Jack (6th grade), Owen (4th grade), Fiona (K)

FINALLY, the first day of school. (This is posted late, because Molly, Spartan and I had a long nap to celebrate no one else being in the house.)

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Maasai Schoolchildren in their Outdoor "Classroom"

I think that some of the times we’ll most remember is when we visited schools. We spent a short time at a Maasai school near Lake Ayashi and spent a lot of time at the Haydesh Primary School near Karatu.

The Maasai school we visited was just for the youngest children. It was held outdoors, under a shade tree with one teacher. They were in the process of building a classroom so that they could continue lessons when it rains. The children go to school in the mornings and then help around the boma (family community) in the afternoons.

Haydesh Primary School is VERY isolated. It took us almost two hours from Karatu to get there on winding, dirt roads. We could see that during the rainy season the roads would definitely be washed out.

The area has been hit hard by the drought over the past few years. Although the rains late last year and into this year have improved things very much, we could tell that the area was still struggling. Most of the residents of the area are from the Iraqw tribe. Their mother tongue is a Cushtic language (related to Ethiopian), so that means Kiswahili (the “official” language of Tanzania) is the second language for students and English is the third.

Children of the Haydesh Primary School

The parents of the community are responsible for building the school, and once that is done the government provides a corrugated tin roof and teachers. This school had three classrooms complete — for seven grades — and three teachers. Another classroom was almost complete. They combined classes when they can — for example, the third through sixth graders were together — otherwise, the children wait outside until a teacher and classroom is available. The school has no electricity or running water.

The oldest children could speak English as well as Kiswahili and all introduced themselves to us. Their lessons are mostly in Swahili, but they do a lot of work in English as well. The very youngest children, the five-, six- and seven-year-olds were working on learning Kiswahili so they had classes in their mother tongue as well.

The classrooms all had “Little House on the Prairie”-style desks, with two or three students per desks. The students shared textbooks AND they shared notebooks/paper. The school obviously desperately needs supplies. One of my favorite moments was when we’d been there about 10 minutes and Jack whispered to me, “I think I should suggest a CSO (the Germantown Academy student-run Community Service Organization) project to help this school. They need notebook paper and pencils.”

More photos from our school visits are here.

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Sorry. I don’t have time to make this all fancy and embed the video. Click on the link below to see Fiona’s part in the Pre-K “Mother Goose” play.

MOVIE0002

ETA: Here’s a photo of Fiona and her class in their costumes. Too cute!!

PKW, Stars of the Mother Goose Play

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“Good Dancing Restores The Community To Wholeness”
(African proverb)

The third grade at Germantown Academy has been studying Africa since they returned from Christmas vacation.  Among the topics they’ve studied are masks, stories, food, culture, geography, music; but, mostly importantly, they studied DANCE.

The students have  been working each week this year with Jeannie Osayande, director of the Dunya Performing Arts Company, and drummers from company.

Yesterday, just before early dismissal for yet another (!) snow storm, the third grade presented their dance performance  to a full house  of parents, friends and all the Lower School students in the arts center. It was a fabulous show.

There was even a surprise appearance yesterday by a Chakaba, a masked stilt dancer. The Chakaba brings blessings to festivities. There was also a demonstration of the Afro-Brazilian martial art of Capoeira. And the show ended with a rousing dance by the entire Lower School faculty!!

Owen’s class did a dance from the West African countries of Mali, Guinea and Senegal called the “Mandiani.”   It is performed traditionally in the celebration of ‘Coming of Age’ ceremonies. Mandiani is also performed at weddings and other social events and is also one of the fastest, most energetic and exciting dances of West Africa.

Then it was back to the Lower School and the third graders read aloud their original African fables. Owen’s was titled “How the Leopard Got Its Spots,” and was a beautifully illustrated and bound book that he had made. (He hasn’t brought his book home yet, but I’ll scan the pages and post when he does.)

Photos from the day are here.

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Jack’s class has been studying major 20th century events. This was what he wrote for one of his assignments.

A Polish Cavalryman Remembers WWII

The tanks came over the hills like iron mountains.
Planes in swarms like hornets filled our skies.
My brave Polish brothers swept back like unwanted leaves.
The Germans came into our land.

Their put their chambers of death on our land.
Fellow citizen who were only different in German eyes, not ours,
Annihilated by the invaders, but not forgotten by us.
The Germans put death on our land.

I had been trained to fight with my bay stallion.
Together we went to war.
Flesh and blood fought iron and steel.
We fought the Germans on our land.

Against their tanks, we stood no chance.
But, sabers aloft, we charged them full force.
So many died, but their spirits still live.
Riding away, rivers of blood followed me down the hill.
The Germans could never take the soul from our land.

They may have held our land for many years,
They may have killed many of my fellow Poles,
They may have caused a never-ending circle of death,
But as long as we kept hope,
The German never took over our land.

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The big-deal Halloween parade at Germantown Academy was today. Everyone looked wonderful. The whole school, from pre-K to seniors comes out to the quad and parades around.

The PK teachers were famous GA athletes from the past, the 3rd grade teachers were Phillies “fans,” and the 5th grade teachers were bats in the belfry.

More photos are here.

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Owen had to give his first book report this week. He read an abridged version of The Man in the Iron Mask by Dumas.

Over the past two weeks or so, once he’d read the book, Owen wrote an outline with setting, characters, plot summary and high point all detailed. The assignment was to deliver the book report to the class, using props.

Owen, being Owen, of course, had to take things a step further and BECOME the main character, Philippe. So he delivered his report in the first person, wearing the iron mask.

Our goals for the project diverged a bit. I thought he should have worked more on the content of his report; Owen was concerned that he needed to “develop my character a little bit more.”

The initial feedback from the teacher was the he did a great job and that his book report was quite unique.

(In other school news, Jack found out today that he is in one of the two math groups working at the highest level in his grade. We’re very proud of him, because that was one of his goals for the year.)

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Ever since he heard the school orchestra last year, Owen has wanted to play the cello. Only four third graders get to play cello, so we had to get up very early one Monday morning to get to school extra early so he could put his form under the music teacher’s door and be sure to be picked. It worked.

Owen got his cello this week and had his first lesson yesterday. He will take one lesson (during school hours) a week and have one 3rd grade strings ensemble practice once a week.

He came straight home yesterday and did his 15 minutes practice. Unfortunately, at this point, he only knows one note.  (I have to say that beginner cello is a lot more pleasant to listen to than beginner saxophone!)

Stay “tuned” for more cello news throughout the year. Maybe I can post an MP3 for your listening pleasure.

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