Time (10/24)

Happy setting the clock

I had a lot of fun teaching today!  I started with my math lesson where we began learning time.  We had a discussion about time, what we use to tell time, and so on.  Then I set up a large clock in the middle of the classroom.  First, I set the time on the clock and had the students tell me what time it was.  Then I asked students to come and set the clock and I let other students tell what time it was set to.  As usual, the students enjoyed another opportunity to get out of their seats and do some active learning.  I then handed out individual clocks to my students (the school has these-nice!), and called out times for them to set their clocks to.  Then as a class, we checked the time on our large clock.  This activity is something I will definitely bring back with me to the United States when/if I teach time.

Jostus setting the clock

I was laughing as I was teaching this lesson just thinking about all the different problems you can (and I did) encounter in a lesson.  Before you lay anything on the floor, the classroom must be swept.  The kids are great about this, especially by now, since I am constantly moving the desks out of the way in class.  As soon as I ask them to move the desks they move them out and a few kids start sweeping.  Then of course, you can’t just put paper on the floor, but you have to put some weight on the paper, because the windows are open and the wind blows through.  And my favorite “problem” you can encounter while teaching, baby Evan crawling through your clock and moving the numbers all around!

Keneth and Emannuel with their individual clocks

We had another great day in English.  It was really good to see how much the students remembered from the day before-most likely because they were so engaged.  We continued learning with the worm today.  I had the students line up to go outside, and we walked all over the schoolyard placing the worm in different spots and creating position sentences about him.  I wasn’t exactly sure how I envisioned it going when I wrote the lesson, but once we started I decided to have each student get a turn placing the worm somewhere.  It worked out really well because I had the student in the front of the line walk to wherever they wanted to place the worm and then the person behind them said the sentence out loud to everyone about the worm’s location.  Then the person that placed the worm went to the back of the line and the student that formed the sentence became the new leader who wandered through the schoolyard finding a place to put the worm.  We were walking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.  The worm ended up under the bicycle, in the dish, on the tree, and so on.  At one point I looked at my watch and thought, “oh boy, this is taking much longer than I expected.”  But then I took a step back and looked at how engaged EVERY single student was, and how great this activity was for practicing the vocabulary, so I ignored the time and just had fun with my kids.  It is so nice to see these kids just let loose and have a good time, and to remember that they are still kids even if they carry babies on their back as soon as they learn to walk, and carry baskets heavier than themselves on their heads, and hunt, and work in the gardens, and so on.  Even my cooperating teacher, Zippora, walked with us the entire time AND asked if she could have a turn.  It made me happy to see her having fun with the kids, and that she was observing one of my lessons. 

The worm is ON the bicycle

Alan putting the worm ON the chairs

The worm is IN the bell

The worm is UNDER the bicycle

The worm is IN the dish

When we came back in the classroom I eliminated one of my extra activities because the outdoor activity took longer than expected.  I gave the students a blank piece of paper and told them I would be giving them directions on what to draw.  So I told them to draw something under, and another thing near, and another thing behind, and so on.  This was not only a good activity for practicing the English vocabulary, but it was just a good English comprehension activity in general, because they had to follow the directions I gave them in English. 

Kato's finished product from the directions I gave them to draw

After I finished my lunch today I was sitting in a chair next to Katie just talking with some students when one of my students came up to me and exclaimed, “Teacher! P1 (my class) is going to play Top class in football!”  This was my invitation to come watch.  And it brightened my day to know that my students cared that I would watch them play football.  So I picked my chair up and went over and watched their match.  As I was watching, some of my P1 girls came over and played with my hair.  They love playing with our long locks, as our hair is so different from theirs, and while in school they must have their heads shaved.  It was nice just hanging out with my kids! P1 won by the way-woo hoo!

  

During games today we taught the kids how to Limbo!  They had a lot of fun with it, and boy, could some of them get low.  They were really funny too, because they had a natural little strut/dance as they went under the hose that we used as the stick.  For the second part of games today I went into the P7 classroom.  Every Wednesday during games, the older students as well as some of the teachers, join in one classroom and just drum, sing, and dance.  It is such a good time, and so fun to watch.  Music is definitely something that brings the people here together, from the youngest students in baby class to the oldest students in P7 and even the teachers, a very unique, and Ugandan way to do community building within a school.