Another Sharing


Advertisement
South Sudan's flag
Africa » South Sudan » Yei
November 9th 2013
Published: November 9th 2013
Edit Blog Post

Today Karen, Ellen and I completed our plan for sharing our experience with teachers at Terekeka and Yei compounds. Because some of the teachers here in Yei attended the workshop I did in February, we retooled our presentation so that the first part was a review of strategies described then to a more participatory approach with those from last year helping those who were not there. This is one of the principles of cooperative learning--having students (in this case, the teachers) explain in their words what the teacher just said. We did nine Kagan strategies and six active learning strategies, and then demonstrated the use of eight graphic organizers. Having substituted in several of their classes yesterday really helped because we were able to tell how we had actually used some of those strategies and organizers with their classes. the teachers really enjoyed team activities, getting quite competitive and there was a lot of laughter when they shared answers to various questions.

One discussion, in which we demonstrated using a T diagram to list pros and cons of an idea was very interesting. Harvesters here in Yei has about 150 children, but not all of them attend the school here because some are too young and others have graduated. But the school has about 450 students because village children also attend, with the only cost being the school uniform. Because so many village students attend, some oF the classes have 60-70 students, so a limit was set on how many extra children could be enrolled. Our question was whether or not there should be a limit. The teachers who spoke were divided right down the middle: some agreed with the limit because of limited resources, space, desk/bench combos, books, etc. and the huge classes. Others said there should be no limit because the cost of public school was much higher so many children could not go to school at all and because everyone had the right to an education. i am very glad I am not the ones who have to make such decisions because both sides have valid points.

We were able to treat the teachers to a lunch that was a step above their usual beans and rice, plus offer them school supplies such as blank flash cards and playing cards (they loved playing a simple math game with a deck I had brought), post-its, pens, charts and other such goodies. We thoroughly enjoyed the time together and hope that these strategies will help the Harvesters teachers break away from the rote learning and teacher lectures that are so prevalent across the country.

Advertisement



Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 6; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0385s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb