Practice School
On jarama! I’ve been back in Dubreka for almost two weeks now and practice school is in full swing. All education trainees must complete 3 weeks of practice school before they can be sworn in as vrai volontaires. Last week I taught two 1 hour classes each day and this week I taught one 2 hour class each day. In Guinea, students go to school for 4 hours per day, from 8am-12pm. They have math 3 times per week for 2 hours each time and most other subjects for only 2 or 4 hours per week. The levels are a bit different too. College (or middle school) starts with 7th grade and goes through 10th grade. Then lycee (or high school) starts with 11th and goes to terminale (13th). I will be teaching 9th and 10th grade. 10th grade is especially important because at the end of 10th grade, students must take the brevet which is an exam that determines whether or not they can continue on to lycee. I will be preparing the dixieme students in Gougoudje to take this exam. Practice school has been going well so far. The first week of practice school I taught 8th and 9th grade classes and this past week I taught 9th and 10th grade. The classes are substantially smaller than the classes I will have in Gougoudje but it’s still very good practice. I’ve discovered that giving exams here is especially tricky because there is no easy way to make a copy of the exam for all the students. When giving an exam, I have to write the questions on the board and have the students copy it down on a piece of notebook paper. This makes it hard to prevent the students from cheating when I’m writing out the questions and it also takes up a lot of class time and limits the size of the exam. However, it has forced me to be very creative with my exam questions. Although my 9th graders had a hard time with my first exam about the properties of a triangle, they did great on the last exam about vectors so I think I’ve been able to improve my exam format a little bit. In other news, I obtained my first bit of African attire yesterday! I bought some fabric last week and took it to a tailor here in Dubreka to have pants made. I went to pick them up yesterday and I was thoroughly impressed. They set me back 45000 GNF or about $6.50. They even have pockets! Also, since the pattern on them is pretty geometrical, I wore them to teach my class today. Below is a picture of Sara (another math volunteer) and I modeling the “geometrical flower” fabric. For the swearing in ceremony, our whole group is going to wear clothes made of the same fabric. The fabric we selected was the “squiggly monster pattern.” I’ll be sure to post a picture of this as I’m sure we’ll look pretty ridiculous/totally awesome. Speaking of swearing in, it’s only 2 weeks away! I will be an official Peace Corps volunteer on September 21, 2012! Then I’ll be headed off to Gougoudje for the next 2 years to teach math and live in my excellent hut. Thank you to everyone who has been following my blog. I’m glad I can share my experience in this way. I hope I am giving you a taste of Guinean culture! If you like what you hear, feel free to come visit any time! That’s all for this post. The next time you here from me I’ll be in Conakry for the swearing in ceremony!
On jarama! I’ve been back in Dubreka for almost two weeks now and practice school is in full swing. All education trainees must complete 3 weeks of practice school before they can be sworn in as vrai volontaires. Last week I taught two 1 hour classes each day and this week I taught one 2 hour class each day. In Guinea, students go to school for 4 hours per day, from 8am-12pm. They have math 3 times per week for 2 hours each time and most other subjects for only 2 or 4 hours per week. The levels are a bit different too. College (or middle school) starts with 7th grade and goes through 10th grade. Then lycee (or high school) starts with 11th and goes to terminale (13th). I will be teaching 9th and 10th grade. 10th grade is especially important because at the end of 10th grade, students must take the brevet which is an exam that determines whether or not they can continue on to lycee. I will be preparing the dixieme students in Gougoudje to take this exam. Practice school has been going well so far. The first week of practice school I taught 8th and 9th grade classes and this past week I taught 9th and 10th grade. The classes are substantially smaller than the classes I will have in Gougoudje but it’s still very good practice. I’ve discovered that giving exams here is especially tricky because there is no easy way to make a copy of the exam for all the students. When giving an exam, I have to write the questions on the board and have the students copy it down on a piece of notebook paper. This makes it hard to prevent the students from cheating when I’m writing out the questions and it also takes up a lot of class time and limits the size of the exam. However, it has forced me to be very creative with my exam questions. Although my 9th graders had a hard time with my first exam about the properties of a triangle, they did great on the last exam about vectors so I think I’ve been able to improve my exam format a little bit. In other news, I obtained my first bit of African attire yesterday! I bought some fabric last week and took it to a tailor here in Dubreka to have pants made. I went to pick them up yesterday and I was thoroughly impressed. They set me back 45000 GNF or about $6.50. They even have pockets! Also, since the pattern on them is pretty geometrical, I wore them to teach my class today. Below is a picture of Sara (another math volunteer) and I modeling the “geometrical flower” fabric. For the swearing in ceremony, our whole group is going to wear clothes made of the same fabric. The fabric we selected was the “squiggly monster pattern.” I’ll be sure to post a picture of this as I’m sure we’ll look pretty ridiculous/totally awesome. Speaking of swearing in, it’s only 2 weeks away! I will be an official Peace Corps volunteer on September 21, 2012! Then I’ll be headed off to Gougoudje for the next 2 years to teach math and live in my excellent hut. Thank you to everyone who has been following my blog. I’m glad I can share my experience in this way. I hope I am giving you a taste of Guinean culture! If you like what you hear, feel free to come visit any time! That’s all for this post. The next time you here from me I’ll be in Conakry for the swearing in ceremony!
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| Math teachers rockin' the "geometrical flower" pattern |
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