Friday, February 19, 2010

Week 6

So this week has been better in terms of teaching. I had a couple of opportunities to teach this week. I taught environmental studies on the topic of making water clean. The students and I discussed ways which we clean water, by boiling or filtering. I had a water bottle of clean water and a bottle of dirty water. I pretended like I was really thirsty and I grabbed the bottle of dirty water. I told the students I was going to take a drink and they shouted no. I asked why should I not drink this water? They gave reasons and then I said there are ways to make this water clean so I can drink it. Since we could not boil water in the room we looked at a picture in the students book on what water looks like when it is boiling and that boiling kills the germs/bacteria in the water. Then I did a demonstration of how to filter water. I got a beaker and some filter paper from the science department. After the water went through the filter I took it around to each table and had the students observe the leftover dirt. The students then drew a picture in their workbooks of what a clean glass of water looked like.

I did some teaching in phonics as well. I taught on short vowel 'i'. This lesson was challenging for me because one teacher was gone for the day and the other kept leaving the classroom. Without another teacher there I really have a difficult time with the students. I was just beginning a bad cold and was not in the mood to be talking loudly over them. But the lesson really consisted of the students reading two and three letter words from phonics textbook. Then I wrote on the board words with one letter missing so they could fill it in to make words with short 'i'. When the teacher came back we basically cotaught this lesson since the students did not feel like listening.

This week I also reviewed the writing of numerals and of comparison. For both these, we went through some exerises in the students' math workbook. They completed four pages on the writing of numerals. Then they completed two pages on comparing pictures of items and numbers by filling in greater, less than, or equals sign.

Since the assistant teacher in the classroom was gone one day, I was responsible for the lunch count. I had to collect the students' lunch coupons and write down their selections for lunch and snack. So I am beginning to have more responsiblities which is nice.

This weekend I will be going to the beach and just relaxing since the weekend goes by so fast.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

week 5

This week has been a little frustrating for me. I have not done much teaching and so I had to go talk to the assistant headmistress, who handles more of the academic side of the school. My cooperating teacher has difficulty with vision and I do not think she has been able to fully read the packet I gave her. Therefore I do not think she knows exactly what I am required to do. I have tried starting conversations with her about making a schedule and teaching, but she only seems interested in having me bring lessons in from the outside and not teach within their curriculum. I want to be teaching the curriculum on a regular basis so I had to do something about this problem. The woman I spoke to knows very well what I am here for and so she immediatley told the assistant teacher in my room to get me more involved by making a plan. I already feel better about it since we sat down and looked over the curriculum this afternoon.

Other than this, I taught a math lesson this week. I basically went through a couple of pages of the math workbook with the class. They are starting to learn simple addition, so along with the addition problems the book provided pictures of objects. Not having a real plan is bothering me because I end up teaching these little lessons with no preparation and I know that I could create more intriguing lessons with just a little more time. I have also done a ton of correcting. It is exhausting because their are so many children and you have to call them back to correct their mistakes. While your calling the kids back you have other students who are being naughty or coming up to you with quesitons. My patience has been really tested at times. One day, I was just so stressed by it, but the next day I went in with the attitude to just be as kind and understanding with children as I could be. I basically just was refusing to lose my cool with them since it does not make the situation any better.

I did a little with the sense of smell, having students color a picture that had good smells and bad smells. The students then had to cross out the things that smelled bad. I am hoping to continue on with the sense of taste next week. I have also had the opportunity to read a lot to the students this week and they really enjoy it. I have also taught a lot of children individually this week. Some of the students who struggle seem to have been given up on. I take those students back by my desk to try and get them to understand. Some of the students who see me helping others try to come up to me for the answers though.

Friday is a half day and there will be a teachers meeting in the afternoon. I have yet to experience something like this so I am looking forward to it.

As for the weekend, I am going to go to the gravesite of the first president of ghana after independence. I will also do a little shopping at the market.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Week 4

So this week I began teaching a unit on the five senses. I found a big book in the library about five senses so I used that as my introduction to the unit. After reading, we talked about what part of the body we use for each sense and as we spoke I wrote the sense and part on the board. To close the lesson I had the students match each sense in writing to a picture of the part of the body. I wanted to keep the lesson pretty short since I have not had too many opportunities to teach them. I would say overall it went rather well. I know to some degree the students will not behave while I am teaching because they will not behave for any of the teachers, but with the help of the other teachers they will help me keep them in line. The second day we reviewed what was learned the day before and we talked about how we can enjoy each sense. For instance, one of the girls said she could smell stew cooking. After providing examples for each sense, I told the students they should pick one of the senses and draw a picture of how they enjoy that particular sense. I modeled an example of how I use the sense of sight to enjoy the view of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee. The lesson went well my only problem was that the students keep getting out of their seats even after I repeatedly tell them not to. The students either come up to me with a question or they want to show me their work. I do not know how to get them to stop doing this! It is not that I do not want to help them or that I do not care about their work, but while so much is going on it becomes overwhelming. The next day I concentrated only on the sense of smell. I wrapped gum, cookie, soap, lemon, garlic, onion, and pineapple in foil and numbered them. I had the students smell and guess what the scent was. The first attempt at this was done right at the end of the day and ended with the children just being completely out of control. I stopped and decided that I would attempt to try the activity the next day. It went better the second time around but the students would get so excited to smell the items that it got pretty crazy at times with students getting out of their seats. One boy while smelling the cookie attempted to take a bite out of the foil wrapped cookie. He was removed from the activity and so was the cookie. I then gave the students a worksheet on good smells and bad smells. There pictures of about 12 items and the students would circle the happy or sad face depending on how they thought the item smelled. Next week I will be teaching about the sense of taste. I going to have the children taste foods and identify whether the food is salty, sour, bitter, or sweet. I will also read books about the sense of taste and have the students complete a worksheet.

I also had the opportunity to teach English this week. I went through a couple pages of the exercise book with the students. The first page they would fill in the missing letter of the word. The second page they would write the word and for the third page they would match a picture of the object to the word. I feel like I have been able to teach more this week which is good. I have also taken part in the usual activities like creating the homework assignment, drawing lines in the students' books, and grading work.

This weekend I will be attending a funeral. I even got a black and white traditional outfit made. I will be traveling about two hours out of Accra, which will be my first time out of the city. I am some what nervous for the funeral since the woman died on December 6th and is being buried two months later. I guess things just take longer here, so they keep the bodies in the morgue for an extended amount of time.