Interesting couple of days

I spent Thursday afternoon in my own school in primary 4.  I was doing some Glow with this class and it was great to see that they knew exactly what they were doing and were obviously using it.  Their teacher is a friend of mine who works part time and so wasn’t in that day, missed a lot of Glow stuff initially due to being on maternity leave but has the IT skills to be able to pick it up quickly and use it for learning and teaching.  The pupils were excited to be using it, knew their passwords, knew how to go to the LTS website to get the link if the portal on RM explorer wasn’t working and knew their way navigating about and how to use the learn news desk and discussions which was the parts I had used to set up a quick task for them.  They told me how they use it at home sometimes as well.  Nice to see that the kids had been using it and it didn’t have to be all singing and dancing for them to enjoy it and see the usefulness.  It also let the DHT who was in with me see how it could be used. 

They were however all dancing for the next part of the afternoon.  The class (and the other classes presumably) have been having their full allocation of PE a week which has included some fun fitness that the pupils take a bit more ownership of.  I did a bit of a dancy/Body Attack type warm up with them and then some of the pupils had their own music in with them and did  a bit of a routine for the rest of the class which they then taught to the class and did altogether.  They all loved this and were very good at watching and following what their peers were doing.  We then put on a piece of music and asked the pupils in their own space just to make up their own little routine and this next bit really surprised, and pleased,me.  It was the boys, and this was all of them, who straightaway started dancing and making up hip hop/breakdancing routines and got really into it without any shyness.  A lot of the girls on the other hand were not sure what to do and stood about and needed more direction from us before they got started.  Programmes like Britain’s Got Talent, and the two dance shows on BBC 1 and SKY 1 are obviously having a big impact on boys and seeing groups like Diversity and George Sampson winning these is having a really positive influence.  Being slightly obsessive about exercise myself and having danced for about 18 years (before switching to playing rubgy!) it was great to see the boys getting into this and discovering another form of exercise.

On Friday I went to a meeting at one of my secondaries about using Glow for transition.  I have already started this in more of a PSD format with another of the clusters but this secondaries English department was very keen to do a transition project and link it into Glow.  They had two ideas to choose from and I think they will go for the one on advertising.  They are going to look at advertising in general before asking pupils to make an advert for visiting Scotland, tie it in with their two day visit and then produce writing on it when they arrive in secondary in August.  They are going to design a glow group to aid with this which I think will lend itself to this type of idea, with using a lot of media really well.  They also had the idea of a separate glow group just for all of the P.7 teachers and secondary teachers involved to swap ideas, concerns etc.  I am really interested in seeing how this develops as I think the teachers would like somewhere to do  this but am not sure with time factors etc how much they will get into it, particularly in the first year, although I would like it to.

I then visited the primary school where primary one have been doing the glow chat as well as using it for lots of other things.  I happened to be in the ICT suite while they were doing this and it was great to see it in action.  Last year the teacher had a P.1/2 and said that the P.2’s were good and went on with the P.1’s and they could manage themselves.  This year it is a straight P.1 class and she said they are struggling more so P.7’s were working with them as buddies.  Great for both sides!  However I did get a shock when the P.1 pupil beside me started to tell his P.7 buddy about playing the latest Call of Duty game.  I think I’m correct in saying it is at least a 16+ if not an 18 and I’ve played it – it’s so not appropriate for a 4/5 year old as far as I’m concerned!

On Tuesday I  am going to my sis-in-laws school to help her with her glow club as ever since her P.2’s have first been on they have been desperate to make a voki like hers!  I said I would help her out with doing this as it could be rather chaotic and we are just going to use my log in to the site.  We have put the xml web part onto a page of her group multiple times and put the kids names on each one so that they can all see each others!

Primary Glowing

Here are a few things which are going on in different primary schools in SLC with glow. (I’ll come back to secondaries.) It might give someone an idea for themselves:

• P.4 teacher using the VLE with her primary 4 class for Vikings topic. They are doing their homework on it. Any kids who do not have access at home have a chance one lunchtime a week where she goes in the ICT suite with them so they can do it then.

• P.7 teacher using the VLE with her primary 7 class for their Living in a Democracy topic. They are using it to do their topic tasks when they come to the ICT suite all together.

• P.1 using Glow for lots of different things. Many pages in the group. Pupils using the discussion pages to write about what they learned/ liked about Chinese New Year. They have done Glow Chat within the group. Some pupils have parents helping them, some have done it themselves.

• P.4-7 teacher using it for 2 main purposes with her class. She has a language page where there are tasks and discussion web parts for each reading group. They do weekly comprehension/discussion of their respective reading groups in these discussion boards instead of in their jotter. They also use the Learnewsdesk and another discussion board to do weekly news items. Either the pupils find a piece of news they are interested in and write about it in discussion board or teacher can pick the news piece and set reading for information questions on it. She also has a page for her tropical rainforest with all sorts of different information on it for pupils so they can complete research etc. This is a small school, no ICT suite and so three computers in the classroom so they can be scheduled on the computer for their language tasks during language time so each group at least gets once a week.

• P.7 teacher has a good WW2 group with lots of discussion questions for pupils. Different discussion web parts for different elements ie rationing, evacuation etc and they have questions set in these which they have to find out the answers to and put in the discussion board.

• In a different authority I am helping someone to run a pilot project within her school for 10 P.2 pupils in her class and their parents. She is running an after-school club for these 10 kids each week for 10 weeks. She then puts up a document for parents explaining what they have doing that week so that parents can help them follow it up at home. There are some lovely discussions on the literacy page about what their favourite book is and why. We have set up a multiple choice survey for this week using a news article from the Learnewsdesk on Haiti. I will be helping her to set up surveys as an evaluation at the end.

