A Kick Ass Term This Will Be!

This is going to be a kick ass term. I can feel it. We had one of the infamous Kenyan staff meetings, where it never starts on time, the teachers are having side conversations in Swahili, and everyone’s yelling over each other. By the time we got to the one thing on the agenda that even pertained to me, I was exhausted. And I hadn’t said anything by this point. Unlike in american schools where the teacher teaches a subject all the way through to the end of the year, my school switches teachers after every 3 months. Usually people will end up teaching the same classes all yr but there are a few times when teachers will be thrown into a class they have never taught. Last term I had 16 lessons due to the fact we had student teachers visiting for the term. Since they are gone now, my lessons would jump up to 25 which is still reasonable. So after bargaining, selling and buying classes, I ended up with the same classes I was teaching last term and added another art class and a class 1 P.E.( class 1 are the babies). I am so happy how things turned out. Now I have the same amount of lessons as the other teachers and I have a open schedule to work on my projects.


Some of the projects I hope to be finished with by this term
Paint a mural about making smart choices about sexual relations. My headmaster wants me to hire an artist. But I am trying to figure out how I can get the kids involved so they have some ownership.
Plan a World Aids day in my local community. WAD is on Dec 1st
Take my Life skills classes( 75 students in total) to a local VCT. The volunteer testing and counseling center. There, my students will get see a condom demonstration, a mock HIV test and a tour of the facilities.
So as you can see, Im super busy but I feel like this will be the best term ever. However, this also might be the most stressful. This is my last term( which is the shortest at only 1 and 1/2 months) with my class 8 before they take their exams. So on top of my projects, I’ll be working with my class 8 KSL class preparing them for their national exams. YIKES!