Write a letter to Ms. Metz about anything

Excerpts from a few letters from the learners...

Dear: Ms. Metz  I like you becuas you are my teahers you learn me English and Bis you are my good teachers and I like you as my mother.  from: Clerence

Dear Ms. Metz  First I like to great you with big smile and ask you are you find or not but I thing that you are find  You are the only teache that I like in all the teaches of Gunichas you are teaching well explaining well talking soft to us.  You do not beat is you are so nice teacher that way like you  lots of love  from Disney Kahanga

I luv u techer more than any attractive chocolate teacher.

The first two are from boys and the last from a girl.  You can see the style of handwriting that is popular among the boys and girls too.  (I don't know, is handwriting interesting?  We think so anyway..!)

One week away from the kids (Patches included!)

We were away from site all last week for Peace Corps conferences and such in Windhoek and, to my amazement and delight, MY LEARNERS ACTUALLY DID THE WORK I LEFT THEM! And as a colleague put it, "[they] weren't a nuissance." Score!

I left quite a bit for my learners to do (and most teachers ordinarily wouldn't leave any at all), which means I'm going to have a lot of marking to do. What seems like it will help ease the burden is the letter-to-Ms. Metz-about-anything assignment. So far it looks like a lot of pretty adorable fan mail. Gotta love Grade 6 (at least in Namibia!). 

More on these topics in the near future.

Class picture day

Finally rounded up my kids so we could get a couple of class photos taken.  Everyone was present in both of my classes so I was a happy teacher.

6A:

6B:

Since telling the boys and girls apart can be pretty difficult at first (school policy says all primary school learners have to shave their heads), there are about 20 boys and 15 girls in both classes.  The ratio varies a lot though, and in some classes there are more boys and in others there are more girls.

Having a class photo taken is not something these learners are used to.  In fact, it's quite an exciting occasion, so I was nervous at first of if they could handle it or if they would get loud and crazy and disrupt the school day for the other classes.  So I was really proud of them for following my lead on this and making it a success.

The experience reinforced the good feelings I've been having as a teacher lately as well.  (Yes, only lately.  Teaching is so full of ups and downs!)  It may not have been what I thought would be important to me early on, but now I've realized that one of my biggest goals is to be a teacher that my learners like but also respect (and who they can therefore learn from most effectively).  And for the non-teaching blog readers, it's not always an easy balance and takes some time to establish.  I may even be the one teacher at my school who best makes both of these marks with their learners.  But more on all that in a future post...