I love the Learnewsdesk and always show that first along with the discussion boards as a way to use Glow for learning and teaching. It is something which practically guarantees enthusiasm from teachers and as described above with the P.4-7 teacher I am encouraging and helping lots of teachers to set this up as a starting point, particularly in small schools.

That’s only a snapshot of a few that I have seen/helped with recently!

Looking back and looking forward

I always find August more of a new start and I tend to think then about what I want to achieve in that school session but after reading some very inspiring blog posts from Ollie Bray,  Alan Hamilton and Tom Barrett it got me thinking about the previous year and what I would like to do in 2010.

Professional achievements

• I have really had the chance this year to develop my skills and confidence in presenting to others whether it be with Glow, literacy, international education, co-operative learning or assessment is for learning.  This has varied from small to large groups of various professionals, although mostly class teachers, in twilight and full day courses both by myself and working with others in the team.  It has also included one or two instances where due to technical failures etc things have not gone to plan and this is when I have had to learn to work under pressure and difficult circumstances.  That is not a good experience at the time but a good learning curve.
• One of the most valuable learning and teaching CPD courses that I attended was the 4 day academy training run by North Lanarkshire Council.  It was exceptionally well run and will be invaluable in the classroom.  I have already piloted various lessons and activities using these strategies in classes so that it remains familiar.
• Although it has meant a lot more travelling because I have moved areas that I working with for Glow I have now had the chance to work with about 50-55 schools during the year.  It is great to just get the chance to go around different schools and see what they are doing, not just in relation to Glow and to meet different staff.
• I spent quite a lot of time the second half of last session working in secondaries with literacy, international education and Glow.  Particularly with the literacy work that I was doing I was able to get a real taste of what teaching was like in a secondary since I spent time shadowing teachers and piloting a series of lessons myself with an S1 class.
• I have completed 5 of the 6 modules I have to do to gain my postgraduate certificate in managment and leadership in education, although 2 of the assignments for these are for the end of January. 
• I returned to Malawi for a third time in the summer to complete more work with the staff and pupils of Gwengwe Primary.  This was difficult but extremely rewarding and I am very glad I returned.  My school set up an official link through the charity LINK Community Development but because I have not been in school this has been difficult to implement thoroughly.
• I have developed my IT/web skills further with front page, twitter, prezi, wikis, media sharing, video streaming etc.

 That is as much as I can remember/get from my blog just now as I do not have my CPD records etc on me.  If I did look at them I would end up writing far too much!  It does not look like a lot of work for a year but so much is repeated many times at courses/in-sets etc and so much time is spent preparing.  This was also about looking at new things I had done or developed not the everyday run of the mill stuff.  These things have also had a major impact professionally and personally.

Personal achievements

I wrote on my running blog that 2009 had been a disaster and in terms of running, and especially compared to 2008, it certainly was but I still managed a few more things than a lot of people probably.  The problem is your view of what you have accomplished becomes very tarnished when you mostly hang out with ultra runners!  But I did complete:

• My first two triathlons
• My 8th marathon
• My first ultra marathon (53 mile Highland Fling from Milngavie to Tyndrum on the WHW)
• Summiting Mount Kiliminjaro

To me because there were no pb’s all year and I was not happy with my efforts in any of the above events except Kiliminjaro it feels a bit of a disaster.  Then having to miss two further ultramarathons due to injury and now not having run for 13 weeks due to supposed plantar fasciitis it feels I am carrying this on into 2010.

In achieving the above goals I did raise £2,200 for the teacher’s house I want to have built in Gwengwe village in Malawi, with a lot of help from the SLC Advisory Service and and my dad in conjunction with Glasgow City Council Finance Department so there was another benefit to come out of the hard work last year.

To 2010

In terms of work I feel very much in limbo just now as I am due to finish my secondment this session and go back to school in August.  This is a little more complicated than it should be and I will come back to that at another time.  Not related to my specific post within education there are other things I want to achieve:

• Finish my postgraduate certificate in leadership and management in education and begin the diploma
• Build up the use of my blog, Glow and especially twitter in engaging with others educationally and hopefully attend the Perth teachmeet.
• Extend my reading, inlcuding but not exculsively within education.  I love reading and have several bookcases full of books but most of the time I feel too tired to read/concentrate on my many non-fiction books and end up just flying through girlie trash!
• In relation to running etc as always I want to lose weight,  I would also like another active holiday this year but cannot make plans just yet.  I need to get back to running but that is totally dependant on this injury and so in the meantime the goal is to keep building fitness and endurance in the gym and continuing to work on my weight training which I am loving.  My only set goal until I know my injury is gone is to do the Caley Challenge in June but I hope there will be a marathon and a couple of ultras in the second half of the year.
• I feel very strongly about doing something but I am not sure what in terms of volunteering/fundraising/giving something back/helping others basically.  I raised money for the teacher’s house in 2009 and I need to see that through plus we have the official link with Gwengwe Primary which I must do more with but I feel really strongly that I need to do more.  I do not just want this to be about fund raising though.  I have been to Malawi the last three summers to work and develop education in a school out there and this will continue with the link but I won’t be back this summer.  I would rather be helping out/doing something for kids in third world countries as they are the ones, rightly or wrongly, that I feel most injustice and anger about but other than just raising money I am not sure what to do.  And South East Asia, particularly Cambodia is always in my mind after a trip to that region in 2006.  I really don’t want to get to the same time next year and realise that I have not done anything about this and so was hoping by writing it on here it would encourage me to do something!  I began by being quite inspired today by an article in the Sunday Herald by Bob Holman (different article, could not find today’s online),  and have kept the article about modest/moral living, which I may blog about more later.

That last point seems a bit woolly and I guess it is, I will have to actively work on this.  Any ideas welcome!

