I have been spending my time going to different grades and classes observing and participating in different things that the classes are doing. My hope was to be able to work with student one on one and maybe also help teachers with some curriculum development. I tried to explain this to the principal and the science teacher and they did not understand what I meant. This was shocking to me, and left me a little thrown, as this is what I had emailed as my hope before I came. So I had to adjust my expectations.
However, at this school in South Africa they have a very prescribed curriculum, and at this school very little resources. Most teachers do not like using the computer, in fact they are about to hand in their exams and they are allowed to hand them in hand written. There is little to no internet access on the campus and the teachers follow the textbooks given to a T. On the other hand, their textbooks are amazing, the science books are great, they have tons of activities that are hands on that students can do, there are just not resources to do them. The students spend almost all of their class time copying from the board and answering questions and reviewing them. Very teacher centred learning. I feel a bit at a loss of what to share with these teachers as they are doing what they can within their resources.
That being said, the teachers here are excited about kids. They love them. I spent some time in a grade 3 class and they were very engaging, and age appropriate, students had time to play, think for themselves and be creative. So that is exciting to see.
Other great things that are happening here, I was able to attend a grade nine "seminar", about being a teenager. So they went over, albeit briefly, physical, cognitive and social changes of this time. I appreciated the openness in which the teacher conducted this time, and he was encouraging students to live holy lives.
I am trying to visit all of the classes before I leave. I hope that over the next three -four school days I will be able to do that.
I am also interested to see the Tschikevha school,that is a partner school with Surrey Christian. I am going there this week from Thursday to Wednesday. It is about an hour away, and it will be interesting to see the differences.
The group that visited Langley Christian reported back to the school about Canada and schooling there. It was interesting to see their reactions, they like that we had a lot of visuals, that students and teachers worked together to learn, not a teacher dominated place, that the internet was used for a resource and that there were a lot of practical courses like wood working and automotives. They also though Canadian students were very disciplined and respected and loved their teachers a lot. Langley Christian definitely took them all over the place and showed them many places in the lower mainland.
Some cultural things they noticed; they did not like that we ate so much raw food and that vegetables consisted of 90% of our diet. Here they eat a lot of meat, and they don't understand when I don't want more, or when they offer me food and I say I am full, they don't understand this. At lunch today, the office staff brought food they wanted to share with me, but they didn't tell me, and I had eaten my lunch already and was full. I felt bad, not wanting to offend them, but I had to decline. They made me take food to go with me for later. I had to decide early on that I could not eat everything they put in front of me or I would be sick. Don't get me wrong, the food is good, it's just in huge quantities.
Another cultural difference is they thought Canada was so clean. Trash is definitely a problem here, though they burn garbage here, so they don't have container systems like we do. The school is definitely trying to educate their student in this way of caring for the world, even collecting paper to be recycled. (It has to be brought to a depot- probably why people don't do it). They have different grade pick up all the trash for the school grounds after lunch every day! Great that they are cleaning up, but it's an uphill battle against this cultural idea.
Hearing them talk about Canada on Friday made me miss it a lot! I do long for some of the comforts and people of home. It has been an eye opening experience here so far, and I hope to learn more.
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