"By Jove, I Think She's Got It!"

This is a normal week at school. This is also the first week we have not had a holiday or a special schedule, so I thought I’d post my daily schedule for you guys to see!

6:00-6:15 Wake Up (the first bell in the hostel is actually at 5:30, but I would be a super zombie if I ever woke up that early.)

6:30- 7:00 Morning Prayer. We sing one song and read one chapter from the New Testament and one Psalm

7:00- 8:30 Get ready for school. For me this normally means go back to sleep for a little while. Sometimes this is a good time to get in exercise.

8:30-9:00 Breakfast

9:15- 9:30 Staff Prayer and School Prayer

9:30 Classes Begin!

12:30-1:30 Lunch

3:30 School is Out

3:30- 4:00 Sometimes this is enough time for a walk to Aksa’s Studio, the nearby Internet Café.

4:00-4:30 Tea Break

4:30- 6:30 Exercise, nap, read, hang out with the girls at the hostel etc.

6:30-7:15 Evening Prayer. We sing three songs and read one chapter from the New Testament and one Psalm.

7:15- 8:30 Study Malayalam

8:30- 9:00 Dinner

9:00-10:30 Prepare lessons and rest

10:30 Lights out

I noticed that I haven’t said much about the school yet. Buchanan is a school that is not quite private and not quite public. The staff’s salary is paid by the Government, but no other aspect of the school is paid for. The school gets funds from a number of organizations and has many things donated, such as computers. The campus was started by missionaries. It is one of the oldest missionary campuses in Kerala. The campus grounds are also shared by other schools. The students at my hostel attend the Teacher Training Institute that is adjoined with the Buchanan campus. Two other campuses also share the grounds, Bishop Speechly School and Bishop Speechly College. There are also three hostels on the campus grounds: B.I. Boarding (My hostel), K.N.H. Hostel (a home for girls whose living expenses are sponsored by local church members), and the Bishop Speechly College boarding facility. There is another school within walking distance called the CMS Upper Primary school. It is a public facility that is mainly a boys school. They just started admitting girls to the campus a few years ago.

A typical day of teaching for me includes about 4 or 5 class periods out of 7. I teach “English Language Skills” at Buchanan to grades (here grades are called standards) 5, 7 and 8. I stay at Buchanan all day for teaching on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. On Wednesday, I split my time between Bishop Speechly School and Buchanan classes. On Thursday I go to area schools where I am needed. I often go to Lower Primary classes. I really enjoy teaching the younger kids. Standards 2 and 3 are my favorite! They are too cute, and they love learning action songs (which of course is my favorite to teach.) I teach on Thursdays at Pakil Lower Primary, CMS Lower Primary School and CMS Upper Primary School. In November I will hopefully begin a conversation class at Bishop Speechly College with students who want to practice and further their skills in English.

I am enjoying being silly with kids this week. In a few of my classes I got to read one of my favorite children’s books that I brought with me, “The Napping House”. We listened for key words like dog, cat, thump, bump and napping and did sounds and actions each time I read the word in the story.  On the word “napping” the students all had very realistic and goofy yawns. Their laughter is the one thing that keeps me in such high spirits as I teach. This week I am also starting the process of designing an exercise class for the hostel students. Madison left a few DVDs here and I have been trying them out. I am honestly a little nervous to lead it, but I think as long as there is a lot of laughter and no one takes my clumsiness too seriously, it could be a lot of fun.

“It may not be that you yourself are luminous, but you are a conductor of light.”

 – from Sherlock Holmes: Volume II  by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. (I am reading two books at once. I got hooked on this old school classic while helping one of the girls in the hostel do a book review on it. Holmes and Watson’s relationship makes me laugh. Nerdy, I know.)