Oh my how time flies. I felt like I blogged just yesterday, but as my helpful blogging website tells me, it’s already mid-March, and I haven’t even blogged once this month. Student teaching began this week. Here was my week, roughly; Monday-staff meeting to kick off school practice (scheduled for 10:00 AM, started at 11:30). I had stomach problems, so when they began re-reading the minutes from the prior meeting, I peaced out. Tuesday--we all were to begin supervising starting with our zone schools. My zone school is Wanyange Primary (just like last term). I was off to a good start--stomach problems had subsided for a bit, and I got some good supervisions in. Then, coming back from lunch, I was trying to step up onto the veranda and just ate it, rolling my good ankle (if you did the math, that means I have two bad ankles). The primary students started to crowd around, saying “mzungu fell!” The student teachers also began gathering, as well as the regular teachers. I felt like such an idiot. Thank goodness some teacher scattered the crowd and got someone on first aid. I was bedridden for the rest of the day, and even on Wednesday (when the stomach thing returned) I stayed home. My supervisor interprets my absence like this: one day out means I’m near death and need some medicine. Two days out, and I’m probably already dead. Three days? The police are looking for my supervisor to explain my death. My counterpart kindly insisted on coming over to check on me, as well as mop my house and cook me lunch AND dinner (funded by the college-they wanted to make sure I wouldn’t starve). On Thursday, I had enough strength to work a full day, and supervise my students at Wairaka Primary. My supervisor’s mind was finally at ease. Today, I speedily supervised most of the students at St. Benedicts, then reported back to college by lunchtime.
After doing several supervisions in a row, I begin to notice trends in my student's teaching. I jot down the general trends, then I meet with them in a large group. I’ve learned that when I meet with the students about things I want them to work on, I make sure to start by mentioning things they are doing well, and acknowledging great ideas. I then move to areas that need improvement.
I should mention now that my student teachers are pure beginners-it's their first time teaching. I keep telling myself not to overwhelm them and go easy.
Instead of just explaining what they should do better, I usually give them a real example through demonstration. Here’s a situation I’ve been seeing a lot: student teachers go into the lesson looking to just relay information. To do this, they have the pupils brainstorm. If they’re teaching about garden tools, they just keep asking the pupils “what are garden tools? What do we do with them?” In one school, I saw this lesson, and the students had no idea. In another school, the students were way beyond this material, and not only could name the garden tool but what it does and what it looks like. Now, in the first case, the student teacher should have been brainstorming with new information--he should be teaching that information. To counsel them, I pretended to be a teacher, and I wanted them to tell me the 50 capitals of the states of America. When they gave me wrong answers, I belittled them and complained of how dull my class was. They got the point--the students don’t know the new information, that’s what they are teaching. In the second case, I challenged them to elaborate on the required material, and even go to the field for a practical lesson (which actually they could do in both cases).
Another overall challenge I’m facing are student teachers who are completely ill-equipped when it comes to finding alternative methods of class control. Alternative? Alternative to what, Mary? That would be alternative to caning, or as I’ve seen in some cases, slapping in the face, upside the head, smacking on the arm or even just threatening with a stick. I now carry around the definition of corporal punishment, copied from a book provided by Raising Voices, as well as all the laws in Uganda that are against caning, child abuse, etc. Any time I see a student act questionably towards pupils, or even threatening with a stick, I pull out the definition and have them read it to themselves. Then I tell them, “Now that you know the definition, I don’t want to see you doing it ever again.” I also take time to point out that, according to Ugandan law, they could be jailed up to three years. (Does ANYONE go to jail for three years for this? No, but it’s enough to scare the naive PTC students). Our student teachers from the Jinja PTC are not allowed to cane, even if it’s the preferred method of classroom control and discipline used by the regular teachers and administration. All that said, I feel like I’m the only tutor that is really observant and strict on this, as well as the only tutor that can really give them alternative options and techniques. I’ve started with my personal students--each tutor is delegated 10 personal students to guide and counsel. I assigned them homework to write up a behavioral expectations plan for their classroom. We’ll see if they follow through. Additionally, we read through some literature about what effective discipline means (timely, consistent and instructive not just punitive). It took a good 20 minutes to read through a college-level textbook paragraph...but it was worth it! My next target for guiding and counseling about alternative management strategies will be my zone school students. My goal is that I end the term with the most knowledgable students when it comes to classroom management.
