Delighted at wake up and shake up (the school assemble for active movement and song) as introduced by the students from Sir Roger Manwoods School last year. It is an excellent way of encouraging punctuality and alerting the brain. But the delight was in a tiny Nursery 2 child leading the session. So far the Grade 6 pupils have shared the lead occasionally with grades as young as Grade 3, but this was a treat and the tiny boy knew every word and calmly waited for the entire school to copy him.
Tony and I then had a meeting with Moses at 9 am about running the Upper Basic School. Tony and I are both reading a fascinating book called “After the Rain” which I came across in South Africa and it is enlightening in terms of leading and managing in Africa. Whilst not making allowances for different cultural circumstances, we can draw closer to working efficiently together when we understand the characteristics of different participants in the running of the school. The author compares all leaders to different African animals: lion (centre stage, retiring but definitely presiding), snake (not very friendly and hisses at everyone but her input should not be underestimated) , eagle ( watches, waits, observes, assesses, analyses and then swoops), elephant (watches everyone, keeping out of the way). I see the Eagle in Moses, albeit a very benign one! Certainly no talons.
Later Neneh (the nursery mother) arrived with her adopted son, Ebrima Jallow, who has just left school and wants to volunteer to come to our Primary school to better his own education and help out. We were impressed with his fresh honest approach and promised to put his case to Moses.
I observed 2 teachers with individual reading classes. I am thrilled that the sessions now seem to be established and regular, I could wish for more use of flashcards and phonic aids to recognising words. Instead the teachers just repeat “No, try again” when a child does not know a word. But at least we have a system in place and the fruits are definitely flourishing in the classroom and exams when so many more pupils can read the questions!
Straight after school I ran an hour’s workshop with the teachers which centred on handwriting and reading skills. The response was really eager and receptive and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them. About 12 turned up and they really loved trying to improve their handwriting using special lined paper. When it came to making up sentences with alliteration, they excelled with their ideas. Please, now can we take this energy and enthusiasm, let alone understanding, into the classroom?
When I returned to Tonka Kunda after this a small group of Grade 6 children were waiting to ask if they could play games. Oh, how lovely Tonka Kunda Club is back. For a few visits we have missed the groups of children who come to ask for drawing materials, books to read and games to play. So it was with real joy that I found Ludo and Jenga for about 8 children to play. They were in school for Computer Studies but had arrived early. When they went at 4 pm to their class the message had obviously spread and the children who had just finished Computer Studies came across to play games with us.
I spent the rest of the afternoon making a Sound Wall, creating new folders for Grade 1 special needs children and committing various notes to the computer.
Tony spent all day working with Modou Lamin to transfer the accounts to Quicken, sorting out salaries and talking to the man who has offered to turn the fig tee into charcoal (for a whacking fee of D1000).
We finished the day with the news that the goat that was sacrificed to the Independence celebrations and gave the school D1000 should never have been selected. The sole criterion was that he was castrated and, therefore of no future use, however once the children had caught him, the 3 male teachers slaughtered him only to find that he was a complete male. The castrated one is still happily grazing around the compound. Ooops!
Tony cooked home grown cassava (courtesy of Ebrima, nightwatchman) with rice and tomato sauce, we played a game of draughts and then fell to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment