Half Way?

Today is Thursday. We do not have school tomorrow in honor of Women’s Day. And though it was a shortened week, my P4 class accomplished a lot! We are just about through with our math unit, and the English unit is nearing a close as well.

As I even told my students, this was a big week for us in math. Late last week we made a transition from studying place value to examining decimals. This week, we combined the two topics and showed how each is applicable to one another.

Just as the English that my students speak is still very basic, the understanding they have of most math concepts is basic as well. My goal this past week was not to have my students be able to identify and write various decimals, but it was to give my students a solid foundation on which to build their knowledge about fractions, decimals, and place value. I believe that this goal has been somewhat accomplished—or at least I feel accomplished having almost met my goal. 

One way I went about accomplishing this task was by using various activities that gave my students opportunities to think about parts of a whole in multiple ways. Furthermore, I used examples for explanations and reinforcement that made the content applicable to them. The most beneficial activity we did mimicked their walk from home to school. We discussed how decimals can be used to express various distances. I drew up a model of a home and school and left space between the two. From there, we used the unifix cubes to connect them.

 This helped to fulfill multiple objectives. First, it was helpful in showing how a decimal or a part of a whole can be added to a whole. Secondly, it was a real life application of using decimals, which I believe is very important for students to see. They should not feel disconnected from the math that they do. Third, it helped explain why point nine is not followed by point ten. The students could clearly see how a whole km was created with the tenth tenth. I saw many light bulbs go on as we did this activity, which made me very excited. I need to be careful of that though, because when I get excited I talk really fast. Especially with these kids, I am always careful to check myself and slllooowwww doooowwwnnn! Lastly, it was just fun for the kids. When doing such demonstrations I am able to do some acting and throw a little humor in there. My students were smiling the whole time, actively participating, and they were learning too. Beautiful!

 It was an interesting week for English. On Monday it poured rain in the morning so I had to make a decision of what to do. When it rains, the classroom is dark and insanely loud because of the tin roof. Because the Math lesson was an important one, I chose to wait until later to do it. Instead I gave a writing assignment. I had the students write me a letter about themselves. I asked them to use what we have been learning to do this, such writing about likes and dislikes, using adjectives to describe people or places (such as their homes), and using verbs. Then I had them draw a picture of their homes on the back of their letters.  Not only was this a good way to assess their progress from the start of the unit, but it was a good way to get to know my students a little better. Also, it was a completely constructive way to fill the unusable instruction time created by the storm.

 One very sad thing was reading about some of the hardships in the letters. One of my girls told me that they were worried because her sister was very sick. My heart was crushed when she was not at school yesterday because her sister had passed. I still haven’t spoken to her. I don’t even know what I will say, but I am so sad for her and her family. It pains me to even write about it now.

So English was also interrupted on Tuesday with rain. This threw off the class a bit. I basically had to write noted on the board for them to copy, and then explained as soon as the rain stopped. The minor interruptions put us a little behind this week in regards to where I wanted to be in our unit, but nevertheless, we are moving forward and my students are improving their speech and writing skills.

They need a lot of practice. In each class I do my best to be sure that everyone is speaking, and everyone is writing. For example, today we were working on using does and do. We made a chart on the board that showed the pronouns does and do are associated with. We then got into groups that varied in sizes. Each had a sign that said something like, “We don’t like posho,” or “I like eating mangoes.” The groups were arranged so there would be a they, we, I, he, and she. I pulled sticks and asked a question like, “Who doesn’t like eating posho?” That student would need to appropriately respond using do, don’t, does, or doesn’t based on the pronoun they were required to use. This was a good practice activity because they couldn’t just pick out patterns on a piece of paper and do the rest the same. They had to think about each question, use the correct pronoun, and respond appropriately based on the group that they were in. I was an activity that combined everything we are learning in our unit.

  Enoch, my supervisor was there on Wednesday for two of my lessons, one being the math lesson described above. For my English lesson Enoch agreed that the lesson was good, but he had one point of constructive criticism that I felt was quite comical, at first. At one point during my lesson, I looked back at him and saw that his eyes were closed. His criticism at the end of the lesson went something like this, “One thing…did you see me sleeping in the back of the class near the end?” I said that yes, I noticed.  He went on to say that it was because he was relaxing because they had learned, yet I provided two more examples. So what he meant was the extra examples were not necessary. Because they were not necessary, he could relax and didn’t have to listen. So his constructive criticism was in a way a compliment, because he felt I had taught the content well, yet it helped me to see that the students were ready to practice on their own. The reason I thought it was funny was because I would be a little offended if a supervisor in the states told me I was basically putting them to sleep. But the way Enoch had said it made total sense after he had explained to me what he meant. Enoch is a very wise man, and I have so much respect for him.

I am looking forward to the weekend. It will be a busy one. King Fisher Lodge on Friday, Saturday we visit King James in the village, and on Sunday two young boys are taking us to visit the Kilembe mines. I will fill you later with deets from the weekend activities. Tomorrow is National Woman’s Day. Enjoy!