Twitter

Now that I have an iphone I am starting to see the benefits of Twitter much more. (Not to mention enjoying using many other apps!) I found it difficult to get into the idea of Twitter before having the iphone as only being able to use it at home was restricting. I now find I can follow conversations more easily and am picking up great links and hints. As other people have long been saying I now agree that it is turning into a great CPD tool for me. And it was great to get help from David Miller, initially through a comment on Twitter, when making up my first Prezi.

I found out about Prezi through the Glow CPD Challenge group and did my first presentation with it at a CPD twilight session on CPD and study visits for Andrea Reid. I found it a bit tricky to navigate at first but much easier once I was doing it with a mouse instead of just the laptop touchpad. Really enjoyed meeting some people I follow on Twitter at that event and finding out about CPD Reflect which I plan to have a good play around on.

I still don’t use Twitter very much for posting myself. This is from long standing fears/roots of not feeling that my points would be useful/worthwhile/correct/read. A good example of this was the Glow discussion that went on one Sunday a couple of weeks ago. I followed it with interest and had plenty of views myself but did not feel confident enough to air them. I am working on this!

It’s the same way that I feel about meeting new people/going to meetings etc without knowing anyone; it fills me with dread and yet most people say I do not come across like this at all – I’m working hard on this one and I suppose if people don’t notice then that’s pretty good!

This post was going to be more about Glow and how I have seen it being used lately but has turned into something rather more reflective, I’ll come back to Glow!

A new term already!

I can’t believe it’s the end of the October holidays!  Last term, as noted by my inability to get time to update this blog, just flew by and I was so, so busy.

With the return of a few other development officers to school I was asked to take over the Clydesdale area for Glow.  This area covers from Lesmahagow, down to Carluke, Abington, Leadhills, Biggar etc and considering I live past Glasgow airport means a fair amount of trekking about.  I don’t mind it, it’s a chance to see and work with other schools and it is actually easier to find schools now than it was going round the roundabouts in East Kilbride!

It does mean though that I get a lot less time in the office as it takes me so long to travel to and from schools and I am feeling a bit of pressure with all of the other things I have to do and all courses we are running at the Advisory.  Still I love it and would not have it any other way really!

Some schools have been doing some great things in Clydesdale and almost all have been enthusiastic about moving forward with me supporting them.  With a lot of small schools in the area they are especially keen to do work across schools and we are going to get some topic work going and some transition to secondary groups within clusters.

One school who have been using Glow a lot have really embraced it with p.1.  Last year the p.1 teacher thought she would give it a go and if it didn’t work then fine!  So after xmas she had the children logging in (and doing that themselves) and using their group to see photographs and use websites.  They also used it for discussions and chat!!!  I saw the discussions from last year and while a lot of it is unreadable, you can make out what it is they are trying to say. How good for their keyboard skills.  She gave them laminated keyboards with the lower case letters on home to practice with and also had a parents page within her group with help and advice for parents and sometimes they went on with their pupils and helped them write what they wanted to say. 

I ran my first full day course by myself last term and it was great!  I was slightly stressed, it being the day after my car died on the M74 on the way to do a school in-service session and I had to get public transport of 3-4 hrs a day but it didn’t matter!  The course was on ‘Let’s Think through Literacy and with only 10 participants, who were all enthusiastic to get properly invovled it went really well and I got fab evaluations including two that commented that I had presented well so that was nice.  It helps they got free books!

Using a different hat again I was in a school in EK getting shown the project a teacher had been doing last session with his p.6 class where they wrote songs, recorded them themselves (using equipment they had to source, cost and buy) and then sold them to raise money for a school in Kenya.  That was great but what I loved just as much was the work his class this year have done on their joyning the learning topic Titanic.  The children had done a huge painting of it and behind the painting were huge wallpaper lining paper hangings where the different groups had found out facts and behind that they had made up the different classes of cabins showing what they looked like.  I am very keen to go in and work with them when they make some video clips to put on their school website.  There are some photos on their website:

http://www.st-louises-pri.s-lanark.sch.uk/ if you go to classwork and primary 6.

Looking forward to this term although I am sure it will be just as crazy!

To the end…..

Friday 10th July

Went into St 2 first this morning to show them pictures that primary 2 had drawn for them and to get them to draw pictures in return.  Did a bit of maths with ST 3 and I was impressed as I started off with the rythmn clapping and they knew exactly what to do so their teacher, Mme Champeni a volunteer teacher who was there last year, had obviously been doing it with them.  I felt it was easier to do things with her this year and she was enthusiastic and very clear about how to do triangle sums and use the 0-20 number cards.  I explained wait time again this year  and she was visibly counting to 10 before asking the kids for an answer.  The HT came in and I made him stay and watch her for a bit and said how well she was doing which she was so pleased about.

I then did the same in St 1 and also got the washing line out that I had made while there.  Kids from St 1 had helped me colour in the numbers so they were then excited to see what it was for.  It was a volunteer teacher in St 1 that morning and the volunteer teacher from St2 came in as well so they both seemed to get the hang of it well and enjoyed it.  The female teacher from St2 was at one point telling the male St2 teacher to make sure he alternately picked boys and girls which shows how much most of them are really trying to be fair between boys and girls.

I had taken one of the stories I brought from last year and designed good questions to do with the older pupils as they read it.  I did this with ST 6 and 7 with them doing reading in groups as we went along too.  It was hard though with everything being translated both ways to get the really deep questioning and discussion going.

We then did the paired reading with the older pupils reading to the younger ones outside.  I explained about how to hold a book properly and about reading to other pupils.  They did not understand too well though about how to go and get the other pupils and so we ended up with some very small groups and some rather larger ones.  Again they went on for ages as they were keen to be out reading, doing something different and looking at the pictures. Although I could not understand them I could see some really good interactions going on including the older pupils encouraging the others to read along with them and asking questions of the pupils.  One of the teachers commented on the good expression the pupils were putting into it and the way they were encouraging the younger ones to join in.

