Blog Number 16
February 29, 2008
Happy Leap Year!!!!
This has been a very good, busy week!! Monday I was home from school early, and Partey and I took a walk into Osu, Tuesday I was home early but then a teacher came and picked me up from my house and we went out for a drink at a close outside bar! Wednesday I didn’t get home from school until 8:30-9:00. There was a PTA meeting that all the teachers have to attend and that Sr. Introduced me to the over 200 people who came to the meeting. Thursday school closed at 1:00pm so that all of the teachers could attend a requiem mass at the cathedral for all of the teachers of private schools. I did not attend the mass because Auntie Agnes and I were going to go shopping for some souvenirs, however she got stuck doing some errands and we didn’t end up going. It was perfectly fine because I had a great chance to nap!!! Once Auntie Agnes got home it was too late to go, so instead we had a cooking lesson. Auntie Agnes is teaching me how to cook many of the foods that she has prepared for me over the past 9 weeks, so that I won’t miss them. She is also telling me about the substitutions that I can make-if I have a hard time finding it in the US-so that it will still taste about the same. Last night I learned how to make the gravy, which they end up adding to many of the foods that they cook. It is extremely nutritious, only onions, tomatoes and spices. That is it! No sugar, no added fats, just all natural. And it is SOOO delicious!! However, it took us about an hour and a half just to cook this sauce. So now I have a much greater appreciation for all of the cooking that Auntie Agnes has been doing for me. She has taken so much time an and I have always appreciated it, but now I appreciate it even more!!
I have been doing a lot of marking this week to make sure that I have everything all set for Bright after I leave. Also, we have parent-teacher conferences next week and we need everything set for them.
This weekend my cooperating teacher, and a bunch of the other people that I have been spending time with, will be spending the weekend watching movies and hanging out at his house. I am also getting my hair braided tomorrow morning so that when my mom arrives on Monday night next week I will be looking very Ghanaian.
Hope the snow has finally stopped falling!
See you soon
☺ Chelsea ☺
Friday, February 29, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Blog Number 15
February 25, 2008
This week has come WAY too fast! I literally cannot even believe that I am preparing my closing assignments, and finishing up my projects. This is officially my last week of teaching a full week. Next week we have classes Monday, a shortened day on Tuesday and then we have parent/teacher conferences on Wednesday and a national holiday on Thursday. Because of that, the students will not be in school until the 12th and that will be two days after I leave. So my last day with the students is Tuesday February 4th, 2008!!! I haven’t been saying too much about this being the end, but it ends up continuously coming into conversation. Whether it is one of the students telling other teachers, my co-op bringing it up, or one of the other teachers that I am friends with and each time, it is just as unbelievable to hear.
My time here has literally been one of the best experiences of my life. Not only has it totally strengthened my want to be a teacher, but it has also forced me to re-evaluate my teaching techniques and I have proven myself to be ready for whatever else can come my way. I cannot imagine ever being put into a situation, as much unlike what I am used to, and coming out totally confident for what I am doing, and why I am doing it. Working with these students, and having them realize what I am trying to say, even though our ways of speaking, or reference points as well as the words that we use are often very different, is watching that light bulb turn on for a student. However due to our cultural differences, this occurs with such regularity that I cannot imagine a day without it. I have brought an extremely different way of life to these students, a culture so unlike theirs that they cannot help but just stare. Watching the amazement fly across their face as soon as I begin to answer a question is one of the coolest things ever. And they are always asking questions that make the American way of life seem so ridiculous, but is just part of our culture. Much like the fact that Ghanaians eat with their hands, and cross through traffic like their car is invisible.
Being immersed in the Ghanaian culture is nothing that you can plan for, and nothing that you can dream of, but is also nothing that I will ever forget, and hopefully will never distance myself from. They had given their entire culture to me and have guided me through every bit of it, that I owe quite a few people a lot of gratitude.
I have even offered to write the papers for a few of them to come to the United States with me. Hey this is a polygamist culture, so who cares as long as they are getting the opportunity to come and visit.
One thing of the past two weeks that has been totally bringing me down is the fact that Partey is starting to distance himself a bit. For the past 7 weeks that I have been here, Partey has come to my door every morning to say good morning, and for me to tell him to have a good day at school. He only came by once last week. When I asked him why he said that I just wouldn’t understand. But I think I do. I catch him looking at my with his eyes a bit glazed. This 14 year old gives everything about himself to make the St. Norbert Students feel beyond comfortable in his house, and after 7-9 weeks they will always go home, and the house will go back to being quiet. Partey even got mad at me the other day for staying to have a drink with some of the teachers, rather then coming home so I would be here when he got home from school. I am giving partey his space, because I do not want to make this any harder on him, yet I want him to know that I honestly will miss him and that he has left an imprint in my life.
Ok, so sorry if you found this blog a bit sappy. I really do not even know how to explain my draw to this country and this way of life and I wanted everyone else who reads this to understand what an amazing blessing I have had, by having this opportunity to come here!!
But don’t worry, I still have exactly two weeks here and I WILL make the best of them!!
Love you all!
☺Chelsea☺
February 25, 2008
This week has come WAY too fast! I literally cannot even believe that I am preparing my closing assignments, and finishing up my projects. This is officially my last week of teaching a full week. Next week we have classes Monday, a shortened day on Tuesday and then we have parent/teacher conferences on Wednesday and a national holiday on Thursday. Because of that, the students will not be in school until the 12th and that will be two days after I leave. So my last day with the students is Tuesday February 4th, 2008!!! I haven’t been saying too much about this being the end, but it ends up continuously coming into conversation. Whether it is one of the students telling other teachers, my co-op bringing it up, or one of the other teachers that I am friends with and each time, it is just as unbelievable to hear.
My time here has literally been one of the best experiences of my life. Not only has it totally strengthened my want to be a teacher, but it has also forced me to re-evaluate my teaching techniques and I have proven myself to be ready for whatever else can come my way. I cannot imagine ever being put into a situation, as much unlike what I am used to, and coming out totally confident for what I am doing, and why I am doing it. Working with these students, and having them realize what I am trying to say, even though our ways of speaking, or reference points as well as the words that we use are often very different, is watching that light bulb turn on for a student. However due to our cultural differences, this occurs with such regularity that I cannot imagine a day without it. I have brought an extremely different way of life to these students, a culture so unlike theirs that they cannot help but just stare. Watching the amazement fly across their face as soon as I begin to answer a question is one of the coolest things ever. And they are always asking questions that make the American way of life seem so ridiculous, but is just part of our culture. Much like the fact that Ghanaians eat with their hands, and cross through traffic like their car is invisible.
Being immersed in the Ghanaian culture is nothing that you can plan for, and nothing that you can dream of, but is also nothing that I will ever forget, and hopefully will never distance myself from. They had given their entire culture to me and have guided me through every bit of it, that I owe quite a few people a lot of gratitude.
I have even offered to write the papers for a few of them to come to the United States with me. Hey this is a polygamist culture, so who cares as long as they are getting the opportunity to come and visit.
One thing of the past two weeks that has been totally bringing me down is the fact that Partey is starting to distance himself a bit. For the past 7 weeks that I have been here, Partey has come to my door every morning to say good morning, and for me to tell him to have a good day at school. He only came by once last week. When I asked him why he said that I just wouldn’t understand. But I think I do. I catch him looking at my with his eyes a bit glazed. This 14 year old gives everything about himself to make the St. Norbert Students feel beyond comfortable in his house, and after 7-9 weeks they will always go home, and the house will go back to being quiet. Partey even got mad at me the other day for staying to have a drink with some of the teachers, rather then coming home so I would be here when he got home from school. I am giving partey his space, because I do not want to make this any harder on him, yet I want him to know that I honestly will miss him and that he has left an imprint in my life.
Ok, so sorry if you found this blog a bit sappy. I really do not even know how to explain my draw to this country and this way of life and I wanted everyone else who reads this to understand what an amazing blessing I have had, by having this opportunity to come here!!
But don’t worry, I still have exactly two weeks here and I WILL make the best of them!!
Love you all!
☺Chelsea☺
Friday, February 22, 2008
Blog Number 14
February 21, 2008
Last week Wednesday I started my final project with the students in composition. I have been working on putting it together for about the past 2 to 3 weeks to make sure that I have the details all figured out, and I ran the whole project pass bright to make sure that it is ok! So last week, was just laying the groundwork, and this week we actually began the project.
With the 45 students in the class we are writing a Choose your own Adventure story continuing the story of one of their legends. One of the stories is based off of “How the Crab Lost it’s Head” and the other is “How the Tortoise got it’s Shell.” This week I put the students into the groups that they asked for, and assigned group leaders. Then the students were given a chance to work as a team to get some work done that I assigned the group. Tomorrow they will turn in their first drafts of the stories that they are writing and next week, they will but the individual stories together to make one whole group story. I am really excited about this project, because so far the students have really gotten into it. In fact, one group even came up with a team name and team rules that they expect from each other, the first being “ Listen to Ms. Chelsea so we all understand what is going on!” Man did I train these students well or what?! Haha. Some of the groups definitely worked better then others, but for the most part I finally see the project coming together and going to work! YES!!!
This week was the first week that some of the teachers held it against me for being American. President Bush came to Accra this past Tuesday evening through Thursday morning, and just about the whole city shut down. All of the major roads in and out of the city were closed for safety precautions, and armed policeman constantly monitored whole regions of Accra. In fact. School closed early on Tuesday and Wednesday because they wanted to be able to get all of the students’ home before the roads closed. Many of the teachers and parents complained about what a hassle this was. They also made very distinct comparisons to President Bush and Bill Clinton. I guess that Mr. Clinton came to visit during his term, and like this visit the whole city shut down, but unlike with President Bush, it shut down because everyone went to Independence square to meet and hear Mr. Clinton speak. I guess that the school children lined the path from the airport to the square, and Mr. Clinton even through some candy to them. Many of the Ghanaians thought this was so honorable of the President. President Bush’s visit however was simply to visit with all of the high governmental officials, evaluate the countries health practices, and see how we can stop the Spread of Malaria. One of the newspapers headline read “President Bush moves on to Fighting Mosquitoes” I definitely liked this one!
So today, after school I went with a couple of teachers to get a drink to celebrate the departure of President Bush and the return to regular life. It was a great time, and something fun to celebrate.
This weekend I will be traveling to yet another Funeral. Auntie Agnes’s friend (also names Agnes Batsa) passed away a few weeks ago so we are going for this. We leave tomorrow and will not return until Sunday. It will be pretty cool because it is in the village that Daddy is the Chief of, and so we will stay at their home. I am so anxious to see this home because I have heard some pretty amazing things about it!
My mom comes one week from Monday, and I am getting so excited for her to be here, but at the same time a little sad because that means that I will be leaving ☹
Hope life is good for everyone!
☺ Chelsea ☺
February 21, 2008
Last week Wednesday I started my final project with the students in composition. I have been working on putting it together for about the past 2 to 3 weeks to make sure that I have the details all figured out, and I ran the whole project pass bright to make sure that it is ok! So last week, was just laying the groundwork, and this week we actually began the project.
