Monday, June 22, 2009

Inkazamulu

I went to "work" at school for the first time today!

The students, teachers, and everyone in between tried to talk to me, but thought I was ignoring them. No...not that...I just had NO idea they were talking to me. I also had to learn the "secret handshake". Funny, huh. They all shake my hand the way you would shake it for a Zulu person. I guess I'm in the IN CROWD.

The school is grade R (kinder) to grade 4. I visited just about each class and it was interesting to see the difference in the English levels. Some of them just nodded to EVERYTHING because they didn't understand. Others, just spoke in Zulu whether you could understand it or not.

We started off the day in Assembly. The kids come together to sing songs and pray before the day begins. The singing is lovely. They all hold a tune! American Idol- look out!

After that, they start their lessons. The kids actually SIT down, RESPOND, stay ENGAGED and PAY ATTENTION in class. Wow....I only see that on TV! Like Leave it to Beaver TV.



Now once 10:30 hit, it's time for LUNCH BREAK, and that's a whole different story. The kids serve themselves soup/vegetable abd rice. It's quite impressive how they manage themselves during this time. They only have 30 minutes to eat and play all wrapped into one.



I will update more as I go along for you. Please understand, that although things are different, they have a system that works. In these schools, social and life skills are just as important as academics. It's a wonderful thing when you want to raise life long learners and productive citizens.

1 comment:

Tracey said...

I see they all love to take pictures too