What I have been doing!!!! November 21, 2007

So I began teaching at the Holy Cross Skills Training Centre in October and we are now coming to the close of our first term. So in all this time that I have not kept up the blog what have I done? What have I been doing?
Well my schedule looks like this. On Mondays I teach English to the First and Third year students. On Tuesday I teach Religious and Moral Education to the Second year students. On Wednesday I teach Religious and Moral education to the First year students and English to the Second year students.
I am also teaching a class on Catholic Social Teaching to the pre-novices at Moreau House(where I live) and to the candidates(young men in the phase before pre-novice) at St. Joe Hall, at St. John’s Secondary School in Sekondi. I teach these classes on Thursday and Friday respectively.
The boys at Skills are a handful, but they are fun to teach. You have to keep in mind that the main goal of the school is to teach young men a trade (block laying, construction, carpentry, electrical, and auto mechanics) so that they will not be a burden on their families or communities. Basically, these boys are at the Center because they did not have the grades to enter regular secondary schools. Many of the boys come from needy families or broken homes. The bottom line is that the majority of the boys are more than anxious to just get out there and start making money so that they can assist their families or become their own independent men.
While keeping this in mind know that I am at the school to teach Moral Education and English. These classes are seen, by many of the students, as unnecessary since they do not contribute to their knowledge of a trade, put simply it isn’t going to put more money in their pocket right away. So I do my best.
Knowing that I cannot make them learn I have been doing my best to do whatever I can to help them. In our English class we have been studying the parts of speech and are now getting into the basic structure of a sentence. I have been giving them essay topics every week to write on as well as new vocabulary words to study. Resources for teaching English are scarce. In our moral education classes instead of just telling them that underage sex is bad and that AIDS is a killer(both being very true) which is what many people have told me to talk about, I have begun with the foundations on moral living. People need to understand why they should live a certain way not just do it. I will be turning my focus towards real life situations in the next term, but for now we are sticking to the basics. Why should we believe in God? Why should we love ourselves? Why should we love others?
More important than anything have been the conversations I have had with the boys outside the classroom. Listening to what they have to say and advising them as well as I can with their day to day problems. This is when I feel that I am truly making an impact in their lives.
As for my other classes, they have been great! We have great discussions about sensitive contemporary issues. It is like a class with Michael Griffin, sometimes I am afraid that he has worn off on me…jk Griff.
The year is coming to a close very soon. We all know that each year goes by faster than the last so I need to fully prepare myself to complete the list of goals I has made for the new year. Before I know it I am going to be back on American soil wondering what just happened to me! So before I deal with that I need to get some good work done! I will be sure to let you all know what I have planned after…Oh I forgot!!!
Right now I am recuperating from Typhoid. I came down with it about two weeks ago and I had to take some time off of teaching to get well. So what does Tyhpoid feel like? Well it isn’t nice. It just completely exhausted me. I have been feeling weak all over my body, even the hair on my arm ached. Chills at night, headache, and a cold have been all the other crummy things. Anyway, after two trips to the doctor I think I will be able to get rid of it. It is pretty serious though…so they say ;) I figure though I should just take the rest so I won’t have to do this again and waste more time.
Well that is all for right now! I hope to hear from all of you soon. As always I will do my best to update more frequently.