Today was a pretty successful day. I had forgotten when I arrived at São João that the students would be here today, not for class but in order to hear how the class would be structured in general. It was awesome to see these students- suddenly I remembered every single one of them, and they were just the same, if not six months older. And at that age, in six months, kids grow! Maybe 10 or 15 of the girls were waiting by the gate for my arrival. When I got there, they stayed by my side as I walked...
Failure -->Success Mon, 5-Jul-2010 (beth)
So I arrive at the São João School at 9am sharp. We had to call the director on Friday to make sure he'd have the school open for me to install Etoys 4 on all of the computers, so I was pleasantly surprised when the school was open and ready to go. I went into the director's office and took out the computers among the stacks there. Only six to start, as I only had five functioning USB drives anyway. I brought them into an empty classroom, a small crowd of students that were hanging in the schoolyard following me....
Le Ultimate Sigh Tue, 6-Jul-2010 (beth)
If I so much as look at another computer I am going to scream. Unfortunately I have to look at my computer in order to type this, so consider me screaming. So I spend the whole morning loading Etoys 4 to the computers. The thing that the teachers don't know is that we're eventually going to have to reflash all of the computers, and when we do that, we'll have to reload Etoys 4 again. But there just wasn't enough time to reflash 100 computers this morning AND add Etoys, so I did the quick solution and will slowly reflash...
O.M.G.! Wed, 7-Jul-2010 (beth)
I title this post "O.M.G.!", in response to yesterday's "O.M.G.", because it is nearly the polar opposite of yesterday. In fact, nearly the polar opposite of....noon today. Ned saw me over lunch. I was a nervous wreck. The iPhone wasn't working, class was not as I had hoped, things were tearing me apart. I could hardly take another minute. And then, the sky opened up. Spoke with both UNICEF and Voice of America about funding our program this morning. Both organizations are definitely interested in lending a hand. It will take a lot of pushing, but things are looking up...
So much to say, so little energy Sat, 10-Jul-2010 (beth)
Didn't post yesterday out of exhaustion. It's been a lot of work these past few days, organizing things. Yesterday class went well. Shout out to the Columbus School for Girls who made large print copies of the halo handles for teachers to use in the classroom (see pictures at right). I wasn't able to print them in color, but let me tell you, the teachers here in São Tomé are using them and they LOVE THEM. The printouts have helped us so much to teach a large class. Way to go CSG! I even had a chance to meet with...
10 Days Left in STP...Crazy!! Tue, 13-Jul-2010 (beth)
Class doesn't go badly today, woohoo! We did the teacher class first because students are coming to class extremely late (a feature of our summer program, NOT of our regular academic year program) and we don't feel like getting mad at them since it is vacation and all, so we had our teacher class from 2-3:30 and our student class from 3:30-5. At the teacher class we learn Lesson 8, tests. The teachers are picking up things pretty well. They have a problem with listening -- it drives me crazy -- they'll just drift away into their project and then...
Things and Lesson 7 Wed, 14-Jul-2010 (beth)
Called Roberta this morning to confirm our meeting at the Ministry of Education. Good thing I did, because it was cancelled and she appropriately didn't tell me. At STeP UP today I was a little annoyed with her. She thought it would lighten her image to compliment me on my shirt. When that didn't work, she worked a new meeting out with the Ministry- 9:30am on Friday. Then we'll go to the US Embassy shortly after. The electrician came by today (he also stopped by the school to check out the wire hookup). He wants about 5,500,000, or about $280,...
Not So Bad Thu, 15-Jul-2010 (beth)
Hey, today was not so bad! The electrician came by STeP UP. I looked him in the eyes and said, listen, let me take your number and think about this. It seems this idea of using the internet when there's no electricity sounded really good when I thought it'd only cost like $50, but now that it's more like $250 it's seeming a bit like a money pit. I want to be very careful with the money that we spend for this project so I think I'm going to put it on hold until it's something we really need. And...
So Proud Fri, 16-Jul-2010 (beth)
Before class, all the kids are sitting around with their computers, enjoying some "free time" before we start. It's a computer programmer's dream. The schoolyard is quiet and the teachers and students are all sitting around, on benches, on the floor, under trees, using their laptops. I buy five lollipops from the man selling them across the street. I approach the first group of kids with laptops I see. "Are you guys on the Internet?" I ask. "Yes, Professora." They say. I tell them that we're going to have a contest to see who can find out what the capital...
Politics and Candy Mon, 19-Jul-2010 (beth)
So I'm walking in town and I get a phone call. It's the Embassy of Taiwan. The ambassador is going to come by tomorrow afternoon to watch our class!!!! This is huge news, as the Embassy of Taiwan is considering funding our laptop program. I mean, this is bigger than huge. This is the culmination of a year of work, and it's all happening tomorrow. About an hour later I'm sitting in the office of the Minister of Education, a really sweet man who sounded really pleased to hear that the laptop program was going well. His office had cancelled...
Good Day, Good Day! Tue, 20-Jul-2010 (beth)
Today is the day the ambassador is coming to visit. I'm dressed up really nice. I arrive at school about 10 minutes before 2pm, and most of the teachers and a solid percentage of the students are already there. I think everyone realizes that today is an important day. I review Lesson 8 with Professora Arlete; she has a few questions that she wants to cover before class starts. And then class begins. Today is the polar opposite of yesterday. The teachers are working together beautiful...their teamwork is like magic. The kids are angels. I swear they're all sitting up...
Aula Como Deve Ser (Class As It Should Be) Wed, 21-Jul-2010 (beth)
Sometimes we have bad days, that is for sure. But the ratio of good days to bad days is getting better and better. Yesterday we had an amazing class. Today we had an amazing class, too. I'm so proud of these teachers for taking a difficult subject and making the most of it. Explaining animation (Lesson 9) was a little bit difficult for the kids (for the teachers, too). Many thought the only way to animate something was to change the color and watch the drawing automatically color-shift. But I explained to the teachers that if the students didn't actually...
