Etoys Lesson 3

O.M.G.!

I title this post "O.M.G.!", in response to yesterday's "O.M.G.", because it is nearly the polar opposite of yesterday.

In fact, nearly the polar opposite of....noon today.

Ned saw me over lunch. I was a nervous wreck. The iPhone wasn't working, class was not as I had hoped, things were tearing me apart. I could hardly take another minute.

And then, the sky opened up.

Spoke with both UNICEF and Voice of America about funding our program this morning. Both organizations are definitely interested in lending a hand. It will take a lot of pushing, but things are looking up for us. Even the US Embassy might be able to help if I can think of a way to rework the proposal.

So I leave things with a smile on my face.

I get to class plenty late, having been at Voice of America in the afternoon. But the teachers know I'll be arriving later and they know to start class without me. When I get there, I see some kids playing in the schoolyard, but the school itself looks empty. I saw Professora Adelina's car outside of the yard so I know the teachers are at least still here, but where are the students?

Slowly, I make my way into the first classroom.

And there I see Professor Miguel, and a whole group of students, quietly focused on their computer screens. One student looks up. He sees me. "Professora," he says, talking to me. "Come see my painting!"

This is the beauty of Etoys Lesson 3.

I go into the second classroom and it is exactly the same. Except this time the tables are rearranged so they're all facing each other. The students are equally silent, drawing. The class is nearly the opposite of yesterday. It is perfectly peaceful. The students are drawing houses, trees, sky. It is so beautiful and I am just beaming.

Everything we went through yesterday is worth these moments.

When we finish class, I try not to bother the teachers. Ok, so they haven't taught the students to draw their pictures using individual items (pressing "keep" over and over). I mentioned that to the teachers and we're going to do it tomorrow.

We also had one student try to make with his computer when it was time to go home. The kids are still pretty bummed that they can't take the computers home.

But things are peaceful. We're getting more chargers from the STeP UP office, Faia is fixing the power strips, the teachers are teaching class and the students are happy.

Drove home on my motorcycle. Really killed it...felt great. Then I fixed my iPhone. All of the stress from the last two weeks has miraculously melted away.

First day of class, no energy, sigh

Teachers Teach Each Other Etoys

Student Interviews, Part One

O.M.G.

If I so much as look at another computer I am going to scream.

Unfortunately I have to look at my computer in order to type this, so consider me screaming.

So the things that are most getting to me- totally not OLPC-related whatsoever. Trying to unlock an iPhone that I got for my friend Kilson here. Thought it was unlocked (EVEN PAID A GUY TO DO IT) but alas, it wasn't. So I'm $200 in the hole if I can't fix it, and I've been working on it for like 2-3 hours per day trying to get it working, and it's looking grim. So now not only am I poor again, but I look untrustworthy to him. Grrrrr.

Ok, now for the actual things.

So I spend the whole morning loading Etoys 4 to the computers. The thing that the teachers don't know is that we're eventually going to have to reflash all of the computers, and when we do that, we'll have to reload Etoys 4 again. But there just wasn't enough time to reflash 100 computers this morning AND add Etoys, so I did the quick solution and will slowly reflash in waves, a few at a time. Actually had a decent time this morning- the sun was shining, I was playing music on my computer really loud, some of my students came in and asked if they could play with the computers while I worked and I said fine so I had lots of help and definitely plenty of company too.

About half of our power strips are fixed, thanks to Faia. That was good. Energy was kicking. Plugging in 100 computers ends up being a lot more work than you think, so I really didn't have much time to charge these things by myself, but I was able to get Etoys 4 onto almost all of them.

"Almost" because a lot of the computers are not in the condition they should be in. This is why I started to get a little bit frustrated (or pretty angry) with the teachers. Some computers were missing keys, others had broken screens. I think in the 80 or so computers I worked on, there were at least 5 with screens that were just totally useless, maybe another 5 with keyboard problems, and maybe another 5 that had random problems like dead batteries, or just wouldn't start up right. So that's nearly but not quite 20% of the computers I worked on that have pretty serious problems that render them beyond use, though they do not render them unable to be fixed.

