Although today was supposed to be my 4th session with my intermediate writing class, I met the students for the first time! I didn't want to get my hopes up that I'd finally meet my students today, so I was surprised to see them. After no one showed up for the first 3 sessions, I talked to the head of the English department to get the phone number of the class representative. It is common to have a class representative here since the students have most of their classes with the same people (except for elective courses). Rather than trying to contact each individual, the class representative relays messages between the teacher and the students. I never got a reply after sending a text message to the class representative, so I really didn't know if anyone would show up.
I had 17 students, but there should have been about 25. One of the missing students included the class representative, so it explains why I never received a message back from him! Hopefully, the students I met will spread the word that class has actually started and that I'm taking attendance.
First, I had the students make name tags. Although it may seem elementary, I love using name tags in my classes. Besides the obvious use of learning and remembering names, they can also be used to take attendance; I keep all of the name tags, bring them to class, and then the students pick them up as they come in to class. The "leftover" name tags reveal who was not present. After I learn all of the students names, I no longer distribute the name tags; instead, I use them as "straws" and randomly pick students to volunteer or share their answers during class.
After everyone made a name tag, I introduced myself and went over the course syllabus. The students were very quiet and did not ask any questions (but I'm sure they must have had some). I forced the students to speak by having them each introduce themselves. On the board, I made a list of things I wanted them to mention:
I went first to model the information that I was hoping to elicit. No one volunteered to go first, so I randomly chose a male student who seemed confident (he kept smiling and making eye contact with me while the other students looked away). He was able to share all of the information and hopefully put the other students at ease. We went around the classroom in a circle and I was able to learn some interesting things about my students. The first thing I noticed was the most of the male students were older than the female students (males average about 21 years of age whereas the females average about 19). This could just be a phenomenon in my class, but I am wondering if there is a reason for this. In South Korea, for example, males have a mandatory 2-year military duty which means that they are usually 2 years older than female students by the time they graduate from university. Perhaps there is something similar in Ethiopia? I will ask my students and try to find out...
I also learned that family sizes are much larger here. On average, the students had 4 brothers and sisters. One student came from a family of 12! Some of the students did not understand what it meant to share an interesting fact about themselves; several instead shared what they were interested in and others just skipped that point altogether. One particular answer made me very uncomfortable. A female student shared that her interesting fact was that she was the fattest girl in the class. Yes, she probably was the largest girl, but still in the healthy weight range. It saddens me that she places so much of her identity on the way she looks and that other students agreed with her or laughed at her response. I am definitely going to have to touch on the subject of body image and beauty in one of my lessons for this class.
The last activity was a short writing assessment. I like to collect a writing sample from each of my students at the beginning of the semester. It helps me to determine their current level and gives a platform for comparison at the end of the course. I gave the students few guidelines; they were to use their discretion as to how long their response should be and what kind of format they would like to use. Below is the writing prompt and a compiled list of the student responses:
I had 17 students, but there should have been about 25. One of the missing students included the class representative, so it explains why I never received a message back from him! Hopefully, the students I met will spread the word that class has actually started and that I'm taking attendance.
First, I had the students make name tags. Although it may seem elementary, I love using name tags in my classes. Besides the obvious use of learning and remembering names, they can also be used to take attendance; I keep all of the name tags, bring them to class, and then the students pick them up as they come in to class. The "leftover" name tags reveal who was not present. After I learn all of the students names, I no longer distribute the name tags; instead, I use them as "straws" and randomly pick students to volunteer or share their answers during class.
After everyone made a name tag, I introduced myself and went over the course syllabus. The students were very quiet and did not ask any questions (but I'm sure they must have had some). I forced the students to speak by having them each introduce themselves. On the board, I made a list of things I wanted them to mention:
- name
- age (if they wanted)
- hobbies
- family members
- one interesting fact about themselves
I went first to model the information that I was hoping to elicit. No one volunteered to go first, so I randomly chose a male student who seemed confident (he kept smiling and making eye contact with me while the other students looked away). He was able to share all of the information and hopefully put the other students at ease. We went around the classroom in a circle and I was able to learn some interesting things about my students. The first thing I noticed was the most of the male students were older than the female students (males average about 21 years of age whereas the females average about 19). This could just be a phenomenon in my class, but I am wondering if there is a reason for this. In South Korea, for example, males have a mandatory 2-year military duty which means that they are usually 2 years older than female students by the time they graduate from university. Perhaps there is something similar in Ethiopia? I will ask my students and try to find out...
I also learned that family sizes are much larger here. On average, the students had 4 brothers and sisters. One student came from a family of 12! Some of the students did not understand what it meant to share an interesting fact about themselves; several instead shared what they were interested in and others just skipped that point altogether. One particular answer made me very uncomfortable. A female student shared that her interesting fact was that she was the fattest girl in the class. Yes, she probably was the largest girl, but still in the healthy weight range. It saddens me that she places so much of her identity on the way she looks and that other students agreed with her or laughed at her response. I am definitely going to have to touch on the subject of body image and beauty in one of my lessons for this class.
The last activity was a short writing assessment. I like to collect a writing sample from each of my students at the beginning of the semester. It helps me to determine their current level and gives a platform for comparison at the end of the course. I gave the students few guidelines; they were to use their discretion as to how long their response should be and what kind of format they would like to use. Below is the writing prompt and a compiled list of the student responses:
Through this activity, I learned that my class is extremely multi-level. A few students wrote well-articulated essays that answered the question appropriately while others struggled to compose a grammatically-correct sentence or completely misinterpreted the prompt. I really enjoyed reading the responses though and learned a lot about the students' expectations of me and each other.
On a brighter note, I once again have electricity!!!! I was completely out of power for 4 days and it had been coming and going for over a week. I told the appropriate people, but nothing seemed to get accomplished. My friends, Andarge and Solomon, were so concerned about me living in the dark that they took matters into their own hands. They personally called the campus electricians and made them come to my house on a holiday. Unfortunately, the problem turned out to be more complicated than any of us had imagined. It took the ENTIRE day to fix. The electricians had to manually climb up several poles and do dangerous work to identify where the problem was and then actually fix it. They climbed up the utility poles using huge metal claws attached to their boots - it was so sketchy! Even though they work for the university and get a monthly salary, I was expected to give them some extra money for coming to my house promptly and on their day off; I gave them each a few dollars which was well worth the luxury of being able to watch TV again and not walk around with my headlamp on all night!
On a brighter note, I once again have electricity!!!! I was completely out of power for 4 days and it had been coming and going for over a week. I told the appropriate people, but nothing seemed to get accomplished. My friends, Andarge and Solomon, were so concerned about me living in the dark that they took matters into their own hands. They personally called the campus electricians and made them come to my house on a holiday. Unfortunately, the problem turned out to be more complicated than any of us had imagined. It took the ENTIRE day to fix. The electricians had to manually climb up several poles and do dangerous work to identify where the problem was and then actually fix it. They climbed up the utility poles using huge metal claws attached to their boots - it was so sketchy! Even though they work for the university and get a monthly salary, I was expected to give them some extra money for coming to my house promptly and on their day off; I gave them each a few dollars which was well worth the luxury of being able to watch TV again and not walk around with my headlamp on all night!