With the 45 students in the class we are writing a Choose your own Adventure story continuing the story of one of their legends. One of the stories is based off of “How the Crab Lost it’s Head” and the other is “How the Tortoise got it’s Shell.” This week I put the students into the groups that they asked for, and assigned group leaders. Then the students were given a chance to work as a team to get some work done that I assigned the group. Tomorrow they will turn in their first drafts of the stories that they are writing and next week, they will but the individual stories together to make one whole group story. I am really excited about this project, because so far the students have really gotten into it. In fact, one group even came up with a team name and team rules that they expect from each other, the first being “ Listen to Ms. Chelsea so we all understand what is going on!” Man did I train these students well or what?! Haha. Some of the groups definitely worked better then others, but for the most part I finally see the project coming together and going to work! YES!!!
This week was the first week that some of the teachers held it against me for being American. President Bush came to Accra this past Tuesday evening through Thursday morning, and just about the whole city shut down. All of the major roads in and out of the city were closed for safety precautions, and armed policeman constantly monitored whole regions of Accra. In fact. School closed early on Tuesday and Wednesday because they wanted to be able to get all of the students’ home before the roads closed. Many of the teachers and parents complained about what a hassle this was. They also made very distinct comparisons to President Bush and Bill Clinton. I guess that Mr. Clinton came to visit during his term, and like this visit the whole city shut down, but unlike with President Bush, it shut down because everyone went to Independence square to meet and hear Mr. Clinton speak. I guess that the school children lined the path from the airport to the square, and Mr. Clinton even through some candy to them. Many of the Ghanaians thought this was so honorable of the President. President Bush’s visit however was simply to visit with all of the high governmental officials, evaluate the countries health practices, and see how we can stop the Spread of Malaria. One of the newspapers headline read “President Bush moves on to Fighting Mosquitoes” I definitely liked this one!
So today, after school I went with a couple of teachers to get a drink to celebrate the departure of President Bush and the return to regular life. It was a great time, and something fun to celebrate.
This weekend I will be traveling to yet another Funeral. Auntie Agnes’s friend (also names Agnes Batsa) passed away a few weeks ago so we are going for this. We leave tomorrow and will not return until Sunday. It will be pretty cool because it is in the village that Daddy is the Chief of, and so we will stay at their home. I am so anxious to see this home because I have heard some pretty amazing things about it!
My mom comes one week from Monday, and I am getting so excited for her to be here, but at the same time a little sad because that means that I will be leaving ☹
Hope life is good for everyone!
☺ Chelsea ☺
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Blog Number 13
February 18, 2008
Whenever people think of funerals, no matter what the age of the person, most people automatically think of lots of crying, and an extremely sad event. This past weekend, we had the funeral for the roommate to Bright (my co-op) ‘s sister. She was 40 years old and passed away from the Chicken Pox. So I was fully prepared for this to be an extremely emotional day. So again we had to board the bus at 6:30am. However this week our journey wasn’t quite as long. We were only going about 45 kilometers from Accra to a village called Somanya. This village is where Auntie Agnes grew up, but I didn’t know that until Friday. So anyways, we got there extremely early and sat around for some time. Again a group of teachers all went, however this time, the teachers were much more of the younger teachers from the school. This ended up being the best part. Bright was busy most of the day helping out Tsatsu so we didn’t see him that much, but he continued to stop in to check to make sure that I was ok! He even introduced me to his mom and elder brother who came 2 hours for the funeral.
All day, us teachers just sat around, talked, ate and drank. There were girls who walked around carrying the jewelry that they make, these beautiful beads that are specialized in this region, and would customize bracelets to fit each person. One of the male teachers bought one for me. It turns out that the bracelet only cost 75 pesoes, which is about 75 cents! I couldn’t believe it!!! I ended up having to buy a few more sets!
Once the teachers rejoined the full group party, we were met with more drinking, and plenty of music and dancing. I was having a great time just watching and talking with one of the teachers, until one of the older male teachers grabbed me by both wrists and pulled me out onto the dance floor. Rather then fighting it and returning to my seat I decided to stay out and get a few African dance lessons. Almost immediately I was swallowed up in the midst of just about all of the older men and women at the funeral, all wanting to hold my hands, or show me how, or dance with me. Thankfully one of the other teachers grabbed my camera and got some pictures, because it truly was fun to be taken in by this crowd, demanding for my attention.
We didn’t end up leaving the party until about 5:40pm and returned just before 7:00pm to Accra. It was such a fun day, and definitely one of the best since I have been here.
Sunday was an extremely low-key day. Other then some wash and grocery shopping, I just hung out around the house. We had the rematch of football from last week, where Partey and I ended up beating Michael and Gaybril 20 to 19 in an intense 3.5-hour game played in 99-degree weather. I ended up tearing up the bottom of my feet because I played in my sandals, but it was TOTALLy worth the win and now the bragging rights around the house
School today was the same as many other Mondays. My Spelling lesson went really well and I taught the students another new game, but only after they finished their exercise that I gave. Also, Many of the teachers, including the head mistress, came up to me because they heard that I had such a good time at the funeral that I even got up to dance!! I confirmed what they heard, and reinforced how awesome the teachers treat me while I am with them.
Tonight the electricity and water are both out. I didn’t think to get my flashlight out before it got dark, so now I cannot find it! So I am lying in the pitch black, with no fan and am just about dying! It is SOOO hot tonight and absolutely no breeze!! Since the electricity has been out since early today, the fridge is no longer cool, which means I cannot even drink a cold glass of water! Ah nuts!!
Hope you are all enjoying the snow!
☺ Chelsea ☺
February 18, 2008
Whenever people think of funerals, no matter what the age of the person, most people automatically think of lots of crying, and an extremely sad event. This past weekend, we had the funeral for the roommate to Bright (my co-op) ‘s sister. She was 40 years old and passed away from the Chicken Pox. So I was fully prepared for this to be an extremely emotional day. So again we had to board the bus at 6:30am. However this week our journey wasn’t quite as long. We were only going about 45 kilometers from Accra to a village called Somanya. This village is where Auntie Agnes grew up, but I didn’t know that until Friday. So anyways, we got there extremely early and sat around for some time. Again a group of teachers all went, however this time, the teachers were much more of the younger teachers from the school. This ended up being the best part. Bright was busy most of the day helping out Tsatsu so we didn’t see him that much, but he continued to stop in to check to make sure that I was ok! He even introduced me to his mom and elder brother who came 2 hours for the funeral.
All day, us teachers just sat around, talked, ate and drank. There were girls who walked around carrying the jewelry that they make, these beautiful beads that are specialized in this region, and would customize bracelets to fit each person. One of the male teachers bought one for me. It turns out that the bracelet only cost 75 pesoes, which is about 75 cents! I couldn’t believe it!!! I ended up having to buy a few more sets!
Once the teachers rejoined the full group party, we were met with more drinking, and plenty of music and dancing. I was having a great time just watching and talking with one of the teachers, until one of the older male teachers grabbed me by both wrists and pulled me out onto the dance floor. Rather then fighting it and returning to my seat I decided to stay out and get a few African dance lessons. Almost immediately I was swallowed up in the midst of just about all of the older men and women at the funeral, all wanting to hold my hands, or show me how, or dance with me. Thankfully one of the other teachers grabbed my camera and got some pictures, because it truly was fun to be taken in by this crowd, demanding for my attention.
We didn’t end up leaving the party until about 5:40pm and returned just before 7:00pm to Accra. It was such a fun day, and definitely one of the best since I have been here.
Sunday was an extremely low-key day. Other then some wash and grocery shopping, I just hung out around the house. We had the rematch of football from last week, where Partey and I ended up beating Michael and Gaybril 20 to 19 in an intense 3.5-hour game played in 99-degree weather. I ended up tearing up the bottom of my feet because I played in my sandals, but it was TOTALLy worth the win and now the bragging rights around the house
School today was the same as many other Mondays. My Spelling lesson went really well and I taught the students another new game, but only after they finished their exercise that I gave. Also, Many of the teachers, including the head mistress, came up to me because they heard that I had such a good time at the funeral that I even got up to dance!! I confirmed what they heard, and reinforced how awesome the teachers treat me while I am with them.
Tonight the electricity and water are both out. I didn’t think to get my flashlight out before it got dark, so now I cannot find it! So I am lying in the pitch black, with no fan and am just about dying! It is SOOO hot tonight and absolutely no breeze!! Since the electricity has been out since early today, the fridge is no longer cool, which means I cannot even drink a cold glass of water! Ah nuts!!
Hope you are all enjoying the snow!
☺ Chelsea ☺
Blog Number 12
February 14, 2008
So tomorrow officially marks the end of teaching week number six. I wouldn’t have even realized it, had it not been for a teacher who asked me how much time they had left with me. When I mentioned the date, he reminded me that it was only three week from Monday that 4 Monday’s from this Monday, I would be boarding the plane to head home. Thinking back to my stay in Spain, it was at this time in my trip that I was so eager to go home, that I literally made a weeks itinerary of every food that I missed that my mom would have to make as well as all of the things that I would do, including laying in my bed all day because I missed it!
Well now, here I am and literally have no concept of time, whether it is how long I have been here or how much I have left. But rather I am measuring the things that I would still like to do, and that list is quite long! I do not even want to think about even getting ready to go home right now. There are still teachers who owe me drinks; there is a movie marathon day with my cooperating teacher (to watch all of the movies he is astounded that I haven’t ever seen) as well as a trip up north to see the waterfall, and game land to hopefully see some truly African animals. There are many more trips to the market to get souvenirs, as well as much more bargaining to be done. I haven’t come close to filling my camera’s memory card as I had intended to do by now, and I have about three more card games that I would like to teach the boys.
I have finally been able to get used to the heat that I walk out into every morning, and I am so part of the teachers, daily lunch group that when I didn’t go to lunch about 3 students asked why I wasn’t with them. One of the newest plans of one of my favorite teachers here, Godwin, is that I will finish my degree by student teaching at Webster, however that student teaching will be done by a distance learning lab. They are going to capture me to stay and teach here. They also assured me that there are 8 men at the school, 3 under the age of 30 who are going to marry me so that I will feel as comfortable as possible!
So, now I have to change the subject because writing about having to leave is not making me happy and today is Valentines Day, so there is no excuse not to be in a good mood!
Today I showed up at my school all decked out in my red, to celebrate the holiday. Of course the only other teachers wearing red were the KG teachers, but that didn’t matter at all, rather it just made more people compliment the outfit! The students were instructed by the head mistress, the day before that there was to be no exchange of valentines at school, however I saw groups of girls and even some boys exchanging quick cards to their classmates. One girl even brought one up to me. It was a homemade card that not only wished me a happy valentines day, but also it was to wish my family the best, especially with me so far away,
Teaching wise, I had a pretty big week. For the last week and a half I have been working with a student on extra help in spelling. Last week on the spelling test he got a 7 out of 20. This Monday when we met after school to go over the test and work I had given him, he had a huge smile on his face and showed me that he received an 18 out of 20 on the test!!! The rest of the week was spent on finalizing details for a big project that I will be working with the students on for the next three weeks. We are writing a Choose your Own Adventure Story, much like the one we did in instructional tech during sophomore block. This Wednesday I introduced the project and we voted on the story that we will be continuing. Both classes choose an African tale that they all know, the first being how the Crab Lost it’s Head, and the second is How the Tortoise got it’s Shell. We then choose four continuation lines that the four groups of students will be working on to write the story. Since the class is 46, each initial group will have 11 students in it. From there, we will break the groups up further so each group will have about 5. While we will be writing a class story, each of the students will be writing their own story, from which their group will draw ideas to put together the class story. This project should be covering a variety of teaching standards from the curriculum that my cooperating teacher showed me. Overall, Wednesday went really well and both classes seemed to be extremely excited about this idea. They are already eager for next Wednesday when they find out their groups, and can begin to write their stories!
