Seeing as I will probably be rambling on and on about my story, word count and the whole NaNo experience during November I figured an introductory post would be a good thing.
In its most basic terms NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is just this; a challenge to write a novel (defined as 'lengthy work of fiction') of 50,000 words during the 30 days of November. It's what I'll be doing during November.
I first heard about NaNoWriMo several years ago, upon which I immediately signed up. I never even wrote a single word. In July 2010 (there are events like this year-round, but NaNo is the biggest) I tried once again for 'JulNoWriMo'. I wrote 50,427 words on a (still incomplete) fantasy novel titled The Obsidian Shifters. I loved it. Pushing yourself, going all-out in trying to come up with a decent plot, seeing your characters evolve and start to decide which way they want to take your novel (instead of what you, as their creator, had so carefully planned), the stress, the utter elation upon reaching the magical 50,000. I loved all of it.
This time, I wasn't planning on doing NaNo - I still need to finish 'The Obsidian Shifters'. (And for NanoWriMo you have to start a novel from scratch - finishing another manuscript isn't allowed). In the end though, I decided to write something new for Nano and try to finish The Obsidian Shifters in December/January.
So what will I be writing this time? Temerity is another fantasy story, but this one has less magic (and not enough technology to be called 'science fiction', although it might be closer to that than to fantasy). My 15-word summary (or less, mine is 14 words... It's a thing we do on the forums, minimalist summaries) is "Girl joins Freedom Army to send invading Idaites home, oh and solve personal grudge." More information, including a longer synopsis can be found at my profile page.
November is going to be a frantic, fun-filled month. The world in which Temerity is set is less complete than the one I created for The Obsidian Shifters. I have a basic plot and chapter summary... But only for 14 chapters and one POV (Obsidian Shifters has over 5 POV characters). I'm hoping this will enable me to get to the end of the story in 50,000~60,000 words, instead of leaving me with a story that's far from complete at the end of November.
Want to hear more about my story? Don't worry, I probably won't be able to talk about anything else starting this Monday.
vrijdag 29 oktober 2010
woensdag 27 oktober 2010
English benchmarks
The grade 7's have started writing their exams. First up? English benchmarks. Officially they have to write three papers on one day (27th of October, for this year) but as Japari is a remedial school, we have decided that they need some extra time, and they will do one paper every day.
On Tuesday it was time for English comprehension (reading). The theme of this year's English benchmarks (comprehension, poetry and visual literacy) is 'Robin Hood'. On Tuesday Ingrid asked me to cover for the maths teacher for the morning (uh-oh, not maths again!), but immediately after she had asked me that Andrea asked me to help her and take some stuff to her classroom. (I was supposed to help her out that day, and take a look at the benchmark for Wednesday.) I ... tried to get the grade 7's to calm down, but without work for them to do (and half of them not even having their books with them) I was soon lost as to what to do. (And the maths/music classroom is HUGE which didn't help either.) After about 10 minutes of looking lost and just telling the class 'Go study, something - anything. Your exams are next week, so I'm sure you have work to do.' (Which was pointedly ignored by all but two learners ... fun fun fun.) I decided to go find Ingrid to ask what they had to do (she had told me there would be worksheets on the desk for me to hand out - there were no worksheets).
I couldn't find Ingrid so I went over to Andrea's classroom (who luckily didn't have any class at the time). She decided we would start the benchmark early, to give me something to do... and give the class some extra time for all the work they had to do. (Phew!)
The rest of the day we worked on the benchmark with both grade seven groups. Once again it showed that the grade 7B's are so much faster and simply know more than the grade 7L's... I hope my cousin managed to do alright (he's in 7L...)
Today was more fun! Poetry benchmark (a bit easier, in my opinion) and one grade six lesson. I took the second group to do the poetry benchmark by myself (and got a compliment to boot! Andrea told me I did *really* well! Seems like I'm getting somewhere with this teaching thing.). I also did one of the grade six groups ... a social science lesson on the 'kingdoms of Southern Africa' (Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and Thulamela... Luckily I've been listening to lessons about this for the past 3 months, so I do know something on the subject...). They just had to fill in a worksheet which was a kind of summary of everything they have learnt during the term (and for a grade, too).
