Day Two-I taught at a lower level and the energy of the students was so different than the upper level I taught day one. These students were bouncing off the walls ready to learn all about professions. I took my time explaining each profession, giving examples in sentences, and asking the class questions about each. We played a vocabulary running game at the end that reinforced the new words. Not all of the students participated which was tricky, but we did a small assignment in the end that was more successful. The high-energy classroom left me feeling excited.
Day Three-I underestimated these kids. They were the equivalent of eighth/ninth graders. In my 100minute class my lesson plan only took up about 50 minutes. We were learning about health so they did doctor dialogues, and presented them to the class…with no problem. I still had 50 minutes to teach, so I continued on the health theme but more in depth. The students listed diseases in Rwanda. I briefly introduced communicable and non-communicable diseases but backed up when I felt a little unsure of myself. I went back to the World Health Organization’s definition of health: “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease.” I had the students brainstorm types of physical, mental and social health problems. Physical was easy, we listed malaria, broken bones, and all the other diseases they had already thought of. Then for mental the students struggled a little bit more but they talked about trauma and I introduced mental illness and depression. For social health, they talked about poverty, ignorance, natural disasters, and I added war and conflict. We discussed how all of these different categories are connected. If you are poor you may struggle with depression and have headaches consistently. If you lived through war you will be dealing with trauma and may have broken bones. This is when I learned that if the students are interested classroom management is a cinch cause they all just listen to you intently.
To check for understanding, I staged an impromptu debate between the two sides of the classroom. One side argued that mental health was more important than physical health, and the other side argued vice-versa. Their debate brought up meaningful points like how physical health problems are often more easily treated, and the challenge of getting access to health care for both. I tried to pose another question about if social health should be included in the definition, but I ran out of time and it was a little over their heads. Once class was over what had started as a simple lesson on health vocabulary turned into a more abstract discussion on the real definition of health. My mind was blown at the capacity of these students and I started jotting down ideas for future lessons to older students.
Day Four- I taught a lesson about family using Beyonce’s family as an example to a lower level classroom. The lesson started by listening to ‘Love on Top’ and filling in the blanks in the lyrics on the board. Then we went through Beyonce and Jay-Z’s whole family repetitiously. The students caught on pretty quickly. When told to draw their own family tree they struggled mostly because I didn’t explain family tree enough for them to understand how it worked. Overall a very fun lesson though.
Day Five- I taught landscape features like river, mountains, etc and played team Pictionary. They loved the competition and getting to draw on the board. They all wanted to help each other though which made the competition part a bit hard when they would just tell each other the word instead of guessing it. Helping one another is such a part of the community culture here. “Turi Kumwe” We’re together as they say in Kinyarwanda.
Day Six—I reviewed question words, 5 Ws, and students interviewed one another. The interview section also needed more explanation but they eventually got it and I could hear them talking to one another in English which was awesome.
Day Seven- It rained hard that morning. In Rwanda when it’s raining you don’t go anywhere especially school, so I had two students in the high level class. I tried to teach them development theories, but it was challenging because there was so much pressure on them to learn it quickly and participate in discussions.
Day Eight- I did the development lesson again with the same class I did the health lesson too, and it went well. This was one of the first times I did like a formal lecture for about twenty-five minutes. I tried to use my hands a lot to explain things and move around the room to make sure everyone was paying attention. The students did listen intently, asked incredible questions, and had interesting things to say. After the lecture we debated, whether or not Rwanda needs foreign aid. One student explained that Rwanda has their own development budget set up, and another student countered that the Rwanda cannot produce medicine and needs that from other countries. They also debated whether there was one way to develop or many ways. They talked about following countries like China in development, which I hadn’t even included in the lecture. I was impressed by how many students participated in the debate and had well thought out points.
At the end of Model School I feel so excited to start teaching in January. I think it will be even better when I get to know the students well and can plan larger units than just one lesson at a time. I learned so much from just these two weeks, and I know I will continue to learn while teaching these next two years.