In other news...it stopped raining, so it’s crazy dry and hot again. According to my preferred source of news (Facebook,) people back home are so excited about the warm, spring weather. It’s hard to remember what that felt like, coming out of the winter months, pale, lethargic and just dying for some sunshine. Another neighbor had a baby, which makes a total of seven new babies that were brought into the world while I was in Uganda. Obviously, there haven’t been only seven babies born in all of Uganda, but these seven I’ve known personally. First, the triplets from the neighbor I didn’t know, then Sarah, my immediate next-door neighbor, then Kagoya down the way from us, then Behna, the school secretary, then Madam Enyuk, an art-and-language tutor and most recently another Sarah, who’s the cousin-sister of Tagaba. What’s the question I always get when I get to hold the babies? “Mary, when are you having yours?”
Friday, March 16, 2012
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
What does Mary DO in the Peace Corps?
What does Mary do in the Peace Corps?
You could say teaching, but lately that wouldn’t be the truth, exactly. At my Primary Teacher’s college, it’s the scheming season! It’s time for our Year Two students to do their semi-final school practice. For my former cohort members, it’s like fieldwork, except they’re expected to do everything, not bits and pieces. For everyone else, it’s student teaching. Last week was their orientation week to scheme, lesson plan, etc. (For non-Ugandan teachers, scheming is like writing out a rough outline of what you're going to teach for the whole term). I presented “Teaching Science” on Thursday, and by that time I was certain they had the grasp of how to scheme and lesson plan, as they also had gone through "Teaching English," "Teaching Social Studies," "Teaching CRE," which all have the same layout of scheme. I just pointed out some key features in the science scheme that I want to see. I then launched into my plea to reach out beyond the beloved chart making when teaching science. To encourage a variety of learning aids, I brought in a few examples. The one I was most excited about was my paper-mache volcano. Unfortunately, already sweating about getting everything planned perfectly, the students weren’t really listening to my spiel, until the volcano erupted! :D I could have been speaking Russian, for the amount that they were understanding, but at least the volcano made an impression. I also introduced my puppet friend, which got a pretty good laugh. We brainstormed about when you can use puppets in teaching, and I hope I see some mastery ventriloquism when I supervise my students.
Aside from that, Immaculate, our student labor team and I finally finished organizing the library! I unfortunately do not have “before” pictures, so please fully appreciate my “after” pictures, and imagine blank, institution-like walls in the before.
Today wasn’t a particularly exceptional day, except that I felt somehow knowledgeable and helpful. In contrast to my lesson on learning aids, where I stood in front of a bunch of worried, stressed-out student teachers that weren’t particularly interested in my passion for paper-mache, students came to me asking what else they can do to incorporate non-chart things. I’ve been working particularly close with a group of teachers preparing to teach P4 science. Every lesson had “chart” listed as learning material. I helped them brainstorm other things they could do-for example, when teaching about clouds, they could use cotton balls to model the shapes of the different clouds (nimbus, cirrus, stratus, etc.) When it came to the water cycle, the Uganda Pupil’s book actually had a good experiment for demonstration to perform, which involved hot water vapor steaming a glass bottle with cold water in it, which would in turn heat, evaporate, and condense on the cool bottle, and finally “rain” into a dish. My favorite learning-aid challenge was today when Joseph who was scheming for P5 Social Studies came to me with a dilemma. “Madam, we’re teaching about climate regions in Uganda, and all we can think to use are maps, showing the different climatic regions.” I suggested tying in science, of course. There was some content that related to effects of different climate regions, or something, and he talked about flooding. Then we talked about what we do to avoid flooding around our house, and voila! We had our demonstration. I began to explain the idea that I had in my head, but I thought what the heck, I have nothing but time and an extra basin in my office, we can do this now. I locked up the library and we went to find materials. We filled the basin with sand to represent the soil, and used a large rock represent a “house.” Then, we poured water on the house to simulate rain. At this point we would ask the pupils, “how can we keep the water away from our house as it rains?” A pupil may offer that we dig a ditch--the pupil digs in with his/her finger and re-routes the water. Joseph, the student-teacher, and I, were both excited about the potential activity. He brought the demonstration into where his fellow P5 teachers were scheming together, and presented it. They were impressed, and perhaps more attentive as it directly tied in to the material they’re teaching. I hope to have a similarly inspiring and active day tomorrow.