Random facts: Mapungubwe means "Place of jackals", Zimbabwe means 'stone buildings' and Thulamela means 'place of giving birth'. In all three kingdoms (different time periods) the royals/leaders/kings lived separately from the common people (either on a hill or in an enclosure). All kingdoms traded - with groups of people as far away as China and the middle east! You can visit the ruins of Mapungubwe and Thulamela in South Africa (both are in the Limpopo province). You know what, I love teaching things like history, geography and life orientation - it's so much fun!
After that I helped one of the grade seven students (who was absent yesterday) with his English Comprehension benchmark - we sat in the library and I had to give him the same hints and explain questions as we had done for the others. After that.. it was time to go home :) But not without waiting another hour and half for my aunt, again (after phoning her and she told us 'I'm 5 minutes away!' it still took an hour... that's 'African time' for you!) and sharing my chocolate with the 'Japarians' who were still waiting to be fetched. (And seeing them 'play' a rather rough game of 'spearing' anyone who was walking around... Really, teenagers, sometimes...)
Later during the break some of the other teachers remarked on my English (that it's so great and all that ;)) and even better... When I was helping the one student with the benchmark he needed to catch up on... Several grade seven students invaded the library and handed me... a slab of chocolate! "From Mrs L, for teaching yesterday." A thank you for taking her classes - now that's sweet! (pun 100 % intended) Too bad it was mint chocolate (everyone seems to love that here in SA... I don't, really.)
I'm going to miss this school! Luckily, though, I've been invited to the end of the year/Christmas lunch! I'm sure that'll be fun!
On Tuesday it was time for English comprehension (reading). The theme of this year's English benchmarks (comprehension, poetry and visual literacy) is 'Robin Hood'. On Tuesday Ingrid asked me to cover for the maths teacher for the morning (uh-oh, not maths again!), but immediately after she had asked me that Andrea asked me to help her and take some stuff to her classroom. (I was supposed to help her out that day, and take a look at the benchmark for Wednesday.) I ... tried to get the grade 7's to calm down, but without work for them to do (and half of them not even having their books with them) I was soon lost as to what to do. (And the maths/music classroom is HUGE which didn't help either.) After about 10 minutes of looking lost and just telling the class 'Go study, something - anything. Your exams are next week, so I'm sure you have work to do.' (Which was pointedly ignored by all but two learners ... fun fun fun.) I decided to go find Ingrid to ask what they had to do (she had told me there would be worksheets on the desk for me to hand out - there were no worksheets).
I couldn't find Ingrid so I went over to Andrea's classroom (who luckily didn't have any class at the time). She decided we would start the benchmark early, to give me something to do... and give the class some extra time for all the work they had to do. (Phew!)
The rest of the day we worked on the benchmark with both grade seven groups. Once again it showed that the grade 7B's are so much faster and simply know more than the grade 7L's... I hope my cousin managed to do alright (he's in 7L...)
Today was more fun! Poetry benchmark (a bit easier, in my opinion) and one grade six lesson. I took the second group to do the poetry benchmark by myself (and got a compliment to boot! Andrea told me I did *really* well! Seems like I'm getting somewhere with this teaching thing.). I also did one of the grade six groups ... a social science lesson on the 'kingdoms of Southern Africa' (Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and Thulamela... Luckily I've been listening to lessons about this for the past 3 months, so I do know something on the subject...). They just had to fill in a worksheet which was a kind of summary of everything they have learnt during the term (and for a grade, too).
Random facts: Mapungubwe means "Place of jackals", Zimbabwe means 'stone buildings' and Thulamela means 'place of giving birth'. In all three kingdoms (different time periods) the royals/leaders/kings lived separately from the common people (either on a hill or in an enclosure). All kingdoms traded - with groups of people as far away as China and the middle east! You can visit the ruins of Mapungubwe and Thulamela in South Africa (both are in the Limpopo province). You know what, I love teaching things like history, geography and life orientation - it's so much fun!
After that I helped one of the grade seven students (who was absent yesterday) with his English Comprehension benchmark - we sat in the library and I had to give him the same hints and explain questions as we had done for the others. After that.. it was time to go home :) But not without waiting another hour and half for my aunt, again (after phoning her and she told us 'I'm 5 minutes away!' it still took an hour... that's 'African time' for you!) and sharing my chocolate with the 'Japarians' who were still waiting to be fetched. (And seeing them 'play' a rather rough game of 'spearing' anyone who was walking around... Really, teenagers, sometimes...)
Later during the break some of the other teachers remarked on my English (that it's so great and all that ;)) and even better... When I was helping the one student with the benchmark he needed to catch up on... Several grade seven students invaded the library and handed me... a slab of chocolate! "From Mrs L, for teaching yesterday." A thank you for taking her classes - now that's sweet! (pun 100 % intended) Too bad it was mint chocolate (everyone seems to love that here in SA... I don't, really.)
I'm going to miss this school! Luckily, though, I've been invited to the end of the year/Christmas lunch! I'm sure that'll be fun!
zondag 24 oktober 2010
Books books books
Books I've finished since last time I mentioned reading:
Brent Weeks - Beyond the Shadows
Brent Weeks - Shadow's Edge
Rick Riordan - The Lightning Thief
Rodman Philbrick - Freak the Mighty
Deborah Ellis - The Heaven Shop
Erik van Lustbader - The Miko
Cecilia Dart-Thornton - The Ill-made Mute
Cecilia Dart-Thornton - The Lady of the Sorrows
I've done quite a bit of reading, which brings my total for this year to 41 books (goal was to read at least 30).
While on the topic of reading, I'd like to mention one of my new favourite websites: Shelfari (http://www.shelfari.com/ and my profile: http://www.shelfari.com/misssavara ).
Shelfari is a place to keep an online version of your 'shelf' (hence "Shelf-ari" (haha, Safari for books!)). You can make friends you actually know, or friends that have a similar taste in reading as you do. It's a wonderful place to review books, discover new authors and just show off how much you read ;)
The books of this list that have made the best impression/were the most interesting are: Freak the Mighty & The Heaven Shop.
'Freak the Mighty' is a book I picked up in a second-hand store for a mere 10 Rand (about a Euro). It's tiny book with a quirky story. It's about two 'special' boys. Freak is huge, but not very smart... The other boy is very smart, but tiny (and has lots of problems with his body). Once they make friends they're always together and live through wonderful adventures (that Freak never really understands, but enjoys all the same). Eventually the smaller boy dies, and it's all very emotional.
It's a powerful story in an unlikely package. I really enjoyed it.
'The Heaven Shop' is a Southern African story (not South African, I think it's set in one of the other countries here). It's about Binti, a girl who plays on a radio soap in her native language. After her father dies (presumably of aids) she gets schlept around the country to ungrateful family and eventually to some other family member. It's about how HIV/aids affects a community and how people deal with the misconceptions surrounding the disease. Once again a powerful tale. It's fiction, but it could just as easily have been based on a true story.
I actually got 'The Heaven Shop' to read for my lesson series on South(ern) African literature.
Brent Weeks - Beyond the Shadows
Brent Weeks - Shadow's Edge
Rick Riordan - The Lightning Thief
Rodman Philbrick - Freak the Mighty
Deborah Ellis - The Heaven Shop
Erik van Lustbader - The Miko
Cecilia Dart-Thornton - The Ill-made Mute
Cecilia Dart-Thornton - The Lady of the Sorrows
I've done quite a bit of reading, which brings my total for this year to 41 books (goal was to read at least 30).
While on the topic of reading, I'd like to mention one of my new favourite websites: Shelfari (http://www.shelfari.com/ and my profile: http://www.shelfari.com/misssavara ).
Shelfari is a place to keep an online version of your 'shelf' (hence "Shelf-ari" (haha, Safari for books!)). You can make friends you actually know, or friends that have a similar taste in reading as you do. It's a wonderful place to review books, discover new authors and just show off how much you read ;)
The books of this list that have made the best impression/were the most interesting are: Freak the Mighty & The Heaven Shop.
'Freak the Mighty' is a book I picked up in a second-hand store for a mere 10 Rand (about a Euro). It's tiny book with a quirky story. It's about two 'special' boys. Freak is huge, but not very smart... The other boy is very smart, but tiny (and has lots of problems with his body). Once they make friends they're always together and live through wonderful adventures (that Freak never really understands, but enjoys all the same). Eventually the smaller boy dies, and it's all very emotional.
