School: Year 2

Well the 2011- 2012 school year is well underway and the first grading period is almost finished. With a new year, there are new teachers, new students, new classes. At the start of the year, I thought that we would have even more English teachers than last year. But I was mistaken and in fact it’s quite the opposite – this year it’s only me and one other English teacher for a school with approximately 1,000 students spread over 7 grade levels (6^th- 12^th grade). Needless to say, we are both teaching more classes and hours this year but of course it still isn’t enough and there are still classes without an English teacher yet. That’s Cameroon.

So this year I am teaching one class of 6eme, all of 5eme (divided into 2 sections), seconde, premiere and I am about to pickup a class of terminale. Most of the classes have about 60 – 70 students although I did luck out with seconde this year – there are only about 20 students and wow what a difference a smaller class size makes. But even though my other classes are still big, it’s not as bad this year because I know the majority of them. So particularly knowing names already helps some with classroom management. Resources are still limited of course but I’m really trying to make more photocopies for students since maybe 8 out of 60 have the book.

There are also lots of new teachers and a new principal all of whom really make it a much more pleasant atmosphere this year. And unfortunately there is still amicale but I’m hoping it will also be better this year – we will see. Oh and teacher’s day came and went this past Wednesday. I bought the tacky fabric again but there weren’t really to many events because of the upcoming elections. So that is something to watch out for – Sunday Oct 9 – presidential elections….