In other news, I got to spend some brief, and expensive, time in Kampala. My reason for being there was to be a part of a committee meeting which went between maybe-it-should-be-dissolved to maybe-this-committee-could-do-EVERYTHING! Being in Kampala was pretty fun though--I had the chance to eat at the food court in the mall! (Your life is so exciting Mary, I can hardly stand it). At the food court here, there are waitstaff for each counter who mob you when you sit down, offer menus and try to persuade you to order from their restaurant. It's pretty neat--a food court that serves you. Another fun thing about Kampala is people watching. I blow in from Jinja in my very village-smart clothes only to feel more than inadequate when staring bug eyed at the ladies who waltz by in matching outfits with gorgeous, immaculate shoes and fancy jewelry to top it all off. It's not just the adults who look fabulous, the children are always put together too. Additionally, there's something different about the kids there. It took me a while of staring at one kid, somehow creepily, before I realized what it was...I was the one doing the staring. They could have cared less about me, not to mention they weren't asking for anything. It was bizarre...why aren't these children worshiping me? I watched as a mom and dad sat at a cafe on a Sunday morning, both reading the newspaper waiting for their food, while their children also sat, contented, quiet and overall just chill. Kampala's weird. It was nice to get back home to the chant of "Ma-wy! Ma-wy!" and have tiny arms and hands embrace me in a knees-only hug.
You could say teaching, but lately that wouldn’t be the truth, exactly. At my Primary Teacher’s college, it’s the scheming season! It’s time for our Year Two students to do their semi-final school practice. For my former cohort members, it’s like fieldwork, except they’re expected to do everything, not bits and pieces. For everyone else, it’s student teaching. Last week was their orientation week to scheme, lesson plan, etc. (For non-Ugandan teachers, scheming is like writing out a rough outline of what you're going to teach for the whole term). I presented “Teaching Science” on Thursday, and by that time I was certain they had the grasp of how to scheme and lesson plan, as they also had gone through "Teaching English," "Teaching Social Studies," "Teaching CRE," which all have the same layout of scheme. I just pointed out some key features in the science scheme that I want to see. I then launched into my plea to reach out beyond the beloved chart making when teaching science. To encourage a variety of learning aids, I brought in a few examples. The one I was most excited about was my paper-mache volcano. Unfortunately, already sweating about getting everything planned perfectly, the students weren’t really listening to my spiel, until the volcano erupted! :D I could have been speaking Russian, for the amount that they were understanding, but at least the volcano made an impression. I also introduced my puppet friend, which got a pretty good laugh. We brainstormed about when you can use puppets in teaching, and I hope I see some mastery ventriloquism when I supervise my students.
Aside from that, Immaculate, our student labor team and I finally finished organizing the library! I unfortunately do not have “before” pictures, so please fully appreciate my “after” pictures, and imagine blank, institution-like walls in the before.
