My First Week of Teaching!!!

My First Week of Teaching.

Hello hello my dear wonderful friends & family!

I think I may have started off the last entry like this, but I have not yet lessened my appreciation for my old faithful laptop nor the world wide web! It’s is so nice to have a medium in which I can communicate with you. Here I am in my dark tiny bedroom at 7 in the morning on a Saturday. Jocelyn gave me some very thick curtains she wasn’t using – so they help keep my room dark.. and I get to sleep in all the way to 7 on the weekends! : ) Usually I get up at 6:15, and leave for work/school between 7 & 7:15.

I am listening to Celine Dion’s Christmas album (My dear sister Catherine… I am surrounded by houses that give music lessons.. seriously there are 3 within 50 feet.. and APPARENTLY quite often they sing to Celine Dion! Exciting hey?) I try not to think about the fact that I will not be seeing Celine this October in Winnipeg with Catherine, because as silly as it may sound, one of my dreams is to see Celine Dion WITH CATHERINE!! And wow, just thinking of it I am laughing!

Let me fill you in on this past week: If you are uninterested in my ‘teaching’ lore and follies I invite to please skip through this part as it might be a bit of a bore – but I will try not to drag it on too long.

Monday = Teacher’s meeting.
I met all the teachers/staff of the school. We went over rules & policies, then I organized the classroom.. it is still a brutal mess with hundreds of books in cardboard boxes at the back of the classroom.
Tuesday = Stationary Day
Out here the kids bring LOTS of things that are not only for themselves, but for all the Art supplies in the school, and things for the Office/administration. For example one child would bring 8 scribblers, pens, marks, dictionaries, etc. but they would ALSO bring 12 rolls of toilet paper, 6 boxes of Kleenex, a big thing of computer paper, poster board, glitter, blue ink/dye, thick packing tape… and so the list goes on. Because there is so much stuff, the students come with their parents to bring everything to the classroom – where I go through the checklist and make sure they have everything, then semi-organize it. I got to meet many of the parents, and most of the children, it was exhilarating.
Wednesday = 1st Teaching Day!
Lisa Obirek says: “Good morning beautiful children!”
Grade 4’s say: “Good morning Ms Lisa” (Which, for us Canadians sounds like… ‘Gouude mowneeng meees leeza’) ah, it’s priceless.



okay, continuing on Wednesday – good day, mostly just organized ourselves (labeled books, go over rules, etc).. had a ‘sharing circle’ : )

In the grade 4 classroom we have 3 rules:
1- Love Vision Valley
2- Love Each Other
3- Love Yourself
Then we discussed what each of them means, and how we do that, it was nice.

Thursday: did a bunch of math – it’s a nice feeling to introduce a concept (for example – Place Value) and see the children learn it.. going from never hearing it.. to being able to answer questions about it – its nice : )

Friday: the day I realized I’m in way over my head. …..
Most of the kids in my class speak decent English (one new girl – doesn’t speak a word) but the comprehension level when reading I so low –and yet, because this is an English school – we are to ‘grade’ them according to the standard set by the school.. which is as if English were their mother tongue : ( … not one of these kids have English in their homes as they main spoken language – it’s actually quite beautiful the diversity in languages – I learnt a little bit of punjabe from some of the kids on Friday..
I had tears in my eyes when it clicked about the comprehension.. I mean, they read a sentence out of their grade 4 American text books and are struggling with each word.. so by the time they get to the end of the sentence – they have successfully read through the words, and they might understand the word – but definitely not the sentence. .. it is frustrating, and to be honest – really depressing. They want to prepare the children to be able to handle English university classes.

I have written a rant titled ‘O Mighty English – I serve only you’.. but it’s full of bitterness and judgment, it’s a bit funny but in a far from uplifting way. I tell you this only because that was my biggest quandary this week and the way I am dealing about it is my venting to my computer screen.


I love these kids!



Side note: Kidnapping is quite an issue here – I was told that one of the girls in my class has been kidnapped before… apparently it happens quite frequently – usually amongst the wealthy Indian families – and they hold the kids for a ransom. However, it’s not usually brutal violence, and 90% of the kids get returned home. Another kid in the school – her dad has been kidnapped TWICE – crazy eh?

Yesterday was Saturday – what a wonderful day! I slept in til 7 and wrote this and read so much! I read Francine Rivers’ first book of that triology she wrote about the Hebrew girl in roman times – ah I cried, and I really REALLY want to find the second book so I can read that this evening.

ALSO, Georgina (house mate/v.v. teacher/friend) and I went walking in some place I had never been before to try and find some shirts for me – I needed to have some long sleeved shirts for school – I have many Muslum students, and their parents as well (like head and sometimes face covered) so I just feel much more comfortable being more covered.. there are so many ‘used clothing’ places here – I really like it. I think people like us Canadians ship clothing over here like the stuff we don’t want – but then they need and want things other than these clothes so they sell them on the side of the road and then people like me buy them : ) and if any of you have shipped over clothing to Madagascar… thank you – maybe I am wearing one of your old shirts : )

After that we picked up some Madagascarian (is that a word?) chocolate, some THB (Three horse beer) FRESH, and Georgina bought a pirated movie – Sleepwalker.. oh my what a wonderful evening – us 4 girls in the house, watching an English dvd, drinking fresh, and eating chocolate. It was the most ‘chill’ its been since I arrived. (I taught the grade 4’s the meaning of the world ‘chill’ this week.. sometimes I say ‘okay guys its time to chill’.. and then they kind of slouch and pretend to be half asleep.. its funny AND they stop talking – bonus). I did a good chunk of prep work for school yesterday, and I’m still not nearly prepared enough.

Our First theme in this class will be Africa. This means our History, Geography, Science, Health.. it will all be related somehow to Africa – it is such a joy to research and prepare for this. I worked on that for many hours yesterday, and as soon as I have posted this – I will continue to do more work on it.

Hey for those of you that pray and read this – I would really appreciate prayer for God to give me wisdom and the direction when deciding how to approach this English Comprehension issue, apparently this is quite an issue in all of the grades, however I do not have any previous knowledge of how do this, and I’m reading a whole bunch and listening to advice.. but I still feel like I’m not doing enough. They have said many times they are so thankful that I have come and so on, and they know I do not have a teaching degree – and I will (and AM) working so much on preparing and learning, and trying to be wise in every decision – but I’m just in a bit of a down place right now – I am at peace.. but am feeling a bit lost in the position of ‘teacher’.

That’s it. Hope you all are well,
Love,
Lisa Obirek