Last week at Unisport

To help the teachers in their process and because we are with quite a lot at the moment, we did observations this week. See how they teach, which ways they use, how they interact with the pupils etc. Afterwards we would talk with them about what we've noticed.

The first time I did this was with a young girl, Mercy, she wants to become a teacher in the future, so she was fine with getting feedback, but she did not really respond with her own opinion about what she was doing good and which things perhaps could be done in another way, or where the difficulties were. That's why I asked her questions with every bit of feedback I gave. For example, if the pupils were writing an exercise or copying something from the blackboard, she would sit on a chair in front of the class and wait until they finish what they're doing, when a pupil comes up to her she'd correct the exercise. I asked her, what could you do with that time, instead of waiting on the chair? She didn't know. I advised her to use that time to go and walk around the class,to see if everyone understands, if they are doing what they're supposed to do etc. She agreed that that's a good solution for the waiting time and that she would do that in the future.

The second observation was with Faides, an adult woman. She felt criticized by me watching her. With talking about the lesson I noticed she felt offended. But she didn't talk to me about it, I just noticed by her body language. With several questions I tried to get her to speak to me, but it didn't work. I also assured her that she was doing a fantastic job, because that's the truth, every volunteer is doing his/her utterly best. But she kept quiet.

For every observation I made a short summary with all the things being said and seen in the lesson, for the volunteer to have a brief overview to look back on if necessary.

With Faides I used the moment that I handed the summary to talk once more to her about the things that had been said. And this time she responded with that she had thought about it, and that she was fine with the feedback she'd got and that she would keep the other comments in mind to be even a better teacher in the future.

The third observation was with Monica, she was one of the new volunteers.

After her observation there was no time to talk things through because she had to go somewhere, that's why we decided to do it the next day. I've never seen Monica again.

The afternoons of sports were filled with testing all kinds of games.

I made instruction sheets which I handed to one of the peer-educators (or someone else, just who'd be available at that moment) and they had to be able to give the game without me helping them.

Mostly there were some little instructions I forgot to add, like with hunterball, I didn't explain that the children were allowed to run freely in the square playing field. So when the game started for the first time all the children were standing on the edges of the playing field, waiting for a ball to come to their side. When things like that happen I write it in my notebook and rephrase the instructions to the peer-educator.

We tried a lot of games, what I remember most was that the children are not used to games where they have to trust each other, or where they have to (really) cooperate.

You notice this because they don't look after each other in the most caring way, if they have to walk a route blindfolded, the instructor could easily be busy with walking the route himself , and the on blindfolded is searching the route for himself.

And for the cooperation, they had to walk a route with their ankles bound together, well I've never seen couples doing this game that there were so many who just were doing their own thing.

After giving some tips about how you could walk faster together it went better.

But of course, this was probably the first time they had done a game like this.

Last day, saying goodbye to everyone, Unisport is closing for two weeks.

I'm going to miss them.

The volunteers

morning prayer

Faides

Mercy teaching her class

Moses giving a dance lesson

Susen doing a trust game

Chinese football

Materials at Unisport

Unisport has no money for materials, they have to do it with what they get from charity.
So we thought about how we could help them.

What I develop for Unisport at the moment is a blackboard.

Because of the new setting in the tent there are more children, and they're being taught in four different age groups. The first lessons I didn't notice that the lack of material was a big difficulty. Because the older groups (which I teach) get the blackboards.
There were 2 portable blackboards available from previous years.
We decided to add another 3 blackboards, to make sure that every teacher has one, because without teaching is even more difficult.

And on top of that, this week, ex-Cara Counseling brought us an old blackboard which we may use, so when the paint from the small ones is dry, we have more than enough blackboards for the project. And we can start focusing on collecting other materials. We always ask schools for old books and stuff, because something is always more than nothing.

Next to that I'm also making basic English lessons, which in the future can be used by the voluntary  teachers, just take a lesson out of the bundle and follow the instructions, and the lesson materials are all included.  This way it's also easy to have a logical follow up between the lessons in a year.

For the sports lessons in the afternoon I'm doing the same, a bundle with all sorts of sports activities, games, a lot of them will be linked to the lessons in the morning.
Where possible the sport in the afternoon will rehearse  matters from the lessons they've had in the morning.
For example, in the morning they have a lesson about animals. The teacher reads them a story about animals, they get to see pictures from animals, they write and draw about animals etc.
In the afternoon the animals will be back in puzzles, games where they have to imitate an animal and so on.
From making the blackboard we had some wood left, from that wood we'll make a couple of 'baseball bats' for the younger children. So that there will be big bats and small bats, so that every child has the chance to play the game on his/her level.

the carpenter measuring the blackboards

the blackboards after being painted for the first time

the kids doing a word-relay-puzzle

Workshop teachers Unisport

One of the things that we have started at Unisport is to make a schedule when, which lesson is being taught, and how we can have a logical build up in the lesson sequence without it going to be to0 complex or difficult, for all the different volunteers.