Today wasn’t a particularly exceptional day, except that I felt somehow knowledgeable and helpful. In contrast to my lesson on learning aids, where I stood in front of a bunch of worried, stressed-out student teachers that weren’t particularly interested in my passion for paper-mache, students came to me asking what else they can do to incorporate non-chart things. I’ve been working particularly close with a group of teachers preparing to teach P4 science. Every lesson had “chart” listed as learning material. I helped them brainstorm other things they could do-for example, when teaching about clouds, they could use cotton balls to model the shapes of the different clouds (nimbus, cirrus, stratus, etc.) When it came to the water cycle, the Uganda Pupil’s book actually had a good experiment for demonstration to perform, which involved hot water vapor steaming a glass bottle with cold water in it, which would in turn heat, evaporate, and condense on the cool bottle, and finally “rain” into a dish. My favorite learning-aid challenge was today when Joseph who was scheming for P5 Social Studies came to me with a dilemma. “Madam, we’re teaching about climate regions in Uganda, and all we can think to use are maps, showing the different climatic regions.” I suggested tying in science, of course. There was some content that related to effects of different climate regions, or something, and he talked about flooding. Then we talked about what we do to avoid flooding around our house, and voila! We had our demonstration. I began to explain the idea that I had in my head, but I thought what the heck, I have nothing but time and an extra basin in my office, we can do this now. I locked up the library and we went to find materials. We filled the basin with sand to represent the soil, and used a large rock represent a “house.” Then, we poured water on the house to simulate rain. At this point we would ask the pupils, “how can we keep the water away from our house as it rains?” A pupil may offer that we dig a ditch--the pupil digs in with his/her finger and re-routes the water. Joseph, the student-teacher, and I, were both excited about the potential activity. He brought the demonstration into where his fellow P5 teachers were scheming together, and presented it. They were impressed, and perhaps more attentive as it directly tied in to the material they’re teaching. I hope to have a similarly inspiring and active day tomorrow.
In other news, I got to spend some brief, and expensive, time in Kampala. My reason for being there was to be a part of a committee meeting which went between maybe-it-should-be-dissolved to maybe-this-committee-could-do-EVERYTHING! Being in Kampala was pretty fun though--I had the chance to eat at the food court in the mall! (Your life is so exciting Mary, I can hardly stand it). At the food court here, there are waitstaff for each counter who mob you when you sit down, offer menus and try to persuade you to order from their restaurant. It's pretty neat--a food court that serves you. Another fun thing about Kampala is people watching. I blow in from Jinja in my very village-smart clothes only to feel more than inadequate when staring bug eyed at the ladies who waltz by in matching outfits with gorgeous, immaculate shoes and fancy jewelry to top it all off. It's not just the adults who look fabulous, the children are always put together too. Additionally, there's something different about the kids there. It took me a while of staring at one kid, somehow creepily, before I realized what it was...I was the one doing the staring. They could have cared less about me, not to mention they weren't asking for anything. It was bizarre...why aren't these children worshiping me? I watched as a mom and dad sat at a cafe on a Sunday morning, both reading the newspaper waiting for their food, while their children also sat, contented, quiet and overall just chill. Kampala's weird. It was nice to get back home to the chant of "Ma-wy! Ma-wy!" and have tiny arms and hands embrace me in a knees-only hug.
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| They liked the puppet |
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| My puppet and I decided to match that day... |
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| "This is an elephant...kind of..." |
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| OOooooooh pretty :D |
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| A "talking environment" |
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| Oh aren't I clever? |
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| No, this is not the before picture. It was MUCH worse before.... |
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| These were locked away in this cabinet for who knows how long |
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| DR PEPPER IS IN JINJA! |
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| Rashida! The provider of Dr. Pepper.... |
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| Kampala is so fun! |
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| Weeeee! |
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| George and I had a heart-to-heart |
"Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,"
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name,"
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
The African Home Shopping Network
Call them door-to-door salespeople. Hawkers. Peddlers, even. But to me, the stream of folk that trickle through Wanyange selling avocados, hair clips, tupperware, pedicures, trousers, bedsheets, woven baskets, cloth, mats, and many other things is what I like to call the “African Home Shopping Network.” These same items are available in the many markets around, but I suppose there are some women who don’t get to go to town very much--those women being my neighbor ladies. Why go to town when the shopping can come to you?! Not only is it convenient, but the prices are far cheaper (somehow, even though these guys lug their goods around all day--they must not be charging transport). Today, through the AHSN, I bought a new skirt and then walked to another neighbor to have it tailored (for about 20 cents). My favorite item on AHSN is during mango season when young ladies come through with fat, red-and-yellow, juicy, ready-to-eat mangoes the size of a baby head. Mmmmm...
