9B…. Or my little rockstars, as I like to call them…

This year, unlike last year, I am a D.T. – or Directora da Turma. For those of you who don’t speak Portuguese and/or are not familiar with the Mozambican school system (sooo everyone? I thought so…), it’s basically a homeroom teacher.  So I have my own class (9B, obviously). In addition to being their English teacher, I am their homeroom teacher as well…. Basically, I’m like their school mom. 

The other teachers told me that I was very lucky to have gotten a 9^th grade class.  The 8^th graders are clueless (adorable, but clueless) and the 10^th graders have national exams – which adds a whole other level of stress and work.  Being a DT is totally different from just being a teacher. Last year, I just kind of bopped around, graded my tests and could peace out after that. Not this year…

I have 57 students that I am completely responsible for.  If one of them acts up in another teacher’s class – I get a note about it.  If 3 of them show up late for first period – I hear about it.  And I’m expected to dole out punishments like candy… I’m still getting the hang of that part (Right now it involves me flashing my mean face and making them stay after school to clean the classroom). If a mom shows up at school with a question about her kid, she gets sent right to me. P.S., Little American girl? Not what the moms are expecting….

Some other little gems that have come up… National Statistics day. That was a blast. Basically, we spent the day in our classroom (“we” being me and my 57 kids) working through an absurd number of national statistics.  It went like this “If you are a 15 year old boy, stand up” (and then I counted and recorded the number). Side note – my 9^th graders range from 14 to 20. Then we got to some really awkward statistics… “if your Mother died, stand up.”  “If you’re an orphan, stand up.” “If you are repeating 9^th grade because you failed last year.” Are you just cringing? Political correctness has yet to arrive in Mozambique. Just wait, it gets better…. “If you have any kind of physical disability, stand up” “if you have problems hearing” (that one was ironic…it resulted in someone tapping the kid who has auditory problems and telling him to stand up). “If you are a ‘mentally slow’.”

Another one of my favorites – planting. Every Mozambican student is required to bring some kind of tree and plant it on school grounds.  This has resulted in me continually harassed my students to find and bring plants to school.  They’re sneaky though and try to sneak in just a branch they snapped off a tree. Now we (I) have to check for roots… We also have to do a lot of cleaning/hoeing/ physical labor…. Which they love. Not.

Don’t worry though! Being their DT has allowed me to get to know these kids much better than any of my other classes.  I know all of their names. I check up with their other teachers to see how they’re doing. They come to me with their random problems.  My little chefe (think, class president), Paulo, is an angel – so responsible, so kind … it literally broke my heart when he stood up for ‘orphan’ on statistics day. I kinda like that when I see them doing something good, I get to say ‘oh yeah, he’s one of my kids…they’re rockstars, I know!!’