The older ones then did letters in return to the pupils at Castlefield.  I had letters from primary 5, 6 and 7 here with indiviudal photos on them and the pupils in Malawi loved seeing them and I took individual photos of them too.

I was tired of seeing St 5 with little or no teaching since their teacher was off so I went into them next and just played maths games with them like splat and buzz.  We then used the number cards and chain sums which they got better at.  Their knowledge of their tables is not great and I highlighted to their teachers that they would need to know those better to progress with dividing etc.

In the afternoon I was taken off to see a newborn baby.  She was born just as I arrived in the village the week before.  The mum had been in labour for ages and I’m told she was born just as I arrived so they thought she was waiting for me.  So they named her after me!  No-one will be able to say it so I presume she will get called Caro, the same as they call me. Obviously I did not know about this so did not have anything with me for a baby so ended up giving some Scottish tourist souvenir.  I will probably send an outfit over.  I was given her to hold as soon as I arrived and she promptly peed on me which I kept quiet about!

I just played with the kids the rest of the day.  I was sent off to bathe at about 4.30pm and washed my hair for the first time in 10 days!  It’s just too hard to wash long hair with a bowl of water!  The kids were amazed when I came out with long wet hair though as I had kept it back in two french plaits all week.

The stars were amazing tonight, the best I have ever seen and I was just standing outside staring at them.  The family thought it was hilarious and of course I could not explain to them that you just do not get stars like that in the city.  I had to ask the HT to explain the next day, that is just something they take for granted and never look at.

Saturday 11th July

I got quite a bit of work done on jolly phonics and jolly grammar before the HT and Lameck came round to go to Mayani.  We had some rather interesting conversations on the way about buying and renting houses, benefits, homeless people, asylum seekers and about bars and prostitution.  This came about as we were talking about students and having money and I said I worked in bars and restaurants.  I shouldn’t have!  Women only go to bars in Malawi if they are prostitutes and it was hard to explain about bars here.  (And about prostitutes for that matter and where they work etc).  It is not illegal in Malawi as it is seen as just being another way to earn money.

We were going to the education advisor’s house to meet Clare and talk to him about progress and developments since last year.  We were there for nearly three hours!

He had been  very positive last year and was the same this year, although he did not shirk from sharing the issues they are facing with us.  On a positive note he could see the advantages that there had been from having GT’s there last year as he had seen a lot of good practice going on in the schools he has visited in the last year like maths activities, libraries being set up, time management improving and link schools being established.

Five zones in the district have been giving auxilliary teachers for this year and if it proves successful hopefully that will continue and extend into next session and with further schools.   This has been possible with funding from DFID and has included training for them in schemes of work, resources, assessment and methodologies.  Unfortunately Clare and I found out that our auxilliary teachers would be going for this training next week!

Open and distance learning is beginning for teacher training in Malawi and some of the auxilliary teachers from this session have applied. They would go to college for 6 weeks and then have their school visits with handbooks to complete and the same exams as other student teachers have.

There had been a performance review done of the schools in the zone and the PEA had done a lot of work making up sheets of how each school had done which he was happy for us to see.  My school had done pretty well compared to others in the zone  (I have written about this earlier) but still with things to work on and a lot of the head teachers were demoralised by their reports which was unfortunate. I guess it gives them clear direction on what to work on!

We had lunch at the PEA’s house and it was one of those times I am really glad I am vegetarian!  I asked what the meat was out of curiousity (and Clare really wished I hadn’t) and it was goat’s offal.  I got to stick to egg!

We did some wandering around afterwards and after our discussions earlier I actually got to go into a bar!  I had noticed at the TDC there was a sign for photocopying and it was at the bar so in we went and it was called Obamaland!  It really was not that exciting – there was no-one there, barely any furniture and barely any drinks.  The owner not only had a photocopier though but also a computer with windows media player playing the tunes and big speakers!  Not what I would have expected in a place as small as Mayani!  Something else though that goes on in Mayani at the weekends though is that there is a building with a big tv and speakers and they charge folk to go in and watch the ‘cinema’, mostly kids and there are loads more that listen from outside.

I got asked by Clare’s HT today how many children I had and there was another shocked response when I said none and then the obligatory questions over why not!

Even though it was almost dark by the time we got back there were still children out waiting for me and I ended up playing for quite a while.  For the first time tonight I ended up tickling them and they just thought this was brilliant and I played chases with them doing that.  It is so obviously such a delight and difference for them to have an adult playing with them.

Sunday 12th July

Nice relaxed morning with some of the older pupils from last year whose english is really coming along and I was able to show them photos etc.  Went for a 5 mile run with Lameck which was great and then managed to get off to the school to do a bit of work.  The HT had come to see me and complained of sore legs from walking so fast with me yesterday!

Lameck then took me out for nearly 4 hours visiting people in the village.  Everywhere we went more and more pupils gathered and I would basically be introduced to the adults, shake hands and say hello and then play with the kids while Lameck showed the adults my photos and I would ask or answer questions while playing!  It was hard to do anything else!

The last house on the way back was upsetting for me.  I am never any good when people are complimenting me or praising me and at this house the dad spoke really good english and just kept on saying how much the children love me and how good it was that I came back all the time while children were all around me.  I did have to turn around at this point and wipe the tears away as it was just too much!

The kids accompanied me all the way back to the house and I so felt I had to play with them for a few mins – in bare feet as I only had sandals with me and in the dark!

Monday 13th July

For having so many teachers in the school this session how can we only have had 5 today!  Three auxilliaries and a mentor were away to Dedza for training, one was still off sick and one was away to mark more mock exams!  This made it pretty disheartening to either try and do things with teachers and kids for them to see or to do after school training.  The even crazier thing is though that the HT did not even know until Sat that the auxilliaries and the mentor were going to Dedza this week so that makes it even harder to plan! 