OK, well I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Valentines Day, and that they did not eat too many chocolates (Ghana decided that today is not only Valentines day, but National Chocolate Day, so many of the children brought Chocolates for the teachers!)
Bola, let me know if that distant learning lab thing would be a possibility for my next placement?!
☺Chelsea☺
February 14, 2008
So tomorrow officially marks the end of teaching week number six. I wouldn’t have even realized it, had it not been for a teacher who asked me how much time they had left with me. When I mentioned the date, he reminded me that it was only three week from Monday that 4 Monday’s from this Monday, I would be boarding the plane to head home. Thinking back to my stay in Spain, it was at this time in my trip that I was so eager to go home, that I literally made a weeks itinerary of every food that I missed that my mom would have to make as well as all of the things that I would do, including laying in my bed all day because I missed it!
Well now, here I am and literally have no concept of time, whether it is how long I have been here or how much I have left. But rather I am measuring the things that I would still like to do, and that list is quite long! I do not even want to think about even getting ready to go home right now. There are still teachers who owe me drinks; there is a movie marathon day with my cooperating teacher (to watch all of the movies he is astounded that I haven’t ever seen) as well as a trip up north to see the waterfall, and game land to hopefully see some truly African animals. There are many more trips to the market to get souvenirs, as well as much more bargaining to be done. I haven’t come close to filling my camera’s memory card as I had intended to do by now, and I have about three more card games that I would like to teach the boys.
I have finally been able to get used to the heat that I walk out into every morning, and I am so part of the teachers, daily lunch group that when I didn’t go to lunch about 3 students asked why I wasn’t with them. One of the newest plans of one of my favorite teachers here, Godwin, is that I will finish my degree by student teaching at Webster, however that student teaching will be done by a distance learning lab. They are going to capture me to stay and teach here. They also assured me that there are 8 men at the school, 3 under the age of 30 who are going to marry me so that I will feel as comfortable as possible!
So, now I have to change the subject because writing about having to leave is not making me happy and today is Valentines Day, so there is no excuse not to be in a good mood!
Today I showed up at my school all decked out in my red, to celebrate the holiday. Of course the only other teachers wearing red were the KG teachers, but that didn’t matter at all, rather it just made more people compliment the outfit! The students were instructed by the head mistress, the day before that there was to be no exchange of valentines at school, however I saw groups of girls and even some boys exchanging quick cards to their classmates. One girl even brought one up to me. It was a homemade card that not only wished me a happy valentines day, but also it was to wish my family the best, especially with me so far away,
Teaching wise, I had a pretty big week. For the last week and a half I have been working with a student on extra help in spelling. Last week on the spelling test he got a 7 out of 20. This Monday when we met after school to go over the test and work I had given him, he had a huge smile on his face and showed me that he received an 18 out of 20 on the test!!! The rest of the week was spent on finalizing details for a big project that I will be working with the students on for the next three weeks. We are writing a Choose your Own Adventure Story, much like the one we did in instructional tech during sophomore block. This Wednesday I introduced the project and we voted on the story that we will be continuing. Both classes choose an African tale that they all know, the first being how the Crab Lost it’s Head, and the second is How the Tortoise got it’s Shell. We then choose four continuation lines that the four groups of students will be working on to write the story. Since the class is 46, each initial group will have 11 students in it. From there, we will break the groups up further so each group will have about 5. While we will be writing a class story, each of the students will be writing their own story, from which their group will draw ideas to put together the class story. This project should be covering a variety of teaching standards from the curriculum that my cooperating teacher showed me. Overall, Wednesday went really well and both classes seemed to be extremely excited about this idea. They are already eager for next Wednesday when they find out their groups, and can begin to write their stories!
OK, well I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Valentines Day, and that they did not eat too many chocolates (Ghana decided that today is not only Valentines day, but National Chocolate Day, so many of the children brought Chocolates for the teachers!)
Bola, let me know if that distant learning lab thing would be a possibility for my next placement?!
☺Chelsea☺
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Blog Number 11
February 11, 2008
This was by far my favorite weekend since I have been here. I am still absolutely exhausted from the weekend but it was well worth it!
On Friday I ended up going for drinks with a few of the teachers, and then returned home to eat dinner with the family, play a few cards and go to bed early! It was an extremely hot day, and I hadn’t worn sunscreen in a while, so when I returned home, my chest was burnt in a very ugly farmers tan. I had plans for Saturday bright and early and was planning on wearing a cute strapless black dress, but because of the tan I wouldn’t dare!!!
Saturday morning I was boarding a bus at 6:00am to head to the north Volta region to attend the funeral of a woman who I frequently sat in on her class. She teachers class one, so I figured that since I am returning to the states to teach first grade, it would be a great opportunity to compare the two education settings for this grade. So anyways, bright and early I headed to school, a few minutes late, to see the bus being loaded with our food and plenty of drinks for the day. All of the other teachers going (about 35 of us) were all in black traditional clothing and looking beautiful. Because of late arrivers, we ended up not departing the school until 7:05am. Even though it was so early in the morning, there was absolutely no way that I could sit on the bus. Not only was I smushed between two people, but also because the landscape was so beautiful that I couldn’t look away! Between the rolling hills, beautiful rock landscapes, huge towering trees or the small villages that we were passing through, it was absolutely amazing. At one point, we were going through a tunnel of tree’s and the bus started to slow down. I normally would not have thought twice about it, but the front immediately broke into conversation and was peering through the windows. I stood up, to watch the bus slowly passing a clan of baboons all relaxing in the shade of the trees. Unfortunately my camera was tangled at the bottom of my purse so I could not get a picture but it was way cool!! The whole trip was absolutely beautiful. We crossed this huge suspended bridge and looking the sun was at its full peak as it shined onto lake Volta. It really was a very cool trip.
The village was very smart, so when we arrived, we were immediately just outside the church. In this particular village, they had saved the funerals to do them all together so there were five going on at one church, and 6 at each of the other two. Because of this, the village was absolutely packed with people. In fact, we didn’t get a chance to go into the church because we were late and the church was already full. So we sat at a house outside, just outside of the house and eat the lunch of ken key and stew that was prepared by one of the staff from school.
The rest of the afternoon went by pretty quickly. We mostly sat around, talking and in my case, a lot of observing. From reading the death brochure, I found out that the man we were there to mourn has been dead since November 14th. He has been kept in the morgue until the family could afford to have everyone together and to pay for the funeral.
We got home at just after 6:30pm. By then the consolation match of the African cup was going on and Ghana was losing to Ivory Coast, 2 to 1. However, once I was able to watch it, and being the good luck charm that I am for the team, they ended up coming back to win! 4-2!!! It was a great match, and the black stars were awarded the bronze medal from the tournament.
Saturday night, the seamstress who was working on a traditional outfit for me brought my clothes over. The fabric is very cool and I choose a great style. It is a bit big, but it definitely looks nice! I ended up wearing it to church with my host mother on Sunday and I received many complements.
Finally on Sunday I had a bit of a chance to relax before one of the teachers from school called me to come to the Championship match of Egypt vs. Cameroon!! I was so excited!! Our tickets cost 4 cede, which is about $5, and we were sitting right behind one of the goals. Just to be in the stadium was super excited and there was constant singing, dancing, clapping and screaming!! Egypt ended up winning the cup in the end 1-0. There was the closing ceremony and firework!!
So overall, this was an extremely eventful, very Ghanaian, and ridiculously fun weekend!!! I am exhausted starting out this week, but I will have plenty of time to sleep now that the football matches are all over!!!
I hear it is record lows again in Green Bay. So while you are all freezing, I have been sweating like it is my job! It is SO HOT!!!
Miss you all!
☺ Chelsea ☺
February 11, 2008
This was by far my favorite weekend since I have been here. I am still absolutely exhausted from the weekend but it was well worth it!
On Friday I ended up going for drinks with a few of the teachers, and then returned home to eat dinner with the family, play a few cards and go to bed early! It was an extremely hot day, and I hadn’t worn sunscreen in a while, so when I returned home, my chest was burnt in a very ugly farmers tan. I had plans for Saturday bright and early and was planning on wearing a cute strapless black dress, but because of the tan I wouldn’t dare!!!
Saturday morning I was boarding a bus at 6:00am to head to the north Volta region to attend the funeral of a woman who I frequently sat in on her class. She teachers class one, so I figured that since I am returning to the states to teach first grade, it would be a great opportunity to compare the two education settings for this grade. So anyways, bright and early I headed to school, a few minutes late, to see the bus being loaded with our food and plenty of drinks for the day. All of the other teachers going (about 35 of us) were all in black traditional clothing and looking beautiful. Because of late arrivers, we ended up not departing the school until 7:05am. Even though it was so early in the morning, there was absolutely no way that I could sit on the bus. Not only was I smushed between two people, but also because the landscape was so beautiful that I couldn’t look away! Between the rolling hills, beautiful rock landscapes, huge towering trees or the small villages that we were passing through, it was absolutely amazing. At one point, we were going through a tunnel of tree’s and the bus started to slow down. I normally would not have thought twice about it, but the front immediately broke into conversation and was peering through the windows. I stood up, to watch the bus slowly passing a clan of baboons all relaxing in the shade of the trees. Unfortunately my camera was tangled at the bottom of my purse so I could not get a picture but it was way cool!! The whole trip was absolutely beautiful. We crossed this huge suspended bridge and looking the sun was at its full peak as it shined onto lake Volta. It really was a very cool trip.
The village was very smart, so when we arrived, we were immediately just outside the church. In this particular village, they had saved the funerals to do them all together so there were five going on at one church, and 6 at each of the other two. Because of this, the village was absolutely packed with people. In fact, we didn’t get a chance to go into the church because we were late and the church was already full. So we sat at a house outside, just outside of the house and eat the lunch of ken key and stew that was prepared by one of the staff from school.
The rest of the afternoon went by pretty quickly. We mostly sat around, talking and in my case, a lot of observing. From reading the death brochure, I found out that the man we were there to mourn has been dead since November 14th. He has been kept in the morgue until the family could afford to have everyone together and to pay for the funeral.
We got home at just after 6:30pm. By then the consolation match of the African cup was going on and Ghana was losing to Ivory Coast, 2 to 1. However, once I was able to watch it, and being the good luck charm that I am for the team, they ended up coming back to win! 4-2!!! It was a great match, and the black stars were awarded the bronze medal from the tournament.
