Yesterday we had our induction into Ecole El Hadji Sidi Ndiaye which is a moutful of words to describe a school with boys and girls aged 8 - 12. The population of girls in this school is slightly above the boys, but I can only assume that is because many boys are attending Koranic schools instead.
The Director, Abdulaye, was most welcoming. He took us around to each of the 14 classes to introduce us and give a very rousing speech about the importance of learning English in order to better their opportunities in English speaking countries. Along the way, he spoke about how this school is one of the few offering English to primary children, so for some students, this is their first crack at learning any English. Aside from the usual maths, sciences and so forth, the children learn French and Arabic, which means they could very soon be quadrilingual (that is, if we have any success teaching them our own native language!)
My teaching partner is Krista, a 19 year old student from Vancouver. She was involved in the summer school that PA puts on so she will be a good resource to keep the classes moving along.
We are responsible for 4 classes of the same level aged 9 and 10, 4 classes of a heightened level of the same ages, and 2 classes aged 8 who have had zero English instruction so far.
Today we covered off numbers 1 - 20 and the ABC's and saw a few cobwebs fly out of come students ears. I certainly think we have our work cut out for us, but with only two sessions half an hour in length per week, I can't be sure how much we can really cram in.
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