Ratna Rajya Secondary School - Birin Chowk

So now that you're all caught up on life, and I've been there for two weeks, its time to talk about my school. I am teaching at Ratna Rajya Secondary School, in Birin Chowk, a village about the size of Laxmi Bazaar. It's about 2.5 km down the mountain to get there, which Caitlin and I walk every morning and afternoon. The teachers seem to think this is hilarious, and are having trouble understanding that we like walking. Yesterday they were still incredulous, especially because it was pretty hot - they said that our faces would like like a ripe apple when we got home!
The school has kids from ECD (think kindergarden) right through to Class 10. We teach Classes 1,2 and 5 together, I teach Class 3 and Caitlin teaches Class 4. Next week we are going to start teaching Class 10 as well, which I am very excited about. The classes have between 30 and 60 kids in them; each year has its own classroom where the students remain, and the teachers move around.
The school itself is rather poor, and is apparently the poorest of those AV's are teaching at this year. The building is concrete, as are most buildings in Nepal, with no electric lights in the classrooms. Therefore we are dependent on what light comes in through the windows (glassless, just open space with bars across) and through the door. Its amazing how quickly you get used to the lack of light, and its usually so sunny outside that enough light comes in anyways. There is a blackboard at the front of each classroom, which is the extent of the teaching materials, unless we bring in something of our own. Quite the change from laptops, smart boards and projectors I'd gotten used to at Queens! Next month the school is celebrating its golden jubilee, which is very exciting. All the teachers are talking about it all the time, and the entire school is preparing. Its shaping up to be a great party!
The kids themselves are wonderful in person, but most are very rowdy in class, the younger ones especially. Class 5 is quite quiet, as is Class 3 once there is something on the board for them to work on. The biggest difference I see in those classes is that when a student has finished his/her work, they will stand up for you to take a look. Class 5 is pretty quiet about this, but Classes 2 and 3 like to call out to you to be sure you know they are finished. All very well, but when there are 40 kids all doing it, it can get very loud! Today I brought in a chart to Class 3, where they get a checkmark for doing their classwork and a checkmark for being quiet, and anyone with 2 checkmarks gets a sticker next to their name. The chart itself went over very well, and everyone was excited about finding their name, but for today I think it increased the noise level rather than decreased it! Very few kids got stickers, but I am hoping that those who didn't will want them once they see the blank spot next to their name next class.
Class 1 is by far the most trying part of the day. They have learned their letters and numbers up to 10 already. At this point it is time to begin teaching simple words and phrases, but we are finding it extremely difficult to convey the message when we they have next to no English and we have just as little Nepali. The problem arises when they get bored or frustrated, both emotions they take out in typical 6-year old fashion - lots of noise and moving about. They are getting better, but it will take time and patience! On Tuesday we played a game where I yell out a letter of the alphabet, and they have to make that shape with their bodies. They didn't seem to be getting it, but yesterday were clamouring to play all class, so we played at the end. Its very cute to see these little kids doing the YMCA, because I've taken to calling the letters in that order. I'm going to make a movie of it on my camera at some point.
School runs from Sunday to Friday, although Friday is a half day. Saturday and half of Friday are the weekend. It was odd to go to school last Sunday, it felt like Monday even though it was actually Sunday. The first 2 weeks have gone by relatively quickly, albeit with lots of frustrations, but the classes have been getting better. 10 more weeks to go, so here's hoping it keeps getting better!