In Unisport its often a surprise how many teachers show up on a day, and that means that sometimes you have a lesson planned for a certain group, but you get another group, or a bigger/smaller group than normally.

To make agreements and discuss about how we'd best structure the lessons and the school program we provided a workshop for the teachers. In the past we already tried once to do a workshop but then no one showed up. But this time we had a different strategy. We first teach the children until the break, and after the break the older boys get instructions to do games with all the children together, and the teachers gather for the workshop. This to make sure that the teachers come to school, and to see and try if the older boys are capable of leading the whole group in a game.

In the workshop we did the following things:

- setting rules for Unisport

(what do you personally think is important, what does the group think, we all have to obey these rules to set a line for the pupils)

- time schedule

(what do we do in a morning, how many subjects every day, what about other things such as singing, dancing and games)

- casus

(we give them problems and they have to think for themselves about what they thinks is a proper solution, and then we discuss about that in group)

- questions and other remarks

When we were preparing the workshop we were a little bit worried about the input the teachers were going to give. But that wasn't a problem at all.

They were very cooperative, discussing about things, telling openly about their personal opinion about things. It was very useful and interesting. We let them do the talking and only interfered if the discussions got too long or we really had to move on to a conclusion or the next topic because of time. Together we made a set of rules for the school, a time schedule for the week, and we came to some very good solutions for common difficulties with the pupils. For example the way of punishing children, we do not hit children at Unisport. But what is a good and also effective way of punishing them? We decided that the children who misbehave have to clean up the tent at the end of the morning. Another example, if a child keeps disturbing the lesson in a way that it effects the teacher, than we contact the parents, and parents can attend the lessons for a morning and take actions for controlling their own child.

For all the teachers we will provide the rules and other agreements on paper, so they can check or read back about what we decided together.

In the question round the teachers opinion was that it was very useful to have a workshop/meeting every once in a while, to make sure there is the possibility to talk about issues. Next workshop will be with a little bit help from us (European students) but they have to do the workshop, so that after that they will be able to arrange their own meetings in a structured way.

 the teachers just before the workshop started

End of teacher training at Bwacha

Last lesson at Bwacha Highschool

The final grammar lesson before the exams.

Revision of some grammar they'd seen at the beginning of the term.
I thought it would be easy, just go over the material and then we would have plenty of time to answer other questions about the exam, and time to practise another text.
The grammar was about intensifiers, in their book it was quite difficult explained so I made an easier summary for myself, and my idea was that I would let the pupils explain the grammar and I would write it on the blackboard, and if they didn't have everything from the summary in their original notes they could copy or add on.

At the start I noticed, only half of the pupils remembered what intensifiers were.

And only 2 of them could explain somehow what they were.
I asked them if they had the notes from the previous lesson, and only a few, 8 or 9, had some good notes from the original lesson.
At that point I decided that I would help them some more with giving intensifiers, but I wanted them to come up with the explanation and examples.
It turned out that it was very hard to explain what an intensifier does to a sentence.
But I encouraged the pupils to at least try, they had to give an example, and with the help of their classmates we would make it a correct sentence.
I did notice that the pupils were getting used to giving the examples themselves, they sometimes even came up to the blackboard (without me asking them) to write.
It sometimes was hard to explain to them why you can't use an intensifier in a certain way. For example with the word quite: they had to learn that it can mean: 'completely' and a 'little less than', but when they started giving examples they mixed things up, and then I used every possible example I knew to explain why it was or wasn't used in a correct way.
The grammar part of the lesson took much more time than I expected, and at the end of the lesson there was only some time to answer other questions about the exam and say goodbye to my class, because I would only see them again at their exam.

Now I don't know why only half of the class had the notes of the previous lesson.

I wanted to ask my mentor Mr. Mwanza what had happened that lesson.
But he wasn't at school anymore.

The exams at Bwacha Highschool

Monday morning, 10.30 class 11A had their English exam.
When I saw the exam I had to think about all the lessons we've had at Xios Hogeschool about making exams. Well they can learn something from us.
I noticed some small mistake in the exam and went to Mr. Mwanza with them, he corrected them.
I also explained to him that I didn't think the exam was very clear.
Pupils could give more than one answer that would fit with the question that was asked, but only 1 would be marked as correct.
We discussed about how thinks could be done different next time, and he agreed to keep those things in mind for next exam. And with the dubious questions, all the answers that could be correct would be marked as correct.

