I (Tim) am pretty bad a blogging. I think about it a lot, but rarely do it. Well, some time back someone (ie, my mom) wanted to hear more about my job. I am going to be trying to do some additional blogging about life, the universe, and everything to celebrate 6 months in Africa...soon. Hopefully. Now, however, some teaching details, organized by day of the week. I did write some of this up in a newsletter, but here I have more space. Also, feel free to ask questions!
Monday
Gah, Monday morning. Wake up at 5:40am. Leave for school at about 6:55am. I try to get a head start on my walk before the kids leave. They ride their bikes (when the bikes are working), and we try to time it so that we all reach the gate at the same time. We enter through a special back gate that is always locked, but I have a key. We park our bikes in some bushes and lock them up with a chain around a pole.
I try to unlock the computer lab as soon as possible each morning, as students might storm in trying to print some homework. And just like in America, the more stressed and hurried they are, the more the computers misbehave and refuse to print. It's a universal law!
At 7:30 I head downstairs to the Grade 7 homeroom. I am one of 3 teachers for Grade 7, and I try to make it to homeroom at the beginning and ending of each day, but I can't always make it, depending on computer lab demand and if computers are working or not. In homeroom, we take prayer requests and pray. Sometimes we have enough time to read a Bible passage. Sometimes, we have announcements. Sometimes, the class is quiet enough to hear some of that. It's only 10 minutes.
I have my two "secondary school" classes in a row on Monday. It's a hard way to start the week. I sure enjoy prep time first thing instead of diving right into it. Ah well! First up is "Information and Communication Technology IGCSE Level." IGCSE Level is the "entry level" in the Cambridge curriculum. This is mostly Grade 9 students, but I have 8 juniors and 1 senior who wanted to officially learn the computer skills taught in this curriculum too. So we are learning the whole Microsoft Office suite: Word, Powerpoint, Excel, and Access, and also HTML. Plus, some general knowledge about computers, networks, and how they work. It turns out, it is a lot of material to cover. As of now, we really only have a few class periods left until our exams. Back in NJ, we tried to teach these same skills and I never had a real curriculum to work with. It's nice to have some guidance. On the other hand, I have never "taught to the test" before, and in this class, it is ALL about teaching to the test. Students will take 3 standardized exams in the spring (2 in April, 1 in May). The two April exams are "practical" on-computer tests. They'll be given instructions to create documents in all 5 skills and need to follow instructions and have a good understanding of the software to do well. In May, they'll have a theoretical exam which is written questions about the knowledge part of the class. I am not thrilled with my ability to teach this class this year -- I could have done a much better job! Maybe I took it for granted, as it was a class where I knew the material, and had the curriculum given to me. My other classes looked more challenging on paper. Well, we will see how we do when the tests come around!
Class #2 on Monday is "Applied ICT" which is the next level of the same curriculum. Here, students are asked to apply much more critical thinking to the knowledge and skills they gained from IGCSE. This class is made up of 9 seniors and 1 junior who wanted to try to get more "serious" about their computing skills. To me, the curriculum here is not the best. It goes for extreme detail in the features of the Office Suites that you just don't use very often. Now, the critical thinking is good -- students are not led step by step through the programs but have to problem-solve. I like that. I am a bit proud in my teaching of this class, because I have spent a lot of time preparing all sorts of lectures, materials, powerpoints, study guides, etc. for it...this is the first year that we've taught it at HOPAC. Sadly, I think I won't be reusing those materials, because I recommended we use a new curriculum next year! (I think we should switch over to computer science, learning hardware functionality, coding, and pre-engineering skills, which I will be thrilled to teach!)
Overall, I do love the material and organization the Cambridge curriculum give me, and I worry about the "teaching to the test" aspect of it. I do often think "Wow, I can take the ideas from these curricula back to the States with me and I could be a real IT teacher!" (Are you listening, EC?????)
These 2 classes are double periods, which is about the same length as a "Block Schedule" class...90 minutes. The time goes by remarkably fast and I never get as much done as I want to. After that, it's "Break" which means lunch. Break is 40 minutes long...a real treat compared to the EC schedule!
However, I spend almost every Break in the computer lab. At the beginning of the year, we had a computer lab employee who kept it all running, and would be the "on call" staff member to keep the room open. He left to study at University, which is great. It means I am now the Computer Lab worker. It's not a bad job, and gives me lots of chances to interact with students throughout the day. It also means I spend almost my entire day in air conditioning, and I think everyone hates me. (JK).
After break, my prep time! My only class of the afternoon is at 1:15pm, so I get about 2 hours to get some planning and grading done. Of course, it's all prep in the computer lab, as it stays open for study hall students and the occasional secondary class that wants to do some computer research. This being a Monday, I already have plenty to do...if I am caught up in grading from the weekend (cough, right, cough) I can spend most of the time planning the week's lessons. But honestly, I do most of my planning at home, and most of my grading at school. But you teachers know how it goes...2 hours goes remarkably quick, by the time you organize all the stuff that happened in the morning, do some print outs and thinking about the week ahead, and make sure the room is ready for the next class...boom, it's time! But this is my biggest chunk of time from Monday - Wednesday, so I am quite happy to have it.
At 1:15, I get a treat: Grade 4 gets their weekly visit to the computer lab. This means Josh's class. Not only that, but most of the boys in Grade 4 were on my football team in the fall, and the others I know well, too. (I am still trying to get the know the girls as well!) So, this is a real highlight. I am trying to teach them proper typing technique while also mixing in interesting and fun technology lessons. They LOVED Powerpoint, and would be happy to make presentations all day long. So, I created a research project...first, they keyboard some notes into Word, to get their typing practice, and then they can research images and facts on the Internet, and create Powerpoint presentations (right now, we are almost finished with a project about weird plants...they are going to study "normal" type plants in science class soon.)
Grade 4 leaves at 2, and Homeroom wraps up the day at 2:20. But! I also teach an after school activity on programming from 2:30 - 4. We are learning Python, a programming language many former EC students told me I should learn and teach. They were right! I have 6-7 high schoolers stay after school on Mondays and we try to get some coding done. None of my former students will be surprised to hear that we are diving into Text Adventure games. I think we've had 4 weeks of the class so far...it's been a good time. I am struggling to use a new programming language and I keep making silly mistakes, relying on old habits. Plus, after that Monday schedule, I am a bit fried. Still, it is fun to teach "only the good stuff"--no homework or quizzes, just exploration and ideas.
At 4pm, I get to walk home. Charlotte is done swimming at the same time, so we head out together. Ever since I started the programming class, I am usually asleep in my chair by about 4:30 until dinner time!
OK, maybe that was too much detail. Well, most of my other classes are the same ideas as this but at different times, so they should go faster!
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