Sunday, September 30, 2012

"Don't let the curriculum bring you down" (9/12)


This morning was pretty horrific for me.  I had just woken up (so I was still laying in my bed) and was skyping with Nick when all of a sudden a cockroach ran over my computer screen.  So naturally, I screamed bloody murder and ran out of the bed to grab the Doom (cockroach spray).  I killed the cockroach and then tried to recuperate from my tragic experience (I am still trying to get over it two weeks later).  Before I left my neighbors encouraged me to think of my mosquito net over my bed as the set-up for a princess bed, which I did up until now, because I’m sure princesses do not share their beds with cockroaches. Sigh. 

After being on edge from the cockroach in my bed, I started teaching only to notice a lizard above my head in the classroom.  Oh boy, today was going to be a long one.  Anyways, the math lesson I taught today went well, and I was able to see the students starting to warm up to me.  Later in the day I taught English and was observed by Enoch.  The lesson itself went very well up until it came time for the students to work in their exercise books.  I have made the decision that when I check the students’ work in their exercise books, that I will meet with them one-on-one to do so.  This allows me to check-in with each student and see how they’re doing, as well as it allows me the opportunity to build relationships with every student in the class.  Well as I was going around checking my students’ work, student after student seemed to be totally lost.  I had asked the students to be rather creative, and come up with their own sentences telling me what they do during the different parts of the day.  The problem was that the students at Rwentutu are never given the opportunity to think on their own or to be creative, but rather they always follow a set-in-stone sentence structure or pattern given to them by the teacher. So the task that I gave them to complete was too difficult.  I was feeling quite defeated after seeing my students struggle through the activity. 

I expressed these concerns with Enoch as well as some others I had at this point.  He not only made me feel better about these things, but he also thought my lesson went really well.  He gave me several compliments, but the most important one to me was that he said he could tell I care about my students.  He said this was evident as I knew all of the students’ names already and because I spent time working with each child.  As is how teaching works, I will take the things that Enoch told me and my own personal reflections from my lesson to help me plan my lessons for tomorrow.   

The problem I experienced today, with the students unable to write simple sentences was my first encounter with what Dr. Gillian warned us about, letting the curriculum bring you down.  The reason that students aren’t provided with opportunities to be creative in their writing or in anything they do, is because creativity is not something that is tested on the national exams.  This was one of the concerns I expressed to Enoch.  I wanted to know if I should be going back and teaching the basics such simple sentence structure, letter sounds, number recognition, and so on, or if I am just supposed to stick to the curriculum and ignore the fundamentals to reading, writing and math.  Enoch encouraged me to do what I thought the kids needed; however, he still stressed that the curriculum needs to be taught.  So I am going to try my best to incorporate the basics and fundamentals into the curriculum that I am required to teach.

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