Education

Every morning I have to break from whatever I am doing and head to the school for about 45 minutes to teach math class with some of the smartest and funniest kids I have ever known. Math class is pretty simple, you show up with some math books and check their homework and give them some games and practice quizzes etc.. I am fortunate that all the students like math class and are self motivated. It is honestly one of the funnest and easiest jobs I have here. Reducing fractions with these kids is easy compared to diagnosing connectivity issues between symptom-less domain computers, trust me.

There are two days a week that I teach another class at the school that makes me a superstar. I teach computer class. Nothing complicated, just how to use a mouse, keyboard, navigate windows, etc.. There are some math games, a typing game and a painting program that allows you to do all kinds of cool things. Some of them have become pretty good typists,  mathematicians, and digital artists. 

I remember not liking school much as a kid, but I always loved computer class. Well, the kids here are no different. On computer class day they eat their lunch as fast as they can and race back to school to wait for me to get there. I usually don't get there early. Initially I thought the excitement would die down in a few weeks, but it hasn't. 

Here are some pictures from the first day of computer class when they were learning about the built in web cams. Perhaps you can get a sense of the excitement that was there that first day.

half of the pictures turned out something like this. 

The other half were something like this.

 The kids were so excited the first day of computer class they could hardly sit still. I threatened that if they did not remain calm and obey they would be done with computer class. Then they would sit like angels. Then after a few minutes they would forget again and I would have to remind them. It was a bit crazy.

Since I have moved to Africa, Microsoft has released this operating system called windows 8. Have you heard of it?  I have had very little experience with it. Occasionally the hip traveler will pass through here with a windows 8 machine and I will be completely baffled by it. That's not good for the IT guy. But recently, there have been more and more of them popping up around here. In fact, all of the computers that the school uses are windows 8 computers. So, the students and I have been working on navigating windows 8 together. Sometimes I teach them, sometimes they teach me. It's an adventure, every time. Don't get me started on touch screen laptops.