I made it into School

I’ve been trying to get into schools for a week or so but it isn’t as easy as it would seem. I had already introduced myself to all the town Heads at a Heads meeting earlier this month. I explained that I am here to come and help their teachers to improve their skills and to help out where I can. Teachers here are very wary of your motives. I made it clear that I am here to help and not to judge.

I started by visiting the local schools near to my office to speak to the Heads to ask if I could maybe come and sit in on some lessons. Some seemed very enthusiastic and welcoming. I went to one school to speak with the Head and she was asleep on the desk in the P1 classroom. I’m not sure I could have got away with that at St. Bart’s ! !

The next school the Head was very enthusiastic and said I could stay as long as I wanted, which classes did I want to see.

Had my first day in a Ghanaian Primary School and it was an experience. I went into a P4 class where the teacher was teaching Maths. Greater than, Less than and Equal to. It was a good lesson and the children responded well. Although no differentiation so some get left behind. It was near to the end of the lesson and He realised he needed to do some photocopying so got on his bike and rode into town to photocopy a letter while the children got on with their work ! !

After break I went into another class P6. The children were learning ‘Speaking and Listening’ in English. The method was to have every child stand up individually and read a poem off the board in English. Some children struggled considerably but their teacher continued to have them recite the poem until they knew it, reading each line about 10 times. Some still struggled to recite each line after her, resulting in one boy taking about 30 minutes to complete the poem while his class just sat and laughed. I wanted to hug him when he’d finished.

Hope to spend some more time in schools soon and then maybe I can see where I’m needed most.