Margaret and the alphabet

I got to work with Margaret and Webster (came in a group of 5 students) yesterday, Friday morning. I got the 3 others working together with multiplication flash cards and blackboard work while I concentrated on Margaret and Webster.

Lets try something different. Using 3x5 cards, I made simple alphabet flash cards starting with "a" and going through the letter "h". Not setting our goals too high. Margaret had never gotten though "e" on our attempts to master the alphabet while working at the blackboard. We started slowly in alphabetic order and then jumbled them. For a time Webster was definitely ahead at naming the letters and giving an example of a word that started with that letter. But at some point I sensed a shift as Margaret began to hold her own and then slowly take the lead, we were past the letter "e" and flying. She was sounding more confident and less tentative. I needed to add more cards. Soon we were half way through the alphabet with the teacher fairly gushing with praise and approval. Something neither student had heard much of except in math.

We took a break and went to the board where they would write the letters as I called them out. That went well with Margaret still in the lead, most often he was checking on her answer before writing his own. We wrote our names and named the letters in them.

When asked, they opted to go back to the cards. We finished the alphabet pretty much, still having problems with "v", "u" and "y". They were flagging, so we went back to the board and were actually doing some spelling of words.

What a wonderful session, Webster and Margaret looked the happiest I'd seen them, not that vacant, puzzled stare they would have much of the time in class. Even the other 3 girls had refrained from fighting over their cards and chalk. I got their disapproval when I gave M. and W. a rub (eraser top) for their pencils as a reward, while they got nothing.

I remembered with some shame the previous feelings of anger that these kids were not responding as I thought they should to the best that I could give, when they had not been able to grasp what I was about. A teacher without patience is not a teacher.

But with all this a terrible realization hit me. This couldn't be a worse time for this to have happened. This was Friday preceding a week's vacation. It would be at least 10 days before we could review this again. All this would be forgotten by then. I am reminded daily of how much forgetting is involved in learning. Well, at least I learned that they could learn it.

Later I shared my experience with Ms. Mwanza who reminded me that Margaret is a resident and that I could work with her as much as I wished during the week ahead. Here I had been wondering what I was going to do. So I talked to the mother in her house and said I would be visiting at 9 am for a session each day with Margaret.

Many folks here and at home have had the idea that I came here mostly to teach Zambian children things like math, English, Science, etc. However some here have a completely different idea of why I am here. Many of the children seem to think (especially after supper) that I have come for them to teach me Nyanja. So my lessions have gotten pretty heavy, esp. the last few evenings. And just as my younger students, I forget much of what I'd "learned" the night before. I used to accuse them of "giving me lession" only to have a chance to laugh at me. But lately they have become more serious. It gets intense when you have 3 or 4 young teachers all instructing at once and trying to correct my pronounciation. But this all ends when one of them askes me to say the word for "witch". None can ever keep a straight face when I make a stab at "freetzee" and everyone desolves in laughter and I sneek towards the door and make my escape. Last night however, I was accompanied all the way home by no less than 4 screeching, very scary witches.

Blog pressing out of Africa,
Sam