I am teaching so much this week. I have a break right now, so I thought I would catch up on my blog. This week I am teaching all together 23 classes - next week 28 - really crazy and soooo tiring. But amazing. It is so great to work with these students and to see them grow and how far they have come from less than 2 months ago. I am really looking forward to having the theatre presentaton, along with an art exhibition, next week. I think it will be interesting to have all the teachers, parents and friends of the students see what they have been doing, and how imaginative they are. In the begining it was so hard for them to trust their ideas and to use their imaginations...every one in every grade has come such a far way - and I have too. Teaching here has really taught me a lot about being flexable and patient with students but more especially with faculty.
Two days ago the teacher leader came to me and told me that there have been complaints about me taking classes. There are exams the week after next and a lot of the teachers STILL have a lot of material to teach. The teachers here are pretty wonderful, but I think they don't really understand how much planning and thought needs to go into a class - for the term, for the week, and for the day. So now they are having their OH SHIT moments and cramming a ton of information. Some of the exams are given by the government, so there is certain material that must be taught. But this whole time I was only having one class a week with all of the classes. Now I am meeting 8,9,and 10 before, during break, or after school (their preferance) so that does not interfere with any class...and there are other teachers who have approached me to see if I could teach with them, since they are either done with the material or they do not have exams for their class (no exams for classes like dictation or physical education). What upset me about being told that I am interfering is that the teachers didn't approach ME; and it is evident that drama is benificial to the studnts in thinking different ways, using their bodies and voices, and in being confident with speaking english. So then I spoke to the individual teacher that I am working with - most particularly the English teachers - and they said it was ok that I still teach with them, and in their class. In fact one person who was said to have complained the most ended up saying that I can have 2 classes a week - instead of 1 - which is awesome, but still frustrating...why complain in the first place?...why send a messenger?...why????? Communication in this school is so indirect. No one wants to hurt other people, and in this culture if something is really bothering you it is not really OK to say what is really on your mind. Its like there are 20 different lines of communication and none of them have a similar meeting point, so everything just gets jumbled up and confusing - and miscommunicated.
It is such a great learning experience to live here and to work here. Really. In so many ways...