Factors and Multiples

Did fit in some breathing space yesterday which ended up being much needed as I had to go in and sub at school today. Went to visit someone not doing so well with depression and then headed to the quiz at Reps (we did fairly well in the first couple of rounds but fell apart a bit in the last round to our detriment). A friend came round for tea and to chat to two friends who work in NGOs that deal with human rights and justice here in Zim. It was interesting to listen to the work that is being done and their take on how things will pan out in these sectors with elections and their aftermath. The one person rightly said Zimbabwe is a country that has not really known nonviolence and there is a lot of trauma from this to deal with. Tree of Life does some great holistic therapy with victims of torture and abuse and they use ecological models to help people identify and deal with trauma.

Went to pick up the friend I was house sitting for. She was lucky she wasn't on the early morning flight on Wednesday as apparently when the plane landed in Joburg it had to immediately take off again due to wind or the runway being occupied - pretty hairy for all on board and according to a friend of a colleague at school, even those who were not at all religious were saying an Our Father for good measure.

The teacher I will be taking over from led assembly at school this morning and she did a great topic of growth mentality - very apt as they were getting their assessment grades back today. She gave the example of Michael Jordan and this quote

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." Michael Jordan

to try show how failure can be built on and you should never give up. She also said there is no magic wand to replace hard work. It was really good and she got the students thinking. I will have to do some research and serious preparation when it is my turn. She had most of the children's attention, except one child who decided to lie prostrate on the floor and and then proceeded to do rolly pollies to the door. In the interest of time he was left to do so.

Notes on supporting children with ADHD

Here are some points I noted down from last week's presentation given by Katherine Whitfield from St John's at the GTLD workshop. For those interested, there's a special workshop next week Saturday on teaching children with learning difficulties the STEM subjects at school.

GTLD or “gifted and talented” students with “learning differences.” Zimbabwe

Children with ADHD characteristically have persistent inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, hyper-focus and a difficulty in disengaging. This is often due to the fact that they are paying attention to a lot of stimuli at the same time but have a difficulty in filtering out what they need to. Sadly they are often stigmatised and left out. There is a need to help them in self awareness, managing their impulsivity and channeling their creativity. There is a higher prevalence in boys and it occurs in 3-5% of the population.

Many people may have some of the symptoms of ADHD but it could be that a child is under stimulated. Fidgeting is a form of processing information. ADD is like ADHD, but without the hyperactivity.

To help children with ADHD in the classroom, it is good to give one instruction clearly at a time. You should also write on the board and try asking another child if it will make the one with ADHD uncomfortable. It is better to discuss behaviour in private and create quiet areas. Allowing headphones to block out noise to help children revise is helpful and giving outlines for note taking can be useful or providing questions to answer or giving notes on a flash stick. If fidget spinners are too distracting, sticky stuff is a good idea. It is also good to change the pace of the lesson and provide varied activities in class.

ADHD simulation

Determined, Kind People Can Often Follow Ghostly Screams

I met the Iranian Ambassador properly at the beginning of my bio lesson this afternoon. My student hadn't actually done classification yet at school but wanted to do it any way, so we did and then started on biodiversity and conservation. She didn't really know what causes global warming and climate change so I suggested she try and watch an Inconvenient Truth (the first one) and I will try find a simplified video for next time. She also found it hard to believe that seaweed and algae are not plants so I had to go into their biology and characteristics a bit to convince her. I am enjoying teaching bio again and the new syllabus is good, although a bit brief in description, so I am trying to get hold of a copy of the prescribed text book but new it is US$89 - a bit steep. Gave my student the mnemonic above to learn taxonomic categories.

An Inconvenient Truth

The sequel to An Inconvenient Truth.

Found this explanation but if anyone has other suggestions do let me know :)

The talk at Mukuvisi Woodlands was good this morning. It touched on restoration and adaptive management and the idea of rewilding in Europe before turning to bottom up versus top down processes in ecosystems and looking at elephant populations in Hwange. It was fascinating to hear that lions have moved from taking baby elephants to adolescent ones now and apparently prides can take down two teenage elephants a week! This doesn't really make a dent though on elephant populations.

Rushed home after to do my first online lesson with my five year old in China. In some ways it was like old times but half way through his usual screen fatigue set in and he was ready to switch his computer off. He amazed me by being able to work out how to annotate and draw on shared documents on Zoom and we were able to get him to practise writing and reading over it. He told me about visiting Hong Kong on the way home to China and going to a large aquarium there. I even had baby brother crawl over mid-lesson and say hi. I have another lesson with him tomorrow morning at 9 am. Will go see a friend in hospital after that and then go to the quiz at Reps Theatre. Need to rest up a bit tomorrow afternoon as I feel like I am on a serious deficit of caffeine and energy - the marking this week really took it out of me 😝 I am going to have to really see what tutoring I will be able to feasibly continue with when I am full time next term.

When the caffeine wears off ...

Managed to finish the marking but man, I am going to have to get faster and become more ruthless in putting ticks or crosses. The English marking took way longer than the maths. Even though I did CELTA I am going to have to buff up on grammar rules and things these holidays. I find it tricky deciding how many syllables there are and not all phonemes automatically sound the same to me. I think we did more grammar in French at school than in English. Went to my friend Nina's this afternoon and she kindly gave me a whack of resources to use. I was marking until 1.30 am this morning and got up at 7 and finished at 11. I could feel my caffeine levels dropping around lunch and am in two minds about going out this evening. Will see, but if the others go out much later I think my duvet and sleep win.

Tomorrow morning I am going to a talk at Mukuvisi Woodlands by a visiting ecologist who looks at how large mammals are ecosystem engineers in Hwange. Should be interesting. Have just had my Chinese five year old's mum contact me to then ask for our first online lesson at 1pm tomorrow. Will be nice to reconnect with them. Need to prep for that and then am also putting together the lesson for my A level biology student - that's on biodiversity and classification. I also need to finish amending a wetland repot and then start the other one that is due. On Sunday morning I said I'd go along to the quiz at Reps Theatre.

Went to get some art supplies this afternoon - found paintbrushes going at a dollar each - very exciting!! There were more expensive ones too - I've lost my fan tail watercolour brush - hoping it will turn up and I didn't leave it at La Rochelle or something. Looking forward to going to art with Sarah Fynn on Wednesday and messing around with paint again. I have missed it and the other people and Sarah. Sadly can only go until the end of the holidays but Sarah says I can come again in the next school holidays. My other Chinese student cancelled this afternoon. I could have gone to a gym class as due to the marking yesterday I had to cancel my personal training. But I may have not had much energy today.

Working with a friend who has already set up a mental health trust to see how we can help those who urgently need medical assistance but don't have medical aid and can't afford to see a psychiatrist. It is early days but hoping can do something. It just will be tricky deciding who really needs help and who can afford it on their own. I need to email my psychiatrist to see what he suggests and what things are already in place to help these people. 

Still marking - the joys!

I surprised myself this morning. I managed to leave at 6.25 -AM - yes! and it took only 15 minutes (usually 25 minutes) to get to school. So I was there at 6.40 and beat all of my students and some of the other teachers. It has been a long day though. I stayed on to mark and sat marking solidly from one til 5 when I had to go back to Greystone Park to two more impacted sections of wetland. I still have 45 scripts to do by 1pm tomorrow - caffeine, I need you. I hope I get quicker at this as it is taking forever and my eyes are having to adjust to some very dyslexic scrawls at times. Am giving the mark for misspellings but sometimes I just can't tell what it says - and that's coming from me and my handwriting that I have to sometimes look twice at.

Break times are interesting observations of various behaviours as some of children sadly can't interact easily or do some very different things. At break today there were three temper tantrums and one child reported for putting stones down the loo. I will have to start intervening as it felt like all the other teachers had to go off to see to something at different points. My older group generally are fairly well behaved but there are a couple who can bully a bit. My class desperately wanted to swim as it was hot today but not everyone had finished doing the assessment test for which they can take as long as they need to and I couldn't be in two places at once. Next week they will be using the last half hour to start practising for the sports day on the last day. The classes will be mixed up into different teams and all the races involve team work and cooperation. They will have an Easter theme, with things like Feed the Rabbit and an Easter egg and spoon relay race. It should be quite fun - well that is unless we have more angry outbursts which is a possibility from some.

