Nearing the end of the first week

I have observed and experienced much over the past three days. I am very fortunate to Christ the King for welcoming me with open arms. During transition times, many students and teachers introduce themselves to me and ask how my day is going. There are so many names and faces that it will take some time to become familiar with everyone.

Thus far I am three days into my math class. The topic for this week and next week is multiplication. Student have learned how to draw pictures to represent multiplication problems. For example if the problem is 4 x 3 = 12, they know to draw four groups with three in each group. Tomorrow the students will learn how a number line can help them solve multiplication problems. Class has gone well and the students seem to be picking up the content. I find it interesting that all of the teachers grade both the student's class work and homework. So if there are around 45 students in a class and the teacher teaches two sections, they typically will be grading 180 items throughout a day (and this is just for one subject).

I taught my first section of grammar (or construction as they call it here) today. Tomorrow and next week we are learning about synonyms. When I started the lesson none of the students could tell me what a synonym was. By the end of the class the students were coming up with about five synonyms for every word that I gave them.

During some of my down time, I have learned a great deal about the education system in Ghana. Teachers go through a very similar process that American teachers do. After graduating from high school, Ghanaians who wish to teach take three years of courses at a university and are then able to teach at a private or public school. Like in the United States parents who have access to money send their students to private school which have access to the best available teachers and good facilities. Public schools on the other hand have few resources, more students in the classroom, and poor facilities.

There are just under 1,000 students here at Christ the King as the school houses kindergarten through eight grade. In kindergarten through second grade, the students work mostly with their homeroom teacher. There are two classroom for third through fifth grade where teachers will teach certain subjects to each classroom. For example in forth grade, one teacher will teach social studies and math to each class while the other may teach science and grammar to each class. In middle school (or JSS...Junior Secondary School) teachers only teach one subject.