I went into St5 and 6 first (having suggested that they be put together) and by myself since there were not enough teachers I got the atlases out that I had bought both in Scotland and in Malawi (and the Malawi ones especially were brilliant for them although still in English obviously) and let them look through them in groups.  They really enjoyed this and were so chuffed to get them.

Did some maths with them as well using number fans and number cards and then took them out for scottish country dancing.  This was funny again this year and similar in that it was the boys who listened and joined in the most and the girls were more difficult.  Doing it by myself was hard work!

I  went to see St1 and 2 afterwards and made a fool of myself again teaching them head, shoulders, knees and toes and doing the hokey cokey again!  Did some maths with St2 afterwards and got out the number cards to 20.  I had enough for them to do it in 3’s and I asked them first of all to lay out the numbers in order, thinking this was the quick bit before doing sums.  It took most of the time to get them in order!  I would like to do this with a p.2 class here and see what the comparison is.

After school today I showed the teachers various resources I had brought like the jolly phonics, jolly grammar, books, posters, 100 square cards, number fans, number cards, inflatable globes and the atlases.  Testing at all stages was supposed to happen this week and luckily, and I was really pleased they felt they could do this, they decided to postpone it until I had gone so we could do more with the pupils.

Played with kids all afternoon!

Tuesday 14th July

I spent the day today doing Jolly Grammar and maths in all of the different classes.  I spent a lot of this visit feeling that I was not doing very much/achieving much.  Maybe it felt different last year when we had to write up what we were doing all of the time/justify it.  Not that I was not following the same kind of guidelines I did last year but it just felt different!

Did another meeting after school today, although again there were not many teachers there to be involved.  I showed maths strategies and then we discussed the the link school programme and the outcomes and shared programme we would have between Castlefield and Gwengwe.  This was a really big positive of the trip; to be able to discuss and decide together what our partnership agreement would be and this did make it seem much more of a true partnership.

I was supposed to be going for a run with Lameck and using my phone but there were loads of kids with me colouring etc when he arrived and some of them would practically not let us go unless they could come too.  Sixteen of them ended up coming with us and they managed fine although the strategy some of them used was to run a bit as fast as they could and then lie down and have a rest until we caught up!

Mme Gwengwe came round tonight and I made pasta which we mixed with tomatoes and onions.  I also had baked beans and sweetcorn with me.  Everyone loved it all and I had tunnocks teacakes and macaroon to finish off.

Wednesday 15th July

Difficult day today trying to show group, rotational work.  I did similar activities in St 1, 2 and then 3 which included the washing line, giant chalk on the floor, giant floor number puzzles, card games/matching activities.  It worked with varying degrees of success, it was hard work explaining to the teachers how it would work!  I did the same with different activities in St 4 but it was not as good as the activities were not as active.  I had a Scottish maths game with me for St 5, 6 and 7 which again took a long time to explain.

I gave each child in the school a pencil and a sticker which they were really excited about.  I had taken Connect 4, Who’s Who and Uno last year but we never got round to them.  The HT asked today how to play them so after school with many of the older kids sitting around outside watching them we played them together.  Connect 4 was a great success although it is not so good only been able to have 2 players at a time.  Who’s Who did not work although I am not sure whether it was me or the HT getting it wrong.  Uno was great though (I only learned how to play the previous week at Clare’s HT house) as so many could play at the same time and they all got it right away.

Lameck and I were supposed to be going up to the next village today to see a family that I had visited last year as the mother had asked to see me again and again about 25 boys decided they were coming too including a lot of them ones I knew really well by now (and who were favourites).  It was sweet actually as they said they did not want to leave as it was my last full day and last chance for them to be with me and they all wanted to escort me!

I felt terrible though as for once I had no bubbles or anything with me for the kids up there and I had had last year, plus now I had all these boys with me who just sat while I was there, as did everyone!  I got given bananas and nuts though as I left and I shared them with the boys when we left which they were delighted about.

I spent the rest of the afternoon playing with all the kids and went in about 6pm planning to get my gifts out for my family.  When I came back out of the house though Lameck was there with about 40 kids who refused to go away even though it was dark and they were probably hungry because it was my last night and they wanted to spend more time with me and talk to me.  So I encouraged them to ask me questions which Lameck could translate and of course the first question was when I was going to come back again!  Some of the more confident boys were saying they were coming back to Scotland with me!

Thursday 16th July

Sports day today! I did potted sports with St 1 and 2, then 3 and 4 and then 5, 6 and 7 after races for each class.  I got some St 5 pupils to help at each station which worked well and everyone really seemed to enjoy it.  I had beat the goalie, netball shooting, skittles with my old water bottles refilled, beans bags on their head while running, skipping and a few others.  St 5, 6 and 7 were a bit less interested/enthusiastic but I think that was partly as it was near the end of the day and it very hot!

We did races again this year for each class but they did the same as last year and whenever it was obvious that someone was winning everyone else stopped and just let him/her win.

My taxi driver had turned up about 3 hours early (not complaining though) and he was jappy just to wait for me.  The kids helped clear up and then walked me back to the house singing, dancing and chanting.  They all then waited while I finished packing me bag and had my lunch (with the taxi driver!)

I was sobbing again when it was time to go, just like last year and there were some very sad faces and a few tears from some of the pupils.  The kids surrounded the car and Billy could barely move the taxi, he must have been going about 3 miles p/hr while the kids danced at the front and pushed from the back and sides.  He was very patient and did not seem to mind.  It took about 45 mins to get from the house to the top of the hill.  It was really quite a surreal experience and it did not help me to stop crying!

