but one can dream right? Haha

I am so SO happy that I ended up here teaching. We had a new volunteer arrive this week from an orphanage in Kathmandu. She came because she wasn't needed a whole lot in the orphanage. Also another girl will come next week from as orphanage in Pohkara because she feels she is not needed. 

Now it is just a matter of how much can I squeeze into their brains before I leave! 

Other school highlights:

• Every school day at 1:30pm I join the teachers for day snacks. Not really sure how to describe the food as I have no idea what it is! One day was like flattened, dried rice with a curried fruit which is called Jack Fruit? 
• When I teach in the first period the students stand and sing the Nepali anthem. Not all classes do this but when I am teaching I have them all do so.
• On entering a classroom I have the children stand and say good morning before letting them sit. Love the POWER! Haha... But actually this helps with the control of the classroom from the start. 
• On my second day teaching it was bucketing down rain. All the other volunteers didn't go to school as it was too wet. Silly me, I decided I would go. I spent the first two periods drying off under a fan. On the bright side I made a lot of students and teachers laugh that day when I rocked in!

 So that is a summary of my first three days at school. The rest of the week the school was off for teachers exams so I went to Chitwan National Park. More about that in another blog post (this blogging takes a lot of work!!!).

Oh and do excuse how this is written. I have got very little sleep in the past week due to the heat. So am exhausted!!

A few pictures from family life in this quiet wee village...

 

Boys will be boys. The boys playing with the dead snake that caused havoc one morning. Most of the village were in a backyard while Pinto tried to catch him!

Aama sat (she is rarely sitting still) in the kitchen and dining area. No idea how she cooks for all of us with such little bench space!

The street we live on. Behind the house on the left is where we go for samosas, momos, and other snacks. Suppose it is like a cafe, except it is just a table outside a neighbour's house. Love it as they cook on a fire next to us.

The stream we swim in! Water snakes def don't stop you jumping in with this heat. Although I did a bomb in and hit my butt on a big rock, ouch! My butt is already sore enough from the bike ride to and from school :(

Pinto! Pinto was the one who discovered the snake. Even got bitten by the snake (but okay now)

Getting some water from the well to do some hand washing. I'm looking happy in this pic but I HATE washing my clothes with a passion. Takes SOOOOO loooonng!