First Days of Teaching

 The first week of teaching has been an easy transition even though I have been fighting a cold all week. I only had a couple subjects that I taught Monday, and then I taught Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The teacher that had the class before I got here stayed this week and helped transition the class. He also took care of most of the disciplinary actions, which was very nice for me because corporal punishment is not anywhere close to my specialty.

 This week my students learned a lot about how to keep their body and lives healthy. They also worked with words beginning with A, B, and C. We sing a song: "Alpha A, A, A, what begins with A?" and then each of the four rows gets to give five words that begin with A. We are going to do a letter a day and then move into more challenging sounds like ch, sh, etc. In math, I am teaching them how to count by twos and add two-digit numbers, so my number chart I brought has been very helpful. I did not have to teach at all today, Friday, because we had two soccer games planned for the afternoon that the whole school was going to watch: JSS1 vs. JSS 2 and JSS3 vs. SS1. Since the president is coming into Kabala today, we dismissed the students around 11:30 to get ready to meet as a school and greet the president at 4 as he drives by. The soccer games were moved to this morning. It was fun and very entertaining to watch. I was designated the photo person, so I have a lot of snaps of the game.

The whole school at morning assembly.

                                                                             My class.

 

                                                          JSS 1 vs. JSS 2: JSS 2 won 2-1

 

                                                       JSS3 vs. SS1: JSS3 won 3-2

 

My students Zacharie (left) and Noah (right) best friends,who make me think of my own cousins Zach and Noah. Just a little taste of home everyday :)

 

 

One challenge I faced this week is getting them to share and work out of a book. I will have to teach them how to work on problems in a book, and also teach them how to share. The afternoons are very difficult to get through because the students get a little more wild, but it is nice to have a break in the middle of the afternoon. Another is understanding the krio. I know one very important word that we use a lot: "sabi" which means to know. If the students don't know what I am saying or don't understand the information they will say "Miss Nikki I no sabi." I will often give directions or explain something to them and then ask the if they sabi, if the understand.

I will admit I am a little nervous to have the whole class to myself next week, but I know that it will be a wonderful experience. My students are so used to repeat, repeat, repeat, and just writing and copying down what is on the board. I want to try and change that slowly, so that they can do work on their own, work in partners, and in groups. I also want to teach them all to read. I think I am going to start a reading club on Monday's so that my students can stay and have even more time directed towards learning how to read.

This was only my first week of teaching. I am sure I will have more to tell and so much more to show.

God Bless,
Nikki