And so as it started at the airport with a fuss to get to the hotel so it finished with me having a fuss at the airport.  I was going to just wait at the airport for my flight at 2am but when we got there there was nothing open and there would not be as at 6pm the next flight out (or in) would be mine!

Billy ended up taking me to a nearby hotel/guesthouse and when he explained they let me stay there and have dinner/read/watch t.v.  There was a young guy there who was living there and a student and he spoke excellent english so we had some interesting conversations and then Billy had arranged for another taxi driver to come and pick me up at about 11pm so I still had a while to wait!

Scottish day

Wednesday 8th July

I made the HT work hard today!  I had a world map, Scotland map, Scottish book of photographs, my two photograph albums, postcards and a big book on Castlefield made by the pupils with me and the HT had to translate all of the information on this 9 times through the day!

We went into each class and took some of them in 2 groups until everyone had seen everything.  It took about 45 mins per session and we were both exhausted at the end.  I was really pleased all the pupils had the chance to see everything and it also meant if the pupils looked at the photos in the afternoon they would know what they were.  He was very good at it, as far as I could tell, but he did say I had tired him out.

Busy HT

We also did the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar with St 1, 2 and 3.  I had taken over a copy of the book as we had used it last year in our literacy in-service day and they loved it so I demonstrated and the HT translated how to read the book with the children using good questioning techniques and think, pair, share for discussion questions between the pupils.  We made sure that the other teachers were also watching so that they could practice this as well.  The children found it strange at first as they were not used to discussion and I was highlighting wait time which I am not sure will catch on!  The children are too keen to answer the question (if they know) so they are all shouting out right away and the teachers are very used to just asking for the first answer.  We did keep trying all of these things for the rest of the time I was there.  Something I could have gone to do but you really need longer there, would then be to encourage them in how they react to a pupil if they give a wrong answer as I felt it was quite discouraging but the time just flew away!

I went to the HT’s house for lunch that day and found that he had a tv and dvd player although the tv only works for the dvd player.  He only had one dvd but it made me realise that I could send dvd’s over of photographs, the film clips I took, messages from Castlefield etc and he could take it all into the school and show the pupils.  It runs from a complicated looking car battery system but we both got very excited of showing the pupils photos and film clips of themselves on screen.  I would love to be there to see that!

HT's house

curiousity about the dvd player

 

Five year old peeling and chopping potatoes for dinner

Had balloons out for them in the afternoon which is always a bit of a riot and then went for a run with them but my usually strong stomach was rebelling and I ended up not very well.  I had a feeling sorry for myself moment as I had really bad stomach cramps and just felt a bit miserable and realised I was going to have a few more trips than planned to the squat toilet and that I would have to explain to the family through Lameck as I would have to not eat for a bit. 

DHT's son - Tony

all ages loved the balloons

He was pointing out the children all waiting on me while I went off to bathe and saying they would really miss me this time which then made me more upset and I went off to bathe and sat in there having a bit of a cry!  With a toad for company!

So then had to explain about not eating – as I thought Lameck understood this but my family were very concerned and wanted to take me off to hospital!  Managed to not eat for 2 days pretty much and then I was okay but they never stopped asking me if I wanted food.

My usual things to do with the pupils were running, skipping, balloons, bubbles, tennis balls but I started playing tig with them tonight just as it started to be getting to dusk.  This meant they were moving about and I was keeping them warm!  It was great fun and for them they obviously just loved the fact that I was actually playing something with them and they were so excited!  We did it every night after that and I would pick different pupils to be the chasers with me.

Thursday 9th July

Today only 7 teachers were in school and when I asked about this was told that the rest were away at the TDC (Teacher Development Centre) marking the ST8 mock examination papers.  Things like this happen (and this happened for the next four days) all the time and it is another thing that hampers the pupils development.  If I had not been there I think the classes where teachers were not there would not get a teacher but I made sure that each class had a teacher.

We really did a lot while I was there this time to encourage the link with Clastlefield.  Each class in Castlefield had either drawn pictures or written letters or fact files for the other class and today ST1 and 3 with more coloured pencils and crayons that I had brought drew pictures back and wrote their names.  St 5 also wrote letters but this was hard for them in English and the teacher had to write up the bones of a letter on the board and then work hard translating the rest of the things the pupils wanted to write.

drawing pictures

I wanted to do a similar thing with all of the other classes that I did with the Hungry Caterpillar so I took one of the stories we had bought English and Chichewa copies of last year and I had spent time the night before making up good discussion questions and grammar and language points to ask questions about and I did that today with St4 and 5, with the pupils having copies of the book in groups and doing paired reading and then having the teacher translate my questions and doing the same wait time and think, pair, share techniques that I had done with the infants.  These classes took to the discussion much better and it was great to see this but it was harder for me with these teachers trying to explain what I wanted the pupils to do as they were auxilliary teachers who had only just started.  If I spoke more than a few words of Chichewa it would really help!

I made up a number line when I got back to the house this afternoon and as I was sitting outside kids started to come out and join me so I got the crayons out and got them to colour in the numbers for me.  What started off 5 kids quickly became 40!  So luckily I had a lot of paper with me and crayons and I got that out for them all as well as photos and the postcards for them to copy scottish animals if they wanted.  This ended up reguarly being the first thing we did in the afternoons although it took all of the time I was there to teach them to share the crayons!

colouring in

I was reminded today about the card my mum had sent after I got home last year.  As Lameck and his mum had written cards to all of my mum, she replied with a very short note along the lines of thanking everyone in the village for looking after me etc.  Well I got told today that it was absolutely revered; read out to pupils and shown to teachers, passed around parents in the village and now held safe by the school management committee and village chiefs.  Sent her a text saying she would have to do another one this year!

