More classroom fun

Over the weekend the teacher that Bryan had been subbing for finally was able to pass through Zambia to get into Namibia. Ray is really a funny guy and it’s plain to tell that the kids really respect him, so it’s very good to have him back in the school community. The teachers still wanted a chance to see how to teach literature classes, so I (Bryan) continued to cover Pinocchio and The Apple and the Arrow (and no, I never shot and students… though Jenna did have to talk me out of trying to throw knives at them).
This Sunday (the 26th) is our sponsor child’s birthday, so we got to celebrate with the school yesterday.
Balbina is our sponsor child’s name, and when Jenna asked what she wanted for a birthday present she confidently said, “A horse!” I then asked her if it would be alright if we got her a unicorn instead. She had never heard of a unicorn. Jenna then proceeded to find a horse in a coloring book and spent copious hours making it beautiful. This horse happened to be in a coloring book detailing how the Vikings lived… so we ended up with a beautifully colored horse with a fierce Viking riding atop it (the Viking was left black and white to deemphasize him). I then took the drawing and put in a rainbow colored horn out of the horse’s forehead.
It was really fun teaching the Apple and the Arrow though. As we came into the school to start out the whole trip, the fifth and sixth grades are notorious for their bad behavior and poor performance. After about five minutes in the classroom with them, it was apparent that this was not just a rumor, but also painstakingly clear that these kids were just being age-appropriate and testing boundaries that they’d grown up with. What was fun about teaching the Apple and the Arrow with them was that they really were given a chance to act their age and read about a guy that pushed away bad authority. One kid, Alberto, was just a terror the first few days with the 5th/6th graders and really made the whole class get off track. Another was Theodore, who simply could not go five minutes without cracking some sort of joke (and usually a pretty good one, so it was hard not to give him positive feedback from it). Sharon was like the boss of them all, commanding attention at any time she deemed necessary. But the thing is, these kids just needed and outlet to move, talk, and lead the class. They took charge of discussions, if the questions were important to them, so when the book provides fodder to ask, “When is it OK to go against authority” they jumped at the chance to talk. Sharon could really sink her teeth into that, and Alberto would actually smile at me and give appropriate feedback (even do the stereotypical grunting and whining with his hand wriggling in the air like it might fall off to answer a question). And Theodore could joke about the characters in the book and provide some really good insight about why the characters could not agree. These kids are really bright, and I think they could provide some hope to the community around them to recognize how the city of Windhoek is really oppressive.
Again, we’ll talk to the Hunters today and see if we can provide a little more insight into who these kids are outside of class, so the next time we blog will be in Ireland and hopefully we can share a little about what life is like at home for these kids.