Today was the first day of school at A.I. Steinkamp Primary School and it was the most interesting experience I have had with school this far. School at Steinkamp starts at 7:20 AM, considering the group of four PLU students who were coming to teach here did not yet know their placements, we all arrived early. We went looking for the principal with little success so instead we decided to sit in the teachers lounge until she arrived. The principal arrived only minutes before the opening ceremonies were scheduled to start but she gave us reassurance that after the ceremonies had finished we would be given our placements. Weary but excited we made our way out to the tiny outdoor pavilion where such functions are to be held. Somehow what looked to be several hundred if not one thousand students from grade one to grade seven were squeezed into long lines with only inches of elbow space and filled the pavilion that I estimated to be 20 ft. by 20 ft. square of space.
Once all the learners had gathered and the parents congregated around, the students and teachers alike sang songs of praise and prayed for a good school year. The students raised the school flags and sang the anthems of Namibia, Africa, and their school. As the banners were raised the parents became restless and they began to speak with each other in such a way that the speaker from the school could no longer be heard, and no matter the speakers pleas for silence the parents talked on. I was so shocked at how the parents acted at such a function and their indifference for listening while another was talking. The ceremony lasted from 7:20 until nearly 9:30 and we still had not been given our placements. Students had rushed off in every which direction to the classroom they attended the year prior, not yet sure if they had passed and would be moving on to the next grade, or repeating that grade for another year. The four of us PLU students walked back in to the school to await an answer from the very busy principal.
After some more time and some more waiting we were finally put into classrooms around 11:30, only one and a half hours before school would be let out. I was put into a 4th grade math classroom with an estimated 50 students. I say estimated because I had not received a roster. I had not been given the chance to start the day in the classroom so there was no time to learn or put in place any form of classroom management. I had no idea where the students were academically, and I had no idea where to start. I had planned to start the day with a name game so that I could begin to learn the students names and decided to give it a try anyway. This proved to hold their attention for awhile, but it was so hot outside that many children had to keep leaving to splash water on their faces or to use the restroom. The names were much harder than any I have had to learn in the states, but I was feeling a little better after the game was over.
We came back into the classroom and I tried to find the students general mathematical level. I had no tests prepared so instead I asked the students to solve multiple problems that ranged from addition and subtraction and multiplication to characteristics of geometric shapes and story problems. I began to realize that a lot of the students in my grade four class had the mathematical knowledge of many 2nd or 3rd graders in the U.S.
I started to pose some problems for the students and the class initially was going well, the students were engaged and excited and then a switch flipped. The classroom was hot and the children were tired, no matter how many times I would walk around the room and wake students as I went, nearly 5 to 6 students always had their heads down on their desks! As I tried to correct behavior on one side of the room a fight would break out on the other side of the room, and I don't mean a verbal fight, I mean a hair pulling, kicking and punching fight. I had to restrain several children so that they would stop beating each other! The students started to lose their calm and their focus so I tried to distract them with songs and games which only partially worked. The bell rang and I wished them a good day, exhausted.
I have never been in such a hectic environment on not only the students part, but the faculty as well. Many classrooms were left without teachers during the day, and a lot of the teachers who had decided to come often left their classroom unattended. As I sit here writing this I am determined to provide my classroom and my students with a quality education. It is going to take every little bit of patience I can muster, and a lot of hard work on both my part and my students. Wish me luck, this will probably be one of the hardest tasks I have been asked to complete so far, but I am ready and I'm willing.
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