New School Year

The new school year is now in full swing. Classes started January 17th, and I started teaching February 2nd. Normally it takes about a week for word to get out to all the students that classes have started seriously, so the first week is a wash. Then I had my mid-service conference in Maputo the 2nd week of classes. Then the (officially) 3rd week of classes, after I returned, the room wasn’t ready yet so I had to organize it for a few days before beginning teaching.
I guess I should mention that this year my only subject that I am teaching is TICs (Technologias de Informação e Comunicação) a.k.a. Computers for super beginners. I am actually really excited to just focus on one subject. Also, since we need computers to have class, the students come to me and I stay in one room instead of moving around like all the other subjects that just require a chalkboard. AND I got to make my own schedule, so I have year of 3 day weekends ahead of me which is convenient for my travel desires. TICs meets once a week for 2 hours for each class, meaning that I only have to develop 1 lesson plan each week and just teach it 10 to 20 times. Some may hate the thought of repeating so often, but I really love that I have to put minimal planning into each week. I have the entire 12th and 10th grades to teach this year, for a grand total of 10 classes of students (each with about 60 students therefore, a grand total of ~600 students).
I have written a previous entry last year about teaching computers to complete beginners, but I think that this year things will be much better. Last year I was unprepared for the difficulty in explaining how to move a mouse or click on an icon, much less in a second language. This year I have a co-teacher that is teaching all the 11th grade classes and he knows how to format the computers so now they all look the same and have the same programs. Also this year my language is at a higher level so it is much easier to run a class in Portuguese, plus way easier to discipline the classroom and keep everyone on track. It seems that the teaching part this year should fly by.