Saturday night, the seamstress who was working on a traditional outfit for me brought my clothes over. The fabric is very cool and I choose a great style. It is a bit big, but it definitely looks nice! I ended up wearing it to church with my host mother on Sunday and I received many complements.
Finally on Sunday I had a bit of a chance to relax before one of the teachers from school called me to come to the Championship match of Egypt vs. Cameroon!! I was so excited!! Our tickets cost 4 cede, which is about $5, and we were sitting right behind one of the goals. Just to be in the stadium was super excited and there was constant singing, dancing, clapping and screaming!! Egypt ended up winning the cup in the end 1-0. There was the closing ceremony and firework!!
So overall, this was an extremely eventful, very Ghanaian, and ridiculously fun weekend!!! I am exhausted starting out this week, but I will have plenty of time to sleep now that the football matches are all over!!!
I hear it is record lows again in Green Bay. So while you are all freezing, I have been sweating like it is my job! It is SO HOT!!!
Miss you all!
☺ Chelsea ☺
Friday, February 8, 2008
Blog number 10
February 7, 2008
So tonight I am falling asleep to it being quiet. Ghana lost tonight to Cameroon 0-1. This was the game just before the championship so everyone is very disappointed. The black starts will play Cote d’voire on Saturday for third place.
This week has been a really good week other then the loss. It is started to get very very hot, to I arrive at school sweating, and I do not stop until I am back at home at the end of the day laying under my fan.
After making all of the students kneel on Monday teaching went really well on Tuesday. One of the classes I teach is really good. They are very respectful and very good at keeping quiet if they start getting loud. The other class is not so much. I spend most of the day in that classroom, so I wonder if this is why they are more talkative. When I was teaching the second class, There was a group of 4 boys who just wouldn’t stop talking so they ended up kneeling for the rest of the period. Today I collect the homework assigned on Wednesday, so hopefully I will have a better turn out then the previous two weeks.
Last week Thursday, while everyone was wearing their traditional clothing, I commented on a teacher’s beautiful beads. She questioned whether I really liked them, and then said that she would get me some! Well, after I was all done teaching on Wednesday, One of the students came and called me saying that a teacher was looking for me. Well I have still to learn all of the students’ names, so when she said I was just suppose to go, I had no clue where I was going! I ended up walking a bit until the student saw me and came and told me where it was! When I got to the classroom, she told me that a woman with the beads was here and I should look at them. They were these beautiful beads, that I learned were made right there in the city. I picked out a strand I liked a lot and then the teacher pointed out another that was beautiful. By this time a second teacher had come in and she told me to take ones that would match the cloth that I was making clothes out of. So now I had three beautiful strands of bead that I had to choose from. When I asked about the prices, the teacher who called me there, told me that they were on her and that I can have them! So I ended up leaving the room with three new beautiful necklaces and three new beautiful pairs of earrings (each necklace automatically came with the matching earrings!)
This weekend I am heading up to the north volta region with about 20 of the teachers from school. The class one teacher’s father died and so we are all going to the funeral. We will leave early Saturday morning and return late Saturday night. I am very excited not only to be traveling with the teachers, and getting to spend more time with them, but to also get a chance to experience a Ghanaian funeral!
I officially only have one month left and I cannot believe it! This time is flying!!
Hope things are going well at home!
☺Chelsea☺
February 7, 2008
So tonight I am falling asleep to it being quiet. Ghana lost tonight to Cameroon 0-1. This was the game just before the championship so everyone is very disappointed. The black starts will play Cote d’voire on Saturday for third place.
This week has been a really good week other then the loss. It is started to get very very hot, to I arrive at school sweating, and I do not stop until I am back at home at the end of the day laying under my fan.
After making all of the students kneel on Monday teaching went really well on Tuesday. One of the classes I teach is really good. They are very respectful and very good at keeping quiet if they start getting loud. The other class is not so much. I spend most of the day in that classroom, so I wonder if this is why they are more talkative. When I was teaching the second class, There was a group of 4 boys who just wouldn’t stop talking so they ended up kneeling for the rest of the period. Today I collect the homework assigned on Wednesday, so hopefully I will have a better turn out then the previous two weeks.
Last week Thursday, while everyone was wearing their traditional clothing, I commented on a teacher’s beautiful beads. She questioned whether I really liked them, and then said that she would get me some! Well, after I was all done teaching on Wednesday, One of the students came and called me saying that a teacher was looking for me. Well I have still to learn all of the students’ names, so when she said I was just suppose to go, I had no clue where I was going! I ended up walking a bit until the student saw me and came and told me where it was! When I got to the classroom, she told me that a woman with the beads was here and I should look at them. They were these beautiful beads, that I learned were made right there in the city. I picked out a strand I liked a lot and then the teacher pointed out another that was beautiful. By this time a second teacher had come in and she told me to take ones that would match the cloth that I was making clothes out of. So now I had three beautiful strands of bead that I had to choose from. When I asked about the prices, the teacher who called me there, told me that they were on her and that I can have them! So I ended up leaving the room with three new beautiful necklaces and three new beautiful pairs of earrings (each necklace automatically came with the matching earrings!)
This weekend I am heading up to the north volta region with about 20 of the teachers from school. The class one teacher’s father died and so we are all going to the funeral. We will leave early Saturday morning and return late Saturday night. I am very excited not only to be traveling with the teachers, and getting to spend more time with them, but to also get a chance to experience a Ghanaian funeral!
I officially only have one month left and I cannot believe it! This time is flying!!
Hope things are going well at home!
☺Chelsea☺
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Blog Number 9
February 4, 2008
I had a really fun weekend this weekend!!! And what topped it off was a BIG GHANA WIN AGAINST NIGERIA!!!! That is right, the Black Stars outplayed, and outscored the Super Eagles!!! It was the perfect ending to my weekend!!
OK, so this weekend I had nothing on the agenda, and I was very excited about it. Because of a few cooler days’ last week I was feeling a little under the weather and just wanted to catch up on a bit of sleep. That and my teacher had borrowed me a couple of movies so that I could just lie around and watch them.
Friday night I ended up playing cards with the boys until about 10:00pm. I have now taught them Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Memory, Spoons, War, and I just taught them Old Maid. We had to play them all a few times before I could go to sleep.
On Saturday morning, Auntie Agnes left the house early, and this gave the boys permission to wake me up equally as early! Since I was feeling much better I decided that I wanted to go and check out the art market. I decided that I was going to take a taxi there, until Auntie Agnes suggested that Partey go with me and that we would take a tro tro. We ended up starting to talk, but Partey forgot how to walk there so we took a taxi. The market has some very beautiful crafts, but it is a little overwhelming with all of the store tenders demanding for your attention whether you glance there way or not. Finally, after bargaining for a pair of earrings for 1 Ghana cede, we ended up leaving the market.
We decided that we were going to walk home and stop by all of the big attractions right there. We first walked through Independence Square down to the ocean. Then we headed to the stadium and walked around the stadium.
After being gone for 3 hours we decided to start our 40-minute trek home. We walked, talked, told jokes and sang. It really was a really fun walk about town!
The rest of the day was very low key, playing cards, resting and going to bed early after watching I Am Ledged.
On Sunday (GAME DAY!) Auntie Agnes took me to the seamstress to get some traditional clothes made. We had bought the fabric the previous weekend and I picked out my style and took my measurements. The rest of the day was devoted to football and the big Match.
The game was super exciting and nerve wrecking! There were some great parts for both teams, and some definitely let downs. Overall we came out on top and the city went crazy! I remember still hearing the cars honking at 10:30 when I headed to bed!
Today was a good day at school! Since a quarter of the students still did not turn in their homework on Friday, I ended up making those students, as well as the students who didn’t have their homework for me today kneel outside the classroom with their hands up silently for the teaching period, while everyone else got to play a fun soccer based (only to further celebrate the GHANA WIN!!) spelling activity. Seeing the group of students outside on the cement, many of the passing teachers had further remarks for them, which further emphasized their punishment. I think I actually made 3 or 4 students cry today! It sucked, but hopefully they will continue to take me serious now!
OK. Well that is it! These past two days have been extremely hot. The Harmatan is beginning to wear off, and it was the Harmatan, which actually was keeping the weather a bit down. Now the very hot season is starting!! So I will do my best to send this warm weather your way!!
Hope life is finding you all well!
☺ Chelsea ☺
February 4, 2008
I had a really fun weekend this weekend!!! And what topped it off was a BIG GHANA WIN AGAINST NIGERIA!!!! That is right, the Black Stars outplayed, and outscored the Super Eagles!!! It was the perfect ending to my weekend!!
OK, so this weekend I had nothing on the agenda, and I was very excited about it. Because of a few cooler days’ last week I was feeling a little under the weather and just wanted to catch up on a bit of sleep. That and my teacher had borrowed me a couple of movies so that I could just lie around and watch them.
Friday night I ended up playing cards with the boys until about 10:00pm. I have now taught them Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Memory, Spoons, War, and I just taught them Old Maid. We had to play them all a few times before I could go to sleep.
On Saturday morning, Auntie Agnes left the house early, and this gave the boys permission to wake me up equally as early! Since I was feeling much better I decided that I wanted to go and check out the art market. I decided that I was going to take a taxi there, until Auntie Agnes suggested that Partey go with me and that we would take a tro tro. We ended up starting to talk, but Partey forgot how to walk there so we took a taxi. The market has some very beautiful crafts, but it is a little overwhelming with all of the store tenders demanding for your attention whether you glance there way or not. Finally, after bargaining for a pair of earrings for 1 Ghana cede, we ended up leaving the market.
We decided that we were going to walk home and stop by all of the big attractions right there. We first walked through Independence Square down to the ocean. Then we headed to the stadium and walked around the stadium.
After being gone for 3 hours we decided to start our 40-minute trek home. We walked, talked, told jokes and sang. It really was a really fun walk about town!
The rest of the day was very low key, playing cards, resting and going to bed early after watching I Am Ledged.
On Sunday (GAME DAY!) Auntie Agnes took me to the seamstress to get some traditional clothes made. We had bought the fabric the previous weekend and I picked out my style and took my measurements. The rest of the day was devoted to football and the big Match.
The game was super exciting and nerve wrecking! There were some great parts for both teams, and some definitely let downs. Overall we came out on top and the city went crazy! I remember still hearing the cars honking at 10:30 when I headed to bed!
Today was a good day at school! Since a quarter of the students still did not turn in their homework on Friday, I ended up making those students, as well as the students who didn’t have their homework for me today kneel outside the classroom with their hands up silently for the teaching period, while everyone else got to play a fun soccer based (only to further celebrate the GHANA WIN!!) spelling activity. Seeing the group of students outside on the cement, many of the passing teachers had further remarks for them, which further emphasized their punishment. I think I actually made 3 or 4 students cry today! It sucked, but hopefully they will continue to take me serious now!
OK. Well that is it! These past two days have been extremely hot. The Harmatan is beginning to wear off, and it was the Harmatan, which actually was keeping the weather a bit down. Now the very hot season is starting!! So I will do my best to send this warm weather your way!!
