Teaching?

I enter the classroom. In unison and in a robotic tone 36 learners stand and say:

“Good morning Madam M-oh-lly”
“Good morning” I say
“How are you Madam M-oh-lly”
“I am great, thanks! How are you?” (By my saying “great” instead of “fine” I trip them up a bit.)
“We are fine Madam. Thank you Madam.”

It’s the beginning of a new school year and I have begun teaching grade 4 Natural Science. This year at Mannyetha School we have 770 learners and 24 teachers. Grade 4 has over a hundred learners and so I will be teaching 3 1-hour classes twice a week.

Yesterday was my first class. I began by having students write their name and village on a note card. Then I thought I would have them write a science-related question. I explained that I was looking for a question we may be able to study at some point during the year; for example: why is the weather hot? After two minutes of examples and explanation I asked for a volunteer to give their own example of a science-related question. The learner I called on said “chair.” Wow. The next learner I called said “Why is the weather hot?” So I informed the class that they had to think of their own question- no repeating of my examples.

Later I looked through the cards and the most frequent question was “Why is the weather cold?” Other responses included: random words “cold, water, hose,” “Why I wi lafing” (Why are we laughing?), “Why is the house dirty?”, “Pen is not heavy.” “Why the tree shakes?” “Why is my mom going?” and “Why don’t I have the red color?”

This is going to be a long year. Thankfully I have other projects that may prove to be more fruitful.