When I observed several classes making their exams I noticed that some teachers just give the exams orally. For example a part of the French exam was just some instructions the pupils had to copy at the start at the exam. Maybe the printer didn't work, but it can also be that the teacher did not finish the exam on time, and that he was improvising.

 With the making of the English exam I did not have to help, because the English department would make the exams the same for the entire grade 11. And I'm 'only' a trainee, so they didn't want my help.

But when it came to the correcting I got a big pile of exams to take home and an answers sheet, at that moment I wasn't 'only' a trainee, but a colleague :)
Not a problem of course, I was curious how my class had performed.
And it was good to see that they did okay!

time table exams

making their exam

 a hot topic at Bwacha, re-entering after having a baby should be socially accepted

Bwacha Highschool

About the methods they use:

Every grade has its own books. 

Every class uses the same books, there is a teacher's guide that goes with the books.
The books which are used at Bwacha Highschool are from the year 1995, and the ones in grade eleven have the same structure for every chapter.
They start with a groups discussion, than vocabulary, reading a story, discussing the story, answering comprehension questions, explaining metaphors, do some rewrites, practice the note-making, composition writing, a project about the subject and an closing exercise.
The contents of the books are quite outdated, and they often imply warnings about what they should and should not do in live. A lot of the stories go about getting pregnant, HIV, drinking, smoking etc. But they are written in strange and not interesting stories for pupils of the age of 15.

The pupils have 5 hours of English each week.

Three of those hours are supposed to be with the books, not every teacher uses the books, and I think the pupils do not know they should (most of the time) have classes with the books.
Most of the time the chapters are not finished, because it would be too much to see in the short time there is to teach, so the teachers choose the most important parts, mostly that is the reading and the vocabulary. They don't have class discussions and don't explain metaphors or other difficult parts from the stories.

About the pupils in my class:

They are willing to learn, they are aware of the fact that they are lucky to be able to go to school, and they need good grades to go to an University. And they all know that the only way to make a better future for themselves and have more possibilities and options to get a good job, is by getting a good diploma. They all want to be a doctor, engineer or accountant.

When I take a look at the books and the stories they are reading in class, you can see that I think its outdated, but last week I taught a lesson about creative writing, we had a good discussion in class about thinking outside the box and other things (it took some time to start the discussion, but once we were going it went fine). And I gave them the assignment to write a story at home starting with: 'What if...' and they had to be creative.  And when I got the stories back a lot of them where about the Government being corrupt, about grown-ups having a drinking problem, that you should go to church and so on. So this means the pupils do take the stories serious and it makes them generalize the problems they see in life, and those are the first things that pop up in their minds if they hear 'What if..." I thought they would not take that much notice of all those stories, but I suppose, because they have heard these stories for so many times, it has influenced their way of thinking.
In the whole class there were only two stories that were about imaginary things.
The pupils are (especially compared to European standards) very quiet in class, and they often do not even ask if there is something they don't understand. When you walk out of the classroom they stay quiet and continue their work. They are really working hard for their future, and they are very polite and sweet kids. It took me some time, but they know now that I want them to ask questions in class, and that they are free to think out loud if there is a problem.

class 11 A

class 11 A

the teacher's room

Internship Unisport Youth Sports Academy

Name: Unisport
Location: Kabwe - area Makululu
Capacity: about 150 children
Education: every morning from 08.00 until 12.00
Sports: every afternoon from 14.00 until 16.00
Volunteers: +/- 5
Mentor: Mr. Msiska
My groups: the  two groups with the oldest children, because they speak and understand English

What is Unisport

Unisport is a local organisation which provides education and sport for street children.

The organisation wants the children to have a fair start in life, and helps by offering education to them who can't afford it. The subjects that are taught in the educational part in the morning are English, mathematics and general studies, which include religious education, history, civics, ...
In the afternoon the children come to a playing field and do sports.
The organisation completely relies on volunteers.
The space where the lessons are is for free and the teachers are doing everything on a voluntary base. This makes Unisport a flexible project, sometimes a teacher isn't there, and the planning has to be adjusted.

Structure Unisport

This is an example of how a day at Unisport can be :

08.00 : 09.00 - English

09.00 : 09.45 - English

09.45 : 10.00 - break

10.00 : 11.00 - Mathematics

11.00 : 12.00 - Mathematics

12.00 : 14.00 - break

14.00 : 16.00 - sport at Sabels

At the moment the education project is located in a tent at Don Bosco Youth Centre, the

fathers there were so kind to offer us the space for free.
It's not ideal because every morning the chairs have to be put into the tent, and at the end of the morning they have to be put back into the container, it's quite a lot of work, and the children are not able to do it on their own. There are only two parts of blackboard available and there are four classes. Not all of the children have a good notebook and a pen, so it takes a lot of time for them to copy something from the blackboard.
The youngest groups are with so many children that it's very hard for the teacher to give each and every one of them the attention they need to understand what's being said.
In the afternoon the oldest children can come to Sabels (an orphanage and school for street children) and do sports against a team from Sabels.
The girls mostly do a sort of handball, and the boys play football.