Hope life is finding you all well!
☺ Chelsea ☺
Friday, February 1, 2008
Blog Number 8
January 31, 2008
This has been a real rollercoaster of a week! It started off on not a good note (see my last blog) and has ended really well.
On Tuesday during the poetry class the students did an outstanding job! We are working on writing poems that rhyme and keeping to a rhyme scheme. This was the second week of working on it and some of the poems that the students had were really good.
Just before Poetry on Tuesday, one of the students in my language art class asked me if I could do extra classes with him. I was not sure what this meant so after 10 minutes of questions I finally realized that he meant some extra tutoring. I talked to my teacher about this and he said that many of the teachers at the school go out to the students’ homes to do extra classes and provide extra help to the students in specific subjects. He said that generally the family would pay, or give the teacher something for doing this. I was really honored that the student asked so of course I said yes. We set it up and the student Derrick and I will meet after school for a half an hour 2-3 times a week. The help is in Spelling, so good thing I have all kinds of games to play for spelling that the extra classes should be really fun!
Today marks 51 years of the schools existence. Since it was founder’s day, rather then having class all day, the students had a planned program. All of the students were told that they did not need to wear their normal uniforms but were rather instructed to wear traditional cloth. I didn’t have any so I dressed as normal, however once I got to school all of the students and teachers asked where my traditional cloth was. In fact, when one teacher say that I didn’t have any she quickly went away and came back five minutes later to tell me that she had just sent out for some Kinte ( the cloth- not sure on the spelling) for me. 20 minutes later the teacher found me and draped it over my shoulder so that I would feel festive as well.
So the students’ day started off with a 2 hour mass and then everyone moved to the gathering all for the program. Some of the different things that took place were cultural dancing, class competitions on facts and spelling, a Kindergarten modeling show, impersonations (many were of their teachers) and more dancing.
That morning I had casually thrown my camera into my bag and I am so glad that I did. Seeing all of the children in their traditional clothing and seeing them do cultural dance was absolutely cool! At just about the beginning of the show my camera ended up running out of batteries, but this day was just too cool to miss so I ended up getting a taxi and running home to get my charger so I could come back and do it at school. I got some pretty awesome pictures from the day, but it really was cool just to be there and see all of the students’ and teachers all dressed up!
This weekend should be another pretty low-key weekend. I am hoping to go to the market just to look around. Also Ghana plays Nigeria in the African Cup this weekend on Sunday and I am currently trying to get tickets so I can go and watch it at the stadium, which would be SO cool!!
Love you all!
☺Chelsea☺
January 31, 2008
This has been a real rollercoaster of a week! It started off on not a good note (see my last blog) and has ended really well.
On Tuesday during the poetry class the students did an outstanding job! We are working on writing poems that rhyme and keeping to a rhyme scheme. This was the second week of working on it and some of the poems that the students had were really good.
Just before Poetry on Tuesday, one of the students in my language art class asked me if I could do extra classes with him. I was not sure what this meant so after 10 minutes of questions I finally realized that he meant some extra tutoring. I talked to my teacher about this and he said that many of the teachers at the school go out to the students’ homes to do extra classes and provide extra help to the students in specific subjects. He said that generally the family would pay, or give the teacher something for doing this. I was really honored that the student asked so of course I said yes. We set it up and the student Derrick and I will meet after school for a half an hour 2-3 times a week. The help is in Spelling, so good thing I have all kinds of games to play for spelling that the extra classes should be really fun!
Today marks 51 years of the schools existence. Since it was founder’s day, rather then having class all day, the students had a planned program. All of the students were told that they did not need to wear their normal uniforms but were rather instructed to wear traditional cloth. I didn’t have any so I dressed as normal, however once I got to school all of the students and teachers asked where my traditional cloth was. In fact, when one teacher say that I didn’t have any she quickly went away and came back five minutes later to tell me that she had just sent out for some Kinte ( the cloth- not sure on the spelling) for me. 20 minutes later the teacher found me and draped it over my shoulder so that I would feel festive as well.
So the students’ day started off with a 2 hour mass and then everyone moved to the gathering all for the program. Some of the different things that took place were cultural dancing, class competitions on facts and spelling, a Kindergarten modeling show, impersonations (many were of their teachers) and more dancing.
That morning I had casually thrown my camera into my bag and I am so glad that I did. Seeing all of the children in their traditional clothing and seeing them do cultural dance was absolutely cool! At just about the beginning of the show my camera ended up running out of batteries, but this day was just too cool to miss so I ended up getting a taxi and running home to get my charger so I could come back and do it at school. I got some pretty awesome pictures from the day, but it really was cool just to be there and see all of the students’ and teachers all dressed up!
This weekend should be another pretty low-key weekend. I am hoping to go to the market just to look around. Also Ghana plays Nigeria in the African Cup this weekend on Sunday and I am currently trying to get tickets so I can go and watch it at the stadium, which would be SO cool!!
Love you all!
☺Chelsea☺
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Blog Number 7
January 28, 2008
Today has been my toughest day of teaching yet. It has nothing to do with my preparation, or my directions or anything, but I think that the cultural differences are really starting to play a roll. Last week Wednesday I collected an assignment that I had assigned a week before then, and 15 of one class of 45 and 12 of the class of 44 did not have the assignment completed. I knocked off points and said that they must get it to me the following morning. Still there were about 4 students who just didn’t do it. Then I assigned another writing piece that would be due that Friday. This piece delt with including detail in writing and really shouldn’t have been that hard. I had given them until the end of the day on Friday and then collected it. Students were coming up to me with excuses and I noticed that the piles seemed small but there wasn’t anything that I could do at that time. I expressed a bit of this concern to my cooperating teacher. and he said that we would deal with it on Monday.
So today I get to school and begin to grade the assignments, It turned out that some students just put their notebooks in the pile to look like they had it done, but in actuality the work hadn’t even been started. Only 22 from the class of 44 and 21 from the class of 45 had a completed assignment.
Since today was a teaching day for me, I had a game all set and ready to play for spelling. After we went through the spelling test, I walked around to check that the students completed all of the spelling work that they has been assigned all year when they receive a new batch of words. I ended up keeping count of the amount of students that had completed this and it ended up being 18 from the class of 45 and 17 from the class of 44.
Seeing this, I was extremely disheartened. I ended up writing these two batches of numbers on the board and even they were astonished at the amount of students that did not have the work done. I reminded them of their promise to Mr. Bright of being respectful of me while I am here. I questioned them on whether they thought the lack of homework showed me that they respected me. Rather then playing our game that I had all prepared I ended up writing the excercises on the board and they had to silently work on them until class finished.
I have decided that since the students know that I will not smack them over the head or cane their hands like my cooperating teacher will, that they can get away with this. To me, this seems like a huge lack of disrespect. While I was talking with the group about my disappointment my teacher just sat their quietly. Later on that day he told both classes that if they didn’t shape up when I was teaching he would begin to keep track of the lashings that they deserved and once I left they would pay for every single one of them.
One girl after class actually came up to me with a note it reads
Dear Miss Chelsea,
On behalf of my mates and I, we want to tell you that we are sorry for what we did. We will try never to do that again.
Please forgive us.
Your student
Gloria
While I see this as a sign of disrespect of the students, I cannot put all of the blame on them. I have forgotten part of what we talked about in overseas seminar. I came here to teach, and I brought my games to play and learn with and extremely different teaching styles then anything that they have gone 5 years with. I have done very little adaptation to my teaching style, which totally defeats the purpose of overseas teaching.
So I plan to try to mimic the teaching styles of my cooperating teacher a bit more. This might mean less games, but hopefully it will mean that I will be taken more seriously. In no way does it mean that I will loose any of the energy that I generally bring to my teaching, and I will attempt to still include creativity in the activities, but I need to follow the regimine that they have already established. And who knows, if the students are really good I will throw in some games here and there ;)
Ok, so not much about my weekend, but totally really was a trying and frustrating day that I figured needed to be worked through.
Ghana won tonight against Morroco and will be in the quarter finals so I am falling asleep to the sounds of horns honking and whistles blowing as the celebration continues!
Much love!
☺ Chelsea
January 28, 2008
Today has been my toughest day of teaching yet. It has nothing to do with my preparation, or my directions or anything, but I think that the cultural differences are really starting to play a roll. Last week Wednesday I collected an assignment that I had assigned a week before then, and 15 of one class of 45 and 12 of the class of 44 did not have the assignment completed. I knocked off points and said that they must get it to me the following morning. Still there were about 4 students who just didn’t do it. Then I assigned another writing piece that would be due that Friday. This piece delt with including detail in writing and really shouldn’t have been that hard. I had given them until the end of the day on Friday and then collected it. Students were coming up to me with excuses and I noticed that the piles seemed small but there wasn’t anything that I could do at that time. I expressed a bit of this concern to my cooperating teacher. and he said that we would deal with it on Monday.
So today I get to school and begin to grade the assignments, It turned out that some students just put their notebooks in the pile to look like they had it done, but in actuality the work hadn’t even been started. Only 22 from the class of 44 and 21 from the class of 45 had a completed assignment.
Since today was a teaching day for me, I had a game all set and ready to play for spelling. After we went through the spelling test, I walked around to check that the students completed all of the spelling work that they has been assigned all year when they receive a new batch of words. I ended up keeping count of the amount of students that had completed this and it ended up being 18 from the class of 45 and 17 from the class of 44.
Seeing this, I was extremely disheartened. I ended up writing these two batches of numbers on the board and even they were astonished at the amount of students that did not have the work done. I reminded them of their promise to Mr. Bright of being respectful of me while I am here. I questioned them on whether they thought the lack of homework showed me that they respected me. Rather then playing our game that I had all prepared I ended up writing the excercises on the board and they had to silently work on them until class finished.
I have decided that since the students know that I will not smack them over the head or cane their hands like my cooperating teacher will, that they can get away with this. To me, this seems like a huge lack of disrespect. While I was talking with the group about my disappointment my teacher just sat their quietly. Later on that day he told both classes that if they didn’t shape up when I was teaching he would begin to keep track of the lashings that they deserved and once I left they would pay for every single one of them.
One girl after class actually came up to me with a note it reads
Dear Miss Chelsea,
On behalf of my mates and I, we want to tell you that we are sorry for what we did. We will try never to do that again.
Please forgive us.
Your student
Gloria
While I see this as a sign of disrespect of the students, I cannot put all of the blame on them. I have forgotten part of what we talked about in overseas seminar. I came here to teach, and I brought my games to play and learn with and extremely different teaching styles then anything that they have gone 5 years with. I have done very little adaptation to my teaching style, which totally defeats the purpose of overseas teaching.
So I plan to try to mimic the teaching styles of my cooperating teacher a bit more. This might mean less games, but hopefully it will mean that I will be taken more seriously. In no way does it mean that I will loose any of the energy that I generally bring to my teaching, and I will attempt to still include creativity in the activities, but I need to follow the regimine that they have already established. And who knows, if the students are really good I will throw in some games here and there ;)
Ok, so not much about my weekend, but totally really was a trying and frustrating day that I figured needed to be worked through.
