Now that I have been teaching
“Math” in grade three at St. Barnabas for a couple weeks, I am starting to get
in to the swing of routines and lessons.
I have actually ended up teaching Math, Religion, Arts and English
almost every day and therefore, have learned to have numerous back up lessons
in place for each content area because I never know what Mr. Mbai will or will
not have prepared the following day.
This has been an excellent opportunity for me to grow in my
teaching—with classroom management, behavior management, transitions,
differentiation of learners, and planning consecutive lessons on specific
concepts. I am very fortunate to
have the opportunity of starting my student teaching on the first day of school
in Katutura because I was able to create signals, seating charts and
expectations with my students right from the very beginning.
The beginning of the school year at
St. Barnabas is quite different from the beginning of the school year at
Wildwood Elementary in Federal Way.
Here, the teachers had their first staff meeting two days before the
first day of school and it only lasted about a half hour. The only topics that were discussed
were the change of school fees and government supplying the basic resources as
well as the need to actually do lesson
plans. This shocked me because in
Washington, there are many hours put in to staff meetings throughout the summer
for professional development and organizing the first day of school.
As mentioned before, teachers
started meeting for staff meetings only a few days before the first day of
school and that is a huge difference compared to the beginning of school in
Washington. On top of professional
development days and teacher training, teachers will spend the summer planning
and organizing their classroom to prepare it for the first day of school. In Namibia, many of the classroom walls
are blank, the cupboards are empty and it feels very different than the
colorful and welcoming bulletin boards I prepared this summer for my first
graders in Washington.
Another great difference I have
noticed between the start up of school in Namibia versus the start of school in
America is that teachers in Namibia will show up ten minutes before the start
of the school day and will leave five minutes after the bell rings at the end
of the day. This has been
extremely difficult for me to get used to because I am used to being at school
an hour early and staying well after the bell at the end of the day to plan,
reflect and discuss the school day with my cooperating teacher. Here, it is difficult to communicate
what you have planned and what resources you need because you do not have the
morning to plan before school starts.
After being immersed in the culture
of Namibia for a month, I think there are a few reasons why Namibian schools
start the way they do. First, I
have learned that going to the family farm during holiday break is something
that everybody does. Almost every
Namibian I have met and had conversations with, have told me about their time
at the farm in the past couple months and it is just expected that that is
where you spend your holiday break.
Therefore, since Namibians all go out to the farm for a couple months,
the city is slower and quieter and time is not spent preparing classrooms or
schools for the first day.
Secondly, I think the government has a large role in how the start up of
school goes. This year is the
first year that primary students are not paying school fees to go to school and
it is the first year they do not have to buy their own textbooks, stationary
and pencils as the government has decided they will cover those expenses. However, the system is not completely
worked out yet and none of those resources were delivered to the classrooms
before the first day of school. As
a matter of fact, my learners in grade three still have not received any school
supplies and that makes it very difficult to assess 40 students during a
lesson.
I have mentioned a couple of the
differences between how school starts in Namibia versus how it starts in
America and I have also noticed similarities and differences within the
classrooms at my schools. I have
noticed that the staff members in both Namibia and America truly care about
their profession. They are
passionate about the children and care about them. The first thing Mr. Mbai said to the students on the first
day of school was, “We’re all best friends now.” and shook the hand of each
student that walked in his classroom.
Similarly, in Washington, I give each student either a hug or high five
when they come in my classroom in the morning and when they leave at the end of
the day. I also have the same
group of students all day, everyday and I am expected to teach Reading, Math,
Art and other content areas every day.
Through teaching these content areas, I have been reminded yet again
that all learners learn differently and I make the conscious effort to reach
all types of learners in my classroom, whether they learn best visually,
kinesthetically or orally. Lastly,
there is an emphasis on after school activities. In Namibia, the after school activity that almost every
student participates in is athletics.
In Washington, many of my students are on the track and field team but
many also participate in after school tutoring, games or other hobbies. Encouraging the students to participate
in the after school activities establishes a sense of pride with them and
allows the students to be proud of where they come from.
While I have noticed a few
similarities in two completely different environments and cultures, I have
noticed a lot of differences—some I expected and some I did not. The biggest difference from public
schools in America and Namibia is a difference I did not expect and that is the
integration of religion, God and prayer.
Every morning before school, the teachers sing, pray and say a
devotional and the students pray before break and have religious studies
lessons multiple times a week. In
America, none of those subjects are touched on and chances are they are never
even brought up because of the strict, thin line of separation of church and
state. Along with religion being
taught in school in Katutura, students also learn English as well as another
African language. At St. Barnabas,
the students receive Otjiherero lessons in addition to English every day. However, one of the biggest differences
and hardest challenge I have noticed is the lack of resources in the classroom
here. There are not any books
stocked in the classroom for students to go read, there is not the technology
to access online games or educational videos and most importantly, there is not
even a supply of paper, scissors, art supplies, etc. in my classroom. Almost everything we have used in my
lessons are supplies that I have brought in since coming to Namibia.
Learners are also not used to being completely engaged and excited in lessons throughout the school day. Often times, students are told to copy down pages of a
textbook and read it at home for homework. Therefore, majority of the school day is spent just copying
down information that they may not even completely comprehend. With that being said, many of my
students were not very comfortable about working in groups for activities or role-playing
when I started teaching. However, I
have been teaching and re-teaching what it looks like to turn and talk to your
neighbor and what it looks like to work in a group and the students are getting
more comfortable with that style of teaching. They are beginning to want to share more and are less shy
when speaking out to the class. Classroom
size and number of students is also a difference between Namibia and
America. My classroom at St.
Barnabas has about forty students in it and is about half the size of my
classroom at Wildwood. This makes
it extremely difficult to do group activities and limits the movement of the
students. 
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