19/11/09

For the students in Mozambique, what the teacher says and writes on the board during class is the only information they will ever get on that subject. They have no textbooks. And all of the other resources I have always taken for granted simply don't exist for most of the students here (internet searches, encyclopedias, asking your parents, going to the library). So that puts a ton of pressure on the class periods. One thing I have learned this week in model school is that the kids write SO slowly. But you really have to wait for them to finish writing because they need to have that information in their notes. In my cohort there are ten chemistry teacher. Fun fact we just discovered the other day: of the ten of us, we have only one chemistry major and two chemical engineering majors. The rest of us are three physics majors, three biology majors, and one neuroscience major. So aside from learning about teaching in model school, most of feel like we have been learning as much about chemistry as the students! Sometimes when it rains really hard the roof above my bed leaks a little and I occasionally get hit in the forehead by drops of water while I'm sleeping.