Back to school

My first impresson of being back at the school was certainly a good one – the teachers were all there on time!  Not so with the pupils but you can’t have everything and I have always been more sympathetic of the pupils not being there on time since they probably have work to do in the house and have nothing for time keeping.  Plus at that time of year it is worse since if it is cold then they stay in the house longer before leaving for school.

Ringing the bell

 

Attempting to sweep the playground

assembly

Today was the only day I spent just watching the teachers, they were expecting it and kept asking when I was coming into their classes specifically to watch them.

I took very detailed notes on that first day but rather depressingly it was mostly chalk and talk and I saw no evidence of anything that either I had done with them last year or that we had done in the in-service training.  In infants though there were good technology lessons:

using clay they had made themselves

and working outside to do it

using maize leaves to create things

When I left last year the school had seven classes and was down to 5 teachers.  This year they now have 11!  This is split into the 3 qualified teachers from last year inc the HT and DHT, one of the volunteer teachers from last year, 3 newly qualified teachers who are doing their probationary period there and 4 other auxilliary teachers funded by DFID and being trained by LINK.

They were mostly well split up, with the auxilliaries supporting qualified teachers and taking some subjects.  Some positives that I noticed rightaway were:

• most classes were in groups
• some good displays on the walls
• teachers there on time
• a garden in the playground
• school rules still displayed from last year
• good use of praise and enthusiastic pupils
• some good team teaching

results of their gardening

What I was horrified at though, and had tried so hard to stop last year, was that the St5 teacher was not there (and in fact he was off the whole time I was there) and the class was just left to sit there all day without a teacher and with nothing to do.  This was despite the fact that at any one point during the day there were 2 or 3 teachers sitting outside chatting and doing nothing, not even marking or preparing work!

sitting in groups in St 6

I did comment on it to the HT, couldn’t help it!, and I have to say it did not happen again while I was there.  I think part of the problem is that the HT does not particularly act like a HT.  He was only recently made HT when I arrived there last year, with no training and no support really.  I am sure it does not help that he has a class and that HT’s are often called away to things.  I did say to the education advisor for the area when Clare and I had a meeting with him the next weekend that it would be helpful for them to have more support.

Other things I noticed were:

• timetable was back to being English/Chichewa/maths first thing in the morning when lots of pupils are not there
• It seemed to take a long time for classes to start after assembly
• As per the curriculum lots of lessons fully in english which the pupils struggled to understand but the teachers are obviously forced into this

I talked to all of the teachers after school and although I was really disheartened I tried to stay positive and I focused on the good things and the enthusiasm of some teachers and all pupils.  They kept asking me though what they needed to improve on and what they were doing wrong.  So I did say about them leaving their classes and about doing more of the interactive stuff with the kids and just kept saying I would show them lots more activities over the next two weeks.  It felt awkward, like they thought I was an expert and much better than them and like they actually wanted me to completely criticise them.

I stayed at the school till about 3pm, cleaning out and tidying the same cupboard that I had done last year.  It was a state and all of the things I had brought and left last year were messed up but at least I realised that that meant they had been using them!  I did explain that with the loop cards etc they would not be able to play them unless they were kept in order.

I cannot be sure what this sounds like to other people reading this as I am too close to it all and too involved.  I hope it does not sound like I was horrible to the teachers, or dismissive etc and it is partly why I had put off starting to write about my return visit. 

For meit was difficult to go back and feel like nothing had changed since being there last year when we all put so, so much work into it and for me it is all about the fact that that meant maybe nothing had changed for the kids, that their chances had not been improved and that especially they were still being left with no teacher despite 11 being in the school!

desperate to be in photos

Spent the rest of that afternoon playing with kids and running with them.  The reaction from them of me being back was just overwhelming, maybe that more than anything will encourage them with school etc.  However the obstacle there is that they have to pay for secondary school!

playing around the school

local toys

LINK had done some school improvement reviews just before we arrived and my school did come out top in the cluster, although it still seemed  negative to me and a lot of schools found them disappointing.

Some things I noted from it:

• unnecessary use of english in Chichewa lessons – I would strongly disagree with this
• poor time management
• they were to incorporate challenging tasks into lessons
• poor storage of textbooks
• no records available for supervision of teachers
• no monitoring of repeaters and special needs or of staff attendance

Their recommendations:

• improve leadership and management of the school ie supervision of teaching and learning, financial managment and teacher attendance
• ensure thorough lesson preparation in all subjects
• improve co-ordination between school management and school committees
• constant support for volunteer teachers

Strengths they noted:

• community support
• encouraging learners attendance
• presence of talular in some classes (teaching and learning using locally available resources)
• displays
• water, sanitation, toilets
• hiring of volunteer teachers
• promotion of girls education
• parental involvement ie open days and reports
• encouraging pupils to stay in school
• school rules
• health being taught

very even numbers of boys and girls, even further up the school

 So lots of things for me to do in the next weeks, while realising I was not going to get much done after school as the children were certainly not being shy this year and were all over me all day long!

Lots of walking!

My next days in Malawi were Sat, Sun and Mon which was a public holiday as it was independance day.  This was strange, not going straight into the school and getting going with it.

I had been pretty lucky last year in terms of animals, particularly with having no ants really. So this year I did not buy any Doom (great ant spray) in Lilongwe and what happened….I woke up in the middle of the night on my first night covered in ants!

They were all over my face,  hair, neck and inside my ears (did you know ants make a noise, I didn’t until I heard and felt them inside my ears!) as well as all over my pillow.  I did not feel I could move or put a torch on as that would disturb the family so I just lay as snuggled down into my sleeping bag as possible as they did not seem to actually be in there and waited till morning, which was a long time coming!

