Bridging the gap 9/5

Just eating some lunch. 

Today I observed in a P1 classroom.  Only seven of the twenty students were in class today.  Something I observed today was the emphasis put on drawing in the classroom.  Students are expected to know how to draw everything they learn, especially in English.  They must know how to draw it well, and the exact way they are originally shown.  While I’m not sure how I feel about this as it hampers on their creativity, what I have come to realize is that a lot of the students are excellent artists!  One thing that the classroom teacher did today that I did not expect to see was an energizer.  She noticed the students beginning to lose focus, so she stopped the lesson and had the kids do a Simon Says type game.  She even let a couple students come up and lead.  It was nice to see this practice.  Another positive thing I saw was the teacher’s relationship with the students.  She seemed to have a decent relationship built with her students as she was laughing with them and having some fun.  This was also unexpected, as when we met with Gillian she said this was something missing in their schools.  Another good thing I saw, was while doing a spelling exercise, the students were each given individual “slates” to practice writing the words.  This was nice since it made all the students accountable.  Finally, during math, the teacher let the students get out of their seats and lay on the floor to do their work.  I really value letting students make themselves comfortable as long as they can still be productive, so this is definitely something I will continue when I teach here.

Hanging out during morning break

After a very positive morning, Katie and I were both a little thrown off when none of the teachers returned to their classrooms after lunch.  Unsure of what was going on, I started to play a couple name games and get to know your students-type games.  After observing some really great things this morning in the classroom, I was leaning towards teaching in this class and figured it would be a good opportunity to start learning some names and the students as individuals.  I started by teaching the kids a clapping and singing name game, which they loved, and then we did some math games, and other little circle games.  I ended up really enjoying the time (it ended up being a full hour), but was a little confused what all the other classrooms were doing that didn’t have teachers in them at all.  Katie and I came to the conclusion later that the teachers were in a meeting….

Hopscotch!

Down by the banks game

In the afternoon, we were just kind of sitting around during games time with a group of girls around us, and I picked up a stone and started drawing hopscotch in the dirt.  Then I demonstrated how to do it, all without words, and right away the girls tried it out.  They laughed and had a blast with it.  So Katie and I kept adding boxes on and making it bigger and bigger.  It was good to see the kids having some fun and starting to warm up to us.  After about a half hour of hopscotch, we taught a small group of girls the circle-singing-game Down by the Banks.  The kids LOVED it and by the end of the games period we had a group of about 30 students playing the game.  These games were such a small and simple way to start bridging the gap between the students at Rwentutu and us.