So the day started with rain – the rainy season has begun! It has been raining off and on for the past 4 days, on Tuesday it was really bad, but today it wasn't that bad at all – in fact it didn't rain until late in the afternoon. What does this have to do with OJT? Absolutely nothing, just wanted you to know what the weather was like right now because I read that one of the games of the World Series got rained out – see, our little island is a lot closer to America then you think! Anyways, my trainee for OJT was Stephen who hails from Missouri. For me, it was a weird experience because I could remember what my OJT was like and how kind of nervous I was about what would happen and how my personality would mix with teaching and the Samoan culture, so it was a good opportunity to see it through 'veteran' eyes so to speak. So I welcomed Stephen to Chanel and showed him to our labs, then gave him a rundown of the day and told him that he was going to be 'teaching' 2 of my classes. Why? Because this week and next week are the last 2 weeks of 'school' for me (in which classes are taught, the national exams start Nov 6) and this will be the trainees only chance to get a feel for what teaching in a Samoan class will be like. After these two weeks, the next time they stand in front of a group of Samoan kids they'll be responsible for their education. But I didn't throw him to the wolves right off the bat – I taught the first class which was my Year 12a class which only has 3 students in it (and I have learned that it takes a very special way of teaching in order to teach only 3 students) and I used that to demonstrate to him my own teaching style and the type of relationship I have developed with my students over the course of this year. Having Stephen there also made me flashback to when I first arrived here and how hard it was for me to get students to participate in class or just feel confident giving me answers which were guesses – we've all become a lot more comfortable with each other over this period. Anyway, after I taught my Year 12 class, the next 2 classes were my Year 13 classes which I let Stephen 'teach' while I observed him and he did a pretty good job. A little rough spots at first (like presuming kids know things that we Americans just take for granted) but he came off pretty well and held the students attention, which is always a good starting point. After teaching his two classes, I had him sit in on Adam's (the other Year 12 computer teacher) class so that he could see someone else teach and not just have one person to think about in terms of teaching computers. So in all Stephen got to see me teach twice, see another teacher teach once and try his hand at teaching all in the same day – so hopefully it was a productive day for him.
After lunch time, I did my rounds of making sure the students/teachers went to their correct rooms, then Stephen and I headed up to the patio area of the Marist Father's place just to sit down and relax for a bit. If you look through some of my early pictures in Samoa, the patio has a nice view of the Apia area which is quite relaxing to just sit and stare at some times. It was at this point that Stephen said that he really hadn't had any down time since he got here (Group 77 has been in country for 3 weeks now) which flashed me back to when I first arrived and I agreed – you don't really have a lot of time to just sit back, relax and reflect on what the heck is going on. Everything is so structured and happens at a certain time and through in the pressure of a new language and living with a host family, it can be a little dizzying at times. So I was glad to be able to give him a respite from the structure and just be for a little bit.
If there's one major lesson that I've learned while being here is there are definitely times when you just have to be – be alone, be quiet, be reflective, just be – in order to digest everything that is happening around you. It's a skill well worth developing if you have the time (and what better time then a two year 'vacation'). For my part, the day just kind of flew by because of my interaction with Stephen and just reflecting on the fact that I was in his position little over a year ago and now here I am, passing on my knowledge to this new trainee – that's just life in the (sing it with me now) 'The circle…..the circle of life. Circle of life!'
One oddity of the day occurred after Stephen asked me if I ever had any trouble keeping order in the classroom. I told him that I didn't because at this point the kids are pretty good about keeping order and not causing trouble in the classroom. Then in my last period of the day (12b), one of the student brings her baby sister to class! I was like 'Are you kidding me. She's going to be a major distraction.' So as I was trying to go through the review with them, I was also trying to keep an eye on this 1 year old girl who was hanging around in my lab – it was the strangest thing I've ever encountered. Fortunately, she didn't cry a lot or make a lot of noise – she was way more interested in just staring at me, as most babies tend to do. So I still kept order in the class but it was quite a feat let me tell you.
But on a bit of sad news, I learned from Kevin that a former Peace Corps volunteer who worked at Chanel in 2001-2003 died today. His name was Steve Petersen (odd that I found this out when I had a Stephen here). My thoughts and prayers are with his family.
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