Getting it Together

Quite conveniently, our power was out for the whole weekend and has been on and off since the end of the weekend and so I was not able to make a proper update!

Anyway, this last week at school I continued with teaching the students length. We moved on from measuring items to measuring the perimeter of items. My first lesson on perimeter required students to measure the perimeter of the classroom and various other objects such as books and desks. However, I think I made too much of an assumption that the students were going to be able to understand how to measure and find the perimeter of such big items. When I had them go out and try to find the perimeter of the classroom, they had difficulty understanding and conceptualizing what perimeter was. I decided that I needed to take a step back. The following days as well as this week, I thought of various activities in which students can practice finding the perimeter as well as seeing and understanding what it is. I had students measure the perimeter of tangrams. The school had geoboards and I had students create their own shapes, measure, draw, and find the perimeter of them. I had also cut straws in various lengths and had students use pipecleaners to create their own shapes where they could find the perimeter. I also had students work together in groups to find the perimeter of shapes that I made out of thread and taped on the floor. I can see now that the students are definitely understanding how to measure and calculate the perimeter of items. I am now going to go back and have students find the perimeter of various items that I had them try to measure the first day. I want to be able to see if they were able to improve their ability to measure and find the perimeter of items they had difficulty measuring the first day.

I think I struggled with how to teach English the first week and a half. I was handed the National Curriculum and it was hard for me to develop lessons on just vocabulary and sentence structures that were listed in the curriculum. I did take into consideration what common mistakes I saw students make when creating and writing sentences. One of them was the present tense of the He/She/It form. I worked on the present tense with them for several days doing various activities that required students to interview each other and to construct sentences as groups. I still felt as though I could do a better job of teaching them English.

The next theme that the students were learning focused much on materials and their use in their subcounty. Many of the vocabulary words are adjectives as well as materials that are used for making items. We have been focusing on adjectives and I have done various lessons and activities that help students to identify, differentiate, and use adjectives in a sentence. One lesson, I gave students an adjective. They had to write a sentence using the adjective and then draw a picture that corresponded to it. A group of vocabulary words that students are to learn include banana, palm leaf, leaf, wire, straw and plastic. I gathered each type of material and brought it to class. I divided the students into groups and each group received an item. They were to describe the item and write about it using the adjectives we learned as well as new ones. This helped students to be guided yet creative in their own right by being able to see and physically touch and manipulate the items before writing about it. I think by being hands on and allowing students to hold, see, and feel the objects helped the students to deepen their understanding of the meaning and use of adjectives.

I have also started Morning Meeting in my class. I passed it by with Teacher Merence and Teacher Jocknus to see if it was okay. They were both on board because they like the idea of getting to know one another and building a community in the classroom. I noticed that the boys and the girls segregate each other when wanting to sit or stand next to each other in any sort of activity. By having Morning Meeting, I think it will help to create a classroom community that allows students to interact with those they normally would not. It also helps me to get know my students on a more personal level. So far, the children have enjoyed it like no other. They want to have Morning Meeting more than once a day and are excited to have it every day.

One thing I want to work on is to differentiate my instruction a little bit more. I have been mixing ability levels so that the students who are more advanced can help scaffold their classmates. However, I want to be able to personalize instruction so that students can get the help that they need. I can possibly have students do reading work in various levels and the next math unit I will teach (money) will also be conducive to differentiated group work.

To change the subject, Maggie came to town on Monday night. The girls and I thought it would be a great idea to host dinner at our house and invite people over to eat with us and to spend time together. Doreen did SO MUCH COOKING! But it was soooooo amazing. We did pitch in and helped here and there, but Doreen definitely orchestrated the whole thing. We had rice, matoke, sweet potatoes, g-nut sauce, peas, beans, and eggplant. We invited Enoch, Maggie, Ron (Maggie's friend and driver), King James, and Juliet (Doreen's cousin who lives behind us). It was definitely a feast! It was great to be able to spend time with people outside of a school setting and to just relax and have a good time.