working 9-5 woman

First, I apologize to everyone for this blog being a month late... I have never been more busy in my life than I am righ now! I literally talked myself into stopping my work at home to come into town and do this blog. Ever since school started it has been non-stop teaching/mentoring/getting this school "in-shape". I decided to cut back on 2 classes (1 KSL and 1 P.E.) however, I have decided to add a few as well.

I am teaching English, two KSL classes, and a Creative Arts class. Though it's only 4 classes a day, I feel like I'm constantly teaching, my hands are constantly moving (sign language), and my mind is constantly straining (how to get the information out effectively). I have a total of 70 students and I feel that ALL 70 NEED ATTENTION! However, I'm realizing this is near impossible. During break time, when it's suppose to be my time to relax and have tea with the teachers, I'm in the classroom clarifying my assignments and lessons to the students. During lunch time, when I'm suppose to be EATING, I'm in the classroom helping the slower-learning students with a slower teaching technique. I even risked my life (no joke) and came to school to teach at night last Thursday, which they all loved, but I almost fell through the door on my face when I got home I was so tired.

If that isn't enough, the principal has requested I teach KSL to the teachers (which they desperately need) because I'm supposedly the "expert". Last Friday was our first meeting...only 12 of the 26 teachers showed up, but that's a start. It was fun to see them starting to realize how visually beautiful sign language is. When I showed them a person WALKING (a directional sign), they all laughed but thought it was cool :)

One thing I had been trying to weasle out of but seems that it was meant-to-be from the start is teaching HIV/AIDS to Deaf college students. The volunteer before me was more of an HIV teacher than a subjects teacher, like me. So the college expected I would be the same. Oh no... I tried to explain my load is much heavier than the last volunteer, but they pushed and pushed and I finally gave in. Yesterday was the first class I taught at the college. Only 7 students go there, but that's enough for me! As I began to teach about Malaria, Homa (cold), TB (illnesses they know) and then compare them to HIV, I realized that there is a reason for me being here. Even though the last volunteer was their teacher, they apparently forgot about myths like sharing a spoon/toothbrush, or shaking hands with an infected person will NOT spread HIV. They all were against me, saying "YES IT DOES!" even the Deaf teacher. But after I said again and again that HIV is contracted through blood and semen only (sex, needles, open wounds, breast milk, etc), they were like OH... it was a lot of fun and as I teach them, I'm learning SO MUCH myself. I gave them the example of Magic Johnson and how some NBA players were against him also. Then at the end I passed out notebooks and told them to write each illness 10 times...spelling test next week. They loved it! We're even gonna do a few trips to the VCT and hospital.

I won't even get started on my secondary project with the school board!

Whew! Yeah, I think at the end of these 2 years I will for sure have acouple of gray braids! But knowledge is power and truly these students, teachers, and myself are all going to be much stronger, as long as we ALL give our ALL...