Thankful: July 9, 2013

Amanda Hobson

Seasoned teachers, future teachers, and an engineer stepped into the Ghanaian classrooms ready to hone their craft in a foreign land.  There were lessons on predictions, comparisons, life cycles, and the solar system.  Each student carefully studied the American teachers waiting to hear and see what was coming.  In the United States even our lowest income schools have access to crayons, paper, and other materials that make teaching come to life.  However, in Ghana it is rare for students to even have a pencil sharpener in their room.  Instead students as young as six years old are using razor blades to create a pencil point that is just long enough to write with.  Today with the help of family and friends we were able to bring supplies for the students to enjoy. 

Class K-1 & K-2

Every classroom was full of life, but nothing can compare to the Pre-K and Kindergarten rooms that Courtney and Caroline B were teaching in.  The objective was to have the students predict what was going to happen in The Very Hungry Caterpillar. In both rooms, Courtney and Caroline carefully read the book to ensure that the students understood. Eric Carle’s bright pictures made this story easy to translate. With the help of the Ghanaian teachers the students were able to correctly predict that the caterpillar was going to turn into a "but-ter-fly".  As the children answered the questions, each syllable was carefully spoken by the sweet voices with what seemed like a space in between.  After reading and making predictions, the students created their own butterflies.  The young eyes were in awe as Madame Courtney and Madame Caroline passed out brightly colored tissue paper, pipe cleaners, and beads.  A craft that could easily be a daily activity in the U.S. was a once in a lifetime experience for these young children.

                                     

Class 1 & 2

“Has anyone ever seen snow?” Marlee asked her eager first and second grade students.  “Yes, Madame!” they all called out.  However, in Ghana, there are only two seasons: rainy and dry.  Today Marlee and Shaye taught the students all of the different forms of precipitation.  There was wonder and curiosity in the eyes of each student as their teachers explained what snow is.  After an engaging science lesson, Marlee and Shaye moved on to teach the students about recalling the characters in a story.  Shaye energetically read “Goldie Locks and the Three Bears” and the students hung on every word.  Madame Shaye and Madame Marlee then asked their Ghanaian teacher permission to place the students in groups.  The teacher allowed it with some hesitation.  In Ghana, students face the board and participate in a lot of large group rote memorization and recitation.  By default, this is the best pedagogy because there are limited supplies that support collaborative learning. While in groups, the students each created a puppet of one of the book’s main characters.  The students will continue studying versions of Goldie Locks this week and the week will culminate with their own production!

Class 3 & 4

Light skin,

   Dark skin.

Long legs.

   Short legs.

Different—

  Mm-mmmm,

But the same,

    Ah-ha!

Madame Phoebe and Madame Caroline S taught this original song to their third and fourth grade students as a way to introduce their lesson.  They compared Charleston to Cape Coast and explained that while some things are very different they are also very similar.  The students were excited to compare Ghanaian fishing boats, forts, and streets with those in America.  After the Social Studies lesson they moved on to Reading.  These two CSU future teachers read The Rainbow Fish to the students.  This book follows a beautiful fish that wants to find friendship.  After making connections to the books the students were able to make their own rainbow fish.  Phoebe and Caroline S. brought out glue sticks, scissors, tissue paper, plastic googly eyes, a fish cutout, and tin foil to represent the Rainbow Fish's special scale.  The students were thrilled to get their hands on all of these materials.  They carefully cut out the fish and added the scales.  Phoebe and Caroline S. made wonderful connections with their students and are excited to provide more opportunities for the children to be creative.

Class 5 & 6

“You have made my classroom beautiful!” called Mr. Derek.  Chastity and Molly had posted the students' work on one of the empty cement block walls of his classroom.  The students were proud to see their work displayed.  They started pointing and talking to their table group about where their work was on the wall. Madame Chastity and Madame Molly taught Science and Reading lessons. In Science, the students learned about the life cycle of a frog.  They turned the classroom into a stage and the students were able to act out the stages of the life cycle. The students clapped for each other and laughed as they shared a new experience.  In reading, the students enjoyed hearing The Very Grouchy Ladybug as Molly passionately read the book with hand motions, voices, and expressions.  The students giggled as she read and were excited to participate in a sequence of events craft.  Chastity and Molly are looking forward to building relationships, modeling different ways to teach, and learning from their Ghanaian experiences. 

Class 7 & 8

The motley crew: Liz (the seasoned teacher), Ben (recently graduated mathematician/future teacher), and Robert (the construction engineer) worked seamlessly together in the seventh and eighth grade classrooms.  They taught the students how to create a scale model of the solar system using compasses. To give perspective on how far away Neptune is from Uranus they sent a student outside of the classroom to represent the planet. This was Robert and Ben’s first teaching experience.  Both have an immense amount of content knowledge and dived right into teaching. Robert and Ben agreed that the students’ willingness and desire to learn made it very easy to teach. The students went on to draw a scale model of the universe using a compass.  This was the students' first experience using this new tool and they did not want to see them go when it was time for the o’brynis had to leave.  “Sir, Sir! Will you bring the compasses back?” called out the eager secondary students.  “Yes,” the teachers assured them.  When the teaching teams have finished in each classroom they are going to distribute all of the materials among the classrooms.

As we continue to reflect on the our journey thus far, we are thankful.  Thankful for the opportunity to learn from a group of people that have so much joy with so little.