So I woke up today itching for a fight. You know that feeling where you are just ready for some sort of conflict so that you can go off on somebody – or at least have the chance to go off on somebody. Today was a good day to have that feeling because it was the day when we got to discuss with the education department the prescription ( i.e. guidelines) for computer studies for Year 12. This year I mentally prepared myself to be more prepared then I was last year since they were able to catch us off guard because it was the first year of the program – this year I had questions and I was going to try my best to get some answers.
But before I could get into the ring, I had to take care of my business at school. Because I am (unfortunately) the hardest teacher to replace (because all my classes take place in the lab and only one other teacher is really qualified to teacher senior level classes here) Kevin asked me to at least teach my first period class for the day before going to the meeting. So I did the class – we went over a research homework assignment I had them do while I was in Savaii – and as soon as the class was over, called a cab and headed to the education department.
I was a tad bit late – the falesamoa where we had the initial gathering was packed – and I had to sit on the floor (someone later brought me a chair) until we were allowed to leave and go to our classes to talk about our prescriptions. For this special gathering of computer teachers we had Amos (73), Julya, Sara, Chris (77), Steven (77), Dave (77) and Meghan (77) – so there was a contingent of Peace Corps representing but only Amos, Julya, Sara and I knew about the difficulties that arose from last year. The first thing we noticed about the prescription was the fact that there weren't any changes in it from last year – even though I was really hoping there would be. More flexibility for the teacher would be a great thing but the educational department of Samoa doesn't seem to trust their teachers all that much (they have every sign an attendance list and said they're going to give it to the principals of the school to let them know who really is coming to the workshops – apparently we're all children to them). Anyway, even though it was decent last year there were still changes and corrections that needed to be made – we just overlooked them last year because there were other bigger problems to be solved in the prescription. The biggest difference between this year and last year was the fact that when we had a problem with the prescription we spoke up because we realized that the 'No Voice, No Complaint' policy applies here – if you don't speak up when you have the chance, then you can't complain when the problem occurs again. My biggest issues from last year was the fact that they seemed to continually lose the Tasks that we sent to them (along with the CD we had to provide them) which is a lot of work to get it all together and the due dates for the assignments kept shifting around last year – which caused us headaches because when we teach for a CAT we prepare them in a certain way which culminates in them actually doing the CAT (Common Assessment Task – a hands on type of exam). If doing the CAT is delayed then that means we have to give the kids busy work until the CAT arrives – and typically the kids know its busy work and are not thrilled. Both of these issues were blamed on the Assessment Unit who is also responsible for giving us notices and tasks from the education department which we sometimes of course never received or received to late. Sara, Julya and Amos all came up with things that needed improvement this year from last year – so we weren't being nit picky we were just calling them to task for what they should have been doing in the first place. The first year of any new program is always rough so hopefully all the kinks have been worked out and this year will go a lot smoother. If it doesn't, you will definitely know.
After we were done with our session I headed into town and ran a few errands before Vivienne picked me up for the Fatuatua kids computer tutoring session. I had some lunch and played with the other 3 kids (Grace, Matilda and Jorim) before the older kids arrived and we had to start our session. I actually played a game of 'Sorry' with Jorim (who's 6) and I realized I hadn't actually played the game in ages although I remembered the basic rules of it. Some board games you never forget how to play (I'm looking at you Monopoly!). The Fatuatua kids are getting better and for the most part are engaged in what I'm teaching, so it's been a pretty great class so far and it's challenging to me because these kids understand technology a little bit better then my regular kids so I'm able to go in-depth a bit more but I still have to remember that they are new to a lot of the concepts I'm teaching them or have heard the terms before but they might not have understood them all that well. The only thing I have to be wary of is not going to fast otherwise these kids could blow through everything before the middle of their second term (Fatuatua has 4 terms instead of 3 like Chanel) which means I have to slow down with a class that has a fast comprehension of the material – that should be fun. But it wouldn't be a challenge otherwise, right?!?
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