Ghana won tonight against Morroco and will be in the quarter finals so I am falling asleep to the sounds of horns honking and whistles blowing as the celebration continues!
Much love!
☺ Chelsea
Monday, January 28, 2008
Blog Number 6
January 24th
SO, Jenny is officially gone and we still havn’t heard from her. Many of the teachers asked to see if she made it home, so I will just have to update them when we hear. Tonight was the second Ghanaian match. They played Namibia and were suppose to win by like 6 goals, but only got one.
Life without Jenny here is different, but just fine. It is much quieter at night when I go back to my room, but I just turn on some music and have a little dance party and then I am fine. Each night this week there have been two different football matches on with the second one ending at a little after 9, so I have been going to bed pretty much after that. The night after Jenny left I ended up changing the room around a bit to make it more mine. I pushed the two beds together so now it is like sleeping on my big bed at home (but not as fluffy.)
Teaching this week has been fine. I am struggling a bit with the classroom management, and have tried many different techniques in order to keep the class quieter. Finally I think I have something that works pretty well. I have given the class a strike system. At the beginning of each period I teach I put a number on the board (generally 4 or 5, but depending on how they were the last time I teach, I will adjust the number) Then, at any time during the class that I feel they are not listening, or they are not respecting me while I teach, or if the room is getting too loud I will just take away one of the strikes. I told them that if we got down to 0 they would have to work silently on an exercise that I come up with and that we wouldn’t be able to keep doing the other, more fun activities that I have planned.
Also, I assigned work last Wednesday for this Wednesday and when I collected it, there were 15 student in one class and 12 in the other that did not have the work done. I gave them another assignment for Friday so hopefully I will get a better response.
This weekend I think we have a pretty low key weekend. Ghana doesn’t play again till Monday but that will be a very big game. Nigeria plays tomorrow night so that will be fun to watch. Originally we were going to go to the village this weekend for Jenny to be able to see their home in the village but I think that we might just be staying around, which I am gladly accepting because I can catch up on some sleep and just relax!!
Well this is just a short post, but the rest have been so long, so I am sure that you welcome it!!
This weekend I will be thinking about Big Brothers Big Sisters as they have a huge fundraising event on Saturday, so BEST OF LUCK GIRLS!!
Much Love!
☺ Chelsea ☺
January 24th
SO, Jenny is officially gone and we still havn’t heard from her. Many of the teachers asked to see if she made it home, so I will just have to update them when we hear. Tonight was the second Ghanaian match. They played Namibia and were suppose to win by like 6 goals, but only got one.
Life without Jenny here is different, but just fine. It is much quieter at night when I go back to my room, but I just turn on some music and have a little dance party and then I am fine. Each night this week there have been two different football matches on with the second one ending at a little after 9, so I have been going to bed pretty much after that. The night after Jenny left I ended up changing the room around a bit to make it more mine. I pushed the two beds together so now it is like sleeping on my big bed at home (but not as fluffy.)
Teaching this week has been fine. I am struggling a bit with the classroom management, and have tried many different techniques in order to keep the class quieter. Finally I think I have something that works pretty well. I have given the class a strike system. At the beginning of each period I teach I put a number on the board (generally 4 or 5, but depending on how they were the last time I teach, I will adjust the number) Then, at any time during the class that I feel they are not listening, or they are not respecting me while I teach, or if the room is getting too loud I will just take away one of the strikes. I told them that if we got down to 0 they would have to work silently on an exercise that I come up with and that we wouldn’t be able to keep doing the other, more fun activities that I have planned.
Also, I assigned work last Wednesday for this Wednesday and when I collected it, there were 15 student in one class and 12 in the other that did not have the work done. I gave them another assignment for Friday so hopefully I will get a better response.
This weekend I think we have a pretty low key weekend. Ghana doesn’t play again till Monday but that will be a very big game. Nigeria plays tomorrow night so that will be fun to watch. Originally we were going to go to the village this weekend for Jenny to be able to see their home in the village but I think that we might just be staying around, which I am gladly accepting because I can catch up on some sleep and just relax!!
Well this is just a short post, but the rest have been so long, so I am sure that you welcome it!!
This weekend I will be thinking about Big Brothers Big Sisters as they have a huge fundraising event on Saturday, so BEST OF LUCK GIRLS!!
Much Love!
☺ Chelsea ☺
Blog Number 5
January 21st 2007
We had a pretty eventful weekend this weekend. On Friday Jenny ended up going home early from school because she was feeling unwell. So Friday night was very low key, more playing cards with Partey and Michael and we even taught one of the other house hands to play with us as well.
On Saturday Auntie Agnes knew a woman whose daughter was getting engaged so they were having the engagement ceremony. The engagement ceremony, for many people, is more important then the actual wedding. The engagement is all about bringing the two families together. Prior to the actual ceremony, the mans family will approach the woman’s family and metaphorically ask if their son can marry their daughter. The woman’s family will then create a list of things that the mans family will have to get for the woman’s family in order for this to happen. Once the mans family agrees to all of the things asked of them they will return to the woman’s family and set a date for the celebration. The Bride and Groom to-be are not actually allowed in the room while the exchanging of gifts is taken place. We were going to the actual celebration. Auntie Agnes instructed us to find out light, dress clothes because they always wear light clothes to these celebrations. The morning of the engagement party I woke up to find Jenny up already. She told me that she still was not feeling well and that she was just going to stay home rather then go to the party. So Auntie Agnes and I went with some of her mates from high school. We arrived about 30 minutes late and were some of the first people there. About an hour and a half later the groom-to-be’s family arrived and the celebration started. Everything took place inside of the house, and unless you were family, you were suppose to stay outside. After about a half an hour of trying to watch from outside, the brother of the bride-to-be came out to talk to Auntie Agnes. Then Auntie Agnes told me that the mother of the bride was inviting me to join her family inside so I would be able to actually see everything that was going on. This was so exciting to be invited and I immediately followed the brother indoors where not only would I be able to get some great pictures, but I could watch everything. I didn’t really understand too much because most of it took place in ga (a Ghanaian language) I thought it was very cool to see some of the gifts being brought. They ranged from multiple types of alcohol, luggage, and a watch (so that the bride could always watch her husband) , to the engagement ring and a hymn book and bible (Buy Investigate Believe Live Enjoy) The ceremony finished and everyone came outside to enjoy the traditional Ghanaian food, as well as plenty of beverages. Auntie Agnes taught me her favorite drink of beer and Fanta. So after arriving at about 9:30am we ended up leaving at 3:30pm. This was an awesome Ghanaian experience and I am so fortunate that Auntie Agnes invited me to join her.
On Sunday Jenny was feeling much better. We got up to go to church with Auntie Agnes and the kids. While getting ready for church Jenny told me that she had a confession and that she would be leaving Ghana in 3 days to head home. I questioned her and she said that this is not where she felt that she belonged. I tried to convince her opposite but she said that she has already booked the ticket.
At the protestant church we had a really good mass. At the end not only did the electricity go out, but we were asked to come forward and introduce ourselves. We also prayed as a church for a successful tournament that was starting, the African Cup of Nations.
After having a Auntie Agnes’s Traditional Sunday breakfast we headed out to the botanical gardens. It was about 30 minutes away and not the gardens that I was expecting. There were not many flowers, but rather a ton of different trees. On our way home we stopped where the traditional drums are made. I saw a gentleman carving a wood carving in the corner and ended up buying it from him for 4 Ghana cedes, unstained and just barely finished.
The start of the tournament was extremely cool. Not only did they have a whole 2-hour opening ceremony with many Ghanaian dancers and bands, but the opening game between Ghana and Guinee was so exciting. Ghana ended up winning in the end.
OK, so even though Jenny is leaving, I am actually very excited for this week. I love soccer and there is a ton of hype for this tournament so it is going to be fine. Plus my host family loves soccer so hopefully we will watch just about ever game on!
Hope life is good in the U.S!! STAY WARM!!!
:) Chelsea (:
January 21st 2007
We had a pretty eventful weekend this weekend. On Friday Jenny ended up going home early from school because she was feeling unwell. So Friday night was very low key, more playing cards with Partey and Michael and we even taught one of the other house hands to play with us as well.
On Saturday Auntie Agnes knew a woman whose daughter was getting engaged so they were having the engagement ceremony. The engagement ceremony, for many people, is more important then the actual wedding. The engagement is all about bringing the two families together. Prior to the actual ceremony, the mans family will approach the woman’s family and metaphorically ask if their son can marry their daughter. The woman’s family will then create a list of things that the mans family will have to get for the woman’s family in order for this to happen. Once the mans family agrees to all of the things asked of them they will return to the woman’s family and set a date for the celebration. The Bride and Groom to-be are not actually allowed in the room while the exchanging of gifts is taken place. We were going to the actual celebration. Auntie Agnes instructed us to find out light, dress clothes because they always wear light clothes to these celebrations. The morning of the engagement party I woke up to find Jenny up already. She told me that she still was not feeling well and that she was just going to stay home rather then go to the party. So Auntie Agnes and I went with some of her mates from high school. We arrived about 30 minutes late and were some of the first people there. About an hour and a half later the groom-to-be’s family arrived and the celebration started. Everything took place inside of the house, and unless you were family, you were suppose to stay outside. After about a half an hour of trying to watch from outside, the brother of the bride-to-be came out to talk to Auntie Agnes. Then Auntie Agnes told me that the mother of the bride was inviting me to join her family inside so I would be able to actually see everything that was going on. This was so exciting to be invited and I immediately followed the brother indoors where not only would I be able to get some great pictures, but I could watch everything. I didn’t really understand too much because most of it took place in ga (a Ghanaian language) I thought it was very cool to see some of the gifts being brought. They ranged from multiple types of alcohol, luggage, and a watch (so that the bride could always watch her husband) , to the engagement ring and a hymn book and bible (Buy Investigate Believe Live Enjoy) The ceremony finished and everyone came outside to enjoy the traditional Ghanaian food, as well as plenty of beverages. Auntie Agnes taught me her favorite drink of beer and Fanta. So after arriving at about 9:30am we ended up leaving at 3:30pm. This was an awesome Ghanaian experience and I am so fortunate that Auntie Agnes invited me to join her.
On Sunday Jenny was feeling much better. We got up to go to church with Auntie Agnes and the kids. While getting ready for church Jenny told me that she had a confession and that she would be leaving Ghana in 3 days to head home. I questioned her and she said that this is not where she felt that she belonged. I tried to convince her opposite but she said that she has already booked the ticket.
At the protestant church we had a really good mass. At the end not only did the electricity go out, but we were asked to come forward and introduce ourselves. We also prayed as a church for a successful tournament that was starting, the African Cup of Nations.
After having a Auntie Agnes’s Traditional Sunday breakfast we headed out to the botanical gardens. It was about 30 minutes away and not the gardens that I was expecting. There were not many flowers, but rather a ton of different trees. On our way home we stopped where the traditional drums are made. I saw a gentleman carving a wood carving in the corner and ended up buying it from him for 4 Ghana cedes, unstained and just barely finished.