It was disgusting in the morning seeing them all over my pillow, mattress and over the outside of my sleeping bag.  I am not known for being able to rough it (says the girl who climbed kili two weeks later with a severe lack of washing, sleeping or useable toilets)  and I had to show my host mother what the situation was like.  She put down some powder everywhere in the room and the living room and surprisingly I was not bothered by them in bed again!  Thank goodness!

So that combined with the emotional arrival and the sight of the kids the day before left me a bit emotional and teary again although I was pleased at finding something else I could cope with!  Lameck and I walked into Mayani, about 1 1/2 hours each way so that I could buy some more of the cloth to cover my skirts with like the woman in the village.

In the afternoon I got out two photograph albums I had brought with me – one had personal photos of me, my house, the flat from outside and going upstairs so they could understand that, family and Scotland as well as running again.  The other had lots of photos of Castlefield primary inlcuding sports day as we were going to do similar activities and other activities.

 The children (and the adults) loved them and would pore over them for hours.  Lameck had to translate everything for me, including me explaining things like I did not wear dresses like my wedding dress every day!

Looking at photos

They asked to go running so we did that, just going round the football pitches but again after that I really struggled as it was getting dark and cold and some (most) of the kids were just in rags and obviously bare feet as well.  I just could not handle it.

After running

On Sunday, as I expected, we went to church and I was not exactly surprised to be asked to get up and say a few words which one of the teachers translated for me.  Of course if I was struggling a lot the previous couple of days, hearing the wonderful singing before and after they were going on about how delighted the whole village was that I had come back and that I was so humble to do that etc etc well that just made me ten times worse!

Apart from being at church I was just with kids all day; playing snap, blowing bubbles, showing the photographs and also postcards of the cities, villages and animals etc in Scotland, and I also had tennis balls that I got out and let the kids just chuck about to each other.  It started off with me throwing them but they were much, much better than me.  I can’t stand cricket but I am sure some of them would be brilliant fielders (well I think that would be the position) or great baseball players!

Trying to keep warm!

I was asking the St1 teachers about their support for girls at the school, which is something the school gets very positive feedback about from inspections etc.  It is also very obvious just being in the school that the numbers between girls and boys are much more even than in a lot of other schools in Malawi/Africa.

She said that the female teachers try to offer support for the girls and encourage them to come to the teachers with any problems/questions/hassle from boys.  They try to encourage them to tell a teacher if a boy proposes (she did not qualify what it was he was proposing), wear trousers for physical education and wear underwear, although she did say that is expensive for them.

Ran with the pupils again, that would be about 100 of them – I counted!  They were all standing waiting for me and were so excited.  The big difference with this year is that they were right around me all of the time and not shy like at the beginning last year and I knew one full day in that I would not get much chance outside of school to get any work done!

For the holiday Lameck and I walked 1 3/4 hours to go and see Clare in her village.  It was reasuring to hear that Clare was feeling the same way and struggling a bit as well.  On the way back he asked me if it was true the rumour that had been going round there that Michael Jackson was originally black!

I spent the rest of the day playing with the kids, there is a bit of a theme starting here!  It was a bit tiring and I was still struggling a bit but I would not have had it any other way really as it was great that the children were getting attention from an adult and just had someone to play with them.  There were certainly plenty of them there!

Some of my favourites below (which I know you shouldn’t have):

Malawi (part 1)

First though; I have put a selection of Kili photos on Flickr – to see them all you would have to hunt me down on Facebook!

I have put off writing these posts for a month now, which probably means it is all the more important that I do write about my experiences and reflect on them as part of the reason I have not written them up is because it was such a different experience to last year and for me, although not for the village, not entirely a positive one at first.

Clare and I left Edinburgh on Thurs 2nd July at 6.00am and I had stayed up all night hoping to sleep on the various flights which of course meant I did not.  Eventually got about 3 hours early morning Fri 3rd July but this lack of sleep may have been part of the reason for me finding my first few days in the village very emotional.

Clare and I also had a certain amount of stress from the moment we landed with a non-existent hotel transfer taxi and a hard time sorting out money and sim cards in Lilongwe in the morning.  This was made up for by finding the Malawi school atlases that despite a brother working in a bookshop we had been unable to lay out hands on from the UK and we knew they would be delighted with these.  I had also brought 6 atlases out from Waterstones so I ended up being laden down with them!

We had organised a taxi to take us from Lilongwe out to our villages, with me being dropped off first.  Lameck, the boy who ran with me last year was meeting us in the trading centre 10km away as I was not sure I could direct the taxi driver to my village from there.

As the taxi bumped its way down into Gwengwe village kids came running out, shouting, singing and following the car.  When I arrived at the house and got out of the car there were maybe about 30 kids there and they followed me into the compound.  Within about 20 mins (and I know because I counted) there were 100 odd children just sitting watching me!  They sat there watching me sitting on the step from about 4pm – 6pm, just so excited that I was there and unwilling to leave even when I was told to go in and eat or to go and bathe. 

Lameck tried to get them to ask me questions and the first one was ‘when are you going to run with us’ which was lovely that they were looking forward to doing that so much.  At 5pm, it getting dark and having had three hours sleep in the last 3 days I said ‘tomorrow.  There was then a second comment made saying I was much fatter than last year.  Now, that’s true and probably particularly obvious to them since they had not seen me inbetween but is not exactly something you want to be told, even though I well know!  It was the first of about 4 times I was told that but I am pretty sure they meant it as a compliment.

I really struggled emotionally though as it was getting darkish at 5pm and it was cold once it got dark and yet they sat there with the one t-shirt on and just shorts, often with rips and holes in them.  You could see them shivering, hear their teeth chattering and see them trying to huddle up or tuck their arms in their t-shirts.  I found it very difficult to deal with this and had to turn away a couple of times in case they saw me upset.  I was not expecting this as last year I managed to deal with this and not get upset in front of them but I was exhausting myself right from the first day trying not to get upset in front of them.