Mapinduzi

 This week we have been teaching at a school called Mapinduzi English Medium Primary School. Eric took us on Monday and introduced us to Musa, who has been in charge of helping us there. The first day was extremely unorganized, and he kept telling us to wait for him in an office. Then, he had us grade papers. We finally took it upon ourselves to explore the school. We ended up playing hand clapping games with the preschool children. They were absolutely adorable, and all wanted to play with us. Well, Musa found us and told us to wait In the office again. After what seemed like forever, we left on our own and asked a third grade math teacher if we could observe his lesson. His teaching was the best I have seen. He was kind to the kids, and allowed them to come to the board and work out problems. He did not get angry if kids made mistakes. As we walked out of the class a boy reached out and touched my arm, the teacher said ' he wants to touch the white'. Very interesting. That was the end of the day, they are on a holiday schedule, so school is over at 12:30.

The next day Jake taught grade 7 science on alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs. After that Musa took Jake to grade 6 to teach math. He taught about degrees of a line. After the lesson, Musa told Jake that he was going to make the exercise but Jake had to grade it. There was no preparation, he was just told 'go into grade 6 and teach degrees of a line'. He did the same with me and English. I taught grade 6 and grade 7 with no materials, so I taught fun things like onomatopoeias and antonyms and synonyms. The kids were so eager to learn. There are about 80 kids in each 6 and 7, and it was incredible how well behaved and quiet they were. 

Here a a brain break! 

 Musa gave Jake a science textbook and told him to teach anything from it tomorrow, and did the same with me and English. Wednesday was better because we could prepare a lesson. It felt kind of foolish to come up with anything from the textbook because we had no idea what they had learned previously. Jake had a fun lesson about gravity. The kids would drop different things, jump around, and draw pictures. I created a lesson on idioms where we learned many different idioms, what it would mean if it was taken literally, and then what it figuratively means. I had the kids draw pictures and they loved it. They thought the idioms were hilarious. 

 Something we were not prepared for is the punishment. The teachers threaten the children with punishment. There is absolutely no positive reinforcement, only negative. If a child misbehaves, is late, forgets supplies, etc, they are hit with a stick. It is sickening. We tried to talk to them about it, and they say there is nothing we can Do. 'You are in Africa, we are not civilized here'. I couldn't believe they said that. Aga told me that at the nursery, if a child hits another child, the teacher will hold them down so the child who was hit can get revenge and hit them back. They are teaching violence and It is awful. It is amazing how well the kids respond to positive praise, they laugh and smile so much, and try to continue to get praise from jake and I. I wish the teachers there would listen to our suggestions. It is very hard. Tomorrow (Friday) is our last day there. I hope Umma Salama is more open to suggestions. I don't see why a school would accept volunteers if they do not want to listen to them or let them help to improve the school. It is disheartening. 

A great moment today was when I was sitting outside waiting for Jake to finish a lesson. A small preschooler named Rachel came to sit by me. She barely spoke English. I took a stick, and drew a picture of the sun in the dirt. She took a stick and copied my picture. I erased, and did the same with a flower. This went on for forty minutes. She was so precious. (You are lucky I didn't steal her and bring her home ma :) ) the kids just crave love and attention. 

Rachel is in the blue jacket. 

 This school has made me feel extremely lucky to work where I work in America. We make kids the priority, which I assumed was something all schools did. I work with kind, caring, positive people and I am so grateful for that.  

However, the kids are adorable.