It's a powerful story in an unlikely package. I really enjoyed it.
'The Heaven Shop' is a Southern African story (not South African, I think it's set in one of the other countries here). It's about Binti, a girl who plays on a radio soap in her native language. After her father dies (presumably of aids) she gets schlept around the country to ungrateful family and eventually to some other family member. It's about how HIV/aids affects a community and how people deal with the misconceptions surrounding the disease. Once again a powerful tale. It's fiction, but it could just as easily have been based on a true story.
I actually got 'The Heaven Shop' to read for my lesson series on South(ern) African literature.
zaterdag 23 oktober 2010
Voice posts + reading out loud
I made a voice recording after about 6 weeks, but never got around to uploading it (as we didn't have internet at the time). Today I made another one... and somewhere in between those I made a recording of reading the "Mma Ramotswe" story I had to teach to the grade sevens as preparation for their benchmark. So, here they are! (Sorry you have to download them, can't listen to them online...)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3BAS27AN - After 6 weeks in SA
I'm glad to say I can hear that something has changed - when comparing the 6 and 12 weeks recording!
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CXV0B8IZ - 12 weeks in SA
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7KY9ZPBB - Mma Ramotswe reading (about 9 weeks in SA)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3BAS27AN - After 6 weeks in SA
I'm glad to say I can hear that something has changed - when comparing the 6 and 12 weeks recording!
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CXV0B8IZ - 12 weeks in SA
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=7KY9ZPBB - Mma Ramotswe reading (about 9 weeks in SA)
dinsdag 19 oktober 2010
My day as a substitute.
This week has been a rather hectic one. Lots of things happened, but the 'main event', so to say, was the fact that I taught a whole day - by myself - because one of the teachers was absent. (And an adventure it was. I had to teach EMS (Economic Management Science) and maths. Anyone who knows me even a tiny little bit knows that those aren't really 'my' kind of subjects!
When I arrived in the morning Ingrid waved her hands frantically at me and said "I had forgotten you would come in today! I have to talk to you!" but as we were in the middle of the announcements for the week it had to wait for a few minutes. Immediately after the headmaster had concluded his speech she approached me and blurted out: "Could you please take the grade sixes until break-time?" I nodded without hesitation and Ingrid took my arm (after talking to some of the other teachers; the timetable had changed for the day so not everyone knew what they would be doing) and guided me to Mrs W's classroom. She handed me a piece of paper with basic instructions "6K - English (DEAR) 1st hour. 6K EMS (study mindmap about debt, banking and savings) 2nd hour - etc." and left me alone to figure things out. From outside of the classroom I heard "Grade six, please line up quietly! You can come in when you are told to come in." I took out my phone (because clocks are something that seems to be missing from most classrooms in South Africa) and took a deep breath.
"Good morning grade sixes! Come in please!" My day as a substitute teacher had officially begun.
In total I had to teach for 8 periods - the whole day minus 2 periods (a period is 30 minutes). I had one grade six group for 4 periods (EMS, maths and English reading), another grade six for EMS and maths (3 periods), and one grade seven group for EMS. It was a bit hectic to have to teach with less than 5 minutes notice. (I prefer to actually plan my lessons, thank you very much.) Overall it went very well, though. I'm happy and proud that Japari trusts me enough to let me teach by myself like this. (It makes me feel like a 'real' teacher ;) Whatever that means.) There were some challenges during the day, as expected, during the EMS lessons I didn't really know what to do. My instructions only mentioned a 'mindmap' when instead they had to study from something that was more like a summary/explanation than a mindmap. (So the grade sixes didn't know what to do - and I made a mindmap on the whiteboard with them... The problem in that being... I don't know much about debt, savings and banking! So I kept it simple, talking a bit about interest and tax and why credit cards can be dangerous - without explaining *how* these concepts work. Well, I'm studying English, not EMS, so it couldn't be helped, I'm afraid.)
