August 3rd, 2011
Exams and Final Papers
For the final exam in summer school, I had my JSS 3ers, write a creative story as well as take a formal test. Getting the kids to think ‘outside the box’ at at all was like pulling teeth! A handful tried to copy stories from books. After they promised that they came up with, “The Elves and the Shoemaker” and “Goldylocks and the Three Bears,” they seemed very surprised when I could recite ‘their’ stories without even reading them. “Try again,” I said.
In America we are encouraged to be different, show how creative we can be; here, it is almost exactly opposite. Instead of applying what they learn, the students seem to strictly memorize. Anything from definitions to stories, but then when asked to ‘think for themselves,’ they are stumped. They wanted to have a specific topic instead of being able to choose their own. So I gave them 3 options: write about what you did last Christmas, your first day of school or choose your own topic. Those who chose their own topic, all wrote about two animals fighting over some sort of food, one of those animals dying and strangely enough, in most stories, a rat was involved. This was the best story in my class, and when he presented it, he was so cute reading it out loud, I wish I could have video taped him.
Story About the Dogs and the Monkey
One day there was a monkey in this village called Mansobo. This monkey usually eats dogs. But there is a dog who is in the other village. This dogs name is Rambo. Rambo is a big dog, he has a big mouth and small eyes. Rambo has four legs and has many hairs on his body. He has two big ears. The monkeys name is Lucky Boy. He has a big body, four legs, small eyes and a small face.
One day, Rambo hears that there is a big monkey in Mansobo that usually eats dogs. Rambo said, “I will go to this village and stop all these things by killing the monkey.”
Rambo travels from one village to another. He arrives in the next village in two hours, Mansobo. So when Rambo arrives he asked, “where is the monkey that troubles this village?” and one of the dogs came out and said, “the monkey is in the forest, he usually comes out when he is hungry.” And Rambo said, “I will find a way to kill this monkey!” Rambo went inside the forest and cut many sticks and set a trap where the monkey would pass.
One day, the monkey was hungry and he decided to go out and eat many dogs. Rambo was in the bush and heard the foot sound of the monkey coming. Rambo came out and saw the monkey and the monkey saw the dogs and Rambo. Rambo said, “Come and kill the monkey!” The monkey reached the trap. As soon as he stepped on the trap, it held him and he shouted, “Come and help me, I am dying!” No body helped him and everybody went home and left the monkey there. Nor more dogs were killed by the monkey and Rambo was a hero.
Juniors paper, notice the little shaved sliver of wood? African version of a staple. Very creative.
Extra credit on the test was to draw a picture of yourself and Miss Kenna. So, apparently I look like a monster being electrocuted with missing teeth and no arms. I admit, I can see the resemblance in the hair- this humidity is taking its toll. I could not stop laughing at this.
Other funny things:
- Albert Louis, the boy who’s crushin, gave me doughnuts as a gift today
- When we were playing a review Jeopardy game, each team was allowed to choose a team name. The first team chose to be ‘Manchester United’, a soccer team here (everyone is crazy about soccer). The second team wanted to be called ‘Miss Kenna United,’ Albert Louis was on that team, I wonder if he had any say in that.
- Some kid asked me out of the blue if I “enjoy eating things with life and blood.” Now I am kind of nervous he is going to bring me something dead that used to have “life and blood.”
