So, officially Sandra's 2nd week but I thought she said it felt more like a first week. Of REAL work that is. She's got 2 classes (Grades 3A and 3B) of which she is classroom teacher. 9 Periods of English for each class per week, with a period consisting of 45 minutes. All other subjects are taught for 2 or 3 periods per week. One class has 16 kids while the other has 15 of them. I haven't been introduced yet since Sandra would like to make sure i will not suddenly be whisked of to unknown households but probably somewhere during this or next week the kids might get to know me. Of course i always come to class but i stay hidden in Sandra's bag. Quietly observing everything. So i start to get a bit of an impression of all the kids. Some are quite shy since this is their first year at the school, some are confident. They have been here already for a while. But all seem really nice kids. I'll probably tell you more about them next week when i know them a bit better. Thankfully Sandra has 2 assistants who help out with a fair few things (like remembering their names...). One is new, one has been at the school already for a year but had the most awefull year last year (being 'dumped' on a class of tiny monsters completely unprepared according to the stories). They both seem really nice and so far i can't complain. They need to get a bit more confident though and maybe pro-active but that might come later. After all, they are both young and they are Burmese. Since Sandra is the westerner, they assume that she automatically knows so much more. And it is also a cultural thing. The Burmese are usual not the most direct of people and will normally stay quiet even if they don't agree. But towards westerners they will very rarely object or voice their beliefs. Something Sandra things they need to work on with her since she'd like a more equal relationship instead of just sending them off for photocopy assignments and jobs of that kind. After all, who wants to do that for the rest of their working lives...
The school administration is fairly unorganized which was a bit annoying Sandra found. Being new she was basically left to her own devices. The kids English books haven't arrived yet. The timetable was available Monday morning and on Friday afternoon from 3.15 to 4.30 they had a meeting about what to tell the parents at the parent-teacher meeting that was held Saturday. So everybody was very well prepared...
Sandra did make a powerpoint presentation since she at least didn't want to look unprofessional and unprepared. It all went smooth until the questions-part where of course some parents wanted to discuss the usefulness of the English classes that are taught 3 periods per week. Many parents think it is absolutely a waste of time. Either because they have private tutors or because they don't think further then the fact that their child will go and study abroad (usually Singapore or Australia). They'd like to have extra English classes. Oh well, thankfully that whole discussion isn't Sandra's problem. And neither is the lack of organization.
No news on the apartment front yet. We're still looking. It is a bit more difficult then we thought it would be. Unless of course you really can shovel out..
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