The start of the tournament was extremely cool. Not only did they have a whole 2-hour opening ceremony with many Ghanaian dancers and bands, but the opening game between Ghana and Guinee was so exciting. Ghana ended up winning in the end.
OK, so even though Jenny is leaving, I am actually very excited for this week. I love soccer and there is a ton of hype for this tournament so it is going to be fine. Plus my host family loves soccer so hopefully we will watch just about ever game on!
Hope life is good in the U.S!! STAY WARM!!!
:) Chelsea (:
Blog Number 4
January 17, 2008
End of week Two.
This week was a really good week. It was the first week of an actual routine. The timetables were set for classes and the day worked (more or less) on schedule. I was able to have all of my teaching periods as well as the periods that I would have off.
The school has a very different schedule then I have ever seen, however I think it is probably the best set-up EVER! The students all begin school every day at 7:45am with assembly where the students pray, sign a hymn, say the national anthem and sing the national prayer. Classes are from 8 until 2:00 everyday with Monday, and Thursday’s having “extra classes” from 2:30-3:30. The extra classes are just an extra period that they wanted to squeeze in during the week. On Tuesday’s they have “Talent Hunt” from 2:30-3:30, where they offer an array of classes that are meant to explore the students’ talents. These classes include basket weaving, school marching band, cultural drums and dancing, art and bead making, tai Kwan do and creative writing. These classes are mandatory for the whole school to participate in. I think this concept is extremely cool, and shows the students that the school really is working to better the whole person, and help the students grow to become what they should.
The headmistress assigned me to work with the creative writing class for the time that I am here. I arrived on Tuesday and the two other (old and much more experienced) teachers turned to me and plainly said, “all right, they are all yours. What are you going to do.” Since I found out about the class that morning, I hadn’t given it a ton of thought. What is extremely difficult about this class, is that the age range, and talent range are so huge it is difficult to come up with something for the group to do. I have first year students as well as class six students. I decided upon doing acrostic poems, with the class six-ers doing sentences rather then words to fulfill the poem. This ended up working great! And I think that the students really enjoyed it. After the class ended, one of the teachers, the one who has been in charge of the class for the past 3 terms, asked me if I had more strategies that specifically targeted developing writers. I had to tell her that I would get back to her but it still was very cool for her to be asking me for my strategies!
Ok, back to the schedules, on Wednesday they have Activities from 2:30-3:30, which are much like the talent classes but a bit more broad. They have Tennis, Boy and Girl scouts, cadets, salsa and interpretive dance, and debate and drama.
Friday afternoons they have the 2:30-3:30 period for all school games. All the students come to school in the P.E attire and the gym teachers will lead football (soccer) tournaments, or basketball, volleyball or any other sport that they can get the whole school into.
So far things are going really well. I am meeting more of the teachers and getting to know the students better. I am still adjusting my teaching style to this situation, and have not totally been able to transition it yet. My teacher is nice, but he is not great at giving feedback. Today was the third time that a student in class vocally shared with the class that they decided that Mr Bright (my co-op) and I should get married. In fact today the student even added that we have to do it before I leave, which makes for a very rushed wedding. But don’t worry Bola, you stressed that we cannot come home with any new lovers.
Ok so this weekend is the opening of the African Cup of Nations, a HUGE soccer tournament so the city is crazy with people and excitement right now. We can’t wait for it to start, and to hopefully get to some games. We have a pretty exciting weekend a head of us. Our host mother is taking us to an Engagement Party (which are almost more important then the wedding here) as well as the botanical gardens. I am also joining one of the teachers to play volleyball with the students on Sunday after the cup game so that should be very fun as well.
Hope life is GREAT and that everyone is getting ready for the start of another semester (the last for many of us!) I look forward to hearing from you all soon!
☺ Chelsea ☺
January 17, 2008
End of week Two.
This week was a really good week. It was the first week of an actual routine. The timetables were set for classes and the day worked (more or less) on schedule. I was able to have all of my teaching periods as well as the periods that I would have off.
The school has a very different schedule then I have ever seen, however I think it is probably the best set-up EVER! The students all begin school every day at 7:45am with assembly where the students pray, sign a hymn, say the national anthem and sing the national prayer. Classes are from 8 until 2:00 everyday with Monday, and Thursday’s having “extra classes” from 2:30-3:30. The extra classes are just an extra period that they wanted to squeeze in during the week. On Tuesday’s they have “Talent Hunt” from 2:30-3:30, where they offer an array of classes that are meant to explore the students’ talents. These classes include basket weaving, school marching band, cultural drums and dancing, art and bead making, tai Kwan do and creative writing. These classes are mandatory for the whole school to participate in. I think this concept is extremely cool, and shows the students that the school really is working to better the whole person, and help the students grow to become what they should.
The headmistress assigned me to work with the creative writing class for the time that I am here. I arrived on Tuesday and the two other (old and much more experienced) teachers turned to me and plainly said, “all right, they are all yours. What are you going to do.” Since I found out about the class that morning, I hadn’t given it a ton of thought. What is extremely difficult about this class, is that the age range, and talent range are so huge it is difficult to come up with something for the group to do. I have first year students as well as class six students. I decided upon doing acrostic poems, with the class six-ers doing sentences rather then words to fulfill the poem. This ended up working great! And I think that the students really enjoyed it. After the class ended, one of the teachers, the one who has been in charge of the class for the past 3 terms, asked me if I had more strategies that specifically targeted developing writers. I had to tell her that I would get back to her but it still was very cool for her to be asking me for my strategies!
Ok, back to the schedules, on Wednesday they have Activities from 2:30-3:30, which are much like the talent classes but a bit more broad. They have Tennis, Boy and Girl scouts, cadets, salsa and interpretive dance, and debate and drama.
Friday afternoons they have the 2:30-3:30 period for all school games. All the students come to school in the P.E attire and the gym teachers will lead football (soccer) tournaments, or basketball, volleyball or any other sport that they can get the whole school into.
So far things are going really well. I am meeting more of the teachers and getting to know the students better. I am still adjusting my teaching style to this situation, and have not totally been able to transition it yet. My teacher is nice, but he is not great at giving feedback. Today was the third time that a student in class vocally shared with the class that they decided that Mr Bright (my co-op) and I should get married. In fact today the student even added that we have to do it before I leave, which makes for a very rushed wedding. But don’t worry Bola, you stressed that we cannot come home with any new lovers.
Ok so this weekend is the opening of the African Cup of Nations, a HUGE soccer tournament so the city is crazy with people and excitement right now. We can’t wait for it to start, and to hopefully get to some games. We have a pretty exciting weekend a head of us. Our host mother is taking us to an Engagement Party (which are almost more important then the wedding here) as well as the botanical gardens. I am also joining one of the teachers to play volleyball with the students on Sunday after the cup game so that should be very fun as well.
Hope life is GREAT and that everyone is getting ready for the start of another semester (the last for many of us!) I look forward to hearing from you all soon!
☺ Chelsea ☺
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Blog Number 3
January 15, 2008
We traveled this weekend. We went to the central region, to Cape Coast. We had bought our tickets early last week to take a public bus there. Our bus was supposed to leave at 8:00 in the morning to ensure that we would get there by 10:30am. Well, the bus was having troubles so they delayed it, and we didn’t end up loading until about 9:30am. Once we got on the bus, I discovered that my seat was in the very back, the seat that spanned the back of the bus. This meant that I had a person on each side of me and that I did not have any arm rests. About 45 Kilometers into the trip, the bus pulled over. People started to leave the bus and hang out outside. We waited an hour before we finally found out what was going on. The fan belt had broke on the bus and the driver was already on his way back to Accra to try to find a new one to bring back to the bus. Jenny was about to throw in the towel and head back to Accra. There were some other American’s on the bus and one of them had flagged a “tro tro” (which are large passenger vans that they pack as many people into as possible- a popular form of public transportation) and that was taking them into Cape Coast. Jenny and I ended up hopping this tro tro and we finally made it into Cape Coast at 1:30pm. Our first stop on this trip was to Kakum, the national park in the area that was home to the only Canopy Walk in Africa. There are 7 bridges linked together with platforms. Each bridge was a series of planks of wood, supported by a “cage-type” net. Since we were going in the middle of the day, we did not get to see many animals, but the experience was still very cool. After the park we headed to Elmina and Cape Coast castles. These castles were the major ports for slave castles and as beautiful the buildings were, they had a horribly sad background. We returned to Accra on Sunday with (thank to God) no problems with out bus.
This week started the normal schedule for classes and I actually had a chance to speak with my teacher regarding the classes and expectations of the class throughout lessons. It is very difficult for me to understand him at times, but I am making my way through.
I have discovered what one of my biggest difficulties with teaching this group of students is. I am having a tough time figuring out time management, especially with classes that have 45 students in the one class. The lesson that I did yesterday went fine, but I still see definite room for improvement here.
What is really nice is that I have two classes of the fifth level language arts, so if there are adjustments that need to be made after doing the lesson once, I have time to evaluate it and make the adjustment for the second class.
Life is still good! I am excited that I am starting to get into the swing of things with classes and activities. As of right now, I teach two classes on Monday and two classes on Wednesday. I also do some follow-up work on Friday. Right now I haven’t done anything to get more teaching/observing in, but that is only cause I want to finish off this week. Next week I plan to see where else in the school I can help out.
Love to all!
Chelsea
January 15, 2008
We traveled this weekend. We went to the central region, to Cape Coast. We had bought our tickets early last week to take a public bus there. Our bus was supposed to leave at 8:00 in the morning to ensure that we would get there by 10:30am. Well, the bus was having troubles so they delayed it, and we didn’t end up loading until about 9:30am. Once we got on the bus, I discovered that my seat was in the very back, the seat that spanned the back of the bus. This meant that I had a person on each side of me and that I did not have any arm rests. About 45 Kilometers into the trip, the bus pulled over. People started to leave the bus and hang out outside. We waited an hour before we finally found out what was going on. The fan belt had broke on the bus and the driver was already on his way back to Accra to try to find a new one to bring back to the bus. Jenny was about to throw in the towel and head back to Accra. There were some other American’s on the bus and one of them had flagged a “tro tro” (which are large passenger vans that they pack as many people into as possible- a popular form of public transportation) and that was taking them into Cape Coast. Jenny and I ended up hopping this tro tro and we finally made it into Cape Coast at 1:30pm. Our first stop on this trip was to Kakum, the national park in the area that was home to the only Canopy Walk in Africa. There are 7 bridges linked together with platforms. Each bridge was a series of planks of wood, supported by a “cage-type” net. Since we were going in the middle of the day, we did not get to see many animals, but the experience was still very cool. After the park we headed to Elmina and Cape Coast castles. These castles were the major ports for slave castles and as beautiful the buildings were, they had a horribly sad background. We returned to Accra on Sunday with (thank to God) no problems with out bus.
This week started the normal schedule for classes and I actually had a chance to speak with my teacher regarding the classes and expectations of the class throughout lessons. It is very difficult for me to understand him at times, but I am making my way through.
I have discovered what one of my biggest difficulties with teaching this group of students is. I am having a tough time figuring out time management, especially with classes that have 45 students in the one class. The lesson that I did yesterday went fine, but I still see definite room for improvement here.
