school school school

well, I started observing classes today and it went fairly well. It is just so entirely different from the education I am used to. I was supposed to be observing English classes today. And I did observe one class, grade 9. It is unfortunate because the teacher is not really allowing the students to speak and practice their English...so how are they going to learn it? I feel like they do know the language, at least the basics and enough to hold conversations, but since they are not given the opportunity in their 40 minute class to practice, they feel very un-confident and unsure about what they are saying. The first class I was to observe was grade 10, the highest in the school, and the teacher, Mr. Rakesh, (also vice Principal, who speaks pretty broken english himself) was not in class! So I went to his office, and he was "doing so work...and has a headache" so he was not going to class!!!! I was baffled...these kids are sitting in class waiting for their teacher! So, with 20 minutes left in class, I went to class; I talked to the students about their English: what is the most challenging thing for them, what would they like to work on most, and why is it important for them to be studying English? It took them about 15 minutes for them to warm up to me, and finally when they were starting to - class was over. Man oh man! Then I go to the next class, and like I said, the students were being spoken to and not getting a chance to speak...then about 10-15 minutes to class being over - Mr. Rakesh said he 'had to leave' so all of a sudden I was teaching class. I was thrown off, but also a little relieved so that I could do some exercises for the students to write dialog on the board and speak it - and that's all we had time for. I don't know quite how to feel about this situation. Of course it is frustrating and sad, and also makes me feel so lucky to have grown up in the place I did...I feel like, however, the only way I really want to teach these classes is if Mr. Rakesh sits in on all of the classes so he too can learn. I do want to teach these kids English, especially after my experience today, but I don't want Mr. Rakesh to get a 'get out of jail free card' and not come to class...then everything I will do for these 3+ months will be lost. So I think that will be my proposal. I am starting on Sunday...I think I will make a short quiz just to see where the students are at, and also create some speaking exercises. The good thing is I will be able to implement my theatre training and teaching into the English classroom. None the less, it was a very interesting experience.