Model School

Well Model School has officially started and is in full swing. Model School is basically summer school for community kids - and for us (as trainees) it is our opportunity to practice teaching in front of a real class with real students.



Last week we had an official opening ceremony - complete with us (the trainees) singing the American national anthem (the Cameroonian students sang the Cameroonian anthem as well). Then last week we mostly just observed various classes - so I watched some trainers and current volunteers teach English to different levels.

Then this week we had our chance to start teaching and I started right away 8:00am Monday teaching terminale (basically 12th grade) English. Each class is one hour and I had two periods on Monday. And while the classes were not a complete disaster, let's just say teaching English to Cameroonian students is not quite the same as teaching French to American students. During the first 10 minutes I got a little worried when they did not understand my directions of just 'read the text with a partner' but rest assured things have gotten better. After re-grouping and getting some feedback from other trainees and volunteers, I had one last class with terminale today and it went a million times better. And really I think this general cycle of things not going so well at first but then gradually getting better is going to be the theme over the next 3-4 weeks of model school as we all learn and adapt to teaching in Cameroonian schools.

So another part of Model School is clubs - every trainee is expected to work with a club and there is a big 'soiree culturelle' (cultural party) at the end of Model School when every club presents what they have been working on. Clubs meet every Wednesday (classes end early specifically for clubs) so tomorrow will be our first official meeting and students will be able to sign up for a club. Some how I signed up for the dance club - not really because I can dance or that I even enjoying dancing but I do feel pretty comfortable in my ability to teach others dance and besides I am hoping that the students show us (there are 2 other people doing dance club with me) some African dance.

And one last note - so my host family just had a bunch of family come into town to stay with us for a while. And some of the visiting family is from France (I mean they are Cameroonian but live in France). So last night we were eating dinner together (fish, rice, 'couscous' - not what you think) and the family member from France pulled out some candy (as desert for everyone). Oh my gosh - never thought peanut M&Ms would be so good...I haven't had any American candy since I have been here but the minute she pulled out the M&Ms my mouth started watering - they were so good. Also so if anyone wants to send anything, I think peanut M&Ms would be a great idea....