Cheers!

We arrived at school today and we were greeted by a local reverend.  The reverend was at Rwentutu today giving a presentation to the staff on the purpose and usefulness of using slates (individual chalkboards) in the classroom.  Katie and I were invited to attend the presentation and we stayed for about 20 minutes before we had to go and teach our lessons.  Many of the uses of the slates that the reverend mentioned are the reasons why we use individual dry erase boards with our students in the United States-it holds each student accountable, it gives access to all learners, it provides an opportunity for everyone to practice writing, and so on.  It was refreshing to see such a positive and progressive presentation at the school.  The reverend mentioned that if he thought the presentation went well, there would be a donation of slates made to the school.  Katie and I didn’t quite understand this as we have seen slates already present in most classrooms, but I’m sure they can always use more. 

My first lesson of the day was math.  I continued to teach about weight today.  We once again went outside and talked about weight in terms of the balance (see-saw).  We then came back in the classroom and I emptied several objects that I brought from our house as well as picked out of the classroom into the circle the students and I had made.  I asked each student to pick two objects and tell us which one was heavier and which one was lighter.  The students did very well with the written exercise they did last week on weight, so today I just wanted them to practice using the words heavier and lighter in conversation-and I figured a hands-on way was a good way to do so.  I have come to realize that my students love concrete examples and objects.  The students really enjoyed picking up the different things I brought in and did a great job of forming the sentences.  We even did a small cheer, clap, etc. for each student after they shared which was really fun for both the kids and I.  This is something they do quite often here, cheer and clap for students, which is nice because it keeps a positive classroom environment.  Some of the cheers they do are too funny.  They give each other “flowers”, “soda”, and “meat”, which are all quite a treat to someone here.   So the teacher will say lets give Jane flowers, and all the students will shake their hands in their air so it looks like flowers.  Giving a student soda involves all the students sucking out of straws (all imaginary of course) and blowing out of them at the student.  And then a new one the kids introduced me to today was giving someone meat, where they all pretend to gnaw on a piece of meat and throw it to the student.  Here are some videos of the students “giving gifts”/cheering for each other.  I let each student pick what they wanted to receive, which they also quite enjoyed, having an opinion!

Giving meat

My students giving flowers

Giving soda

Happy deciding if the umbrella or the shoe is heavier

Lovick talking about the weight of the cards and the book

For English today, Katie and I brought our students together to finish working on their stories that they started last week.  It was pretty neat seeing how excited the students were to finish.  I had several P1 and P2 students asking me from Thursday to today when they would get to finish.  As I mentioned in a previous post, Katie and I went through their stories and wrote questions in their books to give them some talking points so they could elaborate on their stories and add some more details.  We felt this was necessary as this was the first time the students had worked on writing their own stories and weren’t familiar with adding interesting details.  We then encouraged the students to illustrate their books and design their covers.  Next time we get together, the students will spend the first ten minutes or so finishing up, and then we plan on having the students share their stories! 

The kids found some old hoses and have been using them as jump ropes all week

After school today our new houseguest arrived.  Jamie is from Canada and will be here for the next five months.  She is the overseas program coordinator at Umoia Operation Compassion Society, a society responsible for building and establishing Rwentutu school and the related projects-the clinic at the school and the women’s micro finance project.  The micro finance project is not something we know too much about, but from what we are told it is a group of women who get together at the school and pool their money together so they can purchase things they need and start up businesses, then they slowly pay it back.  Jamie is going to continue to help the women do these things, but in addition, she hopes to teach them how to sew so that they can start making and selling crafts so they have another way to make money for their group.