My first experiences at Unisport

There are a lot of children and they really want to learn.

But it's so hard to learn them new things when you don't speak their language (Bemba).
There are huge skill differences and also huge age differences. There are children who are 14 who can't read or write, and next to them sits a boy of 8 who does know how to do all of those things.
The most of them are doing the best they can, but with some it's like you just can't get to them. They listen to your question but don't answer it. They look at the sums on the blackboard but will copy the answer from their neighbour, without thinking for themselves. And those are often the ones from who you want to know if they understood it or not.
It is really nice to see how they enjoy learning and how proud are if they know the correct answer.

             Mr.Msiska             

                   

 the tent at Don Bosco

one of the classes

Teacher training secondary school Kabwe

Name: Bwacha Highschool

Location: Kabwe - area Bwacha
Grades: 9 - 10 - 11 -12
Capacity: approximately 1300 pupils
Average class size: 45 pupils
Lesson period: 40 minutes
Teachers: 70
Mentor: Mr. Mwanza
My class: 11 A - 22 pupils - age 15

Teaching techniques teachers Bwacha Highschool.

The pupils don't have their own books, this means that either the teacher should bring the books for all the pupils to the classroom, what he usually doesn't do, or that he has to write everything on the blackboard. Mostly they choose to write everything on the blackboard. The pupils have to copy everything the teacher writes on the blackboard into their notebook. This takes a lot of time, and in the meanwhile the teacher leaves the classroom and comes back half an hour later to see if everyone is finished. Now you probably think that that's a lot of time, but they write really slow, so when the teacher comes back there are often pupils who still haven't finished.
Then they hand in their notebooks for the teacher to correct them, he takes them to his office, and the class manager will collect them during the break, and generally that's everything for a lesson period.
The interaction between teacher and pupil is minimal. Only sometimes pupils dare to ask questions to the teacher. They do ask each other, because the teachers isn't in the classroom most of the time.

Structure Bwacha Highschool

The first lesson period starts at 07.30 and the duration of every lesson period is 40 minutes.

This is how a lesson schedule looks like:

07.30 : 08.10 - first period

08.10 : 08.50 - second period

08.50 : 09.30 - third period

09.30 : 10.10 - fourth period
10.10 : 10.30 - break

10.30 : 11.10 - fifth period
11.10 : 11.50 - sixth period
11.50 : 12.30 - seventh period
12.30 : 13.10 - eight period

13.10 : 14.30 - break

14.30 : 16.30 - pupils come to school to read, do homework, or projects.

I'm not sure if this counts for every teacher, but my mentor teaches 16 periods a week.    
If pupils don't attend in class there's no restriction for that.
And if teachers don't make it to teach a lesson that's also not a problem.
The classes are divided into levels, the best classes are the 'A' classes and then it continues until 'G'.
There are classes which contain up to 90 pupils. They have to share desks, and sometimes there isn't a chair for everyone of them, then pupils also share the chairs.  
There is a high level of respect expected from the pupils, when a teacher enters the classroom they all rise, the teacher has to greet them, they respond with 'good morning Madam/Sir' and when the teacher allows them to sit, they can sit down. They have to wear the school uniform, for girls a skirt with socks up to the knees and a blouse with a tie, for boys trousers with a blouse and a tie. If it's cold they also wear a pullover. All these clothes have the logo of the school on them.
The only marks the pupils get are the ones on the exams at the end of each period.
Pupils have 3 months school, 1 month holiday, and that three times a year.


My first experiences teaching class 11A

I had already done my observation in class 11A, I had introduced myself.

But when Mr. Mwanza and I entered the room, it could have also been that they had seen a ghost.
Mr. Mwanza told them that I was going to teach from now on, and then he had to leave for some urgent business. I started with some questions about their previous lessons, but I didn't get a lot of response. They put nametags on their desks so I could call them by name.
I taught  a lesson about 'conditions' and whenever I asked if they understood everyone would nod and say 'yes'.  Then I would ask a question to see if they really got it, and they often didn't know the correct answer. I explained them that they just had to ask if they didn't understood. They really looked at me like they had never heard such a strange thing.
They are also not used to a teacher who stays in the classroom, and walks around and sees if everything is clear. One of the difficulties with my class is that they are really not used to the interaction, and that they don't really speak up, the strong Zambian accent is hard to understand so they need to speak loud and clearly.

one of the classrooms

                                   

Mr. Mwanza

the school