It’s Monday! Two more days until I move to my home in Bariadi! We started off the day with a session on Classroom Management. We had to come up with a plan of how we were going to implement rules in our classroom. I said I would call them out for noise, give them a warning and the next warning I give them I would make them come sit at the front of the class. Maybe do the “if you hear my name raise your pencil,” stuff like that. Obviously I will not be implementing corporal punishment but I am really nervous that I am going to have a super hard time with that. They say that the sounds of the hitting are the worse, and there are instances where if teachers know they can get a reaction out of you they will do it longer in front of you on a student. They always give beatings in front of the school or teachers in the teacher lounge and the students have to be on their hands and knees. Kim said all the volunteers had an extremely hard time with it last year. I already prefaced her that this is something that I am realllllly going to struggle with. She said the worst part is while the student is getting beat are the teachers are laughing and so are the students. They honestly think it is funny. So I am sure I will share many of my experiences on this with you, I honestly hope I never have to experience it.

We discussed how it is difficult to classroom manage students when they are tired, hungry, and thirsty each day. We talked about how we could do stretched with our class if one day everyone seems tired. Because they do not get fed anything all day from 7-2 and after school they go home and work on the field or in the home whatever jobs there parents have given them to do. School is also really far away for most students so if they don’t eat breakfast before school they get to school very tired from their walk and thirsty from it being so hot outside. We also discussed because of the different distances to the school we can’t really punish the students for being late. Some teachers definitely beat them for this, but I am not. We suggested having them wait outside of the classroom until we stop talking and then having them enter. These were all rules for us to consider.

We had a session on the teacher quality program, which is lesson plans, and modules we have to submit via email to the World Teach office so they can track our progress each month. That was pretty quick. Then we had tea break and some time free until Swahili at 2. After Swahili, I met my THIRD roommate! Her name is Laurel and she is in her sixties. She is a returning volunteer, and is the sweetest! She taught a year in Micronesia and a year in Tanzania in a very rural area. She is back this year teaching Math in Bariadi! I cannot wait to learn so much from her and use her as a wonderful resource in my teaching. She has such an upbeat personality and gave Emily and I a giant hug when we walked into the canteen to have our second tea break of the day. Hopefully the three of us will have a wonderful year together.

After free time and dinner, we played jeopardy in the common room. I really didn’t think it would be that fun but believe it or not I got super into it. We got into three teams, and the categories were about World Teach, Tanzania, about Volunteers, Swahili, it was a lot of fun! Anddd if you got the Daily Double questions right you got awesome prizes right like colored chalk or thermometers haha which are such big deals for us we were racing and getting so into it to win them! I won colored chalk, magnets, which supposedly kids love to play with even as toys here, and stickers which I am so pumped about!!! Stickers are such great rewards here! After jeopardy Emily, Shana and I stayed up talking about how long it has already felt like we have been here and it has only been two weeks! It honestly feels like it has been two months! A lot of people say that this year feels like one of the longest but shortest times of your life. Tomorrow is my last day here before my long bus ride!!