Anyway I got frustrated with the teachers because, why didn't the teachers TELL me anything? And on top of that, telling me things is not the important things. But just like the broken power strips, whyyyy did the teachers not DO anything about it? Why didn't they talk to the students? Why did they not reprimand them for not taking good care of their computers? Why did they not kick them out of the class as they said they would? It's as if these teachers are afraid of taking action about anything. They say to me, "Ah, well now that you're here, it's not a problem anymore, is it?" Why, because I'M going to do everything FOR YOU???

As you can see, I got a bit miffed. But I know these are just steps in the process. I know that. Soon the teachers will be able to do everything themselves. By taking care of things, I am showing them not to stand around when stuff gets destroyed. Not that they are used to being able to do anything anyway, because usually doing something requires money, and money is what they don't have. But at least getting them into the mindset of contacting me or STeP UP would be a great start.

So after four hours of installing Etoys 4, I take an hour-long break and go home for lunch. When I come back, the teachers have all left and the director has shut his door. And locked it. Which means, all of the computers are locked inside. We have wait nearly 1.5 hours for the director to come back and unlock the room for us. He's angry at us for having left the computers in his office if we needed them. Miguel is mad at me for having left the school without telling someone to tell the director to leave the office open (as if I had any idea that the office wouldn't be open all day long). I'm mad because I'm just exhausted of having to take responsibility for everything. And we're all bored as hell as we wait for José António, the director, come back.

So I pick up a piece of chalk and spend 20 minutes playing "Hangman" with the kids, and they have remembered the game flawlessly. They also remember "7 Up" which they request we play after, but the director gets here before we have a chance.

The next 30 minutes is pure chaos. The kids are used to having the computers themselves, so we're not used to having to sort with 100 kids about whose computer is what. So here we are, setting up power strips (turns out one of the power strips that Faia apparently fixed is NOT working), plugging computers in (oh, by the way, only about 50% of the chargers work too), and sorting out computers. The kids are unstoppable, 100 kids just yelling like crazy people. It's impossible to maintain order because my voice is drowned out by the students just yelling. They want their computer, their charger doesn't work, they have no place to plug in, they want to know if they can take their computer home today (a common question).

I lose it. I yell quite loudly, to say the very least, something along the lines of "Everyone sit down and be quiet or we will stop this computer program forever. And I am NOT JOKING!!! THIS COMPUTER CLASS WILL BE OVER!!!!!!" This achieves a manageable level of order. I know the kids are excited. I know they're not used to getting something so valuable, and they're hanging onto them as much as possible. These kids are fighters and I respect them so much for that. They have had lives that are harder than I could ever imagine. But in my classroom, I was not about to accept rowdiness, even over these laptops.

Finally, when the kids have the computers, there is a silence. Only about 60-70% of the computers are plugged in. Some students have to share with other students because there aren't enough chargers, and the computers are out of battery life (though there are more chargers at the STeP UP office, thank God). The teachers have divided the students into two classes, and for some reason divided themselves not in half but in four teachers in one room and one in the other.

But there is finally peace.

Until Miguel comes up to me and says, "So, what are we doing today?"

And I am about to lose my head right then and there. I as calmly as possible say "Lessons 1 and 2 of Etoys." He says, "actually, I'd prefer we not do Lessons 1 and 2, and just do a presentation of Etoys for the kids and talk about what they're going to be covering."

"Fine," I say, leaving the classroom.

And that, my friends, is when the power goes out.

No joke. The power goes out. And then Miguel finds me and says, in so many words, "See, this is why you need to get us a generator."

And I say "You're right. Why don't you guys write up a grant and then we can all go and try to get funding for it?" He nods. I know he's not trying to stick it in my face that I haven't gotten them a generator. I think he realizes that it's not as easy as it seems.

So we spend another 30 minutes giving class until pretty much all of the computers are out of battery life, and then, in amazing order, we are able to get the kids to put their computers in the local computer lab (a closet-sized space with about eight computers in it smushed together) so that we don't have to worry about the director anymore.

And when class is over, I say to the teachers, "Let's have a meeting instead of our teacher class." And we agree that we need it.

