Last day of lecturing

I taught my last class today to my second year students in Social Development (sophomores). The students have a week off for studying/reading, and then have a full three weeks of exams similar to the British model. I think I have finally figured out the whole examination thing, but it took me all year to do so. I still have to give exams, and I’m doing the final oral examinations for the 4th year students in a few weeks, so there’s still quite a bit to do here before the university closes for the end of the year.


A UNAM classroom


My co-teacher watching, as a group tries to get the right Jeopardy "question"


It was a bittersweet class for me today. I prepared a “Jeopardy” board and we did a review game with the students, which was quite fun. They all had team names, and it went down to Final Jeopardy bidding to see which team one. There was lots of cheering and revelry. I then had to say goodbye to this group, the class I had spent the most time with here in Namibia, teaching them 2 or 3 days a week both terms. They were very sweet to me, and gave me a big Namibian cheer, which is impossible for me to do, but involves a lot of screaming at a really high-pitched level. They also told me that they liked being able to debate in class and try out different views, which we did a lot of in this class together. I tried as much as possible to draw on what they already knew, so our class discussions would involve such topics as “what good is it to raise a chicken to maturity when you are starving today” to “how many feet away from a hut you need to dig a latrine”. I had very little to add to these conservations, but they often got heated, in a good way. I was pleased to hear that it seems that I was able to run classes in a way that was useful and interesting to most of the students, and led them to some critical thinking. I told the students today how much I learned from them, which I truly did. I'm a little sad that it is all over already. I feel lucky that I had the opportunity to teach some of the brightest and most committed young people in Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and the rest of Southern Africa.


My co-teacher and I with some students


Here I am with a bunch of students.

My social work school back home sent me a bunch of t-shirts, and I gave each of the students either a bag or t-shirt (and my business card), which they loved. I think there are a number of new University of Minnesota fans here in Africa now. It was a pleasure for me to see them around campus the rest of the day in their maroon and gold.