March 19th, 2009
We began an early morning visiting a local primary school, the equivalent of a Canadian kindergarten to grade seven school. Sue observed a primary four class (8 or 9 year olds), Alissa went to a primary six class (10 or 11 year olds) and Ann visited a primary seven class (12 or 13 year olds); however, in all classes there seemed to be a large age range. All kids wore uniforms and most of the girls had shaved heads to prevent distractions. We have attached a short video of a spelling/grammar lesson in action so that you can experience a Ugandan classroom for yourself!
As teachers it became obvious that classrooms around the world share many similarities. For example, we saw spelling, grammar, science and socials lessons that contained similar content to the Canadian curriculum. Other things that were similar were funny teachers with great senses of humour; schedules that appeared to operate on a regular time-table; and most importantly: children were regularly requesting to use the washroom in what appeared to be an attempt to avoid the lesson!
There were also many differences. The rooms were basic often with mud floors, no glass for windows and broken slate chalkboards. Benches that were meant for two were often squeezed with 3 or 4 students instead. Text books were far and few between and shared amongst many. Also, children used razor blades to sharpen their pencil stubs and sometimes newspapers were used as writing paper! The kids were excited when break time came at which point, the three of us were sent to the principal’s office!
We were warmly received by the head teacher and headmaster where Alissa gave many picture books donated by her school (Country Garden Montessori Academy) community. Sue gave each of the teachers a small token of appreciation for graciously welcoming us into their classrooms.
The three of us found the school visit to be very helpful with workshop preparation and the opportunity to see how our profession works in another country. We are all very appreciative of the resources and opportunities that we have in Canada.
After our school visit we went back to the JGI office and put in a long afternoon preparing workshop materials and lessons. The majority of our time was spent putting together the binders that the teachers will use during the workshop. By the end of the day we were really missing the correlating, stapling and sorting feature on our photocopiers.
We began an early morning visiting a local primary school, the equivalent of a Canadian kindergarten to grade seven school. Sue observed a primary four class (8 or 9 year olds), Alissa went to a primary six class (10 or 11 year olds) and Ann visited a primary seven class (12 or 13 year olds); however, in all classes there seemed to be a large age range. All kids wore uniforms and most of the girls had shaved heads to prevent distractions. We have attached a short video of a spelling/grammar lesson in action so that you can experience a Ugandan classroom for yourself!
As teachers it became obvious that classrooms around the world share many similarities. For example, we saw spelling, grammar, science and socials lessons that contained similar content to the Canadian curriculum. Other things that were similar were funny teachers with great senses of humour; schedules that appeared to operate on a regular time-table; and most importantly: children were regularly requesting to use the washroom in what appeared to be an attempt to avoid the lesson!
There were also many differences. The rooms were basic often with mud floors, no glass for windows and broken slate chalkboards. Benches that were meant for two were often squeezed with 3 or 4 students instead. Text books were far and few between and shared amongst many. Also, children used razor blades to sharpen their pencil stubs and sometimes newspapers were used as writing paper! The kids were excited when break time came at which point, the three of us were sent to the principal’s office!
We were warmly received by the head teacher and headmaster where Alissa gave many picture books donated by her school (Country Garden Montessori Academy) community. Sue gave each of the teachers a small token of appreciation for graciously welcoming us into their classrooms.
The three of us found the school visit to be very helpful with workshop preparation and the opportunity to see how our profession works in another country. We are all very appreciative of the resources and opportunities that we have in Canada.
After our school visit we went back to the JGI office and put in a long afternoon preparing workshop materials and lessons. The majority of our time was spent putting together the binders that the teachers will use during the workshop. By the end of the day we were really missing the correlating, stapling and sorting feature on our photocopiers.
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