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
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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 (:
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