October 5th - BACK TO SCHOOL
This past week I was back in Mindelo. I went back to work and got a tentative schedule. It looks like I’ll be teaching three classes at our campus and a basic English class out at what was formally known as ISECMAR (the engineering campus). At our main campus, I’ll be teaching a methodology course, Basic English Part II course, and Oral Comprehension. I’m hoping to get my classes sorted out and organized during the week. As usual I’m facing the problem of my mind going in a million different directions for each class, and having to sort through it all to make a sensible plan for the semester.
I'm really excited about the teaching methodologies class because I'm going to try to incorporate two secondary activities.
Laurie, who was teaching English at the secondary school in Cochuli, Santo Antao, had started a project that I'm hoping my students will complete. While she was teaching she wrote a proposal for books for the English sections. She had ordered a class set of 12 different award winning young adult books. She had read Bridge to Terabithia with her students and had created a detailed study guide to accompany the book. In Cape Verde, books are not only really expensive, but the selection is very limited. In the high schools, instead of having course books, students have to photocopy almost all materials. When even basic course books are limited, outside reading becomes almost null. It sounds like the students were really proud of their accomplishment (reading an entire book in a third language would undoubtedly be no small feat). She had been hoping to create study guides for the remaining books so that any English teacher could use them in their classroom. I'm going to borrow a copy of each book from the library and have my third year students work on creating study guides for each one. They are studying to be teachers and I can't think of a better situation in which they get to practice their own skills but also help others. I'm hoping that they will be as excited about the project as I am. In the meantime I'm going to try to apply for additional grants to purchase a copy of each book and to print and bind copies of the set of study guides to then be distributed to each high school in CV (35 in all).
I also met with a women from Italy that had been teaching English out in Ribiera Craiquinha. Craiquinha is known as one of the "rougher" zones in Mindelo, complete with gangs that get a perverse thrill from mugging (cash or body) people. She had been teaching two English classes at the youth center. One for elementary aged children and one for teenagers. She had received my name from a common acquaintance and was hoping that I would be willing to pick up where she was leaving off. I'd love to work with younger kids again, but since I'm here for a limited time, I figured it would be better to try to get some of my students involved. I'm going to try to organize a system to have our English students teach a course there once a semester. Between the 60 Ss it can be a great way to get some of them to volunteer their time, serve as role models for the Ss. and to practice their own English and teaching skills.
I'm also currently working on applying for funds to beef up our own library at the language campus of Uni-CV. Previous volunteers recently acquired over 400 books to add to the library, but it lacks many important works and resources that could be useful. I'm also hoping to start a book club with the English students and I'm hoping to get the funding necessary to purchase sets of a selected few for that purpose.
