Sunday, November 29, 2009

Observation week




Monday November 23 – I went in to TIS to make sure my plans for the coming two weeks of exams would be acceptable. I had my agenda for the next two weeks approved by my host teacher Alex and the Principal. I planned on observing my fellow student teachers during most of the next weeks.

Tuesday November 24 – I went to Tema Parents School with Kendall and Graydon. They have an assembly on Tuesday mornings which consists of singing, praying, motivational speaking and announcements if not more. It was very hard to hear what the man on the microphone was saying because of the poor sound system and tons of kids. The teachers also got in a circle to pray before starting classes. I first went with Kendall to her 1st grade classroom. It is a tiny room with 40 students packed into their desks. Her topic for that lesson was day and night. She made a game where students had a card with an answer and a question on it and if the student’s card had the answer they read the next question or phrase. It was in the flow of a story. Kendall did a very nice job with the kids and the lesson was pretty successful I thought. It was nice to see how she handled classroom management and interacted with her other teachers and so on. I then went to visit Graydon’s 5th grade class and they were talking about an experiment they had done with a battery, wire and light bulb. Graydon too did a great job with the kids. I was able to see each of them teach or at least be in charge of the class for several hours and the day at Tema Parents was a very good one.

Wednesday November 25 – I first went to observe Whitney and her 3rd grade classroom. They were doing a grammar lesson and then a lesson on body odor. Whitney’s class was a little rambunctious but she did a good job handling them. After Whitney’s class I went to visit Jen in the Kindergarten. These kids are a whole new breed. I actually did a little teaching of some stretching and physical activities for the kids to do and we did recess and Jen taught a lesson on washing by reading some stories she made up and having kids answer questions. If I have learned anything on this trip one thing is that it takes special people to work with grades three and below and I am not one of those special people. I could teach them PE and love to play with them but I would not want teach them all day long unless I was really needed in that area. I also went to observe Christina’s 5th grade science lesson on energy. She has brought her group a long way and they were doing group work for the hour while I was there.

Thursday November 26 – On Thursday I slept in and then went to observe a PE lesson at Methodist Day Secondary School. This was a setting different from mine at TIS. More like a public school setting there were very few facilities and equipment and generally class sizes are very large. It was interesting to see that the general set up for the class lesson on handball was similar to one that I would create in Michigan. There were progressive drills and a culminating game all of which was focused on the objective of passing and throwing a hand ball. It was also great to talk physical education and lack of respect and so on with the two Ghanaian physical educators. It was just like I was in Michigan. I also hung out with Alex and made fun of a man’s infomercial video. He was a fitness person supposedly with outrageous exercises and poor advice and made up information on how his exercises help you. It was very funny.

Friday November 27 – This was a beautiful Ghanaian National Holiday and we all enjoyed the day of at the pool and out to eat pizza and then we went to see a movie at the Cinema in Accra. For a while at the movie it was like we weren’t really in Ghana. The theatre was as nice as all the good theatres in Michigan and we were watching a film, New Moon, that is out in the U.S. as well. We went to the movie with an English couple now living in Tema near us. It was a very relaxing and fun day.

Saturday November 28 – We left for a Volta boat cruise early in the morning. As we arrived we had an experience with an older woman selling jewelry. She was possibly the worst barterer of all time but that is the only negative thing I will say about her. We didn’t end up buying much jewelry from her but some did from another lady nearby. The cruise was really nice. It was relaxing and had great views of the mountains and the water. We had a really great grilled chicken lunch, played some cards and talked. We also met a nice guy named Maximus who hung out with our group and Jen most of the trip. We stopped half way at an island and there were lots of people from the island playing music and lots of kids just coming up asking for money. This was a tough part of the trip. The people need money very badly but it was hard to know what to give and who the money goes to and so on. Many of us ended up giving quite a few kids the coins we had in our pockets. The whole trip was about five or six hours on the boat. That night we also went into Accra for a World Aids Day Concert. There was some good music and speakers on HIV/AIDS and they were doing free testing for people. It was a cool event to be a part of. HIV and AIDS is such a problem especially in Africa.

Sunday November 29 – We decided to sleep in because we got back late from the concert and skip going to a church service but instead we held our own at the pool. We swam for a while and tanned and then put on our own little six person service. It was a good time and I hope meaningful for everyone. We went to the store to get some odds and ends. All in all it was a pretty relaxing weekend.
Final comments – From my observations and especially just interacting with the group of teachers I am here with it is easy to tell that they are all going to be excellent teachers. I am blessed to have such a good group to get along with, enjoy the experience with and learn from. We have been able to talk about issues we are having and help each other with ideas and lots more. We are talking about going as a group to teach in the Alaskan bush together. We will see if that is in God’s plans but wouldn’t it be fun! This last comment should get my mom riled up :)
God bless and if you need anything in prayer let me know!

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