Fun in the classroom!

The day started off in typical Ugandan fashion with something completely unexpected happening.  Katie and I were about to leave for school when we realized we hadn’t seen Doreen all morning.  We knew she must have been around because she opened our front door like she does every morning.  So after determining she wasn’t at the house we called her and she said, “I’m coming!”  So we waited and then a few minutes later she came running down the road.  We asked her where she was and she explained that a man had been “cut” last night and she was going to see.  This had Katie and I very confused.  We figured out that a man had been stabbed and was laying on the side of the road at the hospital that is located right across the street from our house.  Apparently it is completely normal to just go look and gawk at a man who has been stabbed, as there was a large group gathered around.  We asked Doreen why he wasn’t in the hospital and why he was just outside it.  She explained that he was a thief and he had to wait to talk to the police before he could go into the hospital.  None of this really made sense to us, but a lot of things here don’t.  Samson was kind enough to drive us right by the man and even slowed down so we could get a good look at the bleeding man…gee thanks Samson!

My class teaching Katie's class the Days of the Week song

Today was a great day at school.  In math I continued to work with my students on number recognition and I am slowly starting to see improvements.  I also incorporated counting tools into my lesson such as rods and flats, as we began some addition in our lesson today.  At the end of the math lesson my class went over to Katie’s class to teach them our days of the week song we had learned two weeks ago since Katie’s class was beginning to learn them this week.  My students were so excited and proud to show-off their song, which in-turn made me proud of them!  And after my kids sang for Katie’s kids we all sang together, it was really pretty cool. 

After math my cooperating teacher, Zippora was supposed to teach, but Pamela (Katie’s teacher who also teaches in my room) came in and told me that Zippora was sick today so I should teach.  Okay, sure!  I took the opportunity to do something I had been wanting to do for a long time, a morning meeting!  For those non-teachers out there, a morning meeting is when you gather the students (usually in a circle) and there is a greeting component where the students greet each other, a sharing component where the students share out on a specific prompt, and an activity which is usually a mini game.  Morning meetings are used in classrooms to build classroom community, and like I mentioned the classroom community in my room is poor to say the least.  The students hit each other all the time, they laugh at students who are struggling, and so on.  And an environment like this is just not one that encourages risk taking, trying, or learning.  In addition, all kids here do not know how to greet in English. Whenever you say hello to someone, his or her response is always, “I’m fine.”  So this was the perfect opportunity for me to teach them a different greeting. 

Demonstrating the greeting

I first gathered the students on the floor one-by-one so as to manage the behavior of the students in our circle, because they are still learning the expectations for when it is time to be out of their seats.  Then for our greeting we just did a basic handshake and then the students said good morning to the person sitting next to them.  They found it hilarious.  I couldn’t help but laugh at their laughter.  I never knew saying good morning to someone could be so funny!  I also had to keep interjecting and reminding the students that a proper greeting should be said while looking at the person and loudly.  Then for sharing I had the students share what their favorite animal is.  I explained how to share and then demonstrated, but at first the students had a really hard time understanding what they were supposed to do.  It is not often that these children are asked their opinion on something or asked to talk about themselves.  Luckily Katie was observing my lesson and taking some pictures so she jumped in and handed me a ruler for them to pass around.  Something so small, yet so effective, by just letting the students know when it was their turn to share.  Finally, for the activity, we created a rainstorm with our bodies.  This proved to be quite difficult for the students, but after some practicing and help from Katie and King James (the head teacher who was observing me as well), we created a little rainstorm.  The kids were all so engaged throughout the entire morning meeting and seemed to enjoy each piece of it.  I look forward to making time for more morning meetings.  I also think that King James really enjoyed it.  He watched and even participated with a big smile on his face and even took some pictures.

Beginning the read-aloud

After the morning meeting, I did a read aloud with the kids.  I had them remain on the floor and just fill in the circle so that they were all facing me.  It was a great book that Kaite gave to me last minute when she heard I had to put together a quick lesson.  I believe the title was Whose Ears Are These?, and it would show just the ears of an animal on one page and then the students had to guess which animal they belonged to.  It was great because it was interactive.  And when the students wanted to guess which animal they thought the ears belonged to, I had the kids hold their ears instead of raise their hand.  My last minute lesson ended up being my favorite lesson that I have taught here so far, because it was me.  I was able to teach the way I wanted to teach and how I envision myself teaching.  And recognizing this, I hope to try and incorporate more of me into my English and math lessons that are usually a little more rigid because of the curriculum. 

Hold your ears when you want to share!

Later in the day when Katie’s teacher came in my room to teach, I went in Katie’s room to observe and then help out.  Katie and I have been doing a lot of team-teaching this week between the buddy reading on Monday and then with Zippora out sick today and she was out sick the following day as well.  It has been nice because we are working with similar age-groups and even with similar topics, so we share ideas, what is working with our students and what isn’t, and so on.  And when we are in the classroom together it is helpful because it is obviously an extra set of hands that can be there to help out.  This is especially helpful because the curriculum really leaves very little room for differentiation.  All kids must learn the same thing at the same time.  But with an extra set of hands in the classroom, we can at least spend more time with individual students who are struggling more.  Katie and I would both like for this to be something we can do with our cooperating teachers here; however, with my teacher out sick this week, and Katie’s out last week, things have been a little complicated.  Either way, Katie and I will continue to help each other out. 

In the afternoon I taught my English lesson and had an absolute blast with the kids.  We started by playing the slap the word game on the chalkboard, which is always fun.  And then we did a P1 Fashion Show, as we were studying clothing.  I brought in some of my own clothing and had the kids “walk the runway” and “model” the clothes.  As they were modeling there was an announcer, announcing what the person walking the runway was wearing.  I demonstrated for the kids what a model walk looked like and they were rolling with laughter.  And when it was their turn they sure showed me up! 

Emmanuel strutting his stuff

Sharon striking a pose in her socks

Jostus on the runway

Lastly, during games time it was absolutely down pouring, so the kids could not leave the classroom.  As you can expect the kids were starting to get a little crazy in the confines of their small classroom, which was growing darker and darker by the minute as the weather worsened.  So I decided to teach them a game.  I brought out this little light-up worm that was given to me at my send-off party and we played hot potato.  Once the worm’s light turned off that child was out.  To say that the kids loved it would be an understatement.  They were roaring with laughter.  And even Pamela was playing with us; in fact, she was the most competitive one, taking kids out of the game left and right! Ha!  The kids not only loved the game, but they just thought the little worm was so funny.  It was like nothing they had ever seen before or felt (he is squishy).  And the darkness of the room only added to the fun.  Unfortunately I had left my camera in Katie’s room and was unable to capture the fun, but I know the kids will ask to play again!