After those lessons it was even harder to keep them interested in maths - I can't say maths interest me at all, so I couldn't blame the learners. They 'sort of tried' to do some work, but when some of the learners asked me some questions I was in trouble. I can blame the 'different ways of doing things', partially, but I couldn't really help them. After almost a full hour of doing maths it was clear they couldn't focus on it anymore (neither could I) so I decided to make a mindmap about 'The Netherlands' with them. We all enjoyed this, and then it was time for assembly!
Assembly is, as it is in the UK, something that most schools do. I love assemblies. They create a feeling of unity (as the whole school gets together for a change) and I love to see the grade noughts and grade ones sing songs, or see the older learners get certificates for their achievements in sports or tests. It's cute! And it's lovely when the whole school starts with "Good morning Mr. (Headmaster), good morning teachers!". It does, in fact, give you this warm and fuzzy feeling, just to know you're a part of this wonderful environment.
After break - second EMS lesson (different grade six group). This didn't go too well. It wasn't too bad, but they didn't feel like studying. Instead of the mindmap I wrote four questions on the board and had them answer these in their own words ("What is debt?" "How do people get into debt?" "What is interest?" and "Saving up for something is better than buying on credit. Explain why.) most learners merely copied the questions into their notebooks without answering them, however. 30 minutes is such a short time for a lesson!
The last 3 periods were ok. I even got some cake (I love primary schools, haha. Any reason for a party means all the teachers get cake!) when two girls from another group knocked on the door during class. This grade six did some more maths than the other one, and again I concluded the lesson by a few minutes of 'Let's talk about my country!'. Grade seven is always a bit more challenging (and awkward at times because my cousin is in this group) but they were better than usual.
Thoughts and feelings about the day:
"Like a real teacher!"
I'm proud that Japari feels confident in leaving me by myself to teach.
I felt calm while teaching, not scared or nervous (even when they didn't want to be quiet).
I'm confident I can do teaching as a job :)
It feels good to be useful, I was afraid this day was going to be another rather useless day (on Mondays I don't typically do much, so I'm glad I could help out).
I kind of hope I'll get another chance like this while I'm here - but I don't want to wish anyone harm, so I hope no one will get sick of the other teachers!
The rest of the day was about as busy - after school I took my cousin to Scusi's (an Italian restaurant around the corner) for a coffee (ice coffee for him) and a toasted cheese sandwich. My younger cousin's 'concert' (aka musical) was that same night, so we had a quick dinner before we rushed off to Crossroads school to see the "Wizard that Woz". It was cute, but also slightly boring, to see the whole musical (Joshua was only in 1 scene).
And Tuesday... I'm at the office because our receptionist is away for the day. More work, of a completely different kind, though! Answering the phone while doing some homework for Windesheim, oh well... it's the best way, because I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten so much done if I had stayed at home!
Other noteworthy things:
One of the teachers asked me "Where in America do you live?" (Me: "Ehm... I'm Dutch..." Teacher: "Oh so you understand Afrikaans?" (She continued in Afrikaans, I replied in English.)
- After 2 1/2 months at their school some teachers still didn't know I'm not a native speaker. That's like, so... cool! (*Insert American teenager-voice*)
When I arrived in the morning Ingrid waved her hands frantically at me and said "I had forgotten you would come in today! I have to talk to you!" but as we were in the middle of the announcements for the week it had to wait for a few minutes. Immediately after the headmaster had concluded his speech she approached me and blurted out: "Could you please take the grade sixes until break-time?" I nodded without hesitation and Ingrid took my arm (after talking to some of the other teachers; the timetable had changed for the day so not everyone knew what they would be doing) and guided me to Mrs W's classroom. She handed me a piece of paper with basic instructions "6K - English (DEAR) 1st hour. 6K EMS (study mindmap about debt, banking and savings) 2nd hour - etc." and left me alone to figure things out. From outside of the classroom I heard "Grade six, please line up quietly! You can come in when you are told to come in." I took out my phone (because clocks are something that seems to be missing from most classrooms in South Africa) and took a deep breath.
"Good morning grade sixes! Come in please!" My day as a substitute teacher had officially begun.