What is really nice is that I have two classes of the fifth level language arts, so if there are adjustments that need to be made after doing the lesson once, I have time to evaluate it and make the adjustment for the second class.
Life is still good! I am excited that I am starting to get into the swing of things with classes and activities. As of right now, I teach two classes on Monday and two classes on Wednesday. I also do some follow-up work on Friday. Right now I haven’t done anything to get more teaching/observing in, but that is only cause I want to finish off this week. Next week I plan to see where else in the school I can help out.
Love to all!
Chelsea
Monday, January 14, 2008
Blog Number 2
January 10, 2008
I cannot believe that tomorrow is Friday already. This week has seemed to absolutely fly by. Overall I think that it has been an extremely successful first week of teaching. There are some definite differences between the pace of teaching, and practices. As for the methods that I have observed, they are pretty much the same as in the United States. On our first day of teaching, we arrived at school and met with the head mistress. She told me that I would be with a fourth grade teacher. Not trying to be rude, I asked her if there was any way that I could be bumped up to the fifth grade since I needed to be doing my middle school placement here and 5th grade is the lowest grade that would work. She ended up being able to work that out, and I am working with a fifth grade male language arts teacher. He told me that language arts is broken into four different categories; Spelling and dictation, grammar, composition and comprehension. He taught the first three of these and the other fifth grade language arts teacher taught the fourth. He decided that we would split these three up. So I am working with the composition and he is doing the grammar and we would team the spelling.
One thing that I am still getting used to is that older students often come into the classroom and call the teacher away. My teacher seems to always have meetings and they take place in the middle of the day. On my first day of teaching when this happened, we finished the work that they were doing, and then I worked with the students to create a Venn diagram between Accra and Wisconsin. This activity worked really well, and Mr. Bright came and asked that I continue until the graph was totally filled in rather then ending in the middle.
The next day (yesterday) I led the group in a game of vocabulary hang man while Mr. Bright was out of the room, as well as provided the students with directions, construction paper and markers to make table tents of their names to help me while I am in front of the class. Towards the end of the day, Mr. Bright asked me if I had anything else that I would like to do with the children, I had a chapter book along that I was going to read with the students, but he changed his mind and said they were going to do something else. However, from this, I learned that I NEED to come prepared to class everyday with at least 3 activities that will fill time.
AND an older student came into the classroom and requested that I come with her, as another teacher wanted me! Total boost in my confidence J Well I followed her to the JSS building (Junior Secondary School) They are preparing for the National Spelling Bee and she needed an English voice to recite the words to challenge the students. SO she gave me a list of words to make sure that I knew how to say. She told me that we were only doing thirty words, so I only learned the first hundred (out of 300) in the book since the rest were “not being used during the actual bee.” Well when I was called to come and work with the students, the teacher gave me the list of 30 that I would have to read, only about 10 of them coming from the list below 100!!! Thanks to my junior year in high school and the teacher’s concentration on vocabulary, I only struggled with the last two! 1) Cardiomegaly and 2) Dermatophyte.
Today, (Thursday) was another good day. I worked with the children, by myself in the classroom from about 10:40-12:20. The students did a great job with both of the activities that we did, however tonight I have quite some checking to do to return to the students tomorrow. For composition the students were working on formatting letters, so I had each of them write to me to tell me something about them and ask me questions. I have some really great letters.
I am looking forward to tomorrow’s classes, as well as this weekend. Jenny and I are heading to Cape Coast. It is about three hours from where we are. It is known for its slave castles and its national park KaKum. KaKum is a rainforest type terrain and we will be going through a canopy walk!! I cannot wait! Auntie Agnes has already secured out housing for while we are there ($35 a night) and our transportation for getting around!
I will write all about this experience on Tuesday! Hope life is well for everyone!
:) Chelsea (:
January 10, 2008
I cannot believe that tomorrow is Friday already. This week has seemed to absolutely fly by. Overall I think that it has been an extremely successful first week of teaching. There are some definite differences between the pace of teaching, and practices. As for the methods that I have observed, they are pretty much the same as in the United States. On our first day of teaching, we arrived at school and met with the head mistress. She told me that I would be with a fourth grade teacher. Not trying to be rude, I asked her if there was any way that I could be bumped up to the fifth grade since I needed to be doing my middle school placement here and 5th grade is the lowest grade that would work. She ended up being able to work that out, and I am working with a fifth grade male language arts teacher. He told me that language arts is broken into four different categories; Spelling and dictation, grammar, composition and comprehension. He taught the first three of these and the other fifth grade language arts teacher taught the fourth. He decided that we would split these three up. So I am working with the composition and he is doing the grammar and we would team the spelling.
One thing that I am still getting used to is that older students often come into the classroom and call the teacher away. My teacher seems to always have meetings and they take place in the middle of the day. On my first day of teaching when this happened, we finished the work that they were doing, and then I worked with the students to create a Venn diagram between Accra and Wisconsin. This activity worked really well, and Mr. Bright came and asked that I continue until the graph was totally filled in rather then ending in the middle.
The next day (yesterday) I led the group in a game of vocabulary hang man while Mr. Bright was out of the room, as well as provided the students with directions, construction paper and markers to make table tents of their names to help me while I am in front of the class. Towards the end of the day, Mr. Bright asked me if I had anything else that I would like to do with the children, I had a chapter book along that I was going to read with the students, but he changed his mind and said they were going to do something else. However, from this, I learned that I NEED to come prepared to class everyday with at least 3 activities that will fill time.
AND an older student came into the classroom and requested that I come with her, as another teacher wanted me! Total boost in my confidence J Well I followed her to the JSS building (Junior Secondary School) They are preparing for the National Spelling Bee and she needed an English voice to recite the words to challenge the students. SO she gave me a list of words to make sure that I knew how to say. She told me that we were only doing thirty words, so I only learned the first hundred (out of 300) in the book since the rest were “not being used during the actual bee.” Well when I was called to come and work with the students, the teacher gave me the list of 30 that I would have to read, only about 10 of them coming from the list below 100!!! Thanks to my junior year in high school and the teacher’s concentration on vocabulary, I only struggled with the last two! 1) Cardiomegaly and 2) Dermatophyte.
Today, (Thursday) was another good day. I worked with the children, by myself in the classroom from about 10:40-12:20. The students did a great job with both of the activities that we did, however tonight I have quite some checking to do to return to the students tomorrow. For composition the students were working on formatting letters, so I had each of them write to me to tell me something about them and ask me questions. I have some really great letters.
I am looking forward to tomorrow’s classes, as well as this weekend. Jenny and I are heading to Cape Coast. It is about three hours from where we are. It is known for its slave castles and its national park KaKum. KaKum is a rainforest type terrain and we will be going through a canopy walk!! I cannot wait! Auntie Agnes has already secured out housing for while we are there ($35 a night) and our transportation for getting around!
I will write all about this experience on Tuesday! Hope life is well for everyone!
:) Chelsea (:
Blog Number 1
January 7, 2008
Night before the first day of teaching.
Prior to arriving in Accra I was almost sure that life here would be much like the brief time I spent in Nigeria. From the stares that I would receive, to the driving, and especially the food and fruits. Because of this, I was sure that the adjustment wouldn’t be that bad for me because I have already briefly experienced this and was sure to be a bit prepared. It has been 4 plus days since then, and I have discovered that I was wrong. Any huge lifestyle change, one cannot be totally prepared for what it would be like. From the lack of running water (due to Hamatan (sp?)-Dry season) to the overall people in general. This has definitely been a huge change for me. Our host mother is absolutely wonderful, like many people had previously told me, and the weather is extremely hot.
We went to school on Friday to meet all the teachers, and listen to them go over administrative stuff before the term begins tomorrow. It was extremely interesting listening to them speak (from what I could understand) about the discipline practices. Some teachers were pushing for the use of canes, while the administration (headmistress and deputy headmistress) firmly stood against it. I also found it extremely interesting that there are more male teachers then female, including in the primary school. After the meeting closed with prayer, the faculty all stayed to socialize and drink. They were opening many bottles of wine and champagne. We were actually told, that if we held onto our drinks too long, or set them down on the table that it was bad luck, so we had to drink up. One of the teachers also brought everyone lunch, and Jenny and I had our first experience with Ghanaian food, eating without utensils and all. Jenny did just fine with this, me on the other hand, coming from a family that obviously loves food dug in with both hands. It was only after the group of teachers sitting across from us could control their belly laughs was one able to tell me that we always only eat with one hand, the right. To conclude that adventure, we live only about a 10 minute walk from the school but still managed to get lost and had to return to school for the head mistress to have to drive us home.
Since then, we have toured Accra. We have seen Independence Square, the memorial of Kwame Nkrumah, their first president, the football stadium, the university of Ghana (which was the first university in the country) and the beach. Auntie Agnes has been a wonderful tour guide and knows a ton about the city. We also got a private tour of the National Theatre because she “knows people” since her work with the Minister of Finance, allowed her to be part of the negotiating team to finance the project.
:) Chelsea (:
January 7, 2008
Night before the first day of teaching.
Prior to arriving in Accra I was almost sure that life here would be much like the brief time I spent in Nigeria. From the stares that I would receive, to the driving, and especially the food and fruits. Because of this, I was sure that the adjustment wouldn’t be that bad for me because I have already briefly experienced this and was sure to be a bit prepared. It has been 4 plus days since then, and I have discovered that I was wrong. Any huge lifestyle change, one cannot be totally prepared for what it would be like. From the lack of running water (due to Hamatan (sp?)-Dry season) to the overall people in general. This has definitely been a huge change for me. Our host mother is absolutely wonderful, like many people had previously told me, and the weather is extremely hot.
We went to school on Friday to meet all the teachers, and listen to them go over administrative stuff before the term begins tomorrow. It was extremely interesting listening to them speak (from what I could understand) about the discipline practices. Some teachers were pushing for the use of canes, while the administration (headmistress and deputy headmistress) firmly stood against it. I also found it extremely interesting that there are more male teachers then female, including in the primary school. After the meeting closed with prayer, the faculty all stayed to socialize and drink. They were opening many bottles of wine and champagne. We were actually told, that if we held onto our drinks too long, or set them down on the table that it was bad luck, so we had to drink up. One of the teachers also brought everyone lunch, and Jenny and I had our first experience with Ghanaian food, eating without utensils and all. Jenny did just fine with this, me on the other hand, coming from a family that obviously loves food dug in with both hands. It was only after the group of teachers sitting across from us could control their belly laughs was one able to tell me that we always only eat with one hand, the right. To conclude that adventure, we live only about a 10 minute walk from the school but still managed to get lost and had to return to school for the head mistress to have to drive us home.
Since then, we have toured Accra. We have seen Independence Square, the memorial of Kwame Nkrumah, their first president, the football stadium, the university of Ghana (which was the first university in the country) and the beach. Auntie Agnes has been a wonderful tour guide and knows a ton about the city. We also got a private tour of the National Theatre because she “knows people” since her work with the Minister of Finance, allowed her to be part of the negotiating team to finance the project.
:) Chelsea (:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)