Thursday, January 25, 2007

Pen pal opportunity!!!

The third grade students (or class three as they are referred to here) seem to be learning the material very quickly. In math class we have just begun learning division. On the first day of this unit, I asked the class if they knew what is meant by division. Many students raised their hands and the first student that I called on said, "It means that you sort items out equally." A pretty solid answer from a nine year old. Just having finished multiplication, we are now discussing how division and multiplication are similar (i.e. how 6x7=42 and 42/7=6 are related). Students also know how to solve division problems when they are given a missing part. So for example 8x?=40, ? = 5 because 4x8=40.

In grammar class this week we have been looking at prepositions which the student seem to have a pretty good handle on too. They can identify prepositions in sentences and can form their own sentences that contain prepositions.

In exciting news, I am establishing pen pals with a school back in Milwaukee that I observed at last semester. My third graders will be writing back and forth with second graders from Madison Elementary School. I think that this will be an eye opening experiences for the students on both sides and hopefully they will learn how people thousands of miles away are similar to them. Hopefully they are old enough to gain something from this opportunity.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Feeling more comfortbale

As a few weeks have passed, I feel more comfortable teaching at Christ the King as I have become more aware of some of the nuances. First I have never taught on a block schedule before. Regular periods last 35 minutes but the more important subjects are taught as two 35 minute periods back to back so the class will last 70 minutes. For the third graders this seems to be a bit long. Both the math and grammar classes that I teach are block periods. The students do have breaks throughout the day...a 15 minute break in the morning and 45 minutes for lunch.

It is also interesting how the students greet their teachers. At the beginning of class, the teacher will say, "Good morning" and the students respond, "Good morning Mr./Mrs. Last name." Then the teacher will say, "How is the class doing today" and the class responds, "We are fine, thanks, and you?" It is pretty cute. Outside of the classroom many of the students acknowledge their teachers by either waving or saying good morning or good afternoon. Also in class most teachers do not call on students by using their names but rather make eye contact with the student they want to answer the question or they simply point to the student. When a student is called on, they stand by their desk as they answer the question.

Teaching continues to go well. In my math class this week we are wrapping up multiplication and will begin simple division. In my grammar class we have finished learning about synonyms and will begin learning about prepositions.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Trying to adjust on the go

Now that I have a better picture of how Christ the King operates, I have to try to adjust my teaching style. As I have noted earlier, teachers here grade classwork and homework everyday. Having to grade my own assignments, I have learned that this becomes quite tedious. As I walk around the school and sit in the teachers area, almost every teacher has a stack of notebooks piled high in front of them that they are busy grading. Rarely will I see a teacher reading the newspaper or browsing the Internet.

I find this very frustrating because it seems like a waste of time. Most teachers if the work is correct will mark the problem with a check mark. If the problem is wrong, they will mark it with an X and not really explain why or how the student did the problem incorrectly. Also since their is so much grading after the teacher assigns the classwork, they will begin to grade the previous days homework. This means that teachers are not walking around the room helping the students who are confused or who have questions. When the students are given their homework to copy down from the chalkboard, teachers then begin to grade the classwork. So it seems that there is little interaction between the teacher and students since the teacher is always grading student work.

It is also frustrating because the students are used to copying their classwork and homework directly from the chalkboard. It seems that there is so much class time wasted as students are copying down their work. Students here are also accustom to having the freedom of walking around the classroom while the teacher is teaching. As I have been observing, students will walk right up to the teacher and ask a question about their work or if they can go to the bathroom while the teacher is teaching. The students themselves may feel the need to get up and walk around because they are sitting most of the day. Most of their classes are taught in their own classroom.

In general, I have been very impressed with how smart the third graders are. Their math skills and knowledge of the English language are much better than I expected.

This is definately a learning experince for me as I try to adjust my teaching style to best meet the needs of my students.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

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.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

First day of teaching

Well...today was the students first day back to school (Jan. 9) so things were a little crazy and not much was taught in the two third grade classrooms that I observed. The music lesson and environmental studies classes that I observed were spent on reviewing material from before break which for the students started on Dec. 8.

The mornings start around 7:30 with an outdoor school assembly. This school Christ the King International is kindergarten through 8th grade. So each class lined up along side a basketball court near the school's dirt 'football' field. Assembly lasted around 30 minutes as the students prayed, listened to announcements, and sang the national anthem accompanied by a few drums.

This school is very different in terms of set up as a typical American school. The school is set up in a single story U shape with the administrative offices in the front and the rest of the classrooms following. Each classroom has about 40 - 45 students with one teacher. There appears to be a lot of downtime for students to either read a book or work on homework.

Today was personally a bit crazy. At the beginning of the day, the assistant principal still did not know which teachers I would be working with. Then after a while I was lead to one of the third grade classrooms where I discussed with the teacher what subjects I could teach. With moments of telling her that I could teach math, she had me teach a lesson on multiplication without any time to prepare. Later in the day I taught the same math lesson to the other third graders.

I do now have my schedule. I will be teaching math five days a week to both third grade classes and English three times a week to both classes. I am looking forward to the experience although U am not sure how long it is going to take me to learn the names of some 85 students, especially names that are hard to pronounce. We shall see how it goes.