This week has been a very busy week for me as I started working mornings at the Diana Mariam School in Fajara. On Monday when I first arrived the children had assembly and I was introduced to them as Aunty Denise by Madame Senghore the deputy head. I was then introduced to Mr Jadama who is the English teacher, he teaches grade 1 and grade 2 children and I will be working with him in these years. Mr Jadama’s first lesson was with grade 1 class within the class there were seventeen children aged about six years old. The children were very noisy and were shouting out answers to a question rather than putting up their hands and waiting to be asked. After the first lesson we had a thirty minute break at 10.30 the children sat at the picnic tables within the grounds eating what they call breakfast, however it is more like lunch as it usually consists of a Tapalapa (bread) filled with omelette, sardines, chicken etc or in some cases they bring a chicken and rice dish as well as bags of crisps or sweets. Jammie Oliver would not be impressed with the amount of sugary sweets and crisps the Gambian children consume at school rarely do you see an apple. After break the next lesson was with grade 2 this was a very small class of only six boys and one girl. Mr Jadama gave the children a comprehension exercise from one of the Scofield text books. I wouldn’t say a lot was achieved from this and the lesson was rudely interrupted by Aunty Alberta telling a couple of children off for not practising their Christmas lines.
When I arrived at the school on Tuesday I was informed that the children would be sitting exams for the rest of the week. This morning they would have Maths, French and Social Studies, Mr Jadama and myself would be with the year 2 children, during the Maths exam. Whilst waiting for the Maths exam paper to arrive Mr Jadama practised spellings with them on the blackboard. They had been told the story about the princess and the frog so the spellings related to the story. When Mr Jadama was called out of the room rather than just sit there I continued where he had left off. Eventually the Maths exam paper was handed out and explained to the children, however it wasn’t long before the children were putting up their hands and asking for support. In some cases they were unable to read some of the questions or they were unable to comprehend what was being asked, this went on throughout the exam with Mr Jadama and myself supporting them. The next exam after break was Social Studies this seemed straight forward and was only a one page sheet. Then they were given out the French exam which again was a one page sheet with some words in English which you had to find the French equivalent for from a list. After the children had finished an exam they had to sit until break time or until the next exam began in some cases this was thirty minutes. I found this very annoying as it resulted in the children getting bored and wandering around desk to desk borrowing erasers or sharpeners whilst the slower children still completed their exam. It would have been far better if the teachers had given them little tasks to do between exams to stop this from happening.
Friday was by far the best day for myself the children had an English exam which I was able to assist with and we then did a little comprehension exercise. I was also shown the school library which had a number of the oxford reading books of Biff and Chip. The library was under lock and key and it was obvious that there was no system in place and it was probably rarely used by the teachers or children. During the morning Mary Samba the head teacher asked me for some feed back from the week which I thought was really good. She is very passionate about trying to improve English within the school and I did suggest more group activities to help bring each other on, reading activities to help recognise key words and phonics as the children are unable to blend the letters to form a word. I have suggested a phonics workshop and I am hoping to ask one of the volunteers to run this for the teachers within the school as Mary is very keen and willing to pay for this to be done. With the morning finished I went to pick the children up from school first calling at home as I did this I passed a guy in our street carrying two huge live rats held by their tails I stopped him to have a better look, god knows what he was going to do with them, cooking pot maybe.
