I'm sitting at Tumaini right now--the back part. There is an inside restaurant that is warmer, but costs more, and an outside restaurant that is outside and costs less. I've got my Marmot fleece on, plus my north face outer-layer, leggings, a dress, and a khanga wrapped around my legs. It's getting more comfortable as the sun is coming out, but Lushoto is cold this early in the morning. It gets hot during the day, but very chilly at night! Same deal in my village--I sleep with multiple blankets, but during the day it's often in the 80's.
I think I'm going to do some e-mailing, photo-tooling, and possibly start my library write-up. I was feeling inspired on the bus. IT WAS BEAUTIFUL on the way here today. Lot's of fog covering the mountains in very interesting, and frankly breathtaking, ways. I wish I could have taken photos! I try not to bring my iPhone or camera with me since I'm already carrying a lot of stuff I don't want to lose. Plus, I already stick out a lot, and I'd prefer not to look touristy to a bus of tired Tanzanians at 5:30 in the morning.
Yesterday was fairly frustrating. I wrote out my test on flip chart paper to save time and hand cramping. I figured using colored markers to point out important points would also help them understand/follow the exam directions. I wrote the test in the style of the Form II NECTA exam that they'll be taking next November. (Fill in the blank with the correct verb, multiple choice reading comprehension, re-write the sentence correctly etc.) I put the test up on the board, only to find out that NONE of them had paper. Not a single student. Those who did have notebooks didn't have blank paper in their notebooks, or otherwise refused to rip it out. I had been told by my mkuu that it is the students' responsibility to have paper, and they did for the last quiz, so I got pretty frustrated by the whole thing. The academic master (Chambitwe) wasn't around, so I couldn't get access to any paper in his "resources" room. I ended up scrounging around and finding some blank sheets in the staff room in a random notebook (not sure if I was allowed to rip paper out of it, but I'd already emptied my own last notebook so I had nothing else to offer). After that didn't suffice, I had JB find me a couple more sheets. In the end some students had to write on the back of the used pieces of paper I had left in my notebook.
Based on this experience, I think next year I'm going to supply my students with an English notebook. I will probably have to pay for it, but I'm considering asking for donations/seeing if there's some funding I can get to also get them some pens, rulers, etc. I also REALLY want to type up my tests, though it is expensive to do that as well. I think I might do hand-written quizzes and typed tests to save money, but also improve the quality of my assessment measures. Typed tests would save a lot of time (they copy EVERYTHING down when they take a test, so most of them take a long time writing out directions, even if I tell them they don't need to) and help eliminate cheating. Rulers would also be very helpful since they have a practice here of underlining their answers (all answers apparently must be underlined with a perfectly straight line). This is an issue as only a couple students actually have a ruler. They end up passing rulers back and forth all the time, which makes policing for cheating harder to do. I cracked down yesterday on the talking and the looking-back-at-other-people's-desks, but it is difficult to stop on-looking when some of them literally share desks with each other.
I spent my afternoon grading. This round of tests went better than the last quiz I gave. Last quiz I had two students score zeros. This time the lowest score was an 11%. Last quiz the high was also somewhere in the 60% range, and this time I had one girl score an 83! That is HUGE in Tanzania, since passing is 20% and above. Getting an "A" in American terms is pretty much unheard of, so I'm relatively happy when my students get over 50%. To my satisfaction, 15 out of the 33 students who took the exam did get above a 50. (Eleven students were absent--which is sad, but truancy is common.) The average was a 48. Hopefully by the end of the year I can get them to keep raising their scores. By next year I'd really like to have them all passing by my own American standards. Or at least most of them scoring 60% and up. If a student ever got in the 90's I think I'd leap for joy. (Fortunately for them, I am a big perfectionist, but I have only ever applied unrealistic standards to myself. While I'd like to see them really comprehending the material and TRULY doing well, I am relatively satisfied that the average went up by 14 points this round of testing. Let's hope that's a trend that continues! I want to see lot's of 80s next time!)
Reasons for poor subject comprehension/test results in TZ schools:
1. The language of instruction is English for all subjects, even though some of them don't know words like "do" or "when". By the end of four years they are pretty much expected to be fluent in English, and there are many extraneous words on the NECTA that no reasonable person would ever use. My Form I kids have completed 3 out of 16 topics that they're supposed to cover this year, and our semester is quickly ending. It's very difficult to handle, and I'm hoping I can make more progress with next year's Form I class since I'll be starting the year with them. As for the kids I have in Form I now, it's a game of trying to catch them up for Form II, while also not rushing too fast.
2. They don't have their own books.
3. There is no school library or designated study space.
4. Many of them don't have notebooks. Or other supplies a lot of the time. So...I'm not really sure how some of them ever study. (I assume they just don't, or otherwise team-up into groups.)
5. They never have been taught to THINK. Only to parrot, mimic, and regurgitate answers and words without even knowing what they mean. (I.E. When I come in to class, even if I don't ask how they are, they say "We are fine." Sometimes I'll say something like, "Wow that was very loud!" Response: "FINE THANK YOU MADAME")
6. They are expected to do a lot of chores at school and at home. Studying and academic success isn't a huge priority for many families.
7. Illness is common. (There is a fundamental misunderstanding about the importance of using soap and warm water before eating with one's hands. A lot of people use soap after they eat with their hands so they don't smell like fish or what not, but before meals they just rinse their hands with cold, un-purified water. Sometimes it's warm. That's nicer. And some people do use silver wear. But you would never use a fork with ugali, and that's a common food here.....I personally use hand-sanitizer.)
8. They have virtually no test-taking skills. If they don't understand one word, they will skip the entire question. They don't know how to use process of elimination on multiple choice exams, and they don't do the easy questions first and then go back--they just sit there for a long time and eventually skip difficult questions entirely. Yesterday many students left questions completely blank, or didn't make it to the end of the exam because they were stuck. I also had a question that involved a bit of critical thinking on the exam, which was an interesting experiment. I gave them a passage about a girl named Jackie's eating preferences. We have gone over likes, dislikes, and preferences pretty extensively, so I wanted to see if they actually have understood what "prefer" really means. I said in one sentence that Jackie liked spinach, and in another sentence I said that she disliked onions. I asked if the following statement was true: Jackie prefers spinach to onions. To my surprise and delight, two students actually said TRUE, but most said false. Anyway, I hope to change their mode of thinking at least a little bit, but it's very hard to do. Suggestions on how to encourage critical thinking and test taking skills are most certainly WELCOME.
9. There are not many teachers here. Most teachers are somewhat flakey in terms of when they show up, and classes are cancelled for strange reasons. Many teachers are transferred, but then replacements are not given for a long time. This week only two of the three staff were present at my school. Plus, next week I'm going to be in Dar for medical reasons, so I'll miss at least one day of class, meaning once again there will be two staff at MOST. There are no substitute teachers, though I will probably host a make-up lesson or two since I really want to get through our unit on daily routines. But really, the lack of staff is a HUGE problem. They have only had temporary science, English, and math teachers at Mlongwema Secondary this year, so there has been no continuity or regularity in Math, Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and English classes.
10. Students are taught to the test (NECTA) and not taught to learn. This is a hard issue to deal with because ultimately they must pass the exam to move on to higher forms of education....
Despite this, I am very excited about my library project. My mkuu is going to meet with an architect in Lushoto and establish building costs. She is also going to look into solar panel costs and computer pricing. I'm working on the write-up, and Chambitwe is going to get a couple students to say why they want a library at their school. Then I'm going to launch my TZ Reads Campaign, and probably apply to some PC grants.
For my birthday/Christmas, I would love donations (1) So I can buy them notebooks, rulers, and pens for the next academic year and (2) So I can get books and building materials for Mlola's Library Project. I will be setting up an official fundraising campaign once I get everything together, but that won't be for a little while.
Waiting for Amy to show up from her village. I'm always the unlucky one who gets here between 6:45 and 7:30 in the morning.
End rant.
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