These are the things we talk about:

• The fact that the computers are in poor shape. However, the teachers have at this point become adamant about letting the new sixth grade students take their computers home, just like this past sixth grade did. With class only once per week on Saturday, the students are doing the majority of their learning from home. Not to mention, if the computers stay at the school, we're going to go through the chaos we had today on a weekly basis, handing these computers out. Here's how we decide to ultimately deal with the situation:
1. We will have three teacher-parent meetings throughout the school year. The first will be an informational meeting for the parents about the program, and about how students need to take care of their computers. The second will be an evaluation meeting in February to ask parents how things are going. The third will be a final year celebration, where students will turn in their computers and receive certificates, and parents, STeP UP members, government workers and other people will be invited. By involving parents, we can make things more clear.
2. We will write "Property of the São João School" in big permanent marker on the computers, so that the students have the constant reminder that they will not be keeping them at the end of the school year.
3. We will dedicate a part of one class per month on how to care for computers. This may mean doing presentations about how to care for the computers (or even what NOT to do), writing essays or even having a class-wide cleaning session with damp towels so that the computers look nicer and less dusty.

• Miguel wants to give the kids candy in addition to their certificates at the ending party. I'm not sure why that is the case. He says it will boost morale...but I'm sort of like, what's the point of boosting morale at the END of the year? If we want to boost morale, it should be at the beginning/middle of the year. But on top of that, I don't know if giving candy is the answer. Oh, I don't know.
• We need more chargers. I can get quite a few at STeP UP so this is not a problem in the short-term. But in the long term, we have to teach the students how to properly wrap the chargers, and while we're on it, how to take care of the power strips too (like not yanking them). However, I really don't think it's the students that are causing the charger problems. They're simply burning out. Miguel says someone local might be able to fix them. In the long term, this might be a good solution.
• We need to plan a meeting with the director so we can talk about payment, these three parent/teacher meetings we want to hold, and next year's selection process. The teachers aren't sure how the director selected this past year's students to participate in the computer class, but they want to have some say in the selection next year, which I think is a great idea.
• I brought about 27 working laptops with me this year. 20 of them are going to stay in the São João School on a permanent basis. That way, if former students ever want to come back to São João to use the laptops, they simply have to come to the school, ask one of the teachers and then they'll be able to use them (as long as they stay on the school grounds). As students seem to live pretty close by to the school, I think this is a totally reasonable request and a great way to keep kids interested and excited even when they're not at São João anymore.

That's it for today. My brain is fried. Sometimes I wonder if a computer program should be this much work- if the fact that so much push is involved means that the program is inefficient and, in some ways, unreasonable. There are so many details, always so many setbacks. But I think about the kids yesterday that said they wanted to be computer programmers when they grow up, and I think about how for these kids, it's got to be worth it.

Oh wait, we actually need ENERGY for class??

So I arrive at the São João School at 9am sharp. We had to call the director on Friday to make sure he'd have the school open for me to install Etoys 4 on all of the computers, so I was pleasantly surprised when the school was open and ready to go.

I went into the director's office and took out the computers among the stacks there. Only six to start, as I only had five functioning USB drives anyway. I brought them into an empty classroom, a small crowd of students that were hanging in the schoolyard following me. I make a mental note to get these computers cleaned up- or, even better, to have the students clean them with some damp rags. Even one of the kids following me asked if the computers could be cleaned, because they're so dirty- that goes to show you that it's not just me being a neat freak. The computers are just covered in dust, so much that they've taken on this really nice orange-ish color. I'm not as annoyed about it as I might be, though- the fact that they are so covered in pen marks and stickers and grime shows that they have been well used, and well loved.

Then I go to grab one of the power strips that the OLPCorps had brilliantly created for the students here. They made just enough for the students- I think there are about 70 or 80 outlets total that I know about. The outlets are a little bit sketchy, to say the least -- some of them obviously do not work, as it's just wire and metal and no plastic area where you plug in. Others are obviously burnt. But I give it a shot, anyway.

I plug the first computer into the first outlet and hold my breath. It works, thank God.

But unfortunately, none of the other nine outlets work until I reach the last one. On the second power strip, one outlet works. On the third, none. On the fourth, two. On the fifth, none.

Maybe I can put Etoys 4 on the computers without plugging them in, I think. But alas- the computers are all completely drained. They all need to be recharged, and now.

And that's when I knew class would be quite different than we expected.

I think I successfully loaded Etoys 4 onto about five of the computers. However, at about 10:45am I ended up calling Dany in a rut. There's no way around it besides getting new power strips. I asked Ned how much it might cost to buy new ones. "Oh, I don't know," he says. "Maybe 300?"

300 means 300,000 Dobras, or about $15 USD, or about twice as much as it would cost in the States (which sounds about right, as things that are imported- or about 90% of all things- are horribly expensive due to importing and customs fees). I think about his power strip which has about six or eight plugs on it. That's going to cost me about $150, just to get enough outlets for all of the students at school.

Dany and I steal all of the power strips from the school and throw them in the bed of the truck. Our friend, Faia, comes too. We go directly to the hardware store, counting how many power strips need new plugs, how many new outlets are needed and how much new wire. We count about 16 meters of wire, 13 outlets (these are the plastic parts of the outlets that are ripped off the power strip, and do not include the outlets that look fine but still don't work) and five new plugs (a number of the power strips don't even have plugs attached to them anymore-- they've been literally ripped off the wire). It all rings up to 775,000 Dobras, or about $39.16 USD. When we get home, Faia offers to fix the outlets for another 300,000 Dobras, putting us at a rolling total of $54.32 USD for about seven power strips with eight plugs on each. I'm quite satisfied with this price- it's almost exactly the same as I would have paid in the USA, maybe even cheaper, and now I'm helping the São Tomean economy so I feel pretty decently good about myself.

But I don't feel so good when there are 100 students facing me and I have to tell them that class is delayed one more day because, not of lack of electricity, but of lack of power strips!

We do get some good interviews with the kids though (although halfway through the teachers let the kids go play in the schoolyard so it becomes super loud and I'll probably have to redo all the interviews all over again...BUT it was cool anyway). I asked them a few questions, including:

1. Their names
2. What they like most about computer class
3. Why they feel computers are important in São Tomé
4. What they want to be when they grow up.

Questions #3 and #4 were particularly interesting. A number of students hit the nail on the head about why computers are important in São Tomé. They didn't say anything about wanting to learn how to type or be good secretaries. They said things like, "Computers help São Tomé to connect with the rest of the world," and "Computers allow us to think in different ways so we can better our community." These are 11 year-olds that are saying these things, it's great!

When I asked what students wanted to be when they grew up, I was expecting a few mixed responses. But the kids had it all figured out. One girl wanted to be an accountant, another, a biological engineer. Two students wanted to be Portuguese teachers. A few of the boys wanted to be computer programmers/technicians. One girl said she wanted to be President. She smiled and blushed, and I told her she can do whatever she wants!!

I was particularly excited to see girls that wanted to be engineers and accountants. I haven't had the best of experiences teaching females- in an English class that I taught last year for students who were in their late teens and early twenties, the females were very visibly disinterested in school. It was heartwrenching to see them having lost their spark for learning. But these sixth graders still have that spark, and they're going onto high school. In many ways I am so happy, so thrilled. But in other ways, I feel even more pressured to keep up with them. To not let them fall through the cracks. To not let the fact that the computers are being left behind at São João hurt them.

I feel like I should go investigate the local high school and see what options there are for computer use there. Maybe I can help them grow their program a little more so students won't feel left behind.

Leaving the school, I had remembered that I rode the motorcycle into the schoolyard (perfectly normal here in STP) rather than pulling over on the road, on the other side of the street, because the road was covered with rocks. Now I would have to pull out of the schoolyard and hang a U-turn without stalling out, getting hit by a car or making a fool of myself.

I made it out perfectly. I'm really getting a hang of this motorcycle, I think.

Little failures turn into little successes.

PS- Went to TAP and apparently my bag is still in Lisbon after all. Long story short, it should be arriving on Friday. Don't ask why they were holding onto it. For some reason they thought I would be back soon and were like, "oh, she can just pick it up on her way back" without telling me. Sigh. Portugal no coração, né?