Week Two at the Library

Saturday morning at the library after a very busy but gratifying second week of operations. We managed to finalize our schedule and we had to make the rule that once there are no more seats in the library you have to wait outside until someone leaves. In such situations there is an hour time limit on library time.

I wish I had the camera with me this morning when we had to put that rule into effect at 8:05 (the library opens at 8) because so many students from the St Pierre School (one of the other schools in the same cluster as our home school) had come to read. But here are a couple pictures from free time earlier in the week.

Spending more time at school is giving us more time to interact with and observe the teachers as well. It's amazing how easy it is to pick up on which teachers are more respected rather than feared. This tends to correspond with the teachers who come with their classes to the library and take advantage of the opportunity to check up on their students' level. On the other hand, I don't think I am ever going to get used to hearing teachers from the first grade on up to the ninth shouting "Imbécile!" at their students. Robert pointed out that I actually appeared to be noticing and caring if the students in my English classes were learning something, an interest he feels most teachers here don't have. Granted, it's a lot easier to check in with each student when there are 17 and not 60 in a room.

The big thing at the library this week was the start of literacy activities for the elementary school classes and extra English lessons for the middle schoolers. For the moment I am leading these activities under the observation of the librarians who will take over after Christmas break. We played alphabet bingo in the 3rd grade, which mostly revealed that only a handful of the 3rd graders know their alphabet, but they enjoyed the game and asked to play again next week. The 9th graders worked on a text about Thanksgiving, which made us all hungry and led to a lot of laughs as I tried to explain American football beyond "it's kind of like rugby, but maybe more violent."

As usual, our smallest students provided some of the more adorable moments of the week. The first graders learned a couple new words in French: "little brother" and "hen" (chicken-woman in Bambara) with the help of a read-aloud story. The Kindergarteners listened to Le Gâteau (or ask they call it waraba "big lion") and then drew pictures of cake they would like to eat. Most of them are still at the stage where holding a marker is a challenge, but the resulting scribbles were adorable. Afterwards we wrote each of their names and had them repeat the letters. Literacy starts early!

So, as with everything, another week of ups and downs, but more importantly another week of books in the hands of kids. It becomes more and more apparent that we need more books and art supplies and eventually more libraries! Stay tuned for the launch of our website and how to help!