Week 3 Last Week of January

The time is really going so fast. I cannot believe that my second week is already over. The week went alright. I was not feeling well which I think was a combination of dehydration, a cold, and stress from the atmosphere of the classroom. I bought some medicine for the cold and doubled the amount of water I am drinking so I am feeling better now. As for the stress, I am just trying to accept the conditions of the classroom. The children are a little out of control and it seems there is not one moment that passes where one of the students is not doing something naughty. I tried recommending to the teachers that we change the set up of the desks because they are in groups which I think is making them talk more. They hardly do group work so that configuration is not needed really anyway. I feel like some management practices could be implemented and consistently practiced, but the only thing that is being done is an increased use of the cane. I think this is only a temporary fix of the problem and does not really teach the children how to behave. Even though I am saying these things, I think I am becoming more accustomed to the situation.
Another thing that is slightly disappointing is that I really did not do any teaching this week. I am feeling like the head teacher really does not understand what my purpose is at the school. It is like they are using me to do the dirty work, like draw lines in the notebooks. I understand it is part of the process, but it should not be the only thing I am doing. I tried to start conversations with her about making a weekly plan or what I could be teaching, but she does not seem to understand. Just so that I could get myself teaching I told her about a backward design unit I planned on the five senses and she said I could start teaching it on Monday. At least I will be teaching now, but I am going to talk to the assistant headmistress this week about it.
One thing that I did this week was corrected math and phonics class work and homework. What I did was correct the work and then called the students back to my desk to make corrections. I also created two homework assignments for phonics. Right now they are learning how to read and spell three letter words with short vowel ‘e’. So for the first assignment I wrote about 15 three letter words on the board leaving a blank where the ‘e’ would go in the word. For example, I wrote b_t and the students would have to copy it into their homework book and then fill it in with an ‘e’. For the second assignment I did the same thing as the first, but had the students fill in the missing letter to create a word. For example, I wrote he_ (hem/her) or _eg (beg/peg). The students this week learned about the union of sets in math and I had brought a math story book from home called Seaweed Soup that talked about sets so I read that to the them. Then I drew out the sets that were mentioned in the book and we counted them as a class. In addition, I passed out the hot lunches this week and supervised the lunch time while the two other teachers went to receive their pay and have a brief meeting.

For now, I am beginning to plan for this coming week. I will do an introduction to the five senses on Monday and Tuesday. This will include the reading of a story about the five senses, singing songs, and learning about which body part goes with each sense by completing a matching worksheet. I may do a popcorn activity that will allow the students to make observations through their senses. I will also have them make a five senses book if I can find enough materials that they can glue into the book. For the remaining 3 days I will cover the sense of smell. For this sense the students will watercolor with scented jello mix and water. They will do a matching scents activity where they will have to match the scents of the same items. They will also complete a worksheet on identifying good and bad smelling odors. That is all I have planned for now, but I look forward to really getting involved with the children.

Week 2 Start at Christ the King

I completed my first full week at Christ the King in the kindergarten classroom. There are 42 five and six year olds! My first impression honestly was that it was going to be a rough ride. The students really do not fear authority and will challenge any sort of discipline, unless it is a cane. I do not feel comfortable using a cane, so I am wondering how I am going to get the students to listen to me. With warnings beforehand and being told by some people that the kindergarteners were wild, I came into the classroom being as stern as I could be. I do not want the students to think that I am a pushover so when I give a warning to a student I have really tried to follow through with what I say. I am in the classroom with two other teachers. One is the head teacher and the other is a student teacher like me, but in Ghana student teachers have to do one year of student teaching. I have not had the chance to sit down and talk with the teachers to make a tentative plan for my time here, but I am hoping that can happen soon. With three teachers in the classroom, I hope that I can get the teaching experience I need.

This week I spent a lot of time observing and doing little things to help out, like draw lines in the students’ notebooks. That is one other thing I was surprised by, that here they do not have masters to make copies or that they do not use worksheets. The teachers actually hand draw lines for both the classroom workbook and the homework book. That’s 84 notebooks to draw lines in for one subject! The time and energy it takes to do these things is incredible and I was surprised to see it happening while the students were in class. A lot of the preparation happens while the students are there and the students just sit there with the expectation by the teachers that they will sit quietly with good behavior. In terms of instruction, all I have seen is direct instruction and then after the students individually complete their class work. I have had the opportunity to teach two math lessons so far. The students are learning to write the numeral and word form for numbers, so I taught on two different occasions how to write the numbers 11-20. The first thing I did was count out different objects with the class for the number I was teaching, so for number 15 we would count out 15 pencils. For the first lesson I tried to get the students involved so I invited one student to come up and help count the objects. I had made a table on the board, and I would draw the number of objects we counted. Then I would write the numeral and word form, spelling it out with the class. The second time around, I did not have the students come up to count because it went so slow and they would drop the objects. We did the same thing for the second lesson, but went through numbers 16-20. To get the students involved this time I had them come up to the board to write in the numeral form. I used this as an incentive for good behavior telling the students that only ones who were participating would get to come up. The students then individually completed their class work as I walked around to assist them. Overall, I think the first lessons went well and the students learned what was expected. In addition to that, I have read to the students after lunch and they seem to enjoy it.

Besides being at the school, staying at the Batsa’s house has been good. I have been comfortable with the food that is prepared and with the condition of the room. The Africa Cup of Nations is going on so the family watches a lot of the soccer matches in the evening. I also have been playing cards with their eight year grandson Michael at night. The Batsa's are an extremely nice family and I know they are doing everything they can to make me comfortbale. I am still adjusting to the weather, which is way hotter than I expected. I am seriously always sweating, but hopefully I can find a way to adjust. Overall, I am really surprised actually how fast this week has gone already.

First week January 14th to January 18th

I decided to come to Ghana for student teaching because after traveling to Tanzania and enjoying my experience there I wanted to visit another African country. By doing my student teaching here, I will be able to visit tourist spots and be immersed into a completely different culture than my own while I am actively learning through teaching at Christ the King. The Ghanaian school system and teaching practices will be helpful in becoming a well rounded teacher. I know that I will have to learn to be flexible and, in general, I will become a stronger person. Since I am friends with some Ghanaians, I knew that Ghana is a stable and more developed African country making it an ideal place to visit. I am aware that the country has many tribes and I have seen how much pride Ghanaians have in there traditional customs and meals. As with all my travel experiences thus far, I have learned a great deal about myself, about the country I am visiting, and from the people I have meet along the way. As a future educator, I know how important it is to continue on as a life long learner and that is why I am visiting Ghana, to expand my mind and experiences.

In regards to my growth professionally, I have a student teaching goal of becoming more comfortable with assessment and using them to know if I need to reteach or to find out what my students have learned. With the kindergarten students at Christ the King I will be constantly assessing the students whether it be through formative or summative assessments. I also really want to improve my classroom management skills. The classroom atmosphere in these schools is very different from the US, I know that I will have to be more firm and consistent with the techniques that I set in place. In addition, the group of students that I will be teaching will be far different than the students I have taught previously. Therefore, I hope to improve in my ability to teach to multiple learning styles and be better able to meet the needs of my students.