On the afternoon when Paul arrived home we dropped the children off at Sukey and Greg’s as they have offered to look after them this afternoon so we can do some Christmas shopping. The children were really excited about going as they were also helping to decorate the house ready for the volunteer Christmas party. Once dropped off we headed straight for Wishes gift store this is an excellent shop with imported toys from the UK. A couple of hours later we had picked a number of stocking fillers and larger presents these we left with the store as they also do a free wrapping service. We then headed back down Kariba Avenue to look at bikes as we have decided on these for Christmas. As we were nearing the shop we ran out of petrol and had to pull over to the side, Paul went to fill up his can whilst I walked the short distance to the bike shop. I had a good look around inside as it sold everything including loads of Christmas decorations. After a good twenty minutes waiting for Paul I went outside to see where he was only to see the car getting pushed by some of the locals. He thinks the starter motor has gone so we are going to have to phone the mechanic to pick the car up tomorrow. We looked at the bikes and picked Bradley a Spider Man bike unfortunately there were not many girly bikes so we finally picked Abigail a red and silver bike. The back wheel on Abigail’s bike was a bit loose the nut needed tightening so the guy went looking for a spanner. I knew this could take sometime so I decided to set off walking to Sukey’s as it had now gone 6.30pm. I set off with good intentions but soon realised that I was unsure which road you had to go down and it was starting to get dark. I decided to phone Sukey for directions apparently I had gone too far so I had to head back the way I had come Sukey then met me on the corner of her road with the children. Shortly after Paul picked us up at Westfield junction and we headed back home. Once the children were in bed we emptied the car of presents and placed the bikes in John’s house out of view as they do have a habit of popping in to see John from time to time
When I arrived at the school on Tuesday I was informed that the children would be sitting exams for the rest of the week. This morning they would have Maths, French and Social Studies, Mr Jadama and myself would be with the year 2 children, during the Maths exam. Whilst waiting for the Maths exam paper to arrive Mr Jadama practised spellings with them on the blackboard. They had been told the story about the princess and the frog so the spellings related to the story. When Mr Jadama was called out of the room rather than just sit there I continued where he had left off. Eventually the Maths exam paper was handed out and explained to the children, however it wasn’t long before the children were putting up their hands and asking for support. In some cases they were unable to read some of the questions or they were unable to comprehend what was being asked, this went on throughout the exam with Mr Jadama and myself supporting them. The next exam after break was Social Studies this seemed straight forward and was only a one page sheet. Then they were given out the French exam which again was a one page sheet with some words in English which you had to find the French equivalent for from a list. After the children had finished an exam they had to sit until break time or until the next exam began in some cases this was thirty minutes. I found this very annoying as it resulted in the children getting bored and wandering around desk to desk borrowing erasers or sharpeners whilst the slower children still completed their exam. It would have been far better if the teachers had given them little tasks to do between exams to stop this from happening.
Friday was by far the best day for myself the children had an English exam which I was able to assist with and we then did a little comprehension exercise. I was also shown the school library which had a number of the oxford reading books of Biff and Chip. The library was under lock and key and it was obvious that there was no system in place and it was probably rarely used by the teachers or children. During the morning Mary Samba the head teacher asked me for some feed back from the week which I thought was really good. She is very passionate about trying to improve English within the school and I did suggest more group activities to help bring each other on, reading activities to help recognise key words and phonics as the children are unable to blend the letters to form a word. I have suggested a phonics workshop and I am hoping to ask one of the volunteers to run this for the teachers within the school as Mary is very keen and willing to pay for this to be done. With the morning finished I went to pick the children up from school first calling at home as I did this I passed a guy in our street carrying two huge live rats held by their tails I stopped him to have a better look, god knows what he was going to do with them, cooking pot maybe.
On the afternoon when Paul arrived home we dropped the children off at Sukey and Greg’s as they have offered to look after them this afternoon so we can do some Christmas shopping. The children were really excited about going as they were also helping to decorate the house ready for the volunteer Christmas party. Once dropped off we headed straight for Wishes gift store this is an excellent shop with imported toys from the UK. A couple of hours later we had picked a number of stocking fillers and larger presents these we left with the store as they also do a free wrapping service. We then headed back down Kariba Avenue to look at bikes as we have decided on these for Christmas. As we were nearing the shop we ran out of petrol and had to pull over to the side, Paul went to fill up his can whilst I walked the short distance to the bike shop. I had a good look around inside as it sold everything including loads of Christmas decorations. After a good twenty minutes waiting for Paul I went outside to see where he was only to see the car getting pushed by some of the locals. He thinks the starter motor has gone so we are going to have to phone the mechanic to pick the car up tomorrow. We looked at the bikes and picked Bradley a Spider Man bike unfortunately there were not many girly bikes so we finally picked Abigail a red and silver bike. The back wheel on Abigail’s bike was a bit loose the nut needed tightening so the guy went looking for a spanner. I knew this could take sometime so I decided to set off walking to Sukey’s as it had now gone 6.30pm. I set off with good intentions but soon realised that I was unsure which road you had to go down and it was starting to get dark. I decided to phone Sukey for directions apparently I had gone too far so I had to head back the way I had come Sukey then met me on the corner of her road with the children. Shortly after Paul picked us up at Westfield junction and we headed back home. Once the children were in bed we emptied the car of presents and placed the bikes in John’s house out of view as they do have a habit of popping in to see John from time to time
hello denise
ReplyDeletehope you are well sounds as though you are all set for christmas. Sounds to me as though you have settled in well especially with getting a job at the school (aunty denise) im sure the children will love their xmas presents at least they will have some warmer weather to play in.
Have fun merry xmas from jayne steve sophie and rachel.xxx
Hi Jayne & Steven, hope you had a good Christmas ours was very different barbie on the beach however the kids both enjoyed the day. All the best for the New year.
ReplyDeleteLove Denise