In total I had to teach for 8 periods - the whole day minus 2 periods (a period is 30 minutes). I had one grade six group for 4 periods (EMS, maths and English reading), another grade six for EMS and maths (3 periods), and one grade seven group for EMS. It was a bit hectic to have to teach with less than 5 minutes notice. (I prefer to actually plan my lessons, thank you very much.) Overall it went very well, though. I'm happy and proud that Japari trusts me enough to let me teach by myself like this. (It makes me feel like a 'real' teacher ;) Whatever that means.) There were some challenges during the day, as expected, during the EMS lessons I didn't really know what to do. My instructions only mentioned a 'mindmap' when instead they had to study from something that was more like a summary/explanation than a mindmap. (So the grade sixes didn't know what to do - and I made a mindmap on the whiteboard with them... The problem in that being... I don't know much about debt, savings and banking! So I kept it simple, talking a bit about interest and tax and why credit cards can be dangerous - without explaining *how* these concepts work. Well, I'm studying English, not EMS, so it couldn't be helped, I'm afraid.)
After those lessons it was even harder to keep them interested in maths - I can't say maths interest me at all, so I couldn't blame the learners. They 'sort of tried' to do some work, but when some of the learners asked me some questions I was in trouble. I can blame the 'different ways of doing things', partially, but I couldn't really help them. After almost a full hour of doing maths it was clear they couldn't focus on it anymore (neither could I) so I decided to make a mindmap about 'The Netherlands' with them. We all enjoyed this, and then it was time for assembly!
Assembly is, as it is in the UK, something that most schools do. I love assemblies. They create a feeling of unity (as the whole school gets together for a change) and I love to see the grade noughts and grade ones sing songs, or see the older learners get certificates for their achievements in sports or tests. It's cute! And it's lovely when the whole school starts with "Good morning Mr. (Headmaster), good morning teachers!". It does, in fact, give you this warm and fuzzy feeling, just to know you're a part of this wonderful environment.
After break - second EMS lesson (different grade six group). This didn't go too well. It wasn't too bad, but they didn't feel like studying. Instead of the mindmap I wrote four questions on the board and had them answer these in their own words ("What is debt?" "How do people get into debt?" "What is interest?" and "Saving up for something is better than buying on credit. Explain why.) most learners merely copied the questions into their notebooks without answering them, however. 30 minutes is such a short time for a lesson!
The last 3 periods were ok. I even got some cake (I love primary schools, haha. Any reason for a party means all the teachers get cake!) when two girls from another group knocked on the door during class. This grade six did some more maths than the other one, and again I concluded the lesson by a few minutes of 'Let's talk about my country!'. Grade seven is always a bit more challenging (and awkward at times because my cousin is in this group) but they were better than usual.
Thoughts and feelings about the day:
"Like a real teacher!"
I'm proud that Japari feels confident in leaving me by myself to teach.
I felt calm while teaching, not scared or nervous (even when they didn't want to be quiet).
I'm confident I can do teaching as a job :)
It feels good to be useful, I was afraid this day was going to be another rather useless day (on Mondays I don't typically do much, so I'm glad I could help out).
I kind of hope I'll get another chance like this while I'm here - but I don't want to wish anyone harm, so I hope no one will get sick of the other teachers!
The rest of the day was about as busy - after school I took my cousin to Scusi's (an Italian restaurant around the corner) for a coffee (ice coffee for him) and a toasted cheese sandwich. My younger cousin's 'concert' (aka musical) was that same night, so we had a quick dinner before we rushed off to Crossroads school to see the "Wizard that Woz". It was cute, but also slightly boring, to see the whole musical (Joshua was only in 1 scene).
And Tuesday... I'm at the office because our receptionist is away for the day. More work, of a completely different kind, though! Answering the phone while doing some homework for Windesheim, oh well... it's the best way, because I'm sure I wouldn't have gotten so much done if I had stayed at home!
Other noteworthy things:
One of the teachers asked me "Where in America do you live?" (Me: "Ehm... I'm Dutch..." Teacher: "Oh so you understand Afrikaans?" (She continued in Afrikaans, I replied in English.)
- After 2 1/2 months at their school some teachers still didn't know I'm not a native speaker. That's like, so... cool! (*Insert American teenager-voice*)
donderdag 14 oktober 2010
"BE QUIET!" said Zak.
The last week has been rather challenging in some ways. I wouldn't say I'm exactly homesick but I'm not all that happy here, either. Just two more months to go, though, so I'm sure I'll manage!
Our internet connection has been giving us some trouble yet again. I phoned both Mweb and Telkom (service provider as well as the telephone company that handles the actual line-related things) but got nowhere in doing so. My uncle phoned them once and... yes, they managed to fix it. (I still think they don't take females inquiring about IT related business serious. Oh well.)
As usual I worked at Japari on Monday and Wednesday. Monday wasn't very interesting, but I did go shopping in Parkview after school. I met the lady from the second-hand book store there and she asked me about the books I bought there. It seems she likes to read fantasy, too, so we chatted for a bit. Last week I discussed the prices of books in Europe/Holland/South Africa with her. She seems like a lovely person, and it was good to just have a chat with someone random for a change.
Wednesday was funny, I sat in on some classes of a different teacher (Ingrid - teaching English and Afrikaans) and because she had to go to a meeting I took the last period. We just read from a book (the class had to follow along while I was reading) but a certain learner was being quite impossible (noisy and he kept making faces)... So when I came to this part in the story where it said "Be quiet!" said Zak. I used the opportunity to make myself very clear to this particular learner. The whole class was laughing after that, and it was very funny :D
After that I watched the Japari team play cricket (they won from Glenhazel primary school! Yay!) and sat at the Zoo Lake Sports Club restaurant for the whole afternoon (because cricket matches take ages, quite literally). I had some good coffee and a toasted sandwich, though, so it wasn't too bad. I've also been reading quite a lot (because of the internet being offline) so I found quite a few new words this week.
Finally... I have been working on my SLB portfolio. This lead to a (mildly) sarcastic post over at my other blog Random Breakfast Coffee. Not to be taken too seriously, but it does reflect (pun semi-intended) my view on SLB quite accurately, I'm afraid. (Just want to add this doesn't mean I'm not trying to make an effort for SLB, quite to opposite in fact. I just needed to vent my frustration concerning the challenge that SLB poses to students...)
Words of the week:
Remittance
Crag
Taltry
Pail
Petering out
Parlance
Skeins
Sidereal
Mycelium
Gangling
Scufflings
Wencher
Cochineal
Kenned
Rife
Sidled
Girders
Frondescence
Assuager
Loquaciously
Fashed
Twanging
Coppice
simulacrum
flanges
gurruping
tangential
Our internet connection has been giving us some trouble yet again. I phoned both Mweb and Telkom (service provider as well as the telephone company that handles the actual line-related things) but got nowhere in doing so. My uncle phoned them once and... yes, they managed to fix it. (I still think they don't take females inquiring about IT related business serious. Oh well.)
As usual I worked at Japari on Monday and Wednesday. Monday wasn't very interesting, but I did go shopping in Parkview after school. I met the lady from the second-hand book store there and she asked me about the books I bought there. It seems she likes to read fantasy, too, so we chatted for a bit. Last week I discussed the prices of books in Europe/Holland/South Africa with her. She seems like a lovely person, and it was good to just have a chat with someone random for a change.
Wednesday was funny, I sat in on some classes of a different teacher (Ingrid - teaching English and Afrikaans) and because she had to go to a meeting I took the last period. We just read from a book (the class had to follow along while I was reading) but a certain learner was being quite impossible (noisy and he kept making faces)... So when I came to this part in the story where it said "Be quiet!" said Zak. I used the opportunity to make myself very clear to this particular learner. The whole class was laughing after that, and it was very funny :D
After that I watched the Japari team play cricket (they won from Glenhazel primary school! Yay!) and sat at the Zoo Lake Sports Club restaurant for the whole afternoon (because cricket matches take ages, quite literally). I had some good coffee and a toasted sandwich, though, so it wasn't too bad. I've also been reading quite a lot (because of the internet being offline) so I found quite a few new words this week.
Finally... I have been working on my SLB portfolio. This lead to a (mildly) sarcastic post over at my other blog Random Breakfast Coffee. Not to be taken too seriously, but it does reflect (pun semi-intended) my view on SLB quite accurately, I'm afraid. (Just want to add this doesn't mean I'm not trying to make an effort for SLB, quite to opposite in fact. I just needed to vent my frustration concerning the challenge that SLB poses to students...)
Words of the week:
Remittance
Crag
Taltry
Pail
Petering out
Parlance
Skeins
Sidereal
Mycelium
Gangling
Scufflings
Wencher
Cochineal
Kenned
Rife
Sidled
Girders
Frondescence
Assuager
Loquaciously
Fashed
Twanging
Coppice
simulacrum
flanges
gurruping
tangential
woensdag 6 oktober 2010
End of Sukkot, Simchat Torah and more
I'm really glad the holidays are finally over! We had our last '3-day-break' without electricity etc. Thursday last week was the final day of Sukkot, we had our last meal in the Sukkah and just relaxed. Friday was Simchat Torah (when you get chocolate at the synagogue - or the kids do, at least - and they dance with the Torah. A really special day.
This week (finally a normal week again) I did some research at Japari (I really started with my assignments now). I made a questionnaire for the learners about languages (covering everything from "What is your home language" to "Which language classes do you enjoy most") and another one for the teachers ("Should all children be raised (at least) bilingually?" and about the difficulties of teaching children with a different native language than English.) I also worked on parts of the general report I could already write about and caught up with my weekly journals. And I did some more teaching, I took the grade 4's for Life Orientation again (about emotions and how to deal with them, we did an 'affirmation booklet' this time (an activity I used to do in London with the groups) and they really liked it. One of the kids even talked to me after school, saying "Miss? Thank you for the fun lesson!" (It was so cute!)
Oh, and we celebrated teachers' day! A bit late, but instead of Tuesday we had cake and sausage rolls and cookies on Wednesday! (Lucky for me, because I don't work on Tuesdays...) It was lovely.
Other than work things I decided to take my aunt and two of my cousins to China Town for lunch. We had lovely noodles, spring rolls and a fortune cookie. This weekend we might be going back to Magaliesberg for another hike... I really hope we will.
Summer is on its way and it seems like the rains might be with us soon. (It doesn't rain here in winter, during summer it rains every day in the afternoon.)
As for language progress... Some of the learners at Japari have asked me "Are you Scottish?" and I've noticed I'm starting to differentiate between 'just now' and 'now now' in the South African way (finally! I used to say "We're going just now" when I wanted to say "We're going RIGHT NOW" but right now is "now now", haha) as well as using 'Ag man' (which is, technically, Afrikaans and not English... but still).
On to yet another week... 9 1/2 left here!
This week (finally a normal week again) I did some research at Japari (I really started with my assignments now). I made a questionnaire for the learners about languages (covering everything from "What is your home language" to "Which language classes do you enjoy most") and another one for the teachers ("Should all children be raised (at least) bilingually?" and about the difficulties of teaching children with a different native language than English.) I also worked on parts of the general report I could already write about and caught up with my weekly journals. And I did some more teaching, I took the grade 4's for Life Orientation again (about emotions and how to deal with them, we did an 'affirmation booklet' this time (an activity I used to do in London with the groups) and they really liked it. One of the kids even talked to me after school, saying "Miss? Thank you for the fun lesson!" (It was so cute!)
Oh, and we celebrated teachers' day! A bit late, but instead of Tuesday we had cake and sausage rolls and cookies on Wednesday! (Lucky for me, because I don't work on Tuesdays...) It was lovely.
Other than work things I decided to take my aunt and two of my cousins to China Town for lunch. We had lovely noodles, spring rolls and a fortune cookie. This weekend we might be going back to Magaliesberg for another hike... I really hope we will.
Summer is on its way and it seems like the rains might be with us soon. (It doesn't rain here in winter, during summer it rains every day in the afternoon.)
As for language progress... Some of the learners at Japari have asked me "Are you Scottish?" and I've noticed I'm starting to differentiate between 'just now' and 'now now' in the South African way (finally! I used to say "We're going just now" when I wanted to say "We're going RIGHT NOW" but right now is "now now", haha) as well as using 'Ag man' (which is, technically, Afrikaans and not English... but still).
On to yet another week... 9 1/2 left here!
Abonneren op:
Posts (Atom)