OIE (oddities of international education)

At a later date in a more lively state of mind I could elucidate several strange facets of the world of international education, but in this brief moment between dinner and sleep I thought I'd share two small curiosities that could happen only in my current situation:

1. Have you ever thought about the nuances of international curriculum? You would think that there would be math books in every shape, form and language- especially since a profit could be turned from such a production. Alas, just as in schools across America, here at the International School of Tanganyika we use Every Day Math, whose Ameri-centric bent becomes more apparent with each worksheet. In a county that uses Shillings, most commonly 10000tsh, 5000tsh and below, I am teaching quarters, nickels, pennies, and dimes. The thermometer worksheets are all in Fahrenheit, almost everywhere else in the world uses Celsius, and my very British team-mate has whited-out each time that it says "ballpark" in the estimation lessons because "America is the only place where baseball matters." I didn't realize the span of America's influence on the world until I left the country, there are second graders in Tanzania learning our currency system (of course I adapt it to include culturally relevant information, but they are tested on the dollar). My teammate can white-out every American term she can find, but we're using the curriculum of the red white and blue. Does this mean that we have the most progressive ideas, the most aggressive marketing, or simply the most comprehensive math book production? In my experience, Every Day Math is not the most well-engineered math program, but here it is  for better or worse, coloring my international classroom with even more America than I already inherently bring.

2. I am doing DRA testing to prepare for report cards (which, for those non-educators who have made it this far without leaving out of boredom, is a reading level test). I have this big cardboard box full of little flimsy books of varying levels of difficulty with corresponding fluency and comprehension trackers. Each day I lug it to a table outside of my classroom that we reserve for kids who need a quite place to work where the mosquitos will lend a natural consequence for all of the "bugging" they've been doing inside of the classroom walls. A child sits across from me and reads about a frog who learns a lesson, or a kid who collects rocks and I mark their mistakes and record their cute answers to "what do you think will happen next?" I was carrying on with this tradition today as usual when I noticed that the ground was covered with little gray bug wings about as narrow as my pinky toenail and three times as long. It looked as if there was a world war of the faeries or a cannibalistic termite ball on my front stoop in the night. They were everywhere, a literal carpeting of flimsy semitransparent bug wings, but no bugs! I was trying to focus on the accidental "why"s instead of "where"s and scrupulously tick off the words per minute, but my mind was inexorably repulsed and attracted to this curious sight. After wading through several student tests, I crunched my way over the forgotten battleground of disembodied wings to my next door neighbor's room and got the scoop: so before the rains here these winged maggots rise on the change in pressure, they swarm and are knocked to the ground by the showering of waterbombs. The rains are pretty ravishing here so I guess they just nail the poor things to the side walk. Their bodies are either eaten by birds and ants or are collected by people and fried for the protein. I have no idea why these poor little creatures find it necessary to come out at precisely the most deadly time there is, I don't even know what the things look like because all I could see for miles was the winged carnage they left behind, but I am certain that the entertainment that this fairytale occurrence provided me during an otherwise tedious task will fly beyond this stagnant wreckage to the hungry minds of you... my faithful readers and confidants!

Thank you for listening! Do share a response or two, I long to hear your voices!