| Day | 8:30-10:30 | 10:30-12:30 | 2:00-4:00 | 4:00-5:30 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Plan for orientation, 1.5 hour break | Wait around for rabies shots | Do nothing | Nothing in particular, 5-minute explanation of Freetown map |
| 2 | Plan for PST, 1.5 hour break | Development talk that gave no actual information | First Krio Lesson (quite fun) | Meet President of Sierra Leone (very cool) |
| 3 | Krio lesson | Med kits | Skits on meeting host family | Do nothing/medical interview |
| 4 | Drive to Bo | Still driving to Bo | Lunch with host family | Dinner with host family |
| W1 6/24 5 | Talk about host families (fun) | Useless safety/security talk with lots of buzz words and acronyms | Useless development talk about listening to communities rather than simply advancing your own agenda | Krio lesson |
| 6 | Krio lesson | Regurgitation of useless safety talk | Somewhat entertaining talk on customs | Krio lesson |
| 7 | Krio lesson | 4MOST Lesson Planning Exercise (not entirely useless) | EPIC Journey (actually extremely non-epic mental health talk) | Krio lesson |
| 8 | Krio lesson | Medical Policies and First Aid (If you crash your motorcycle, call local doctor, not PC) | How to dumb down your speech so African children can understand | Plan for going to villages |
| 9 | Watch village teachers lecture on proper diet and letter writing | Krio lesson with talking to people in village | SL Education System | Wandering around village with town cryer. |
| W2 7/1 12 | Educational Materials (textbooks and gradebooks - not actually used) | Krio lesson (wandering around village, chatting up locals) | Cultural Sensitivity, Take #124 | Krio lesson |
| 13 | First goal of PC (I skipped, but sounded worthless) | Diversity (brought in Indian and Chinese-American PCVs) | Krio | Sexual Assault Awareness (How to avoid inadvertently enticing Sierra Leoneons). Site Interview (to determine where I would be sent) |
| 14 | Using language to avoid harassment. Independence Day Activity Planning | The dangers of a singular story (somewhat interesting) | Connecting different components of mathematic/scientific literacy (100% worthless) | Learning how to present Independence Day activities in Krio |
| 15 | Krio - Gender Equality (very nearly a mutiny on account of universal frustration) | VATs discussing cheating and other challenges | Math Syllabus (i.e. no matter what we do, no student in our schools has any chance of passing the tests) | Watching Anchorman with popcorn and soda (to celebrate the 4th) |
| 16 | War Don Don (movie and discussion with trainers who were there) | Science Syllabus, lecture plan practice | Learning about Community Mapping and Pairwise Ranking (this latter term could actually be really useful for one of my sociological research projects!) | Krio - Exploring the burroughs of New York |
| W3 7/8 19 | Krio - Transportation | Different teaching strategies (repetition vs. substitution vs. transformation) | Drawing children's books based on stories (??) | Krio - Talking to taxi drivers |
| 20 | PeerTeach (25-minute lessons to classes made of 5 peers) - I taught on binary numbers | Dental Health/Nutrition, Cooking Demo by PCV couple | How to use protractor/compass | Krio - Telling thieves what's up |
| 21 | Transportation Safety - "I ask that you seriously consider this serious topic with all seriousness" | Malaria - drawing your blood and performing a rapid test (cool!) | Krio - Ordering at a Cookery | Gardening - putting seeds in the ground (I really wanted this to be useful, but it was not) |
| 22 | Teaching a lesson in village classroom (drawing to scale) | Teaching another lesson (perimeter) | Community Mapping Exercise | Money Matters Krio Lesson and walkaround town (visit to PCV's house) |
| 23 | Krio | Relationships (with other volunteers and locals) | Teaching Science Experiments, i.e. "How to suck acids/bases through a pipette with your mouth" | Krio - Walk to lorry park to practice ordering at restaurants |
| W4 7/15 26 | Krio | Sample Math lesson from VAT and 2-hour Q&A | Student-centered classroom (i.e., heed your students' need. i.e., naptime) | Krio - Visiting the Tailor to get fine clothes sewn |
| 27 | Krio - Visiting the Doctor | Sexual Assault Awareness (part 2) | Community development talk of some kind, I think | Sites Announced! I'm going to Jaiama Nimikoro in the Kono district |
| 28 | Krio - Medical Care and Parts of the Body | Gender Equality (not again!) and STIs (i.e., how to correctly put on a condom) | Involving Youth in Social Programs (painfully useless) | Krio - Dirty Jokes |
| 29 | Krio - Language Test Practice | Demystifying Critical Thinking | Checkup exams for language , safety and security, community development and cross-cultural | Sample questions: "What is the Duty phone number?", "Name 5 ways in which Sierra Leone is different from America" |
| 30 | Kono - Intro to Language (tones, nasal consonants) | Gender Roles/Intro to Islam | Kono - How to name your children | Making Math/Science sessions more engaging/Slave labor for clearing more land for Mapco farm |
| W5 7/22 33 | Supervisor Conference: Peace Corps Mission and Goals | Roles and Responsibilities | American Diversity | Peer Observations |
| 34 | Supervisor Conference: Rehash of what was said Monday | Teacher Communities of Practice | Scenarios - what to do if you see your volunteer riding an okada | Travel logistics |
| 35-39 | Site Visit (i.e. Drink way too many Star Beers with principal, NGO officers, paramount chief, and supreme court justice) | |||
| W6 7/29 40 | Site Visit Review | Classroom Management (i.e. Don't hit your kids) | Visual Aids (charts and stuff) | Revisiting Krio |
| 41 | Kono: Numbers | Creativity with Limited Resources (this class was a very non-creative use of two hours of our lives) | Teaching Vocabulary (not sure what this was about, but it was a huge waste of time) | Kono: 'I am jumping' |
| 42 | Kono: Names of random objects we see around us | Error Correction (i.e. Don't call your students stupid) | Kono: Names of jungle animals | Summer School Briefing |
| 43 | Kono: Coming and going | Safety and Security: Bystander Intervention (sadly, they didn't show us the final episode of Seinfeld) | Assessments (giving tests) | Life Skills Presentation Prep |
| 44 | Kono: I'm going to the toilet! | Q&A with VATs | Prep for Life Skills | Presentation on Malaria and Nutrition |
| W7 8/5 47 | Summer school - JSS2 (7th-ish grade) Rules and Math Assessment | Summer school - JSS1 (6th-ish grade) Rules and Math Assessment | Kono: Animals of the Bush | Class Prep |
| 48 | Summer school - JSS2 (7th-ish grade) Introduction to Fractions | Summer school - JSS1 (6th-ish grade) Introduction to Fractions | Observations and Evaluations (i.e., We are watching you - don't screw up!) | Kono: Fruits |
| 49 | Summer school - JSS2 (7th-ish grade) Learning Fractions through Pizza | Summer school - JSS1 (6th-ish grade) Learning Fractions through Pizza | Reporting your Coworkers for Illicit Behavior | Meeting with Country Director pertaining to earlier bicycling transgression... |