In other news, my project at school at the moment is re-organizing the library. So, if you recall last year, when I came to site, I was also re-organizing the library. Our Jinja PTC is lucky to have so many books it’s hard to figure out what to do with them. We have a store room the size of a small office that was formerly packed (to the ceiling) with books, newspapers, learning aids, charts, etc. Me and my team of six students have gutted most of the storage room and laid out the (nearly brand-new) books in the gigantic reading room--of which appears to be filled. Our goal is to rotate out books from the library that are not in use (like the old curriculum) or those that have far too many copies (like P3 math--there were about 500 copies and they took up far too much precious shelf space). By taking out the redundant literature and putting in the never-used, American-made textbooks about everything from Geography to theatre, our students will have more exposure to more fabulous information. The task is a bit daunting, but this is only day one. I’m currently motivating my team by buying sodas.
Lastly, I want to give a BIG THANKS to everyone who sent me things! I like things. Things will be coming back your way soon-ish. Like African time soonish, so who knows when that will be...
In other news, my project at school at the moment is re-organizing the library. So, if you recall last year, when I came to site, I was also re-organizing the library. Our Jinja PTC is lucky to have so many books it’s hard to figure out what to do with them. We have a store room the size of a small office that was formerly packed (to the ceiling) with books, newspapers, learning aids, charts, etc. Me and my team of six students have gutted most of the storage room and laid out the (nearly brand-new) books in the gigantic reading room--of which appears to be filled. Our goal is to rotate out books from the library that are not in use (like the old curriculum) or those that have far too many copies (like P3 math--there were about 500 copies and they took up far too much precious shelf space). By taking out the redundant literature and putting in the never-used, American-made textbooks about everything from Geography to theatre, our students will have more exposure to more fabulous information. The task is a bit daunting, but this is only day one. I’m currently motivating my team by buying sodas.
Lastly, I want to give a BIG THANKS to everyone who sent me things! I like things. Things will be coming back your way soon-ish. Like African time soonish, so who knows when that will be...
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| Thank you Jean for the fleece you designed! :D (I love that I can say I know a real fashion designer). KOHLS. |
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| Big thanks to Siobhan for the 200 some markers she sent. I'm excited about both the markers and the ziplock bags they came in. LOOK AT THE EXCITEMENT! |
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| This is Hilda on the left and Mercy, her two-year-old daughter on the right. Mercy is adorable, hilarious and also does not speak Lusoga (like me!) For this reason, she's really picking up English. This day, she was looking at Cosmo Magazine in my house, pointing to each gorgeous model and saying "Ma-wy! Ma-wy's bag! Ma-wy's glasses!" She only pointed to the prettiest models when she said Ma-wy. Haha. I was flattered. |
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| Whenever I was about to take the picture, she would get so excited and start screaming, which is why she looks a little crazy in each picture. She's not always this crazy. Well, sometimes, when "Ma-wy" is around... |
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| This is the wedding of the couple whose introduction I went to last year. They had customized water-bottles--I got a kick out of that. Nile river behind me. |
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| The happy couple! Robinah works at the Bank of Africa and Job works for an NGO in Karamoja. It was a fun wedding, but unfortunately I didn't stay for the cake and dancing! |
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| Entertainment at the wedding--this is actually a man, dressed as a woman and doing the Busoga dance. He was hilarious, in a creepy-kind of way. |
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