Went to my school friend's braai last night which was fun. Haven't seen her since high school and she hasn't been back in 10 years but she's really enjoyed being back. Saw other girls from school and it was nice to catch up. They're planning a girls' night out tomorrow starting at Queen of Hearts and going to Corky's and I'm not sure where else. Will see if I am still alive after finishing marking and teaching. Hopefully will go for a bit of it. Apparently some of them have met some of the cricketers here for the World Cup qualifier and they might join us.

Queen of Hearts

But this might be me tomorrow night ...

Went briefly to the exhibition at The Corridor by Sorella's this evening by Calistas Thabani - like some of his pieces - very different and colourful. I am going back to join Sarah Fynn and the others for art on Wednesday mornings next week until I start full time teaching next term. Looking forward to getting my paintbrushes out again.

One report down, marking & lesson prep to go

Finally finished the one wetland report. Still have another one to do but now need to finish marking exam papers and prepare tomorrow's maths lesson. Yesterday at my new school the one teacher had to intervene in a playground squabble over who could go on the swing. The one child was refusing to get off so the teacher said she would count to ten and then it was someone else's turn. The child promptly replied that they could count to a hundred and nine! Um, that wasn't the point but so glad they could.

There was a huge python captured in Mount Pleasant yesterday. With the loss of wetlands, along with the heavy rains, I think we are likely to see more snakes in gardens. Just not eagerly anticipating them in our house and yard. I deal fairly well with spiders but snakes are not my favourite critters, I won't lie.

Dropping the friend I am house sitting for at the airport in an hour and will then take up residence cat sitting (I hope they don't bring me a snake!) If anyone is looking for a kitten there is a stray kitten that comes and gets food there that is looking for a home. I will go to a school friend's braai for a bit and then will have to do some more work.

Thinking about trying to set something up for people locally who can't afford medical aid but urgently need psychiatric treatment. I need to talk to my psychiatrist about what is already in place and what he would suggest but my heart does go out to people who just can't afford to be treated. I am lucky in that my medical aid does cover 6 psychiatric visits a year and if I have to be hospitalised but it doesn't cover therapy which is also important. I want to help those though who can't afford any of this and are in a really bad way. If anyone has suggestions or contacts please feel free to message me. Zimbabwe only has around 12 psychiatrists I think. Dixon Chibanda has created an amazing project called The Friendship Bench, but there is still a gap for those who really need medication or intervention.

On another topic, thinking of trying again at exhibiting at the Wild Geese Art Festival this year. I need to dig out my paintbrushes and canvases and get going. Once I get my next wetland report done. Got a whatsapp message (seems to still work in China) from my five year old's dad to say they are now settling in back home and will be in touch. There was a photo of my five year old all swaddled up against the cold. I do miss him.

Justin Bieber était à l'école avec moi?

Have been working at my wetland reports today, had personal training at lunchtime, emptied our old car out and cleaned it (with our gardener's help) to sell it, then taught my form four and my ten year old Chinese French student. With my French student I asked him to tell me about his half term from the French School - they had a week and a bit off. Well he was super excited to ask me if I had watched Black Panther as this is now his ultimate favourite movie. I asked him if he knew that one of the actresses, Danai Gurira, is from Zimbabwe. He did not know this. I then told him she had been a senior in my high school when I was at school at Convent. Well he could hardly contain himself and it took a while for him to calm down. I think I have shot up again in his esteem, not only did I go to school with Danai but my cousin helped sew the yellow dress in Beauty and the Beast. His next question was did anyone else like Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande go to school with me? - haha, um no, sorry.

It is looking like quite a busy week. I don't have to prepare lessons this week for the school as they are doing assessment tests but I will be marking some of them. Have quiz tomorrow at the Mustard Seed, a school friend is back from the UK and having drinks on Wednesday and Thursday there is an art exhibition opening at Sorella's Pizzeria. I start cat sitting from Wednesday.

Getting used to the new car a little more. Only problem is the manual and sound system are all in Japanese but I have worked out how to play CDs and am happily driving along to the sounds of Enya.